Thursday, April 12, 2007

Stupid Wonderful Fat Girl in a Bee Costume

When I was 7 years old, I asked Santa for a television. Specifically, I asked for a "13 inch color television with a remote control." This TV, in 1985, would be the first in our house with a remote control. And isn't it charming that we used to specify types of televisions with adjectives like "color," instead of the cold and humanless acronymns of LCD and DLP that we use today?

In what would be a HUGE mistake for "Santa," I got my television. It would be a controversial sour point for siblings that didn't get televisions when they were 7 years old. As wisely put by my mother, "You never asked!" It also started my poor sleeping habits and lifelong love-affair with television. I would stay up on Friday nights, alone in my room, with a full bag of popcorn and watch 20/20 with Hugh Downs and Barbara Walters. (Did I mention yet that I am a geek?) I would also fall asleep at night to the bluish glow from the screen and the sweet tones of my favorite reruns whispering in my ear. The sleep timer was magic.

Several years later, I would discover that the clock on the television also had an alarm feature. In high school, especially after Ted left for college, I would rely on that alarm feature to get me up and ready. Without it, I certainly would've ended up a high school dropout.

In the summers, much like now, I wouldn't get to sleep in. Our swim team would have summer practice at 7:00 AM or some time like that, and I remember setting the alarm. Summers in high school, well, would be the time of MTVs Real World. I loved that show, and so I would usually fall asleep with MTV on. Which meant MTV would wake me up. My sophomore year of high school, that last summer before I'd be working and the last "free" summer of my life, I would wake up at 6:00 AM every morning... to Blind Melon's No Rain.

MTV played early morning videos in a simple rotation, probably the product of some illegal payola scheme. Doesn't matter, this song will always be the opening track on the soundtrack of my "free time."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

This girl sent a postcard to postsecret last fall. She said she still feels that same way inside and she is 18 now.