emotionally invested

I'm done. Finished.

And I'm totally satisfied with the way it ended.

Still, I'm quite sad that it's over and that there is no more anticipation of wondering what's next.

What am I talking about, dare you ask?

Let me give you a [not so subtle, perhaps] hint with two stills from the finale....

You may have noticed over the past two months or so that I've been watching the television series "Friends" on DVD, courtesy of my little sister. I've also kept you updated on my progress throughout over on the sidebar.

I finally finished the last episode of season ten on Monday night. It was so awesome that I watched the last two episodes again on Tuesday night. Then I watched the special features on the fourth disc which were fantastic!

I watched the last two episodes again tonight...for the third time! Actually I've watched the final episode a total of four times because I watched it once on Monday with the producers commentary audio that goes along with it.

You know what? I got all watery-eyed every time. I'm not ashamed to say it. Even after the first go-round, when I knew what was going to happen, I still got all misty eyed.

The producers knew going in that season ten would be the last season of the series and so they were able to cleanly tie up all of the loose ends in the story throughout the eighteen episode final season.

I think there were several reasons why this show lasted for so long and was so popular. First, the cast and crew were extremely talented as evidenced by all of the awards and nominations this show won over the years. Second, there was a great chemistry and camaraderie that developed between the actors in real life and it translated into their performances. Third, the writing was consistently great which is always important. The producers and writers were willing to be flexible with the scripts and change them during filming when scenes weren't working or when a joke wasn't funny enough. Fourth, the majority of the show was filmed before a live studio audience (Wish I could have been there!) which gave even more energy to the actors performances.

Finally and most importantly, this was a show about the relationships between the six friends. These were characters that we watched grow throughout the series. We cared about them and became emotionally invested in the lives of Chandler Bing (Matthew Perry), Monica Geller-Bing (Courtney Cox Arquette), Phoebe Buffay-Hannigan (Lisa Kudrow), Joey Tribbiani (Matt LeBlanc), Dr. Ross Geller (David Schwimmer) and Rachel Green (Jennifer Aniston).

For me the most compelling story was between Ross and Rachel, not just at the end but throughout the whole series. If you're a true fan of the series, you'll know and understand what I'm getting at here.

I still can't believe that I never once, in 238 episodes over ten seasons, watched any of this series when it was on regular television. Oh what I was missing!

I can definitely tell you that I will, eventually, be adding this series to my DVD collection.

Gee, my birthday's coming up in June, just two short months from now. Kewl for you because now you know what to get me. Talk about advanced planning! Coordinate, people!

BB9 update (two weeks left)

Here are your BB9 updates for the week: Episode 27, Episode 28, and Episode 29.

I can't say that I'm sad that Natalie got evicted this week. She had it coming after playing everyone in the house and not being very secretive about it. It's getting down to the end - there are only four people left in the house.

The CBS show showed James arrival at the Juror house and his venting on Chelsia and blaming her for his eviction last week, saying that the way she decided to leave the house was the final nail in his coffin. That his ties to her ultimately led to his undoing. He did later apologize to her. I think his outburst was uncalled for.

The real reason he was voted out was that he is a strong competitor in competitions and would have been a real threat to win the game if he was left in the house. I can understand why they wanted him gone.

Better for me, as a viewer because I thought he was annoying. Just as annoying as chatty Natalie was at the end.

Ryan won HoH this week, so that bodes well for his secret alliance with Sharon and neither Adam or Sheila have a clue about.

My favorite remaining house guests are Sharon, Ryan, Adam and Sheila.

I think it's odd but when I started to leave these BB9 posts, I thought for sure that Adam and Sheila would be gone soon into the season. Somehow they've both managed to stick around until the final four.

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Well, I'm plugging along and am almost finished with season 9 of "Friends." Soon I'll be starting the 10^th and final season and I'm looking forward to it.

This week on BB9

In case you missed any of them, here's a summary of this week's episodes: Episode 24, Episode 25 and Episode 26.

