Long about the beginning of November, after Luke died and my mom had her lumpectomy, I had a meeting with a couple of clients. After our meeting, I turned to the woman who was about eight months pregnant and asked how she was doing.
“I’m reading as much as I can before the baby comes,” she said.
“On your iPad?” I asked. I knew she was an avid reader and the last time we met she had talked about how she was getting an iPad after winning a round of rock, paper, scissors against her husband.
“Yeah,” she said. “I love it except when a book ends abruptly. On an iPad you can’t tell how many pages you have left just by touch.”
“What are you reading?” I asked.
“Nothing good,” she said and laughed. She knows what a book snob I am. “I should probably read better books.”
“If it brings you pleasure you shouldn’t feel apologize,” I said.
It’s kind of been my motto since November. “Do not apologize for that which brings me pleasure.” I figure as long as your pleasurable things don’t involve hurting animals, children or non-consenting adults, it’s all good.
This is a long way to introduce you to the newest love of my life: “Pretty Little Liars” (PLL).
Oh yes, I’m in love with another teen drama. While my feelings for PLL aren’t anywhere near as deep as my feelings for Dawson’s Creek, it has admirably filled the gaping void that’s been in my life since May 14, 2003.
“Pretty Little Liars” is on ABC Family at 7 p.m. Monday nights. My niece, Jaycie, turned me on to the show. I remember her talking about it last summer but mostly just forgot about it until New Year’s when the second season began. She was super excited about the premiere and while Jaycie was telling me about the show, Sister #2 piped up with how much she, an adult, enjoyed the show. That’s all it took to pique my curiosity.
Lucky for me, right before the season premiere, ABC Family ran a PLL marathon. I’m not one bit ashamed to admit that I watched roughly eight hours of TV that day. And another four the next. I was hooked after about an episode and a half.
It’s about four friends: Hanna, Aria, Spencer, and Emily who are being blackmailed by the mysterious A regarding the death of their friend Allison. It’s 1 part Dawson’s Creek and 1 part Twin Peaks (though I could use a little more TP and a little less DC) and 100% totally awesome. The mystery surrounding Allison’s death and the subsequent blackmailing makes the usual teenage bullshit drama not just tolerable but wholly enjoyable.
The thought of the show makes me giddy the moment I get up on Monday mornings and it keeps me awake, productive, and hardly cranky at all the entire day. If you have been searching for some fun, mindless TV to make your Mondays better, I give two hearty thumbs-up to “Pretty Little Liars,” the new love of my life.
I’m with you on the don’t ever apologize for innocuous enthusiasms in theory. In practice, I will sometimes hide my enthusiasm for the Herman Hermit’s No Milk Today.
But what struck me as something your client said about the ipad: tha you don’t see the end of the book coming. I’m one of these awful people who looks at the last page not to read it but to catch the page number so I can judge my task. I don’t why this is important or what it says about my reading habits, but I’ve done it for decades.
@Kevin Fenton,
I do the same thing! I do it all the time, actually, look at the last page number and then I try to do math to see how much I have left and it’s a nightmare (the math). I think I would miss that on an iPad.
@Jodi, Cool. I feel less awful.
I don’t watch TV anymore, since we’ve slimmed down our budget to one-step-from-the-streets tight. lol
I liked Dawson’s Creek, too.
And thank you tremendously for not using “peek” in reference to your curiosity. I cannot tell you how I loathe the different ways people do that now, and rarely correctly. lol
@Lana, peek/peak/pique is one of my weaknesses. Every time I see the word I have to take a few seconds to figure out if it was used correctly.