Top TV

April recently did a post (from the Bring Back the Words link up) about her Top 10 favorite TV shows. It inspired me.

1. Gilmore Girls: This will probably be my all-time favorite show for years to come. I have a lot of really great memories from this show - some of which include my mom and I having out Mother/Daughter Date Night watching it, and including my "sister" for a year or so until she moved to Sweden. We even continued our Date Nights into my first year of marriage while my husband either stayed home and had some alone time or hung out with my stepdad. We had pizza and margaritas and tried to never miss. (and the one time we had to was the episode where Rory and Lorelai kept missing each other and playing phone tag the whole time and it was so sad and both mom and I cried when we watched it later.)
2. Veronica Mars: Who doesn't love a story about a spunky high-school/college girl who is a kick ass Private Investigator in her spare time? Love me some Logan. Love me some Piz. I've recently gotten one of my best friends addicted to this show (despite the fact that it's been over for years) and we (my husband, M, and I are all awaiting with baited breath for the release of the Kickstarter-funded reunion movie to come out at the beginning of 2014. I'm really hoping it comes out before the baby arrives, but if she's still tiny, don't think I won't drag her to the theater with me and nurse her through any noises she may need to make.) Also please note that the first episode I ever saw was the season 3 episode that starred Gilmore Girls Matt Czuchry. Don't think that was a coincidence.
3. Buffy the Vampire Slayer: See previous comment about the spunky high school/college girl who is a kick ass PI and substitute Vampire Slayer for PI. I wasn't allowed to watch the show when I was still in high school, because my mom was kind of over-protective and felt that vampire stuff was inappropriate for a "child." I have since seen every episode multiple times, own about half of them, can quote many, many lines from all 7 years and can sing every note of the songs from the musical. (I also own the CD of the soundtrack and think Joss Whedon is brilliant.)
4. House, MD: My husband and I found this show quite by accident in the early days of our marriage. It was running once per week (Fridays at 10pm, I think?) on the USA station we frequently watched after work. We watched one episode (3 Stories. One of the best episodes ever anyhow.)  and were hooked. We discovered that Season 2 was starting in prime time that fall and became avid watchers for the life of the series. We felt it went downhill in a few places and agreed that it was time to move on by the time the series ended, but stayed with it up until the end, regardless.
5. NCIS: Again, something we picked up from syndication on the USA network. I actually became interested because I saw that Sasha Alexander (a recurring actress from an early season of Dawson's Creek) was on it, but ironically, the first episode I ever saw was Kill Ari: Part 2, where the team is trying to avenge her (Kate's) death. She was in the episode as sort of a memory/vision to the members of the team, but it was her final appearance. We've watched all the first-run episodes, too, though there was a season we seemed to have missed a lot of (not sure why.)
6. Sherlock: To say that I (and my husband) are fans of this show is an understatement. We have added the term "Cumberbatched" to our everyday vocabulary. We've watched through the series (that they have on Netflix - oh, Netflix, how we love thee!) several times now. I am psyched for the next season and wish those British folks would HURRY UP! They left me hanging and it's driving me bonkers.
7. Burn Notice: To be honest, I didn't want to watch this show when it started. My experiences with Jeffrey Donovan up to that point were not likeable characters. But we both LOVE this show. (We're considering naming an eventual dog we may get in several more years either Westen or Fiona) A little sad that it's ending this season, but since it's gotten pretty far from the original concept now, it may be time. It's had a great run.
8. White Collar: This show (another USA network original) reminds me a lot of Burn Notice only with less BOOM! and more classy cons. We love us some Neal Caffrey. And Tiffani Theissen (aka Kelly Kapowski from Saved By The Bell) all grown up? Love her.
9. Suits: Yes, yet another USA original. We love their programming. My husband liked this one from the start, but I was little more hesitant. The two main male characters are so flawed and Harvey really isn't all that likeable, considering he's kind of a conceited ass. But it's really grown on me and I want to be Donna ("it's a name AND a title") when I grow up. It doesn't hurt that she's a redhead.
10. Beverly Hills, 90210 (the original and the only one worth watching): Again, I wasn't allowed to really watch this when I was a teen, but my best friend was, so I'd go to her house on the weekends where she had taped it (yes, taped.) and we'd watch it often enough that I mostly knew what was going on. They also had book versions of some of the early years/plotlines and somehow, my mom either didn't mind or didn't notice when I'd read those. Years later, they ran in syndication on FX in the mornings (as did Buffy once 90210 had played out) and I was able to see the entire series. My college best friend named her son Dylan because we are the 90210 generation. I watched the first season of the re-make version for nostalgia when they had Kelly, Brenda and Donna in a few episodes, but it's not the same thing.
11. Downton Abbey: I am not a huge fan of this type of thing usually, but so many of my friends with excellent taste wouldn't stop talking about this show on the internet, so we tried it out when season 1 came to Netflix. We're hooked. We were able to borrow the DVDs of Seasons 2 and 3 from a friend and have been going through them over the last few days.
12. Switched At Birth: My husband and I took a couple semesters of American Sign Language in college. We loved learning the language and also about the deaf culture. This show has a TON of ASL (including one episode where they didn't speak at all, and did it all in ASL until the very last line of the show) and is often dealing with issues surrounding deaf culture. In addition, it has Lea Thompson and "April" (Vanessa Marano from Gilmore Girls) as two of the stars. I can even get my husband to watch this show and he is usually bored with teen dramas.
13. M.A.S.H.: An oldie, but a goodie. I grew up watching the re-runs of this show with my dad. I loved it, even as a kid. And when my kids first started talking about Hawkeye (from The Avengers) I was really confused because I thought they were talking about Alan Alda's character. I still can't watch the series finale without crying.
14. The Big Bang Theory: My SIL and BIL got us hooked on this show that I never would have watched otherwise. I love Geek humor, but to me, modern sitcoms are crap. Mostly they are crass or inappropriate for slightly more conservative (like me) audiences, so I don't bother. But while this has it's inappropriate moments, mostly they keep it pretty clean (and I can handle some crassness) and I just love Leonard and Penny.
15. Lie To Me: Another cancelled show, short-lived, but excellent. I have no idea how we found it, but it was right up our alley. We use some of the lessons we learned in reading people and it's fun to guess if they are telling the truth or not. 
16. Dawson's Creek: Maybe I'm the tiniest bit embarrassed to admit how much I loved this show. And, admittedly, the early seasons could have been better, but there was magic to that cast and as they grew together and grew up... I recently re-watched the whole thing (Netflix, you beautiful thing!) and it was still moving and meaningful and I like to declare that their series finale was one of the top 10 best series finales EVER. And who doesn't love Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson?

