Comments through September 26, 2003
(1-800-DIAL-A-SPOILER)  

As usual, the week sped by on a mega-busy, bugs-in-my-teeth time flight.  If it weren’t for GH, I’d have no down time at all.  Sometimes my friends tease me about GH and this column telling me to “get a life”.  I laugh at them because I must have way too much life if I can’t spend 38 minutes a day relaxing with one TV show.  You know the adage, “Don’t judge a man unless you’ve walked a mile in his shoes”?  That applies here.  Have you heard the one that goes, “Don’t shoot the pilot unless you can fly the plane”?  It doesn’t have anything to do with GH, but I like that one too. 

Now that every person in Port Chuck has seen Nickolas and Emily almost making love in front of the fire, I guess the pictures should hit the ‘Net next.  Lydia received the photos in the mail and she promptly showed them to Stefan, Nik, Emily and Zander.  Capelli obviously saw them since he was spying and snapping when the almost sex occurred.  Next Jason and Alcazar looked them over.   I say the next time Emily and Nik try to check each other’s tonsils just do it on a bench on the docks thereby saving time.

Hmm, good positioning, soft lighting, clear focus.

Yep, it’s definitely Emily and Nickolas horizontal by firelight. 

Zander’s heart received a stompin’ from seeing the pictures and I was glad he let loose on Emily.  “OK, since we’re debating what ifs…. What if I can’t stay married to a woman who keeps another man in her heart?”  Emily has been a busy girl what with trying to keep her lust for Nik in check while proclaiming unwavering love to Zander.  I get that she’s torn.  I understand that she’s made a commitment to Zander, but I hope she makes the internal decision to stay married to Zander because Nik arrogantly informed Jason that he loves Emily and wants to marry her as soon as the Alcazar mess is over.  Hello, Nik?  Zander doesn’t count as a connected-to-Emily human being? 

If I’ve asked you once, I’ve asked you a thousand times,

“Do you love me?”  (Noowww that IIII can daannnce.)

Sorry, the song popped into my head. 

I liked that the hurt didn’t instantly go away once Emily and Zander returned to the most popular rental property in Port Charles, the cottage.  Emily asked Zander if he could get past what happened between Nik and her and Zander honestly answered, “I don’t know.  But it won’t be tonight.”  Emotional hurts that break trust take time to heal so I appreciated that they didn’t light candles and play kissy face to make the problem all better.

Oh, woe is me… 

My hopes rose for Lydia last week when she decided to fight for her marriage, but I lost faith again when she confessed to Nickolas that she’s fallen in love with him.  The guy has treated her like dirt since day one bar one night of sex and a few polite conversations.  It doesn’t compute that she’s in love with him, plus she hasn’t had enough screen time to make me look past the valley girl Betty Boop image and care.    

Keeping Lorenzo’s murder on the up and up, Jason couldn’t shoot him from the cabinet unless Lorenzo pulled a gun first making it self-defense.  Good thing for Nik that Jason knows the rules in the “MOB Code for Murder Handbook”.  Cause even though Jason was hiding in a cupboard with a gun, apparently the proposed murder victim must be standing in plain sight and draw his weapon first.  Stealing doesn’t break rules though, because, like a petty thief, Lorenzo swiped a statue off Nik’s desk. 

Jason knows it’s not polite to shoot a guy from a

cupboard unless the proposed murder victim

draws a gun first.  It’s The Rule. 

In a satisfying scene Nik so-there’d Stefan when he informed him that the Cassadine’s weren’t indebted to a Russian financier, but Lorenzo Alcazar.  Stefan didn’t react well to the news that he was wallowing in the dark realm of debt to Alcazar and by the way, Nik planned to borrow money from Jason to make payments.  I thought it appropriate and in character, that Stefan went to Sonny to cancel the deal and didn’t seem to grasp the fact that the deal was between Nik and Jason, not Nik and Sonny, dba the MOB.  When arrogance and superiority didn’t work on Sonny and Jason, Stefan donned a black mask and tried to strangle Lorenzo to cancel the debt and save Nickolas; thereby saving Jason from committing visible, cold-blooded murder, which would be hard to watch even though he’s supposed to be the deadliest of tough guys.  Lorenzo’s alley experienced high foot traffic on Friday as Lorenzo stood in it for no apparent reason, Stefan tried to strangle him before running through it, Jason hid in it, and Carly happened to be strolling through it.

