It's a good thing I like him, too, because his nerdiness has rubbed off on me. I've been an unapologetic fan of The Walking Dead for years. I don't watch much T.V., but there are sixteen Sundays a year that no one is allowed to talk to me between the hours of 7:00 - 9:00 p.m. so I can watch my "program" and get my post-show therapy (The Talking Dead). Little did I know, as rabid a fan of TWD I am, I was just dipping my toes into nerdom.
I reassured myself that while I had some nerd tendencies, I hadn't quite gone off the deep end like Jay had with Star Wars. Sure, I had signed up for the quarterly TWD subscription box, Supply Drop. And sure, my favorite presents were all TWD based. I mean, who wouldn't want an honest-to-God crossbow for Christmas? I owned my love of all things Walking Dead. (But hate Fear the Walking Dead. What a steaming pile of crap that is, even if they did steal Morgan and Dwight.)
I didn't really understand what it was like to be completely submerged in a fandom. Hell, I didn't even know what a real fandom was. While I considered myself a borderline "nerd" (hence, "nerdom"), I had no idea.
Our house is pretty much a shrine to Star Wars, and I gave Jay so much grief about it. But I had no idea what it was like to be part of a rabid fandom.
In late March, my FB feed started blowing up. Many of my FB friends were torn up about an announcement that a show was ending after its fifteen season. Now, these are friends I have a fair amount in common with and they were losing their shit about this show ending. I knew nothing about Supernatural. I recall seeing the car at Denver Comic Con when I tagged along with Jay a few years ago. I was enamored with the car, because it was badass and had a trunk full of goodies that I wanted to put my hands on, but I had no idea it was from a T.V. show. To me, it was just a cool car at Comic Con - I was completely overwhelmed with all of the cool stuff there, so it was just another cool thing I saw.
Because so many of my friends were torn up about the announcement that Supernatural was ending, I gave into my curiosity and watched the video announcement. I saw three good-looking men who were obviously passionate about their show and who were torn up about making the announcement. I respected the fact that they wanted to make the announcement themselves instead of letting their #SPNFamily hear it from anyone else. To say my interest was piqued would be an understatement, so I found the show on Netflix and sat down to watch the first episode.
Four episodes later, I came up for air.
I was hooked.
The brothers Winchester were amazing. I'll admit they're easy on the eyes, but I love the complicated relationship between the boys. For years, I've been reading novels based on the paranormal, and here those stories were on T.V., plus a healthy dose of dysfunction. Many years ago, I considered myself an X-Phile (oh my Chuck, I've been a nerd much longer than I realized!), and Supernatural is basically the X-Files if Mulder had been able to prove the paranormal.
The next day, I hit Amazon Prime and ordered seasons 1-13, and put in a pre-order for season 14. I couldn't risk Netflix taking down the series before I finished it, like what happened when I tried to re-watch X-Files a couple of years ago.
The announcement that the show was ending came about the same time as I turned in my notice at work. Not saying it was a sign, but I'd already decided fifteen years was a nice round number to go out on. Giving my notice made me feel free, as I'd mentioned before, and part of my new-found freedom was the freedom to explore new things. While Supernatural has been on almost as long as I'd worked at the school, it was new to me and I embraced it wholeheartedly.
I was bingeing a season every couple of weeks, and then I found out about the conventions! I don't know why it never occurred to me that there would be Supernatural conventions. I mean, I've been dying to go to a Walker Stalker convention for years, so of course there are Supernatural conventions, and pretty much all of the panels can be found on YouTube.
I used to roll my eyes at Jay every time I'd come home and see him immersed in some sort of Star Wars thing on YouTube. I just had no idea. It became Jay's turn to come home and roll his eyes at me being plugged into the laptop, bingeing old convention videos.
For Jay's birthday in May, I decided to pay for the Ahsoka Tano (more Star Wars nerd stuff from Clone Wars) tattoo that he'd been wanting for a while.
My intention was to just make the appointment for him, but in diving into my new fandom, I'd come across a tattoo that I wanted and the tattoo artist just happened to have time to do one for me after starting Jay's tattoo.
When Ashinator got her Dr. Who tattoos, I'll admit I was ... concerned. What if she hated them in twenty years? She told me that she would never regret her tattoos, as they signify different periods of her life and that when she was 80, she wanted to be able to look back at them and smile at the memories. It was with her words of wisdom in mind that I went ahead and made an appointment for myself as well.
As much as I love TWD, I hadn't been moved to get a tattoo (that's since changed, as I have an appointment tomorrow for my birthday Daryl Dixon tattoo). However, six weeks after finding Supernatural, I *had* to have a tattoo. I am fully embracing the freedom to stretch my wings and try new things.
So yes, my "midlife crisis" has included quitting my job and getting fresh ink. But the nerd hubby? I'll keep him. Especially since I am beginning to understand him a bit more.
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