Life's Eternal Questions: The Baby-Sitters Club Edition

I have read every Baby-Sitters Club book at least once. There are some of them that have been read so many times that the covers are taped back on. There are some of them I would never care to read again (I'm talking to you, Kristy & Jessi). I literally have read all of them-I'm talking the regular series, the mysteries, the Super Specials, the Super Mysteries, the California Diaries and the Friends Forever. And I will admit that I still read them on occasion. What? Don't judge. At this point, there can't be any shame in my game-you already know I'm ridiculous when I analyze Twilight and "Beverly Hills, 90210" to the nth degree. The jig is up-I'm officially a nerd.

The books are a comfort. For the same reasons I still love Twilight and "Beverly Hills, 90210". It's something safe and familiar, and in the case of Bev Hills, it reminds me of my childhood. There is something wonderful about the stagnant environment that is Stoneybrook, Connecticut. It is safe. They don't get the chance to grow older and so we never have to see them start dating guys with moustaches or come out of the closet in college (*cough*Kristy*cough*). I like that--to a point. But there are some eternal questions about the BSC that still annoy the ever-loving crap out of me.

1) Did a parent never need a sitter between 5:30-6:00 on Monday, Wednesday and Friday? If so, why the hell not? The parents in Stoneybrook got a babysitter every time they had to go poop.
2) What is the point of getting a sitter to come by and take care of your kid for an hour when you go to a meeting at the school? Bring the kids to the school with you and have them sit outside in the hallway and wait for you. You'll save money and the humiliation of having a 13 year old scold you for not telling them about your child's food allergy.

3) Why was a kid like Karen Brewer seen as "Precocious" (codeword for annoying little shit?) and "Cute" while Jenny Prezzioso is seen as "Prissy" and "Difficult"? Because Jenny likes nice clothes and felt wary of having a new baby sister? I think those are pretty average things for a little girl to do. Unlike, say, a 6 year old girl convincing everyone in your community that your elderly neighbor is a witch named Morbidda Destiny or going to the salon on a cruise boat and charging it to your room without telling your parents. Karen was a little shit and she was only 6 years old. Can you imagine what she would be like at 16? And don't get me started on them calling Jackie Rodowsky the "walking disaster." Those bitches.

4) Everyone goes on and on about Kristy's Great Idea. Which really is just like a Nanny agency, but with younger and less experienced employees. That's right, BSC, you've been had. Kristy stole her great idea.

5) Everyone always goes on and on about how Watson, Kristy's step-dad, is a millionaire. Yet these girls all live in Connecticut, Stacey's dad lives on the Upper West Side in NYC and Dawn's dad lives in a beach front community in Orange County, CA. I doubt Watson Brewer was the only Millionaire in the bunch. I would almost agree with those who say that the reason the club members go on and on about his being a millionaire is because they live in a mansion but I can't. Later on in the series, Abby joined the club and she lived in the same neighborhood in another large house. Nothing is ever said about her mom being a millionaire. You can't convince me Watson was the only millionaire amongst the BSC's parents.
6) What happens when somebody turns 11 that magically prepares them to be a baby-sitter? Because the kids who are one year younger than Mallory and Jessi seem to be pretty high maintenance. So I want to know why these girls are somehow capable of baby-sitting large numbers of kids when they are only a year older (I think I remember one specific instance in which Jessi was left alone overnight with her 9 year old sister Becca and 1 1/2 year old brother Squirt. Who in their right mind would do that?).
7) No one ever gets older. Seriously! It starts to go old after awhile. They just keep starting 8th grade over and over again. No wonder Mallory complained so much about how hard it was to be 11. She was that age for 20 years!
8) What was it that was so revolutionary about a side ponytail? I'm the biggest Claudia Kishi fan in the world, but everyone always go on and on about how "dibble" and "acute" Claudia's style is, but the covers always show her with a damn side pony. I want to see some of the intricate hairstyles they describe in the books.
9) Why don't these parents want to spend anytime with their kids? They seriously want baby-sitters all the time. Worse than that, the girls in the BSC take it upon themselves to give these parents advice about how to raise their children.

10) Don't some people commute from Connecticut to NYC everday for work? If so, then what was the point of the McGill's moving out to Stoneybrook when Ed's job transferred him to Stamford, then within the next year, moving back to NYC when he got transferred BACK and THEN moving back to 'da Brook when her parents went through the big "D" (and I don't mean Dallas or Diabetes). Isn't Stacey's life stressful enough, what with the Beetus? Does she really need to move back and forth three times within the course of a year?

I really do love these books, though. If you having any of the old BSC books laying around, you should try giving them a read, if only for the outfit descriptions. They tend to bring on the lols now, but at 10 years old, I would have given my right arm for Claudia's wardrobe.

Have a great day!