Cottage Command Central when Emily’s in danger from Lorenzo.

Zander realizes, “Jason’s got a phone.  Nik’s got a phone.  Hey, I want a phone.

C’mon guys, I wanna talk, gimme a phone.” 

Busiest alley in P.C. 

Sonny may be crazy, but he’s brave.  Instead of running screaming from the penthouse when he glimpsed disfigured Lily on the terrace, he walked forward and opened the doors.  Didn’t you wonder where the heck Marcella went?  We know she entered the penthouse through the front door, but how’d she leave and where was she hiding when Sonny stepped out onto the terrace?  Inquiring minds want to know.  Though Sonny’s mind is playing tricks on him, this time he’s behaving differently.  He’s facing reality regarding his mind visiting unreal places.  Matter of factly, he told Jason that he’s seeing things.  I’m definitely not an expert but aren’t visions like seeing Carly’s name on Lily’s gravestone symptoms of schizophrenia? 

I see dead people.  And they don’t even know they’re dead. 

Did anyone else wonder if the doctor who changed Marcella’s face had purposely disfigured it when we kept seeing shots of her back?  I wondered how Ms. Marcella managed to apply the heavy eye make up that I saw as she looked into Faith’s little compact mirror if she hadn’t checked out her new/same face yet.  I bet Maurice Benard and Lilly Melgar are having a fun time with their scenes as Lilly plays Marcella, playing Lily, impersonating herself.

There once was a woman named Lily,

Who liked to dress pink and frilly.

She went to Luke’s bar,

Then went boom in a car.

Now she’s back to haunt Sonny silly. 

I’m thinking this will be Sonny’s last child, unless many moons from now Lily becomes pregnant and hides it from him like Alexis did.  The stress alone of another woman pregnant with his child would kill him.  Wouldn’t it be interesting if Lily DID conceive a child with Sonny and birthed it in secret?  In ten years or so, Sonny’s illegitimate kids could become the A-list storylines.   

You know when you feel the weight of sadness.

You may feel exhausted, hopeless, and anxious.

Whatever you do, you feel lonely and don’t enjoy the things you once loved.

Things just don’t feel like they used to. 

P.C. residents most in need of a Zoloft prescription.

Don’t you love the little tear drop?

He makes me want to be depressed so I can take Zoloft. 

Using the theory that relationships, even if they involve dead haunting people, endear a character, Lorenzo mused to Faith that he knew Sonny would react to Lily’s ghost because he carries a ghost of his own.  Since I like Alcazar, hearing how the death of his lost love affected him played well.  But I kept thinking, “Don’t tell Faith of all people.  She’ll use it to blackmail or kill you later.”  Lorenzo is going to a lot of trouble and expense to haunt Sonny and break the little hamster wheel in his mind, thus freeing Carly for himself.  Parallels between Luis Alcazar, obsessed with Brenda to the point of making her believe she was sick so she wouldn’t leave, compare with Lorenzo’s obsession with Carly.  Luis and Lorenzo are becoming the same character, playing the same tune, different lyrics.

Faith tries to understand Lorenzo.

She can’t figure out how the emotion thing works.

She thought she had a real emotion with Ric,

obviously that didn’t pan out. 

Hey Mac, when you left the hotel room, didn’t you forget something?  LIKE YOUR UNDERAGE TEENAGE DAUGHTER?  What Dad would do that?  I know you’ll make the right choice, Georgie so I’ll go ahead and leave you here with your boyfriend that I don’t like with a bed and temptation.  Pfft!  I’ll trust my daughter to make right decisions too, but she’ll be coming home with me while she makes them.  And don’t even ask my husband to behave reasonably if he had to fetch his little girl from a hotel room.  Pfft! again.

