I'm OK With Not Being Jesse's Girl

I will not be watching General Hospital on Friday when Dr. Noah Drake returns. I'll be at work. And I was never so much of a Dr. Noah Drake fan anyway. I was more partial to Robert Scorpio and, yes, I'll admit it, Luke.

In fact, my term as a General Hospital fan began the day after Luke raped Laura. It was 1979, my sophomore year in high school, and, healthwise, not a good year, beginning with pneumonia in October, moving on to bronchitis in January, and climaxing with a case of mono that began the day before final exams started in May and did not fully abate until the end of July.

I remember my boyfriend sitting on the edge of the bed drumming "Not Fade Away" on my blanket-covered legs. I remember pain like knives slicing down the back of my throat. I remember finally learning how to take pills--because I had no choice, there were so many pills. And I remember a lot of TV.

I don't know what made me turn on General Hospital. I must have heard people talking about it and decided to see what it was like. A 3:00 soap opera worked for high school students--and college students, for I watched for maybe five or six years, well into college. And those were the heydays of General Hospital: Luke and Laura, Demi Moore, Elizabeth Taylor, more Luke and Laura, the Cassadines, Anna Devane, Luke and Laura again. Everyone watched General Hospital, even my mom, who was disgusted by the rape storyline, but seemed to find her way into the bedroom where I lay, right around 3:00 every day.

And of course I remember "Jesse's Girl," though being the Carly Simon fan that I am, it always segues in my mind right into "Jesse," which I do prefer.

I don't know why I lost interest in General Hospital. Probably it had something to do with getting a job. I also recall everything just getting too fantastical. But I maintained my attachment to the serial enactment of other people's lives. In the 90s, it was 90210 and Melrose Place. Now it's blogs and celebrity gossip. Which is how, of course, I learned that Dr. Noah Drake was returning to General Hospital. Not that I care...