Love,
Elle Bunny

Every woman in the world can be classified as a member of the BSC.

Alternatively titled: Everything I need to know, I learned in Stoneybrook.

Second Alternative Title: I'm a Dork.
Growing up, I was obsessed with these books. I have every single book from the series, including my recently acquired collection of California Diaries and the Friends Forever Series. As an adolescent, I wanted to be Claudia (didn't we all?), but was really more of a Mary-Anne/Stacey hybrid with a dash of Dawn thrown in.
How, you might ask (or maybe not), can a series of books for little girls change the way you look at the world? How could it not? After reading every single book in a series, you are bound to be influenced in some way, especially as a child/adolescent. I have been heavily influenced by Twilight, and not only am I an adult now, but I have only be reading those books for the last few months. The BSC books were a part of my life for so long, I knew the characters better than some of my friends and family.
My sister and I used to share a room (not by necessity, but by choice. I know...we were weird) and I remember begging her to read out loud to me from her Baby-Sitters books (I think this was either before I could read or before my parents thought I was grown up enough to read BSC). I also remember that she preferred to read to me from her Scary Stories to Tell in The Dark books. Needless to say, I didn't always sleep very well when I shared a room with my sister, and eventually we grew tired of the arrangement and I moved back into my old room.
The first chapter book I ever read was Karen's Roller Skates. And while in later years I found Karen to be incredibly annoying, I will always have a soft place in my heart for that book-especially when I think of the surge of pride I felt when I ran in to my parent's room to tell them I had just finished reading my first chapter book all by myself (sounds like I was having a Karen moment myself).
I first started reading the BSC books myself during their heyday. Every girl was reading them and I felt like I was part of the "in" crowd. As I grew up, they waned in popularity, but I remained loyal. My friends and I kept reading. I finally dropped off around the Friends Forever series. The last book I remember reading was The Fire at Mary-Anne's House. I remember reading one California Diary when I was young and I didn't like it--especially the handwriting throughout the whole book. They seemed so much more grown up than the BSC--and I think that scared me. So I never explored those two series until many years later.

I have to thank my parents, who first of all, took me to the book store every month so that I could pick up the latest copies. My mom was the one who made me keep buying them towards the end--she kept saying "Don't you want a complete set?" They also never made me get rid of my books. From what I understand, having your parents insist on getting rid of your BSC books is a pretty common, and very traumatic occurrence in BSC fandom.

And yes, there is a BSC fandom. There are a lot of people out there who enjoy re-reading these books. For me, they are like a warm blanket of that I can curl up in. I know what's going to happen, and I'm okay with that. Is it Hemingway? No. But I think we all enjoy reading books because of the way they take us away to a different place and tell us a story different from our own. Who's to say that place has to be unfamiliar, or that you can't revisit a character's story?
Even though it is kind of ridiculous that the girls are frozen at age 13 in the eighth grade, there is also something comforting about the fact that the girls never grow up. We can imagine what they might have become, but it's not in the BSC canon; therefore we never have to learn about the BSC breaking up, or one of the Baby-Sitters becoming Homecoming Queen while another becomes a nerd. And it would have been unnatural if they had grown up and continued with the club, because that's not how high school works (not that the BSC has ever been noted for it's realistic nature).

So, as I was saying, every woman I have ever met fell into at least one of the following categories: Kristy, Claudia, Mary-Anne, Stacey, Dawn, Mallory or Jessi. They may not fit all of the characteristics, but I can't tell you how many times I have met somebody and thought "She is such a Jessi" or thought something somebody did was "such a Mallory thing to do." The more I get to know someone, it is likely that they will become a hybrid of two or even three Baby-Sitters. So here is a list of some of my friends and even some famous people who fit each category perfectly.

Kristy-Tomboy, take charge/bossy egomaniac.

Famous Kristys: Hillary Clinton, Rosie O'Donnell

Claudia-Fashion Forward, Hospitable Host, messy, junk-food lover, creative, not the best speller.

My Best Friend Meredith is SUCH a Claudia. She always wears the best clothes and puts together the most amazing outfits--however, I would look ridiculous in the same outfit. Over the years, my friend Rachel and I have always joked about how it was time to go over to "Claudia's house" because her home became like our headquarters. I'm not really sure why, but that is where we always wound up. Meredith has also taken to making jewelry lately. She is most definitely the Claudia Kishi to my Stacey McGill.

Mary-Anne-Sensitive, sweet, doormat, has a temper, cries at the drop of a hat, crushes on male actors, loves cats!
I'm a bit of a Mary-Anne myself--I am quite sensitive, get crushes on male actors and can sometimes be a doormat. I also like kittens!

