Suckered In

So I thought that I was done with American Idol. I faithfully watched three seasons, two of which were as much for social interaction as it was to watch the show. I started off watching AI as a senior at BYU. A big group of EFY counselor/BC/coordinator friends would all gather at a friends house where we all watched the show together in his basement that housed the big screen TV. We would inevitably get into arguments about who to vote for and who was on pitch, etc. That was the year that Carmen Rasmussen was in the top 10 and Clay Aiken should have won. We all know that Carmen got as far as she did because of our votes (well, she was a former EFY participant and variety show performer!).

I took a few years off of watching the show while I taught in Philadelphia. Heck, those of you who know me from that time or well enough to have kept up with me know that I was even lucky to make it out of there alive, not to mention with a husband! To tell you the truth, the mindless entertainment could have been good for me. But my graduate courses were always on Tuesday night, which I faithfully attended before coming home and unintentionally falling asleep in my clothes (and shoes) with all the lights on.

Then we moved to Seattle and Jonathan was on call at the hospital ALOT and had classes every Tuesday night. After exhausting our cookbooks of baked good recipes and gaining at least 15 pounds, I was looking for something to do. Unfortunately, we didn't get whatever channel FOX was, even on sunny days when reception was clear for the other channels. But hey, I was just grateful for the channels that did come in since we weren't paying for anything and didn't have bunny ears. So I started heading over to the Egbert's house to watch with them. They are two (and now three!) of my favorite people in the whole world. We watched faithfully to the end of the season, although I can't even tell you who was the winner that year.

Jonathan and I watched it last year off and on. The defining moment of the season came when Sanjaya and his sister got separted in Hollywood-he was in a group that got to stay and she got kicked off. Why was this memorable for me? Because I CRIED! I was in my first trimester and a little bit over emotional.

I thought I was done with American Idol. But Jonathan and I turned the results show on last week in desperation to have some mindless entertainment and it was the only decent thing on. So they get to Brooke White and flash to her family in the audience. They show a shot of her husband and friends. I loudly (but not too loudly as there was a sleeping baby upstairs) proclaim to Jonathan "Hey, I know that guy. That's Dave Ray. I went to Jerusalem with him." This fact was indeed confirmed over the weekend by some other Jerusalem friends that I keep in touch with. So even though Dave was no close friend of mine in Jerusalem and we definitely don't keep in touch, I want to support the cause of the Jerusalem alumni and vote for her.

So we watched on Tuesday night. Lucky for us, she was singer number five so we only had to watch 45 minutes before we got on with our lives. The plan was to to watch long enough to see her (not the best performance this week thought) and figure out what number she was, do something else and then vote before going to bed. Did we remember? Of course not! But we're glad that enough other people voted for her so we can redeem ourselves next week.

Why write this abnormally long post on something as insignificant as American Idol? Maybe it's because I have been putting off a difficult phone call to the doctor and paying bills and working on the budget but told myself that it would get done today. Maybe it's because I want to wax eloquent and be a good writer like so many of my friends who have blogs. Or maybe it's because I do have some fun memories of American Idol and it's been fun to reminisce about the past five years. Bless your soul for humoring me and reading this.