The words sounded good, Mac but you forgot to

leave with your kid. 

“That’s the key to parental manipulation.  They know everything about you,” Dillon sagely informed Georgie like it’s a bad thing.  Even though I thought Mac should have broken up the lounge of lust, I liked the conversations between the Dillon and Georgie.  Funniest scene of the week, no contest, occurred when Dillon told the hotel concierge that he likes to “get in touch with his feminine side” by wearing high heels when he’s alone.

Dillon explains the soapy rule that states, no sex w/o multiple candles.

“Be honest, do these shoes go with my outfit?” 

Yeah!  Helena’s coming!  Helena’s coming!  And now I believe it because Stefan said the “H” word to Alexis. 

I read a couple of fun spoilers this week at GHH2. 

Ric Lansing becomes Scott Baldwin's right hand guy at the D. A.'s office,

Does he have to start wearing fruity colored shirts? 

The murder charges against Stefan are dismissed.

This doesn’t strike me as a spoiler since all murder charges in P.C. are dropped.

Zander realizes that Emily does not love him.

I totally hate this spoiler and plan to be angry when Zander gets hurt. 

Sonny clashes with Jason

Trouble in paradise with the REAL GH supercouple.  Didn’t they play these scenes during May sweeps? 

Oh Johnny boy, we hardly knew ya...

If this is true, all Scott Egan’s character marketing by the pool at the GH weekend was for naught. 

Lately, it appears that the storylines are alllll about the guys.  Carly’s pregnancy bounces off Sonny’s inability to cope.  Courtney’s current upset revolves around Jason’s work.  Skye’s main focus is aimed at helping Ned clear his name and regain custody of Kristina.  Emily’s cancer seems to have disappeared and the story has veered into Nik’s financial distress with Alcazar.  Dillon and Georgie exist in a separate universe, but at least they are a team, leaving Alexis as the only independent female.  However, she may be in jeopardy too since Cameron has custody of Kristina so Alexis must bow before his foster parenting authority.  I know Sage has stated many times that GH is a man soap but it hit home with me this week.  Guys are about action, women deal in emotions.  Currently, GH revolves around action and guys, women wander through scenes supporting guys and their actions.  I miss smart tough Alexis.  Carly should be running her club.  Liz maintains her art and independence but since Ric made waves in her life, most scenes revolve around him and his heinous acts.  Give the girl her art show.  Emily should attempt to take college classes.  Courtney has never stated any goals or ambitions so she can legitimately continue to hang around and babysit various family members.  Perhaps Courtney and Lydia can become pals since neither of them seems to do anything all day.  Gimme some kick butt women, and I’m not referring to Tae Bo! 

Carolyn both inspired and challenged me this week.  For the past few weeks, she hasn’t been enjoying GH and she vehemently said so in her last column.  In reply to her comments, she received almost 200 e-mails agreeing with her opinions.  “Darn,” I thought sitting in my little corner, “someone sent out the WE HATE GH memo again and forgot to put it on my desk.”    I hate when I am left out of the information loop.  Carolyn, with no sympathy whatsoever, challenged me to write a negative column so I could receive a ton of e-mails too but I am not good at writing that way.  Besides, I do NOT hate GH right now even though I agree with some of Carolyn’s observations.  So here’s what I’m gonna do.  The following are lists of things that annoy me (just to prove that while I am easily entertained, I am also easily annoyed, though it usually only lasts a few minutes) lest readers think I am unable to see the dark side. 

Did you receive the memo?  I didn’t.

It was probably sent by a jealous rival network who

don’t have a Fab Four or any other great actors on their soaps. 

