It started with

 
It started with Grey's Anatomy. J and I had the first season of Grey's Anatomy on DVD and when we shut down our computers we would meet in the living room and follow the adventures of  Dreamy and Steamy. Some nights it would be a single episode, sometimes a double and when one ended in a cliff hanger, we would look at each other and say, "One more" even if we had to fight to stay awake.

Then we moved onto Everwood when I found a used DVD set at the American Library sale.


This has been followed by other series, The Good Wife, Brothers and Sisters, Northern Exposure, How I Met your Mother, Monk, etc.

We've reached into the past for Bewitched (never did understand what Samantha saw in Darren), Mary Tyler Moore and Golden Girls.

The latest series we just started this week is Life Begins another library sale find. I'd always liked Caroline Quentin in Jonathan Creek and the 9 CHF price tag didn't seem all that unreasonable.

We're enjoying it. We'll have to get the next two seasons. British series do not go on as long as US ones.

Fawlty Towers only had 12 wonderful episodes. The Vicar of Dibley could have gone on and on in my book, but then again, Dawn French is wonderful in anything she does.

But it is not just the DVDs that make our evenings so enjoyable. Nor is it the sigh of relaxation after a busy work day.

There's a camaraderie of deciding what snack: shrimp, salmon, fois gras, veggies and hummus, olives, cheese, chips, bread sticks, nuts, popcorn (with or without cheddar), toasts, etc., etc., etc. Would it be a tea, wine or champagne night...the last champagne night we added frozen raspberries...celebrating my broken face...a variation of making lemonade out of lemons.

It is the pleasure of being immersed in Meridith, Carol, Samantha's or Maggie's life for a half hour or a couple of hours that put aside bookkeeping or credit union chores, albeit rewarding in their own right.

Years ago when my daughter was still at Boston Latin and we lived on the Riverway in Boston, we had a Sunday night ritual of Murder she Wrote and slightly burned popcorn. It was an experience we recreated in Washington DC when I visited for a month and she had the DVDs of the program. At some point in almost every show, Jessica would say, "I think I know who did it."

That series has become a family joke. I said back then I wanted to be like Jessica--a mystery writer having adventures around the world.

Llara said, the first real body I ran into, it would be straight into the nursing home. When I asked why, she said, "Because it's usually her relatives that get blamed and I'm your relative." I did mention that when I dedicated one of my novels to Llara...

Maybe it is also the dormitory feeling of girls just doing fun things together, sometimes in PJs and giggling over something funny, oohhing over something beautiful, or wiping away a tear when a favourite character dies. Or most likely it is just good friends enjoying something.

Whatever it is, long may it continue.