Looking out my front window today, I'd think I actually lived inside a dust bunny.  It's amazing what short work ten days of +40 degree weather can do to five feet of snow.  The enormous banks lining every sidewalk and street have mostly disappeared, leaving behind only the crispy black crust of what was plowed up last December.  It's actually raining out right now, which instead of making things clean and fresh, is making everything gray from the street to the stratosphere.  The sky looks like it's about ten feet over the rooftops and goes all the way to outer space.  I wonder if this is what it would be like to live on Venus. If Venus were 40 degrees instead of 400.  Either way, no thanks.

Just finished watching season 5 of Lost.  It really got cooking!  I've watched each season as it came out on dvd.  I enjoyed it but never gave it another thought until the following season came out so I stopped buying them after season 3.  I figured once I knew what happened, I'd never watch it again.

But the over the top events of season 5 made me want to go back to the beginning.  I was describing it to a friend who also loves sci-fi the other night and I told him that I'd lend him season 1 and 2 to get started.  That's when I discovered that mine are missing.  I have no idea who I lent or gave them to or where they are.  I hate when that happens.

At Half Priced Books last week I found a copy of the first season of Veronica Mars on sale for super cheap. I'd never seen the show but I remembered reading nothing but good reviews of it and I'd become a fan of the girl who plays the lead, Kristen Bell, from her stint on Heroes. 

I just finished watching it.  I thought it was excellent.  It's no Firefly, but  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  There was one big murder mystery that arced over the entire season, with each episode having it's own stand alone plot as well.  I liked the characters, especially the lead.  Veronica Mars is a high school junior who used to be a popular, goody two shoes.  Then her best friend (a girl who serves as a cautionary tale that makes Juno look like she dodged a bullet) is murdered and circumstances make Veronica the most hated girl in town.  Instead of wailing and gnashing her teeth, the newly ostracized Veronica decides to get even.  There are some extremely dark themes in the show.  Maybe that's why it didn't last; adults didn't want to watch a show set in high school and kids were freaked out by the date rape, incest, murder, abusive parents and promiscuity.

  I know everyone thinks teens these days are too jaded to be put off by all that, all I know is my own teenage would rather watch I,Carly.  That's fine with me.  I was glad Josie wasn't  watching with me.  But I really  liked Veronica. 

There were aspects of her that reminded me of some of my nearest and dearest.  The kids in this fictional high school were by far the meanest kids I've ever seen.  They'd have chewed up and spitten out Rachel MacAdams' character from Mean Girls.  Veronica was the nicest girl in town until her boy friend dumped her, her best friend got killed, her dad lost his job, her mom abandoned them and all her friends turned on her. 

Then her motto became Get Tough and Get Even. 

She shows very little mercy (which I admire.  What can I say?  I'm a fan of Hammurabi. And Sun Tzu.) but when she finds out she's mistaken she quickly corrects and apologizes (which I  admire even more.)  One of my favorite moments in the entire show was a throw away scene in journalism class where the kids are supposed to practice interviewing each other.  The girl interviewing Veronica asks a really mean, snarky question and Veronica shoots back with something so awful the girl winds up on anti-depressants. 

That's what you get when you try to play with the Big Dog.  In this show the Big Dog happens to be a tiny, cute blond.   

Oh, Harry Hamlin and Lisa Rinna play a married couple.  He's awesome and she has the worst collagen lip job in the history of the universe.  My second favorite character is the guy who plays their son.  In the first episode, Veronica describes him as the school's resident psychotic and he does some bad stuff so I was pleased to see him get his, but as the show progressed, his character reveals more and more and by mid season I really liked him even though I wasn't supposed to.  He was mean and nasty one minute and wonderful the next.  He was the biggest thorn in Veronica's side.  Right up until the moment she made out with him.  That made me laugh out loud.

It was kinda like watching the Shield, but being able to root for Vic Mackey without feeling like scum. 

Ooh, maybe I'll start watching The Sheild again.  Oh crap, season 1 is in Afghanistan.  No, literally.  I let my brother take it with him.

I'm also reading Eat, Pray, Love which came highly recommended.  Liz Gilbert is an entertaining enough writer but half way through her sojourn to India, I'm so bored with her I can barely get through a few pages before I need to go do something else.  Her spiritual discoveries are such that I might have been impressed if I'd read this book at 14.  At almost fifty, it just makes me want to reread Heaven's Own by David West, a GREAT book that is apparently out of print and impossible to find, even online.  I have one of the few existing copies upstairs.  

Or maybe I'll finally read Pride and Prejudice.  Which will make me want to go through my entire collection of Georgette Heyer novels again.  That's always fun.

Or maybe I'll go to Half Priced Books and look for the second season of Veronica Mars.

Hmmm....Elizabeth Bennett or Veronica Mars... that's a toughie.

 

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