What I propose is a positivity response.  I’ll write a few behaviors that annoy me, if you’ll write a few that either make you laugh or set your teeth on edge.  And if you e-mail me, could you please send a copy to Carolyn.  I don’t want her to fall too far down in the dumps.  Besides, I told her I was going to solicit as many people as possible to send her positive comments so she’ll know I am not the only Pollyanna enjoying my GH vacation each day.  She said, “Don’t you dare.”  So, of course, dare I must! 

Things That Bug Me About General Hospital 

- The messed up legal system in which major criminal activity goes unpunished while small time gaffes are enthusiastically prosecuted.

- Scotty’s shirts.

- Characters that disappear for long periods with little or no explanation, like Lucas, Felicia, Elton, Reginald, Bobbi, Coleman to name a few.

- The miraculous recoveries that take place minutes after patients arrive at the hospital.  I’m a slow adjuster, gimme time for drama. 

- Judge Farmer.

- Different music and opening sequence between ABC GH and SoapNet GH.

- Not acknowledging or blatantly rewriting history.

- Spaghetti straps in winter and leather jackets in summer.

- Plastic plants.

- Love scenes with 40 candles.

- Dropped storylines (can we say breast cancer?)
 

What I Like - this list could go on forever 

- Tortured Sonny

- Carly’s devotion to Sonny and her family.

- Jason’s tenderness and fierce protectiveness.

- Honesty, even when it’s painful, between Jason and Courtney, or any other couple for that matter.

- Emily’s efforts to do the right thing even if she’s not always successful.

- Sexy men with no shirts.

- Zander’s intensity.

- Good dialogue.

- Luke in any scene.

- Georgie and Dillon deciding to wait to have sex.

- Q family arguments.

- Big Alice. 

This is fun, guess I’ll take it a bit further. 
 

What Instantly Annoys Me in Real Life 

- People who speak English but pretend they don’t.  (If they have a driver’s license and a job, I’m not buying the stupid act, they understand some English.)

- Websites that don’t show pertinent info like address and telephone number.

- Companies with telephone voice menus that make me press more than one number.

- People who won’t bend at the waist to pick up an item if they knocked it over at a store. 

- People who don’t use their turn signal or turn from the turn lane.

- My husband muttering.

- Office workers at a counter who don’t acknowledge my existence because they are too busy with paperwork and self-importance to be polite.

- Underwire bras that move around and don’t fit correctly.

- Tight waistbands.

- News reporters who MAKE a story when there isn’t one just to bag air time because they so love the sound of their own voices.

- Cold, wet feet.  I truly despise cold, wet feet.

- Anyone sitting in my vicinity smacking their food or chewing with their mouth open.  Hey, don’t practice common courtesy on my account, but I’ll be moving to a different table. 

What Makes My Day 

- A cool breeze.

- The wind rustling the leaves in the trees.

- Fresh vegetables.

- A spontaneous hug, especially from my children.

- An unexpected compliment.

- Writing a good paragraph.

- The smell of freshly mowed grass.

- A clean house (pfft!  That one doesn’t happen often)

- The first instant of silence after I turn off my bus off in the afternoon.

- Stepping on the scale and being pleasantly surprised that I haven’t gained weight.

- An old song on the radio that I know all the words to.

- The first sip of caffeine from a cold Diet Coke in the morning.

- E-mails dishing about General Hospital. (All right, so it’s a blatant bid for attention) 

I have a great life and much for which I am thankful.  Hopefully, you have tons to be thankful for also.  If you have a minute, I’d love an e-mail about what makes your day, either on GH or in real life.  Oh, and don’t forget to pass on the good stuff to Carolyn who’ll forgive me eventually for the positive vs. negative challenge.  I hope. 

I hope you have plenty of time to stop and smell the roses no matter how trite the phrase may sound.  Thanks for spending a few minutes with me. 

http://www.internetbumperstickers.com

Where would I be without screen caps?  Thanks, Terry.

http://groups.msn.com/GHWorld3/shoebox.msnw 

I refuse to be rushed this week.

I refuse to let others determine my schedule.

Except for showing up for my bus route on time.

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