Famous Mary-Annes: Ann M Martin,

Katie HolmesStacey-Boy-crazy, Fashion-conscious, has diabetes (but really any life threatening disease works), good with numbers, and a teensy bit spoiled and selfish. I would say that I am mostly a Stacey because I would consider myself to be fashion-conscious, a little boy crazy, and I've had a life threatening disease. I would never claim to be good with numbers, though, and I don't think I'm too spoiled.

Famous Staceys: Stacey is such a character that all I can think about is characters in other books and movies that remind me of her. Elle Woods from Legally Blonde comes to mind, along with Shelby from Steel Magnolias ("Drink your juice!") and Rosalie from Twilight.

Dawn-Individualistic, opinionated, California Casual, environmentalist. I hate myself for the fact that in some situations, I act like Dawn--i.e., get stuck on my soap box and won't get off of it until someone agrees with me or at least understands my point.

Famous Dawns:

Al Gore,
Elisabeth Hasselbeck,
Sheryl Crow

Mallory-bookworm, likes horses, nerdy, lots of siblings, frizzy red hair.

Famous Mallorys (take into consideration that Mallory had a lot of growing up to do since she was only 11): Sarah Jessica Parker, Julianne Moore, Cynthia Nixon

Jessi-Obsessed with dance, likes horses, knows sign language, from New Jersey, Black (I'm not racist, but unfortunately they never developed Jessi's character enough..this actually became one of the only traits people could name about Jessi).

Famous Jessis: I have no doubt that Jessi could have grown up to be someone like Beyonce or Brandy.

Maybe we all have a different frame of reference, but I bet everyone has their own version of the "Baby-Sitters Club" that helps them to understand people. I'm glad that I had these books growing up. I am glad that I can still read them and return to a simpler time, when I could go to the book store, pick up a new book, and escape to a new adventure in Stoneybrook.

Happy Reading!

Love,

Elle Bunny

Baby-Sitters Club in the Garden State

Do you remember the Baby-Sitters Club show? I used to love watching it when it came on the Disney Channel after Kids Incorporated and the Mickey Mouse Club. Looking back now, it was a very cheesy show--it even outcheesed the books. Here is the opening from Stacey's Big Break, the one in which Stacey tries her hand at being a model.

Aren't the Jersey accents terrible? I didn't even notice them as a child. Can you figure out what celebrity is featured in this clip?

Yep, that's Zach Braff. I guess he wasn't lying about growing up in the Garden State, but I don't know how he found the time to paralyze his mother during his busy Baby-Sitters Club filming schedule (just kidding, I know that was just in the movie). Anyway, wasn't Dawn supposed to be the California Girl? Couldn't they have found some blonde annoying environmentalist from the west coast?

Enjoy the blast from the past, and if you are interested in where these girls are now, take a look at this.

http://stoneybrookmscafe.blogspot.com/2008/06/bsc-tv-show-where-are-they-now.html

Stacey's a lawyer!!! And her almost-sister was on All My Children! That is some crazy stuff.

Have fun on your trip down memory lane!

Love,

Elle Bunny

Under the weather

I have been feeling like poop lately. I have had a horrible cough, I sound like Phyllis Diller and I have been sneezing constantly. This is not good, because my job consists of talking on the phone to cancer patients all day. So they call in their hour of need and reach my alter ego Elloise, who sounds like she just got done smoking a pack of Marlboro Red's and keeps pressing the mute button on her phone so she doesn't break their eardrum with her sneezing and coughing. I'm just not feeling work this week.

This week should have been super easy, because I only had to come for three days. Memorial Day was my anniversary, which me and my husband celebrated by staying in San Antonio for a night.

It was really fun, but that was when I contracted this cold from my husband. So this week, after work, I get home and lay on the couch, and that's pretty much it. But there are things which make me feel better, and I think we all have those creature comforts that we turn to when we are not feeling good. Here are a list of the things that have gotten me through the week.

1) Beverly Hills, 90210. God I love this show. My husband has been working until midnight every night, so yeah, this is pretty much the highlight of my evening. This is not really my favorite time period in the show. I CANNOT STAND Tracy, Brandon's dumb love interest from the tv station. She is such a dumbass and they totally just wanted to create another Susan for Brandon to bide his time with until Kelly got over Mark, who I feel lukewarm about as well. Why are all of Brandon's love interests dumb opinionated women with mom hair cuts?

The exceptions to this would be Nikki, Emily and Kelly. Susan kind of fits the bill, but she has good hair and I actually kind of like her. Otherwise, I hate all these dumb plots like Donna making over the basketball player to join the sorority--why is she making anyone over if she is the one wearing green plaid golfer pants with a belly shirt and pigtails?

And give me a break with her getting stuck in the brush with the fawn. "Help!" has never sounded so lame. Everytime I see this episode, I always wonder if Tori Spelling was trying to make us laugh at her. And the dumb firefighter. But even though these things drive me crazy, I love this show. My favorite part of this period on Beverly Hills--most definitely Clare.

