Pop culture overload -- one too many 'Friends'

Aim Me, by Amy Menerey

Hi, my name is Amy, and I'm a Friends-a-holic. It started as an idea for a way to gather "the girls" for a day of relaxation and junk food -- then it got out of control.

My step-daughter Amber and I have long enjoyed watching the 11 p.m. viewing of "Friends" on TV, usually trying to finish what we're doing in time to relax and watch it uninterrupted. When we recently noticed that the series had been released on DVD we got the idea -- let's rent or buy all the early seasons and watch them consecutively. We bought the first one we found, the fourth season, and, with the intention of renting the previous three seasons, asked some friends of our own to join us. With the summer coming quickly to a close, however, most of our friends are busy trying to cram in as much as possible before the impending short, dark days of winter. That left us without our friends to enjoy "Friends," and with a DVD staring at us invitingly. We couldn't help ourselves. We opened it and began watching.

Now, there are no commercials on these DVDs. With no commercials to break the story I become glued to the set like a half-eaten sucker on car upholstery. I just couldn't stop. Commercial television offers time to go to the bathroom, grab something to eat, maybe start working on the piling stack of dishes in the sink. When I watch regular TV I get up on those commercial breaks and begin doing other things. Eventually I get busy and forget about the show I was watching, only to go back occasionally to see what's happening when it sounds interesting.

But with no commercials; it's just endless hours of Joey, Rachel, Monica, Ross, Phoebe and Chandler. I had no chance for escape. I had seen the show in late-night re-runs (I never seem to get home in time for "prime-time" viewing) and there were so many unanswered questions. Why did Joey and Chandler have a canoe in their living room during the fourth season? Where did the hockey table come from? How many times did Rachel change her hair color?

Some of these questions were answered in the fourth season as each of my precious moments at home wasted away while I sat in my dirty living room surrounded by soda cans and empty chip bags that could be grabbed during the introduction song (dinner would just take too long). Just when I thought it was over Amber rented the first season -- more questions answered -- but quickly, Blockbusters charges a hefty fine if they're late! More days were wasted on the couch but we got the movies returned in the nick of time.

I went home last night with grand ideas of washing dishes, clothes and floors, of picking up candy wrappers and soda cans, of putting away the many items dropped by the door in haste to sit down and watch an evening of "ugly naked guy" and Ross' gay wife. But, no luck; Amber came home with the third season.

As Phoebe would say, "Hello Grandma, if that is indeed your real name."

Amy Menerey is a reporter/photographer for the Frontiersman newspaper who will be going home to spend time with her "Friends."