Dear Fox: I Love You. Again. (A Monday Five)

1. Deja Vu: Remember last year when I wanted to burst into the new year full force...and then I got sick and busy and a ton of other stuff happened? Same old, same old. I have bronchitis. I have a court case. I have some post-holiday depression going on. It blows. I'm determined to get up at 6am tomorrow and get stuff done, which is really laughable if you know how little time I've spent outside of my bed this weekend. Sigh.

2. Best.Thing.Ever: My relationship with the Fox Network is much like my relationship with most men: I am alternately passionately in love with it or I am let down and disappointed by it. Tonight, I was passionately in love with Fox when they premiered "Terminator: The Sarah Conner Chronicles." I actually think I may have gotten moist when Summer Glau kicked open the truck door and said "Come with me if you want to live." I have high hopes. Oh, Fox. Please don't break my heart by making this go the way of "Dark Angel" or "Firefly." Please, please, please. And in case anybody missed the first night, here's the Fox "epic" teaser.



3. It's Been A Long Time Since: I was excited about the political process. Actually, I can tell you exactly when it was. It was when Gavin Newsom was running against Matt Gonzalez for mayor of San Francisco. Matt Gonzalez was a Green Party candidate, and it was the first real chance for somebody outside of one of the two major parties to hold a power position in a major city. And he had fascinating concepts about changing legislation to support urban environments where people rent-to-live instead of ever owning property and homelessness and such. He didn't win. And in fairness, Gavin Newsom has seemingly been a great mayor there. Anyway, I totally remember sitting in this Ethiopian restaurant that we were all in love with at the time with shamus, drinking red wine and listening to the political debates. I mean, we were really listening. Policies mattered and choices were really going to impact that city's future. And we cared about who we were voting for and so did most of the city. And people were talking about issues and change and what mattered in a leader.

This Presidential election feels like that to me. I feel passionate. I feel like almost certainly change will come and it will be a matter of what change. If nothing else, the country is talking. And that's all we could ask for.

4. Sean's Going Away Party: Was this weekend. Everybody is going to China. It makes me happy. I think that people need to go and live in the world - by which I mean outside of the US. I mean, Sean has lived in Japan before, so it's not like I'm saying he's been sheltered. I just like seeing people going out there and living in the WORLD like it's a whole thing. That is all. Here's a picture. And, actually, here are all the pictures.



5. Melrose Place: I am on the last disc of season two of Melrose Place. This is the season where Kimberly dies (and later comes back) and Michael marries Sidney and Jo gets kidnapped by a drug-dealing ex-boyfriend on a yacht and Amanda and Jake have an affair. It's awesome. Anyway, I was watching the last couple of discs of season two because I'm about to watch season three. Both seasons, of course, were given to me as gifts by Matt McD. And we were emailing the other day, and I told him I was re-watching in prep for season three. And he said this:

"I'm glad you went back to Melrose Place season two, because there are so many subtle plot elements they layered in then that didn't pay off until the next year."

Proving once again that my friends are far funnier than I am.