One obsession to another

My family likes to tease me about news anchor Campbell Brown being my BFF. And the thing is, she IS my pretend BFF. It all started back during the 2000 presidential campaign. She covered W on the road throughout the election, and I just loved her. Then, she covered the White House for NBC. Then, after David Bloom died in Iraq and Soledad O'Brien left NBC for CNN, she got my favorite post of all: anchor of Weekend Today. I just knew she would be Katie Couric's replacement for the big gig on the Today Show. Well, that didn't happen but it just didn't faze my admiration for her.

Now let's be clear here, Campbell is not my first pretend BFF. From the moment she appeared on the cover of a magazine back in 1980, Lady Diana Spencer was my pretend BFF. You think I'm kidding? Ask my mom who stared at EVERY page of Diana in each month's Good Housekeeping. It wasn't my mom!! I adored Diana - her smile, her style, her unbelievable wedding, the fact that she got more beautiful with age. On her wedding day, my dad got up with me before the sun came up to watch every moment of coverage. On the night she died, I stayed up until nearly 3am watching the news reports and features come in. For her funeral, I again got up and watched each sad step while the sun rose on this side of the pond. But that was '97, I was 21, and there had to be someone out there to replace her. Three years later, along came Campbell.

Well, fast forward to tonight. My pretend BFF, who happens to be due to deliver a little boy two weeks before I'm due to deliver my little boy, has been in a job transition for the past few months. As a matter of fact, she announced she was leaving NBC and the Today Show the exact same weekend I found out I got my new, fabulous job. (You see, we have soooo much in common! Babies together, job changes together. . .the list goes on) And tonight, for the first time since July, she was on TV moderating the Democratic presidential debate.

So, I marked my calendar, got my TV all set to CNN and was totally ready to watch MY Campbell Brown on HER CNN debut. Then, something called hormones took over. You see, since I am now well into my third trimester of pregnancy, just about any obsession I have can easily be overrun by a new, hormonally-induced obsession - like organizing the armoire in my bedroom. And that is what suddenly took precedent tonight.

For a year, I've opened the doors to the armoire and blankly stared at the array of pajamas, sweatsuits, bathing suits and hodgepodge clothing Shaun and I allowed to pile up. In no way did the pile bother me, much less scream to me "get organized!!!" Then, about two weeks ago, I started hearing this little voice in my head telling me "get the armoire organized. . .buy canvas bins from Lowe's. . .label each one. . .fill the armoire with pretty little bins to organize the mess!!!!" By tonight, the voice had gone from a whisper to a scream.

So driven by obsession, Cam and I ventured to Lowe's in the cold wind, checked out his favorite Christmas decorations (Santa driving the Jimmie Johnson Lowe's 48 inflatable and the Santa snowglobe inflatable), and bought NINE canvas bins for the armoire. We came home, ate pizza, turned on CNN to watch my pretend BFF, then promptly walked away to tend to my REAL obsession, getting organized. An hour later, when I went back downstairs to rewind the debate so I could see MY Campbell Brown ask questions, I realized my DVR had taken over, was taping both The Office and Grey's Anatomy, and had stopped chase recording the debate. And I had to once again accept the power of hormones - the only thing that could take me from one obsession to another.