All I want is a room 23 somewhere, far away from the island air...

I have now taken two little nerd prodigies under my wing and I did not have to kidnap them, go to the trouble of finding a Room 23 and trying to find the Clockwork Orange type gizmo to force then to watch Lost.

Looking back on the series from the first season is strange. It almost makes me feel old seeing all of the characters in the beginning and how they changed so much. Especially when my little nerd Eliza Doolittle proclaims her hatred for Jin, who became one of my favorite characters (who am I kidding? I love them all except for Dr. Cries too Much and Stalker Kate.) and I was aghast at this. Then I tried to remember my first impressions of the characters. Thankfully, I never liked Kate. Her story may have seemed interesting at first, but there was just something about her where I was like "Ehhh... not going to like her" and Jack cried so much in the first season alone, I'm still not convinced they were on an island and not the top of a mountain surrounded by a flood of Jack's tears. From the get go, Hobbit Charlie was one of my favorite characters, but that was mostly because of my small Lord of the Rings obsession. I loved him and Lego You're Prego girl together. I didn't like Sawyer until they started revealing his backstory, then he started growing on me. Locke was kickass from the get go, his episode is what enthralled me with the series. Looking at it now though, his first impression is almost a caricature of what he actually is/ was. Vincent, of course, won my heart right away and Hurley because I'm a sucker for the chunk... and the rest I was just kind of "meh." However, just from my little prodigies picking out their favorite characters from the first few episodes, it does remind me that this show DID start out to be about the characters (helping my Eko/ Desmond/ Season 3 church theory) and somehow they all became buried with the massive amounts of mythos surrounding the show. It's sad, I didn't realize how much I missed them...

Do you believe in life after Lost?

Hi. My name is Jen and I’m a Lostaholic.

I'm not one for addictions, usually they fade away, but somehow this one has stuck with me for six years and counting. And now I'm staring thoughtfully out onto the ocean (or the stairs of my room) to signal a flashback...(caused by Dulles' poor wireless Internet connection and my forgetfulness)

Today, September 22, seven years ago a show that would change my life forever premiered at 9:00 pm on ABC- Lost. The year was 2004 with September 11 still fresh in everyone’s mind, the show stirred quite a controversy since it featured a plane crash. To top that off, an Iraqi soldier was one of the survivors that we were supposed to be sympathetic towards and even root for. But I didn't give two shits about that. There was some giant ass monster in the polar bear jungle and I was going to get to the bottom of those mysteries, goddamnit! Plus, how could this show be bad with a hobbit and the dude from Party of Five being its two main stars... or at least the only ones I knew. Oh wait, Matt Parkman was in it... and then he got killed by the smoke monster.

My mother was the one who first told me about Lost and got me to watch it by saying “that little hobbit man’s in it.” I probably would have watched it eventually, but I am now proud to say that I was a loyal viewer from the day it premiered thanks to my mom. We sat down that fateful Wednesday to a fun night of primetime tv, but what we got was much more. It was a show that became entwined in our lives for 4 or 5 months out of the year. We didn’t miss an episode my entire senior year and when I went to college, I called her up as soon as the episode was over so we could discuss it. It strengthened our relationship. And even though I bought a “giant ass” television for my apartment with the sole intent of watching Lost on it, on May 23, 2010 (the series finale), I still drove home to watch it with my mom, who welcomed with fruit salad and pulled pork sandwiches (as close to “island food” as she could get).

So now I sit in Dulles airport wearing a Dharma t shirt with Lost playing on my computer waiting for my plane to Los Angeles to board. So it’s not from Sydney, but it’s as close as I could get. I've even started telling people who are annoying the shit out of me that I'm flying to LA for my dad's funeral. And, yes, I did pick this day because it is the anniversary of the Lost premier and I thought it as a nice gesture in memoriam. So I might be taking this “break up” a little hard. I will miss this show probably a little too much. I’m even rewatching the series from the beginning, one episode a week and my goal in three years is to fly from Sydney to LA on this day for the 10^th anniversary. Hell yeah. I’m a giant nerd. But who knows if the obsessiveness will die down by then? Although, every person I meet who has not watched this show, I try to convert into a Lostie- a sad attempt at living vicariously through him or her.

Through this blog, I hope to document my sad, sad life after Lost.