![\"Haagen](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/r9f.352.myftpupload.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/05\/Haagen-Dazs.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nMy husband, Jonathan, was out of town last week, and although I knew I would miss him, I also looked forward to getting lots of things done with more time to myself: Write, read novels, get going on turning my 26-year-old daughter\u2019s long-vacated bedroom into a guestroom from its former incarnations as shrine and dumping ground. I also planned to eat salad for dinner every night and lose a little weight as a buffer against upcoming indulgent occasions. Instead I gained two pounds. I did eat a lot of salad, but I might have been ambushed by some late-night Haagen Dazs.<\/p>\n
The real binge, however, was throwing myself headlong not into a pint of chocolate-chocolate chip, but into Season 4 of Parenthood<\/em>.<\/p>\n Jonathan and I had tried a couple of episodes when the show first aired, but he didn\u2019t like it, and I kept forgetting to watch it by myself in the rare free moments of a busy life. Then, in the fall of 2012, I suddenly had a lot of time on my hands while recovering from surgery and six rounds of chemo for uterine cancer. I needed something that would absorb me without requiring concentration, or risk pushing me over the brink of existential despair.<\/p>\n I devoured Parks and Recreation<\/em> and Modern Family<\/em>, but Parenthood<\/em> was my favorite. What\u2019s not to like about a cast partially drawn from Six Feet Under<\/em> and Friday Night Lights<\/em>, set in Berkeley, no less? I was hooked.<\/p>\n By the time my cancer rolled around, we no longer had TV, so I could not watch Parenthood<\/em> in real time once I\u2019d made it through the first three seasons. I knew about Kristina\u2019s cancer, though, from the way friends would say, \u201cDo you know what\u2019s happening now? Kristina has–\u201d Then they\u2019d stop themselves, either wanting to protect me from revealing the plot or from mentioning cancer in case they labored under the illusion that it wasn\u2019t constantly on my mind.<\/p>\n Before long, treatment was over, I got better, and my busy life resumed. Plus, Season 4 was not yet available on DVD.<\/p>\n Finally, though, it was. Just before Jonathan went on his trip, I got the notice from the library that I had made it off the long waiting list. I had three nights of Jonathan\u2019s absence to watch 15 episodes if I wanted to avoid late fees.<\/p>\n I decided to forget about converting my daughter\u2019s room, and pretty much everything else besides work. Season 4, after all, centered on Kristina\u2019s cancer. Calling it \u201cresearch,\u201d since I write about cancer now and then, I put Disc 1 in the DVD and sat back–taken back to long days watching episode after episode to distract myself from feeling scared and unsteady.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what other memories Season 4 brought back:<\/p>\n What didn\u2019t ring true was looking like a deliberately bald haute couture runway model, or being perfectly made up all the time. I\u2019m looking forward to binging on Season 5 when it becomes available on DVD.<\/p>\n *<\/p>\n What’s your favorite comfort food or DVD series to binge on?<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My husband, Jonathan, was out of town last week, and although I knew I would miss him, I also looked forward to getting lots of things done with more time to myself: Write, read novels, get going on turning my … Continue reading \n
<\/a> In fact, my daughters dubbed me Gollem in my baldness. Oh, well, I\u2019m in real life,not a TV series. Though I guess I could have had a shot at Lord of the Rings<\/em>!<\/p>\n