The Life as We Know It Files

(here I'll try to occasionally write about things that were brilliant and taken from us too soon, just like the perfection that was Life as We Know It)

I can never and will never forgive The O.C. I hated that show from the beginning because of its overvapidness, the fact that being from So. Cal their version of Orange County was foreign and ludicrous but just as importantly because the other girls, especially Freshmen year, were absolutely in love with it. All of these faults I could forgive; it was quite easy to think of that show as merely harmless and to not include it in my daily thoughts. But that was before I discovered Life as We Know It.

Sophomore year I was hanging out in Jay's room when we were watching television, or more specifically flipping through channels before Thursday night debauchery began. I don't remember what made me tell Jay to turn back to abc, if I had heard about the show somewhere, but I like to remember it as in the few seconds it was on as we were channel surfing that I recognized some sort of spark of genius. Most likely someone hot was on screen and there was some sort of flirtation. Anyway we watched that first episode and realized the show was all about these teenage boys trying to get laid, along with the Zack Morris type "time out." All the characters were so cheesy and akward and real, as looking back at teenagers from a few years on all seem to be not to mention attractive. And then there was Kelly Osbourne, trying to fake an American accent, and not quite succeeding and of course being a little "plumper" and goth then everyone else. But it didn't matter, we were hooked and begin to tell all of our friends about it.

Pretty soon we were organizing viewing parties where talking (or more accurately, discussing the finer points of the show) were limited to commercial breaks. Moms were sleeping with hockey coaches (which of course the son sees!), kids were sleeping with their young teachers (in janitor's closets and the like), Dino couldn't get it up, parents sleeping with parents someone really liking Kelly Osbourne, and it had a midget as a guidance counselor, I mean the show was fantastic! And the drama was so teenagey and overblown, but the drama in our own lives at that point mirrored it. In real life two of our super close friends, who of course were members of our lawki parties, had broken up, which Jay and I had to deal with outside at like 2:30 in the morning-though we were able to finagle a Rick's trip out of it.) Anyway, at around the same time on the show Dino had broken up with his girlfriend, and their interactions were full of longing and akwardness and friends feeling they need to choose sides and all the inevitabliness of recent break ups. As we watched, our friends drama was played out on the screen just as it was played out in real life. Looking back it was awesome and perfect, though at the time, of course, it sucked.

We watched the show religiously but then for some reason abc decided to move it to the time slot opposite The O.C. Why they would do such a thing I will never understand. I mean this was, back in 2004, when The O.C. was a juggernaut in our age group, the same age group, of course that Life as We Know It was targeted . LAWKI was such a better, less soap opera, incredibly realistically written show, I mean we had grown to love even Kelly Osbourne. And then suddenly it was gone one Thursday. We checked online but it had been removed from the schedule. it was a horrible horrible day.

Eventually Jay bought the dvd and we watched it on rare occassions, but it was never the same. Our days of innocence were over. But now whenever I see any of the actors playing any other role, I immediately think off them on Life As We Know It, whether the Mom is in an aspirin commercial or playing Ellen's first girlfriend, whether Jackie, Dino's girlfriend is on Heroes or that gymnastics movie I never saw, or watching Ben play a statutory rapist on SVU, I can only think of them as they were, back when I knew what Life was. (sigh, ::tear::)

oh an by the time you'll read this it will be past 11 a.m pacific time and thus officially summer. Happy Summer Solstice!!!

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