Tuesday, February 16, 2010

I'm a Straight, Non-Crafty Republican and I love Rosie Radio!

I have a total friend-crush on Rosie O'Donnell.  Yep, it's true.  Which is weird, because on paper, we probably wouldn't make a good couple.  I'm a Republican, I'm straight, and I'm not too crafty.  But I'm pretty sure that if she met me in person, she'd like me.  In fact, I've thought this for many years.  I remember watching her show with my baby in his bouncy seat, watching her crush all over Tom, watching her celebrate her birthday on television (on my anniversary) and thinking:  it's serendipity.  We're meant to be friends.

When Rosie's show started, my oldest son was little, maybe eighteen months.  I think her son Parker is close to the same age, so the stories she would tell on her show would make me laugh or cry, and I would wait all morning for her show to air.  It was a break in my day, and I loved it.  It was feel-good television.  The audience loved her, there were give-aways, surprises, celebrity crushes and Broadway!  I missed it when it went away.

We moved, I had two more babies, and heard through the news bits and pieces about Rosie, but I had to think. . .  if bits and pieces about me ever traveled through the grapevine about me, would they always be flattering?  Would they always be true?  Ick.  No thank you.  Either way, my day-to-day relationship with Rosie was over.  Until. . . The View.

My mother had been trying to force me to watch the view for years, and I had resisted.

"You would love it," she would say.
"No I wouldn't."   Was I thirteen again?  Was I protesting and refusing just because I could?
"You would like the Hot Topics, Christy."
"Mom," I would tell her, "there is not one person on that show that I could possibly relate to."
"Meredith is a mom," she would say.  "You would like her."
"She is a working mom who doesn't wear underwear," was my standard comeback.  So I didn't watch.

Until Rosie came back.  And then I watched every day.  Sometimes I got mad or frustrated, even at Rosie because my opinions and hers can be very different, but you know what?  That's what makes the world go around.  Mostly I got mad at the tone of the show.  But I watched until Rosie's last shocking day.

Because I am a Republican, albeit socially liberal, which is a hard position in which to find both balance and political candidates, people may assume I aligned with Elizabeth during my short View-watching period.  Not true.  While I did feel like she was occasionally beaten-up and talked-over, I also felt that for such a young woman with such a long life ahead of her, I wanted her to be able to be more flexible, more open-minded, less factual and more soulful.  Not to change her beliefs, but to look up from the papers and into her heart.  I might not agree with every one of my friends,  but I can look into their eyes and really try to see.  Listen to them.  Talk with them.  Learn from them.

So Rosie was gone again.  And I stopped watching The View.  What did I say I was looking for on that show?  Someone I could relate to.  And while Rosie might not have stood for everything I stood for, or believed in everything I believed in (but really, who can?  or who should?) the important stuff was there:  kids, family, love, real life, truth, humor.  That, I believe.  That, I relate to.

Then, like a Christmas miracle, arrived Rosie Radio on Sirius XM Satellite Radio!  It's my new favorite thing.  If I miss it in the morning (though I try to do my errands at the right time, because I never remember to turn on my online XM in the house) I can catch a replay in my car when I am taking Jono to baseball.  I am reminded all over again about why I loved listening to her in my house all those years ago when Jono, now 15, was a baby.  Her real stories, her real questions, the real love of her viewers/listeners.  Her friends, the truck drivers, her children, the squirrels, the singing, the honesty.

Today she was talking to Janeane Garofalo.  And I got worried.  Yikes, I thought, "They would really not like me."  But you know what?  All opinions of Fox News Radio aside, I think they actually might.

Have a good day, everyone :)  Stay warm, drive safely, eat something delicious (you know I did-- it's Tuesday!)  xxoo ~Christy

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