Those of you who know me may know I have a habit of watching TV on the treadmill. Given that I like to run three to five times per week and live in a climate with snow or crappy weather 8 months of the year, this works out to a fair amount of TV.

I’ve mentioned that I am watching X-files at the moment, but my first love is a little something called “Buffy”

I first found Buffy in university.  I was a slightly bewildered farm kid adrift in the big city, knowing zero people other than a few cousins who were older and had moved there years earlier.  I vaguely remembered them from childhood, but they had been old enough that they were busy being teenagers while I was playing barbie, and we didn’t connect at that time.

I tentatively began to spend time with them, and found that we got along pretty well, although we were in different life trajectories again.  They were raising kids, and I was thinking of raising my grades and chasing my future.  We hung out relatively often for a few years, until work and school took over my time and they had relationships and kids  to shuttle back and forth.

I remember that time fondly, and I am glad we had the chance to be close when we were.

Part of that closeness was because of Buffy.  Every week I would go over to my cousin’s house and we would watch it together, after her son went to bed.  We would talk, and watch, and just hang out.  We did that almost every week for years (until I got into med school and no longer had life outside of school).

The beauty of Buffy was that the characters were all so relatable, which was impressive considering that the idea of a cheerleader fighting the forces of darkness is not exactly given to reality.  But they were funny and attractive and real.

Spike was the character we enjoyed most.  He was evil, but his obsession/love for Buffy caused him to get a soul, and he was redeemed by the end.  He was funny, and flippant, and true to himself.  No matter whether he was good or evil at the time, he was always himself.  I can respect that.

The people that I can’t handle are the ones you don’t know where you stand with.  That show a pretty face while plotting evil.  This silly and wonderful tv show taught me so much about the types of people in the world, and weirdly enough how to deal with them.

And now it’s twenty years later and I still watch the entire series at least once a year.  I think about those nights hanging out when life was so much simpler than it is now and I wish I could go back for 7pm Thursday and knock on Linda’s door.

So, Thanks for the memories Buffy.  See you soon.