Sex & the separation anxiety

It's a little bit like a drug. It's consumes my time, I'd rather be doing it than hanging out with my friends, it's pretty much all I can think about. And I can't get enough.

I am, of course, talking about "Sex & The City" on DVD.

I borrowed the complete set from a sorority sister last week, for a class project. No really, it was for a class project. But then I thought, if I had them, I might as well watch a few of them. For the sake of the research, you see. But then, by the time I got to the middle of season three, I was hooked. I watch it before I go to bed, I watch it while I'm getting ready in the morning. I even come home in the middle of the day and, instead of reading the newspaper or having lunch with friends, I go up to my room and watch it.

I clearly have a problem.

I realize, thanks to my Media Effects class, that I'm having a completely inauthentic experience with this particular show. According to critical media scholars, somewhere, in my subconcious I believe that I am friends with Carrie, Miranda, Samantha and Charlotte. That I, too, go shopping at Barney's and own the latest Manolo Blahniks. I sleep with half of the men in Manhattan, I drink Cosmopolitans every night, and I have a well-read sex column that is modeled after my well-sported sex life. And in forgoing actual experience with actual people, I am living a life that is inauthentic, and completely untrue.

That is ridiculous. I know that these characters are not real people. I am in college, my disposable income is zero. When I do have money it is more likely to be spent at Target, not Tommy Hilfiger. I do not have a column and I do not have a fabulous boyfriend named Aidan (I'm only in season three.) I am not friends with these people.

But in my defense - who cares? Isn't college all about the late night movie marathons? The weird addictions? At least I didn't plan my class schedule around the soap operas I watch (unlike someone I know...) If I want to watch my DVDs, then I should be allowed to, free from judgment.

However, they aren't - tragically - my DVDs. They belong to a certain sorority sister downstairs. And now, knowing what you do, you can imagine what a problem I'm having now that the afore-mentioned sister has taken her DVDs back. I can't be separated from them!

What if they go shopping without me?