XOXO, Gossip Girl

Thanks to a certain someone I know, one of my recent guilty pleasures is watching the show "Gossip Girl" on CW. Now, I'm no stranger to trashy TV, but it's mostly been limited to your half-hour MTV reality shows like Real World or Laguna Beach. And while people have suggested to me that I should check out shows like Dawson's Creek or The O.C., I've never gotten into any teen-dramas like that before. Not sure why, but I think mostly it's because I have trouble staying attentive for 1 hour long episodes - I can't really even follow a season of 24 or Heroes, shows that everyone thinks is so intense and addictive.

Well, I guess the times, they are a changin'. Somehow I found myself watching a random episode of GG one day, and then I stumbled on another one a couple months later, just flipping channels. Obviously there was a big gap in the story between with all the time passed, so that got me wondering what happened in the months in between. Next thing you know, I've downloaded all 13 episodes and watched them in a matter of only a couple weeks.

Judge me all you want, but I find it to be actually a very well written show. Even though the premise is kind of stupid (okay, extremely stupid), and in typical teen-drama fashion the storylines are over-the-top, the character development is what sets GG apart for me. You actually kind of identify a little bit with almost everyone on the show, including both the "good" characters and the "bad" ones, the older generation as well as the younger one too. Also, I guess if I was a shallow person, I would say that it helps that the main girl is really hot - but I'm not a shallow person, so I won't say that.

The other key for me is, the music they choose for the show always goes well with the scenes that they're used in. That's one of the things I liked most about Laguna Beach or the Hills. Most TV shows fail to ever use the right song in the right situation, they just end up throwing in some generic cheesy music in key moments (like Full House for example, haha). But seriously, whoever is responsible for coming up with the songs for Gossip Girl does an exceptional job of capturing the moment and fitting it to the right song. Actually I heard somewhere that it's mostly a credit to Josh Schwartz (co-creator of GG), who did the same thing when he worked on The OC. But again, I never watched that show enough to know one way or another.

Anyways, the worst part of this whole thing is that I now find myself feeling kind of angry about the writer's strike. Whereas before, I didn't really care about the strike because I didn't follow any shows that were affected, now it's become an issue for me. I'm actually kind of upset that it's going to be only reruns from now until the strike is resolved. What's going to happen with Serena and Dan? Is Jenny heading down the wrong path towards materialism and ruin? Why does one of the main characters have the same name as an NBA player from the 70's (Nate Archibald)? Ugh, I think I need help.

Rebel Without A Cause

As I've written about before in this blog, I definitely racked up my share of speeding tickets and parking tickets throughout my college years. I've been pulled over in almost every county between Cook and Champaign, I've gotten clocked for going as much as 34 over the limit or as little as 9 over, and I've done everything from court supervision to traffic school as ordered by the judge. And in terms of parking, I probably paid hundreds of dollars in total fines while I was on campus, which is a lot considering tickets were only about $5-10 a pop at the time. Not to mention I also got towed a few times, which cost me a good chunk of change too.

But after graduation, I've actually managed to maintain a very clean record. Despite the fact that I traded my Maxima for a much faster car, I probably drove slower overall in the Infiniti than I did in college. Maybe it's a sign that I've gotten wiser and more sensible in my old age, maybe it's because traffic in Chicago sucks too much to drive fast anyways, or maybe it's just good luck.

Whatever it was, all of that has gone out the window in the past few weeks. I've already shared the detailed story with some people, but to sum up, I've gotten a zone parking ticket ($50), speeding 21-30mph over limit ($100+), and now a citation for "disobeying traffic signal" ($75).

The last one is definitely the most annoying - it was the middle of a typical weekday, in a fairly empty parking lot, and apparently I didn't come to a complete stop at a stop sign. Cop came out of nowhere and wrote me a ticket, as well as admonishing me for having illegally tinted front windows. He didn't write me up for that part, because I was a good enough citizen for having my front license plate mounted, but whatever. I'm guessing the fact that when he asked me for my license, I had to tell him it was being held as bond for my speeding ticket from only a few days ago, didn't exactly help my cause.

So now, not only do I owe the stupid government a couple hundred bucks in fines, but I also have to do the court supervision and traffic school thing just to keep these tickets off my insurance record. Wack. The worst part is that I'm starting to second-guess myself at every stop sign if I stopped fully enough. Or every time a light turns yellow, trying to judge whether I should stop or not. I feel like Superman but robbed of my powers.

Oh, and I was just kidding about the "stupid government" part. Our government's awesome, what am I saying.