Honorable mentions:
Friends: Who doesn't love Friends? It's one of those shows that you can just watch anytime you happen to come across it. I actually came across a rerun I'd never seen before the other day and it was great!
Flashpoint: This was recommended to us by my friend M and we watched it on Netflix, having not really synced up with it's prime-time schedule yet. We love it, and we love that Enrico Colantoni "plays a SWAT Team leader as Keith Mars playing a SWAT Team leader." 
Bar Rescue: Did you notice a distinct lack of "Reality TV" in my list? Yeah, there's a reason for that. We both can't stand most "reality" TV. But we've recently gotten into this and watch it frequently. We feel like we've learned a lot about business and bars in general - and it always makes me want to visit these made-over bars and eat bar food and try new cocktails (a problem since I'm currently not drinking!)

Dramatic little girls

My routine OB visit turned scary (but I promise, all is well now) this week. And solidified even further my preference for the women in the office I go to.

You see, my OB's office has 2 male MDs, 2 female Certified Nurse Midwives and one Nurse Practioner who does GYN stuff, but doesn't deliver babies so she doesn't get much of the prenatal care either. (I go to her for all my non-pregnant stuff. I adore her.) One of the doctors I refer to as Speedy Gonzalez. He's very nice, pleasant, and whatnot, but he always seems to be in a hurry, talks fast, etc. Doesn't hurt that he's short, too. He's a good guy, and probably a great doctor (others who have had him in the delivery room have said he's great), but I just feel like he's always rushed. The other doctor has always been calm and soothing. He has a very calm, peaceful demeanor, etc. He actually delivered my firstborn (he was on call that day) and everything was fine. (though now that I think about it, when I had a tiny scar issue post-partum, I felt like he all but rolled his eyes at me because the tiny area that was bothering me (and caused me to have horrible pain during sex) was apparently so miniscule that he thought I shouldn't be bothered at all by it. But he did fix it and things got much better, so apparently, I wasn't hallucinating.)