James is out! It's about time, too. They should never have voted him back into the house. Now it's down to five: Sharon, Ryan, Natalie, Sheila and Adam. I have a feeling that Natalie is in danger of being nominated this week, because she's been playing all sides, with her alliance (of Ryan, Sheila and Adam), trying to strike a deal with James before his eviction and also trying to get a girls alliance going. She was telling everyone what they wanted to hear and everyone knows what she's been up to.

I'll admit, I cheated and looked on the BB9 cheater blog to see who won HoH this week, since it was an endurance competition and was going on long after the show ended last night. Sharon fell quickly. Ryan held on much longer but dropped after about three hours and then it came down to Sheila v. Natalie. Sheila won because Natalie gave up after a bit of negotiation. It will be interesting to see who Sheila nominates this week. I'd be surprised if she nominates Adam, since she told him that she would never do that to him after he nominated her last week. I have a feeling it's going to be Sharon and Natalie on the block this week but we shall see.

My favorite remaining house guest is still Sharon, whom they profiled on the show last night. She seems like a really caring person who would just about do anything for anyone. Some of the commenter's on the BB9 blog don't like Sharon's game but I think she's doing great. She's not making any waves, not lying behind other people's backs and not playing off of anyone. I think it's cool that she and Ryan have a secret alliance, which, as secret alliances should be, has remained a secret.

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I'm still flying through Friends and am now halfway through season 8, anticipating and enjoying every episode tremendously. I can tell you this - I have gained a great deal of respect for the acting ability of David Schwimmer, whom I used to think was way too whiny.

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I returned three DVD's to the library today that I never watched. Had them for two weeks, too. Hate it when I do that. So what did I do? Signed out four new DVD's, that's what. Maybe I'll watch one tonight for a later SNMR review....

Weekly BB9 & Friends update

Here are the links to the recaps of this week's BB9 shows:

Episode 21, Episode 22 and Wednesday's Episode 23.

Going into the Wednesday show, Josh and Sharon are the nominees for eviction tonight. Sharon replaced James, who again won the PoV competition - mainly because Ryan didn't have confidence in his guesses - and obviously used the veto power on himself. I'll be seriously annoyed if Sharon gets voted off and Josh is allowed to stay. I cannot stand Joshuah. The kid absolutely drives me nuts. It will be interesting to see who wins the new HoH this week. Hopefully it will not be James, who I also cannot stand. I'd love to see Sharon get it, if she can manage to avoid eviction.

I'm so glad Joshuah is out and I'm glad Natalie didn't have to break a tie. Who knows how the vote would have gone if she would have had to do that? I was very pleased to see a bonding of the remaining women in the house. Once I saw that, I knew that Joshuah was outta there. I'm not surprised James was the only vote to keep Josh. I did feel bad for Sharon though, seeing her partner and friend get the boot. Oh, well, she'll survive.

Now its three girls vs. three guys and Adam has HoH for the second time in three weeks. Adam having the power makes it interesting, since I really have no clue who he might nominate this week. If I had to guess right now, I'd say James and Sheila. I like it that the pressure is constantly on James to keep winning veto to save himself. One of these weeks he's going to crack and lose the veto comp. James is one of the strongest players this season, even though I don't like him, so it's not a surprise that he's a target every week.

My favorite house guests as of now look like this: Sharon, Ryan, Natalie, Adam, Sheila and James.

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Well, I've just finished season six of Friends which ended with Chandler proposing to Monica. I wish they'd bring Ross and Rachel back together again... Please, don't spoil the final four seasons for me, ok? I have some vague ideas of what happens in these last seasons but not how it happens. That's the fun for me right now watching this series that has been off the air since 2004. The fact that I had absolutely no interest in this show before now absolutely baffles me, since the characters are around my age.

I definitely think I'm going to have to own this series on DVD myself someday. I did see the first five seasons at Wal-Mart for $20 a pop, which isn't a bad deal at all. I think that was a week or so ago, so we'll see if they still have them available for that price, when I get around to buying them.

BB9 & Friends update

Here's what you missed this week on BB9: Episode 18, Episode 19 and tonight's Episode 20.

