Cuz you're there for me too

I like to watch reruns of the TV show Friends. Ever since season 1 aired on network TV, I taped the show and would watch it over and over again. Or rather, listen to it, as I hardly ever sit and watch something more than once. So, I've seen each episode like a thousand times. No one ever wants to play Friends trivia with me.

I like to listen to the show because it is not stressful. Nothing too dramatic or bad ever happens. I like that. I can't say that about much else.

Even the other shows, movies, and music that I like will quite often stress me out. Especially music. When I listen to my CD collection, or the part of it I have transferred to mp3, so much of it inadvertantly brings back memories of the past I'd rather forget. I'll listen to a favorite song and then remember where I used to listen to it, or what I was doing when I first heard it, and even if that is a good memory it starts this domino effect where I keep remembering other events from around that time, and it isn't good.

PH (who is now a psych nurse) says that is human nature. We are programmed to better and more quickly retrieve bad memories so that we can learn from them and prevent those kind of events from happening again.

The funny thing is when I listen to Friends that does not happen. I should remember all kinds of shit from the 90s that was happening to me when I was watching Friends. But I don't.

Then I put the tapes away for a while. When the DVDs came out I bought them all, but I didn't make a habit of watching them.

PH brought them out when I got really sick a couple years ago. After one Very Bad Day where I was in a ball under the dining table with the phone in my hand and I'd already dialed 9-1 and was debating about pushing the other 1, he came home and I felt better enough to hang the phone up. But I refused to move. I don't know what made him think of it, but he asked me if I wanted to listen to Friends. I said yes. If I remember right, I think he asked me which season, which was hilarious since I was not in a condition to care. But I think I said season 5.

So it started again. You would think this would be a bad memory, but to me it is not. It does not bother me or stress me out to listen to Friends.

My favorite season is season 3 and my favorite episode is The One Where No One's Ready.

Incidentally, if you are sick, it is good to watch TV. It turns out TV is a very good distraction. I actually tried this out myself. Once I was sick and refused to watch TV because I thought it would only serve as a reminder of how much time had passed. The next time, I watched TV and even though it did serve as a reminder, it seemed like I didn't care as much and the time passed more quickly, sort of. I later read a study where they found that when doctors let kids watch cartoons when they are getting a shot with a needle, they were far calmer than when their moms were holding them.