Friday, May 07, 2004
OK, I know it's just a TV show, and I really haven't watched it regularly for a couple years, and I know that if you're going to start finding fault with "Friends," you should start with them even being able to afford that apartment or how the couch in the coffee shop is always somehow free and waiting for them (how come that never works for me), but that said, a couple things about the Friends finale:

*Could we have had a labor and delivery scene that looked any LESS realistic? Let's not even talk about nobody knowing that she had twins (wouldn't Monica and Chandler have seen ultrasound pictures?). Let's talk about that girl popping out kids like a Pez dispenser without even breaking a sweat (and in a labor that lasted about 3 minutes). Also, unless the second baby was breech, how did the doctor know it was a girl before the head was even out?

*How in the world did they get those kids out of the hospital the SAME DAY THEY WERE BORN??? First off, they didn't know they were twins so they wouldn't have had the extra car seat -- and by the way, where did that two-at-a-time stroller mysteriously appear from? But beyond that, there is no way the hospital would have let them out? Plus, are we to believe that obsessive compulsive neat-freak Monica would take two newborns out of the hospital and have them hang out in an apartment where movers are moving in and out the same day they were born? And what's up with them carting these kids off to the coffee shop in the middle of the day just hours after their birth?

*Ross and Rachel -- so if Ross loved Rachel so much that he couldn't live without her ... why didn't he quit HIS job and move to Paris? Why did he force her to choose between him and the job she wants.

*Also -- does it bother anyone else that Emma is pretty much an accessory to their lives? I mean, Rachel is about to take Ross' daughter to Europe for the forseeable future and he makes no effort to spend any time with her at all ... nor do they make any effort to spend any time together as a family.

The best solution would have been for Chandler and Monica to adopt Emma. It's clear that Rachel and Ross don't really care that much about her because she doesn't really enter into any of their decisions and they never spend any time with her. Let Monica and Chandler raise Emma -- she'd be staying in the family and then Rachel and Ross could live wherever and do whatever.

I didn't mind it at all when Murphy Brown had a baby (probably a bunch of you reading this have no idea what I'm talking about), because it absolutely turned her life upside down and she really struggled with the balance issues that all of we who are full-time employed people and parents struggle with. But, the fact that it was fiction aside, it really bothers me that Ross and Rachel have a child and they spend more time hanging out with friends at a coffee shop than with the kid. I know it's fiction and it's supposed to be entertainment but come on!

Grumble. Grumble. Grumble. OK, I'll take off my curmudgeon hat now. What can I say that's positive.

It's a FABULOUS day outside and I'm going to go mow the lawn and seal the deck. Mackinnon is going to Ghana, which is super cool. I had a GREAT dinner last night with the discernment group and, from the sounds of it, Rory and I are going to have a spectacular discernment group next year with a whole bunch of really cool people already saying they're interested. Tabitha got her job at the International Institute. Katy is going to do the Cadigan Fellowship at the nursing home. I had a great visit with my dad while he was here, and he got to spend lots of time with his grandkids. Life is wonderful!

Oh ... if you haven't gotten a mothers' day gift yet, call 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129 and talk to the people at Episcopal Relief and Development about buying a gift from their "Gifts for Life" catalog. You can buy the special mom in your life a gift that will literally save a life. I got my mom a donation that will keep an AIDS orphan in Africa alive for a year. There are lots of gifts at various price ranges from under $20 on up. And for a holiday that is about the giving of life, there is no more appropriate gift.

ER-D will even send a really nice gift card to her announcing the gift and telling her about what it's going to. If you order today, the gift card won't make it by Mothers' Day, but you can still let her know yourself what you've done ... then the gift card will come next week.

Unfortunately, they don't have the catolog up online ... but I just called ER-D and a very helpful person on the other end of the phone went through the catalog with me and helped me pick out a gift and the whole process took less than 10 minutes. Again, you can reach ER-D at the Church Center at 1-800-334-7626, ext. 5129 and you can pay for it all over the phone on your credit card.

If you want to find out more about ER-D, just go to (duh!) ERD |
Mike at 5/07/2004 10:45:00 AM