The X-Files and My Dad

Let's talk about The X-Files!

This blog has taken a seriously dorky turn in the past couple weeks, huh?

I love this show, though. Always have. I actually have the complete series DVD set, an awesome boxed collection that looks like this and helps visitors to my home accurately peg me as a nerd:

But when we packed up half our house so we could stage it so it would sell before the baby came - which, incidentally, didn't pan out - I boxed up almost all my DVDs, massive X-Files boxset included. Fortunately for me, the entire series is also available streaming on Netflix. I love Netflix. I could do another blog entirely on my love for it (makes note to do so).

Since I've been on midwife's orders to "take it easy" for the final countdown of pregnancy here (just 32 days until due date), I've been sorting baby clothes and writing thank-you notes and sewing and streaming X-Files in order. I'm just in the second season, so I've been enjoying not only the show, but the awesomely early-90s clothes/technology/references. Scully's suits alone are worth their own appreciative website. Thankfully, I'm not the only one who thinks so, because someone already made THIS. Here are a few of Scully's top looks from Season 1. Love that lacy top, Dana.

And then of course there are the sweet cell phones and computers. Nothing but state-of-the-art technology for the FBI!

Okay, but I'm getting off track. The point of this blog was that all this X-Files watching makes me think of my dad. We watched the show together when it was originally on the air. The show started in 1993, when I was in 5th grade. That seems kind of young, looking back, so it is possible I didn't actually start watching until a couple seasons in. Either way, Dad was pretty good about deciding if any particular episode was too scary for me to keep watching. I think sometimes I wasn't really that invested in the alien mythology episodes, which mostly seemed over my head. But I loved the stand-alone "monster" episodes. Like Dad, I thought the show was best when it was crackling with dry humor. I think we'd agree that "Small Potatoes" and "Bad Blood" are two of our favorites episodes. The romantic in me always wanted Mulder and Scully to get together. I don't think Dad cared so much about that...

I really do have Dad to thank for my zest for science fiction. Besides The X-Files, we also used to watch Star Trek: The Next Generation together. And Buffy the Vampire Slayer, until Mom decided maybe it wasn't the most wholesome entertainment and shut us down. (Looking back, I don't know how we got away with The X-Files either.) He would read aloud to me Ray Bradbury short stories, and was the one who finally convinced me to pick up Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series. I love that we share sci-fi; an atypical bonding category for fathers and daughters, sure, but it puts a smile on my face.

Of course, he's also the one who taught me how to keep score at a baseball game, proper technique for using a paint roller, and not to tuck my thumb into my fist when punching someone. Lest anyone think we're COMPLETE dorks. Only partial, right Dad? Right?