The Hills are alive with the sound of heavily edited "reality" television

I have a confession to make:  Over the past two days, I have managed to watch almost the entire 3rd season of The Hills on Netflix.  I know, you feel dumber just from reading that last sentence, right?  Trust me, I'm with you.  I mean, I'll admit that I was a total sucker for it's parent show, Laguna Beach.  But in my defense, I was in high school at the time and my life was so utterly boring that I was immediately drawn in by this crazy alternate reality where people wore Ugg boots when it's 75 degrees and sunny, and everyone drives a white BMW, and 16 year olds have, like, a katrillion dollar monthly allowance.  But I am now (supposedly) grown up, so I have no excuse for this sudden interest in a show chronicling the lives of the oh-so-fabulous 20 somethings living it up in Hollywood.  Where was this coming from?

And then I went to class.  I spent four and a half hours talking about how white middle-class Americans have robbed literally everyone else in the world of any chance at a happy and equal life, and how kids around the country are being bullied and beaten and driven out of their schools because of what color their skin is or who they are attracted to, and how our country is allowing millions of children to live in poverty rather than give them any welfare.  It's important stuff to talk about, but it's not exactly light and fluffy conversational material.  And let me just say to those of you out there who belittle the importance of teachers--come sit in on some of these discussions and find out what kinds of issues we deal with every day, and then try to tell me that teaching is an easy job.

The point is that after so many hours of this, my brain is fried.  And I'll admit that I enjoy escaping into the meaningless drivel that occupies the Hollywood scene of The Hills.  I can sit back and listen to LC bitch about not getting to go to Paris for a fashion party, and I take comfort in the fact that she is not suddenly going to strike up a conversation with Audrina about the sad state of our country's public education system.  It's the only way I'm keeping my sanity.  Well, that and a bag of kettle-cooked potato chips.  Nothing soothes the soul like some salt and grease.  Who's with me?