I was happy to see Adam put both James and Chelsia up for eviction this week, since they need to be broken up. Unfortunately James won the PoV and used it on himself, forcing Adam to nominate Sharon instead.

I would be seriously annoyed if Sharon is voted out tonight. I'm guessing that the vote will be 3-2 or 4-1 in favor of Chelsia's eviction, with James the only sure vote of support. We'll see what kind of revenge James can muster next week, especially if he wins HOH. I'm surprised that Joshuah is the only house guest that has never been nominated for eviction so far. I'd love to see him evicted next week. Can't stand him.

WOW!!! What a show tonight! I knew Chelsia would get evicted but had no idea James wouldn't even vote for her! She knew it was coming and I'm glad. Even just watching the CBS shows I could see what a little immature witch she turned out to be. Bye bye. Can't believe at the beginning you were one of my favorite players.

How about Natalie winning HoH for this week!!!! Even though she can be totally annoying I'm psyched that she won! Her revenge for the loss of Matt is almost complete! Bye bye James or Joshuah. I can guess already that your punk-a##es are on the block!

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I'm happily plugging along with season 4 of "Friends" and will finish the third DVD before I go to sleep tonight. I think one of the things that makes the show work so well is that the cast meshes extremely well together and they always look like they are having fun filming the show. It also helps that the show is excellently written every week.

Monday

I've never been a big fan of Mondays.

Dopey old me wanted to get to bed reasonably early Sunday night but oooooh-no.

I put in a load of laundry at 20:15 or so, just after V and M went to bed. The load included their clothes that they wore this weekend, so they could go back to their mom's with a clean suitcase of clothes. The wash cycle takes about 30 minutes. What time did I manage to put those clothes in the dryer? After 23:00!

Duh!

The result of course is that I had to wait for the clothes to dry and then separate their clothes from mine, fold them and repack their suitcase before I went to bed myself.

I know the routine. Every Monday morning, V, M and I get up at 05:30, dress, eat breakfast and are out the door by 06:15 so that I can deliver them up to their mother just as she's getting out of work at 07:00.

I didn't get to bed until around 00:30. That's not so unusual for me, but when you have to get up five hours later it is.

What was I doing? As usual, writing a blog post and chatting online. Totally forgetting about the "domestic duties" of my own that I needed to get done. Oh, well, I had fun and who needs a full eight every night?

Of course it didn't help matters that I had an appointment at 08:00 Monday morning and needed that full hour to get there, due to the daily morning commuter traffic on Route 3 South coming out of New Hampshire.

I ended up being ten minutes late for my appointment; which as it turned out wasn't as big of a deal as I thought it would be, thankfully. Still, I prefer to be on time for these things.

Because I'm so tired you'd think I'd probably go to bed early on Monday night, right?

Nope.

Knowing me the way I do, I probably won't get to bed any earlier tonight.

Speaking of that Monday appointment I had - this really irked me. I had to fill out all kinds of forms and one of the forms in the stack was an authorization form for the company to do a credit/criminal background check on me.

WTF??

What does looking at my credit report and who I owe what to have to do with how well I can perform a particular job?? NOTHING is what. The only thing it does is pull down my credit rating - which happens every time someone pulls your credit bureau report. Those credit reports aren't meant to convey some one's criminal background anyway and give negligible information. So much for innocent until proven guilty!

Yes, I know I look like a terrorist (NOT!) or something like that. Except for a speeding ticket here and there, I have no criminal record and plan to keep it that way.

So I left it blank and decided that if my not filling out that form would prevent me from getting that job, then so be it.

Apparently it did not though, as I called over there today and I'm still under consideration.

Good luck to me.

There's another job I've applied for which I learned about a several weeks ago. My contact said that this company was anxious to bring someone in right away and she wanted to submit my information to them. However, it took the company a week to find the time to schedule an interview. Now I've been waiting 2 1/2 weeks for them to make a decision. I call my contact every single day to see where I stand. They (my contact and her boss) are frustrated too as to what the hold-up is for that company to make a decision. They apparently have told the client that it is so unprofessional to keep me (and two others apparently) strung out waiting for a decision.