So...Every year since I started doing The Dempsey Challenge, my year has a pretty noticeable pattern. I train all year, getting ready for the big ride, which is in October. Not so coincidentally, October is also when I am generally at my ideal weight for the year. I come home from the weekend, and take some time off for good behavior, biking only when the conditions are PERFECT and eating whatever I feel like. Before I know it, Thanksgiving has rolled around and then my son's birthday, and then Christmas. Well...Let's just say, I usually gain quite a bit of weight between my return from Maine and the time the kids go back to school after Christmas break. So, every year, when they go back, I get my chubbier than usual ass on the training bike in my TV room, and start getting in shape for that year's Dempsey Challenge ride, or just so I don't have to go buy any bigger clothes to stuff myself into.
That leads us to today. I did my first ride yesterday, and my second today. I decided to see how far I can get through the whole Grey's Anatomy Series while riding, before it is time to switch to the outside bike again. For those who don't know, I live near Buffalo, NY and I do NOT ride outside in the snow. Go ahead call me a pansy. I don't care. It is cold and wet and I really can't afford proper winter riding gear and snow tires. So, from the time it gets uncomfortably cold (under 40 generally) until it clears up in Spring, I do most of my riding in my TV room. But, that is neither here nor there....
Suffice to say, I am riding during the day while my 3 kids are at school and the hubby is at work. I start out riding 1 episode per school day, but will work up to probably 3 per ride by March. So, yesterday I started with Season 1 Episode 1. I remembered why I fell in love with this show. Actually though, I didn't start watching until Season 3. I think it was "Some kind of Miracle" one of the Meredith Drowning episodes, I can't remember which. I was flipping channels one night when I couldn't sleep, and there was Patrick Dempsey (you know, that guy from Can't Buy Me Love!) all grown up and sitting on a floor of a hospital crying. I stopped channel surfing and watched intently as these doctor's tried to save the woman he apparently loved. The next day I called my friend, Carmen, and asked her if she knew about this show. She said she had been watching it since it started and just never thought to tell me about it because, as a rule, I don't watch much TV. At that point, I had a 1 year old, a 6 year old, and a 7 year old, so if it wasn't food network or PBS/Disney, this was correct. But I was sucked in immediately. However I was confused, as I had obviously missed some VERY important stuff in the early seasons. Shortly thereafter I ordered seasons 1 and 2 on DVD and watched them in a marathon of evenings in the basement when everyone else was asleep. Season 3 was pre-ordered from Amazon. Soon enough I was all caught up on the episodes I had missed. And I had a new guilty pleasure.
Back to today. Today was season 1 episode 2. "The First Cut is the Deepest". As a scene with the Fab 5 interns sitting in the back hallway discussing their days came on, I got a feeling of nostalgia. That "Aww, I miss the old Grey's" twinge that I read so much about on Twitter. I am still surprised people yelling at Shonda Rhimes because she has "ruined" HER characters or killed them off, or that Grey's isn't what it used to be. Then I started thinking. Yes, I do miss those days of Grey's. And I also realize that it is a TV show that Shonda Rhimes and her team of really smart folks came up with that has kept me busy MANY a Thursday night. But I also realized, that as much as I miss those days on the Fab 5 hanging out, as much as I miss George and Izzie and Burke, as much as I hate some of the newer characters that came to Seattle Grace (especially April), well...although this is a TV show, it also mirrors life. People die, people break up, move away, and new people come into our lives that we may not love, but they are there anyhow! I mean hell, I reminisce about the good old days of college, partying, friends, not a whole lot of responsibility. It was FUN. A lot of it. I remember those times fondly, but you know what? That time has passed. I can't go back. I really wouldn't want to. I can replay it in my mind, look at pictures, etc. But my life has moved on. Some people from that part of my life are still in my life today, in different roles. Life never really stays the same for too long. Kids grow up, jobs change, we get older, we lose people we never dreamed would leave our side, and people show up that we never expected to meet. TV sometimes resembles real life after all. I mean the interns are no longer interns. I am sure the characters would remember those times somewhat fondly, if they were real, but even they have grown up and changed. Loved, lost, found things and people they never expected to find. So, I guess what I am saying, is maybe Shonda isn't doing any of this to torture the viewers, or because she hates certain "ships". Maybe, just maybe, she is trying to give us all something entertaining that resembles real life. A reminder to enjoy the things we love about today, because perhaps tomorrow you won't be able to enjoy the same things.
I don't know Ms. Rhimes personally. I have never met her. I have gotten a couple of tweet responses from her, and once had my question chosen to be answered on a pod cast. But, aside from those small blips of interaction, what I read in interviews, or have seen in her podcasts, I don't know her any better than I know the Queen of England (which is not at all). However, I highly doubt that she hates her characters, even the ones we are meant to hate. They all came from her head. I also doubt she wants to purposely piss off the fan base of Grey's. And I have many many Thursday nights of entertainment to thank her for. Friendships that were actually formed based on a mutual love of the show. And sometimes even, for making me look upon my own life with new eyes. Generally my best thinking happens either on my bike or in the shower. Two of my favorite places to be alone with my thoughts. Today, watching old Grey's made my bike ride a very thoughtful one. My mind was racing almost as fast as my feet.
Today's ride made me realize I am thankful for the good times in the past, and look forward to good times in the future. Both in my real world and in the imaginary land of good looking doctors who tend to get in the way of buses or thrown under planes, when they aren't steaming up the on call room or an elevator. It made me think of people who have come and gone from my life and look back on how far I have come from the me that I was 10 years ago, or 20 years ago. So thanks to all who are responsible for that. There are too many to name. And thanks to those who are yet to come.
