For what seems like forever, or at least decades, I have steadfastly
refused to pay for cable TV. Until 18
months ago.
Challenged by the poor reception our rabbit ears gave us on our flat
screens (the best reception was, & still is, the oldest retro TV taking up
way too much space in one of our front rooms.)
Since the days since Jack & Jean built this house, when we
existed & thrived with only one television, that room has always had the
best reception – rabbit ears or cable.
When the poor reception became intolerable, I bit the bullet &
got Basic Cable.
And now I have morphed into Jon Kemp.
Jon Kemp, my brother-in-law David’s golf partner, is married to a woman he describes as his “Red
Hot Smoking’ Wife” – (also known as RHSW) Dottie, who is my sister Janet’s dear,
dear friend.
Jon Kemp, a former gymnast in college, loves his RHSW, the Astros,
the Cowboys, his two daughters, his two granddaughters & grandson named Jon
David, the Lord & the Hallmark Channel.
I think Jon has read The
Hunger Games series, probably the Twilight
series & records Hallmark movies on his DVR.
I am guilty of all three.
Part of me feels corrupted.
I knew, from experience, that if I had access to cable programming,
I would lose sleep, reading time, important time folding clothes & using
the Swiffer Jet on the tile floors & baking Sweet Potato Brownie Bites.
What I did not expect, even after the times Jean & I have been
together in hospitals with cable, to become an avid observer of The Hallmark
Channel or Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.
In the beginning, I would watch (always under guise of sharing the
experience with Jean) & analyze. I
began to critique the plots, the formulas, the scripts, the characters.
All of which amused Jean.
I did not expect to fall in love with Aurora Teagarden.
One of the things I have observed about the multiple mystery series
on Hallmark Murders & Mysteries is that each series features a woman –
beautiful, smart, independent & obsessed with mysteries & murder.
As an avid mystery fan, I could relate.
One of the Hallmark mystery heroines is a mother & married – she
owns an antique store. Then there is the
baker, the chef, the book store owner, the tormented ex-attorney turned
counselor, the not so tormented ex-attorney who owns a flower shop & a
part-time librarian.
Aurora Teagarden is the part-time librarian. It is a good thing that Aurora’s mother Aida
is a successful real estate agent & Aurora only has to work part-time with
her Masters in Library Science.
Because, like Jessica Fletcher, people die around Aurora
Teagarden. (At least once a body fell
out of an airplane on her lawn). It
takes a lot of her time to solve mysteries & murders.
Aurora is currently the president of The Real Murderer’s Club. Which
drives the police department crazy – Aurora always solves the case before them –
one of her ex boyfriends & his wife are part of that department she drives crazy.
Aurora has a season worth of exes – the cop, the preacher, the
writer.
And now, at last, a recurring love interest – Martin, ex-CIA turned
mogul & persistent suitor.
In the interest of transparency, I was pleased to see Aurora finally
has a steady suitor.
I blame my childhood for this obsession with Aurora Teagarden.
It was watching the soap operas my mother & paternal grandmother
Helen watched – I should be embarrassed, but am not, that I remember those
plots & characters as well as I know beloved narratives & characters from
cherished books.
The plots & narratives & characters on the Hallmark channels
are predictable, familiar, a known formula.
Like those soap operas.
That predictability & familiarity represent the known. And comfort.
In this crazy, upside down, inside out world we are currently know
as our reality, moments of comfort, however brief, are welcome & needed.
And that is why I fell in love with Aurora Teagarden.
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