Geek Chic

Believe it or not, I'm a geek.
Please, hide your surprise. Pick up your jaw from the floor. My last post should have made this painfully clear to you. And if you're reading this right now, odds are you're one, too.

But let's talk about me and how I fell into geekdom.

I've always considered myself to be an obsessive personality. When I love something, I just don't love it. I drink it up and eat it for breakfast. Case in point: NSYNC circa 2000. My collection of CDs, merchandise, memorabilia, and posters would certainly astound you. But that obsession was more teenybopper hysteria than geekiness.

I'd have to say that I first dipped my toe into the geek pool in the summer of 2003. The summer before the final Lord of the Rings movie came out. I immersed myself into the world of Middle Earth and there was no turning back. I read the books, purchased the DVDs, listened to the commentaries and even went to an exhibit on the movies in Boston at the Museum of Science. When Return of the King came out, it didn't matter that I was deathly ill and coughing up a lung. Oh no. I was at the theater at 10am sharp. And I went back to the theater another four times before the movie bowed out of theaters.

As things quieted down on the Lord of the Rings front, a whole other storm was brewing on the Hawaiian islands. There, a new show was being filmed. A show that just happened to star my favorite hobbit as a drug addicted rock star.

And that, my friends, is how I came to know and love Lost.
You know, what they say is true. One thing does lead to another.

And a similar thing is happening now: I read the books, buy the DVDs, listen to the podcasts by show runners Damon and Carlton, and debate and theorize after each episode with my partners in crime, my fellow Lost fans.

At the same time, my geeky tendencies led me to the stronghold of geekdom: Harry Potter. I was a bit late to the wizarding party, it's true, but that didn't stop me from reading all the available books in the summer of 2004. And I joined right in with the other muggles on two hot and sticky summer days in 2005 and 2007 to welcome the release of the last two books. While I never stood in line at midnight to get my copy, I did wait with bated breath for the mailman to arrive with my package , "do not open until July 21, 2007!" written all over it. I devoured that book in two days.

Told you I was geeky.

And it doesn't end there. In two weeks time, British television staple Doctor Who is back. Everyone's favorite time traveler (well, besides Desmond Hume) is once again saving the world and destroying aliens one Dalek at a time.

If I didn't lose you at time travel and Daleks, then you truly are a geek! Congratulations!

Let's reread Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, watch episodes of Lost where the the craziest thing was a hatch in the ground, and plan our trip to New Zealand.