It's all over

One of the notable tragedies of my childhood was the discontinuance of Family Ties. I still remember the last episode and the way I felt as the cast all took the stage one last time. I'm not sure if I cried or not, but I definitely remember writing about it in my red journal. Its ending made me lonely. And is anyone else crazy enough to remember the song that played on the last episode? Could they have made it any more painful?

And then a couple years ago, I was introduced to Pam and Jim over at The Office, just in time to catch the last few episodes of the second season. No matter, though. Brian and I rushed right out as soon as we could and rented the first and second seasons. We sat night after night in front of the TV, laughing and bonding with our new friends. And I was vicariously living out practically the greatest romance of all time. I felt a little unfaithful--to be honest. I couldn't get enough. I was devastated the night we watched the last episode and I woke up sad and lonely--maybe even more so than when Alex left home (and left me) for a stupid job on Wall Street. I felt the same way I felt as a girl when Emily's family would leave after having been at our house for a while. I'd sulk around the house hoping to find a shirt or a sock left behind to comfort me. This time my friends were gone, and they had left no socks. I called out in my mind, Pam? Jim?.....Dwight? Anyone? I was alone.

That's kinda the way I feel every time the Olympics comes and goes. It's not that I feel like I'm making and then losing friends, though. It's that I feel like for a couple weeks I'm participating in something that is uniting my country, and the world, for that matter, and then it's all over and we're all back to living separate existences. Do you know what I mean? You know how I feel about cheering. So cheering with and for my country is big. And I'm sad when it ends.

So anyway...I'm lonely.