Anyway, he apparently has a hard time getting the dopplar to work well when the baby is still small. And he got awfully tense when he couldn't seem to make it work at all and rushed me into an ultrasound with whispers to the ultrasound tech that he thought something was very wrong.

I'd already been having dreams over the last few weeks that I lost the baby, so this certainly didn't alleviate my concerns and for about 15 minutes, I was quite worried and I'm sure this didn't do my blood pressure any favors.

But all was well - we saw her dancing around, saw her little heart flickering away and were able to turn up the volume and hear her delightful heartbeat.

Of course, this meant that I didn't have the chance to ask any of the questions I had planned to ask about these awful, daily, debilitating headaches. Or why I have no appetite. But you know, whatever.

Starting the drama even before she is born.

More preggo ramblings

I think even my mommy friends might be getting sick of my pregnancy woes. To be honest, I think I'm sick of them myself. This pregnancy has been difficult for me - not because it's full of dangerous complications or anything (I have had none of the drama or concerns of many of the stories I have heard) but because it just seems to have worn me out.

I remember when I was pregnant with Fuss, the exhaustion of the first trimester just knocked me down. I was working a traditional full-time office job at the time and couldn't really rest during the day so I'd come home, sit down on the couch and fall asleep. Every. Single. Day. And I remember waiting for the 2nd trimester "energy" to come - and it didn't. Okay, so I didn't fall asleep at 6:15 every evening. But energy? Not so much.

I seem to have the same issue now. Where's the energy, folks? I'm wiped out each day. And the pains in my body (I messed up my sacrum last week and limped around for 2-3 days before going to the chiropractor and getting some amazing relief.), the daily headaches of late, and the still-present nausea and sensitive gag reflex are really just wearing me out! My husband has had to do the dishes because I absolutely cannot handle the smell of old food right now. Makes me gag and retch and vomit over and over. (he loaded a particularly smelly set into the dishwasher this morning and I made the mistake of opening the door to put one more item inside. I was leaning over the sink for several minutes on the one whiff I caught.)

I don't do pregnancy well. I seem to forget that in between each one, having some sort of pregnancy euphoria and only remembering the good parts (wearing comfy, stretchy maternity clothes, the feel of the baby moving within me, picking out and preparing tiny baby clothes, soft blankets, the feel of newness to everything...) and then all this misery is magically wiped from my memory until I'm going through it again.

I'm determined to have most, if not all, of my prep work done for this baby ahead of time. I've always wanted to get most of it done weeks ahead, but something (or someone) has prevented me the previous times. (Depending on someone else to pain the nursery when I was pregnant with Fuss and the room construction going on when I was pregnant with Little Man.) Since we still have many of the clothes Fuss wore and lots of the supplies, it shouldn't be too difficult to do my prep work ahead of time. And since we officially moved Little Man into Fuss's room (now The Kids Room) over the weekend, now all I have to do is clear out the nursery (half of which has been used as some sort of chaotic storage of late) and start moving baby things into it. I'm a little nervous about the potential threat of bedrest that my midwife warned me about because of my high blood pressure this time. And I don't want to be dependent during the holidays (as Christmas is exactly one month prior to my due date) on asking other people to do this for me.

But at the same time, I feel like I'm further along than I am. I feel like... knowing she's a girl so early, having a lot of stuff available already, etc. and I'm not even to the halfway point... it's throwing me off!

And now I feel like I'm not on the same page as anyone else when it comes to her name. I found out last week that the nickname I was planning to nearly-exclusively use for her is not the favorite nickname of my husband. My in-laws are, at best, lukewarm on the name. I'm seriously considering changing the middle name (as I explained to my husband that if we hadn't already announced the other one to the family, I would have already changed it. But I don't want them to think "she changed her mind on the middle name, maybe we can get her to change her mind on the first name, too!" and then start campaigning for their choices.) I got all emotional when I was talking to my husband about this and he really thinks it's a non-issue. But I'm frustrated by the whole thing and getting so upset about it and I can't tell if I'm just hormonally-driven and being irrational or if he's just shrugging it off and not caring because he doesn't want to fight about it and is sick of being in the middle between his family and me.

And that's pretty much my story. I feel like I'm always questioning if my actions are normal and rational right now or if I'm in an irrational hormonal-driven mess. It's not a fun way to go through life.