cough cough

I was sick all weekend and had to get someone to do my classes Saturday so I could stay home and rest. I felt fine until the drive home Friday night when I started coughing till my lungs hurt and my head got so stuffy I couldn't sleep the whole night. I figured the splitting headache all day Saturday was just from not sleeping, but since it lasted until Sunday night I think it was because I had a fever (no thermometer in the house so I had to use the wrist-on-the-forehead maneuver which doesn't work when it's your own forehead).

So what'd I do all weekend? I stayed in bed watching Charmed episodes. When the show started 9 years ago I watched a couple episodes and wasn't really impressed, but a few weeks ago I found out it had run for 8 seasons. It must have gotten better for it to have lasted that long, so decided to give it another chance. Supposedly it's the longest running series featuring an all-female main cast, beating out Laverne and Shirley.

I'm hooked, but only because it gets better as time goes on. The first couple seasons are pretty shaky and the characters don't feel very realistic, as realistic as a story about 3 witches in San Francisco fighting demons can be. I mean, Shannon Doherty has a job in an auction house and is an expert on every painting, gem, statue, vase, weapon, and whatever other antique that comes her way and she's only in her mid-20s? Those guys on the Antique Road Show program are like 80 years old and experts in only one very specific field. And plus I don't like her anyway. Heard she's a bitch in real life and you can kind of tell by those permanent frown lines on her face. I was so glad when they killed her off.

It gets lots better when they add Paige - the social worker who quits her job and gets stuck at a temp agency. Now that's more realistic. Plus she's sexy. There's something about her mannerisms and way of talking that I like. Kind of a nonchalant easy-going attitude with underlying intelligence and sass.

But what I really love is that in every episode there's a guest band, usually someone I've heard of but don't know their music or know their music but don't know what they look like. And guest actors that I know from other shows, sometimes people I've completely forgotten about but recognize instantly, like the guy who played Jack Deveraux from Days of Our Lives (one summer I was home everyday and looked forward to that dumb soap). Seeing him reminded me of another character I liked - Austin Reed, who showed up in an episode a couple seasons later. How dorky can I get.

Then Balthazar Getty shows up in a recurring role. I remember having just read Lord of the Flies (have a boulder, Piggy) and then the movie came out, and I thought how amazing it was that we're the same age but he's this famous actor and I'm just an insecure middle school kid. I sort of admired him. I forgot all about that name but recognized it instantly during the guest credits. He looks so different I wasn't sure which character he was.

So anyhow that's what I've been doing with all my spare time these past few weeks - watching Charmed episodes. I like playing "spot the tattoo". The number of tattoos on their bodies increases with each season and I'm sure they wear those skimpy outfits just to show them off.