I love her. I don't know why they made her leave after college, but she is my favorite. And she is also guilty of some major fashion crimes, which are really fun to watch.

2) Jon & Kate Plus 8.

Again, I love this show. The kids are so cute and I can watch the same episodes over and over again and it is still amusing. Kate is kind of annoying but I feel like I would be way worse if I were in her shoes. And Jon would drive me nuts if he were my husband, but I like him. My favorite kids are Alexis and Aidan, although they are all really cute.

3) California Diaries Okay, I was a big fan of the BSC in my day, and I have every one of the books from the original series, mysteries, and super specials, but until recently, I didn't have any of the Friend Forever series or the California Diaries. I vaguely remember reading one of the CD in middle school, but I didn't like it because of the handwriting throughout and the different subject matter. Recently, I collected and read all of the Friends Forever books and I thought they were pretty good--although I though Graduation Day was a little weak. Since then I have gathered up all of the California Diaries and read them--I am now on the 14th out of 15. These books are amazing. I'm really proud of Ann for putting them out. And contrary to popular belief, based on what I see, she wrote the first one and the one where Sunny's mom dies. I cried throughout the one where Sunny's mom dies. It was just so raw and honest. I also really like the way Ducky is portrayed. He reminds me so much of my friend who has just come out in the last few years, but whom I have know since I was 14 and he was 15. He dated girls in high school but was often teased for being "different." I love him so much and it has been incredible to see him go through the journey of finding himself and becoming comfortable with his sexuality.

4) My cat.My cat is named Scout. She is a calico and she has bad allergies/o.c.d so she is always licking and biting herself. She doesn't meow at all and the only noises she makes are a kind of chirp unless you step on her tail, and then, watch out. She goes through phases during which she is more cuddly, and thankfully, we are in one of them. She has been curling up on my lap and laying on my chest while I watch the telly for the last few days, and it is very comforting.

5) Last but not least, my husband, Mr. Bunny. He is so sweet and we had so much fun on our trip. We have been running around like chickens with our heads cut off for the last few weeks, so it was great to spend some time together. Last night, when he came home I was asleep but kept waking up long enough to tell him "I don't feel good" and "I'm sorry I fell asleep." The night before I was awake and he gave me a back massage and a head massage, which really helped me at the time. I am so lucky to have found Mr. Bunny--he is definitely my perfect match and I can't wait for him to be on a more normal schedule so I can spend more time with him.

If you made it through all of that, you deserve a cookie. I'm going out tonight with my two besties to see Sex and the City the Movie, so I will let you know how it is in my next post.

Toodles! Hope you are feeling better than me and hopefully I will be feeling better ASAP!

Elle Bunny

First Post!!!

Welcome to my blog! My name is Elizabeth, but in the blogosphere, I shall be known as Elle Bunny. I'm new at this blogging stuff, so bear with me. Let me tell you a little about myself and then I will get to the subject of my blog.

I am 23, and I just recently celebrated my one year wedding anniversary to Mr. Bunny. I live in Austin, Texas and I was born and raised here. I work for a large non-profit cancer organization. Mr. Bunny is a restaurant general manager and is currently in the process of moving to a new company. We are both so excited about this because A) the place he is at now sucks and the owners are horrible people and B) his new job will give him better hours and we will be able to see each other more. I have a great family and wonderful friends.

So what is this blog all about? I work in a job where I have a lot of downtime and so I have lots of time to catch up on the blogs. I have become addicted to quite a few, and then I realized that it might be constructive of me to try and do one myself. I don't want to limit myself to one topic, since I think some of the best blogs just talk about whatever they are in the mood for in the moment. If I had to pick one thing to blog on all the time I think it would have to be Beverly Hills, 90210. This show is a masterpiece. Seriously, I watch it everyday on Soapnet and when I'm done with all 10 seasons, I'm ready to watch them all over again. But the idea of only blogging about 90210 puts the fear of God in me because I think it might ruin one of the things I feel the most pure love for in this world, and I think it would be much harder than blogging about books or other TV shows because it is 10 seasons of 20 something hour-long shows. That would be masochistic, so I decided against exclusively blogging on 90210 (although I'm sure that I will be focusing on certain episodes in my blog or I might go through periods of time where it will be my focus) I would open it up to different topics. I have a deep love for the Baby-Sitters Club and I am not afraid to admit that I still read them. They were my favorite books as a kid, and I think like many of us, that I have rediscovered them as an adult with the wealth of blogs about these books. I also love celebrity gossip so I am not opposed to blogging on that either. Some of the other topics that might come up=everyday life, my love for Steel Magnolias, where are they now?, entertainment, etc.

If you have taken the time to read this, you are a brave soul, and I appreciate you!

Love,

Elle Bunny