Plastic Braclets

It's rare that I've been on the upswing side of a trend.  Not since POGS, which I knew from their Hawaiian origin have I felt like I didn't jump on the bandwagon of a trend just as it was winding down.

My restaurant job can at times feel like high school and this past week we were hit hard by a trend that is otherwise designated for children.  Plastic shape bracelets.  You know what I'm talking about (or maybe you don't), on your wrist they look like simple plastic bracelets, but when you take them off they form shapes.

 My obsession, Neil Patrick Harris was wearing them on the Craig Ferguson the day after I was given my first one.  A pink kitty.  I have since purchased and traded more and now proudly wear my favorites on my wrist like a twelve year old girl.

It's strange to take hold of a fad that is no doubt reserved for those years younger than myself.  Yet my own peers also wear theirs with pride, sharing their own with glee and enjoying showing the shapes to one another. 

Who knows how long this fad will last?  It seems like it could be go the distance, such a clever basic idea!  But who knows.  Perhaps the preteens have already tired of their bracelets, leaving my restaurant (and Neil Patrick Harris) as the only people wearing them.  Or maybe when the children I know now as babies reach their preteen years, I'll be trading with them, a woman in her forties bonding with the preteens and talking about how I remember the early days of the bracelets.  Grasping onto the last fad that I connected with.

And now, it's time to get ready for work and decide which bracelets I'll be wearing today.  I'm thinking the yellow battle axe for a start.

First Crush

We all have our initial celebrity crushes, the child actor that for some reason speaks to us, usually because of their baby face and non threatening appeal.  Often as we grow older that crush because a subject of embarrassment, a moment for our cheeks to turn just a bit red as we admit that yes, we did once like that dorky little kid who grew up to be a has been drug addict.

Or, in my case, that little kid who grew up to be AWESOME!

When I was eight years old, I pledged my heart to Doogie Howser, MD.  There was just something about him that my little eight year old self was drawn to.  Then for many years he was gone, faded from the limelight allowing me to forget and move onto men such as Jonathan Taylor Thomas.  Little did I realize that JTT would be my childhood embarrassing crush while the silent Neil Patrick Harris would eventually become the superstar of my world.

In 1997 Rent, a show that I am beyond obsessed with came to the West Coast and has its premier in La Jolla.  Due to persistence and pure luck I managed to get tickets to the second day of previews and there he was, my childhood crush in one of the leading roles.  Oh Neil Patrick Harris, my heart still belonged to you.

I will not admit how many times I saw that particular production, though I only caught it in La Jolla four times that summer. 

Years later he would became the breakout star in How I Met Your Mother, a show that I would grow to adore.  And then came Dr. Horrible's Sing A-long Blog and the awards shows and suddenly there he was.  NPH.  Not even Neil Patrick Harris anymore.  He belonged to the world and I was able to say my childhood crush with pride.  "Yeah, I wanted to marry Doogie Howser." 

I was on the Neil Patrick Harris mailing list before he was cool.  I was stalking him on AOL when he still had a semi public screen name.  By the time he outed himself my response was "finally."

But I will never be ashamed to admit that I loved him when. 

Degrassi

Despite the fact that I am well past the target demographic, I find myself continuously obsessed with the Canadian television show Degrassi: The Next Generation.  The show is currently in it's 10th season and is doing something amazing this summer.  It's showing a new episode every weeknight for six weeks.  That's right, six weeks of new episodes.  So for the past two weeks every night at 6pm I sit in front of my television and watch a television show about characters who are so young I'm closer in age to their parents. 

One thing that is spectacular about this show is that it covers virtually every teenage issue ever.  This season alone we've had one girl in an abusive relationship, a girl fake a pregnancy (in part) to get her ex boyfriend back, one football player threatening to out another one for homosexuality, a boy reuniting with his formerly drug addicted mother, a girl stealing from her friend's bank account, a girl dealing with her parent's potential divorce and a girl on the verge of an eating disorder.  And we're only two weeks into the season! 

While it can take a few episodes to get into this show and get to know the characters, Degrassi is like a sugary treat that you can't get enough of.  When you meet them, the characters are struggling with innocent issues and you watch as they grow older and deal with legitimate issues for their age.  Like the logo said years ago, it goes there. 

And I can't get enough of it.