#GeekSpeak: The sometimes random misadventures of @Abby_Cake

<editorsnote> Nerds, meet my buddy Abby. I met her in Chicago at the #20SBSummit, and this chick is raaaddddd!! She considers herself more of a nerd than a geek - but I think she's just all shades of random and awesome. Oh and FTR, the TNTML stance on nerds versus geeks are that nerds are products of a genetic predisposition, and geeks are raised. BOOH-YAH!!! I only have one more thing left to say ... HIT IT ABBY!!!</editorsnote>

#TalkNerdyToMeLover's @Abby_Cake

When I was in college, there was much emphasis placed on Sex and the City. With our budding freedom and experimentation with our sexual identity, naturally, came the communal watching of Sex and the City marathons.

I always had female roommates and, before college, did not know what Sex and the City was. My parents did not have HBO, actually, until I moved out, we only had eight channels. I was more well-versed in PBS documentaries than Manolo Blahnik. But I was initiated into the culture of Cosmopolitans by pretty much every female friend I made. They saw it as their mission to make sure I understood the super-chic culture of Manhattan, a culture I obviously had no potential for what with my iced wine in plastic cups and Ramen noodles.

The inevitable counterpoint of this was that everyone sought to identify with a character. Girls do this a lot. In junior high each of us was a specific Spice Girl. I had a friend who sought rabidly to be a Samantha. And another who identified herself as the fashionable Carrie (in her defense, she was very fashion forward). I was eighteen or nineteen, and I thought I wanted to be a Carrie with oddly fashionable fanny packs, super charged sex life, and bullshit stay at home writing career. But as I watched more of the show one of my more astute room mates came to the realization that I was a Charlotte.

Her reasons: I am a romantic, with bad dating luck. I can be a little uptight with my studious over-preparedness and just-in-case planning and crying about bad test grades. I am always trying to workouts and health foods, and often dragged my room mates into it.

We also had a lot of differences as well, something I was quick to point out: I am not rich, I do not care about the whole marriage and kids package, I am not religious, I would never own a show dog, etc. Essentially: I couldn’t see myself at all in Charlotte.

But my friends needed me fill the void in their Samantha and Carrie lives. If I was Charlotte, all they needed was a Miranda and we could find a booth at the local bar to gossip in. I was resistant, much to their chagrin I’m sure.

If I was to be compared to anyone I wanted it to be Jane Austen.

It was a really weird moment when, in the midst of this social phenomenon, I realized I couldn’t identify with it. Maybe my friends could, maybe millions of viewers could. But I couldn’t. I felt like an island in a sea of Cosmopolitans.

So now, I’m just me. I’m not glamorous. I live in the real world with real problems, real people, real failures, and real successes. I shop at Ross over Barneys and wear my worn out Toms over designer shoes. I don’t have a lot of girlfriends who gossip about all the sex they are having (in fact, I very rarely talk about sex at all). My post-divorce life does not compare at all to Charlotte’s.

I haven’t watched Sex in the City in years. I did not watch the movies either. But there was a very strange period in my life where it affected who I was to some degree, and I am glad that time is over

Take a step away from TV, forget your dream-self, and just enjoy being you.

Alternatively, have you ever been influenced by a TV character or show?

xx, @abby_cake

#nerdsunite

Want more from Abby?? Check out her blog over yonder - and don't forget to drop her a follow on twitter!!