In case you don’t know, I am a total reality TV whore. And apparently I’m not ashamed to admit it.

If it’s a camera following someone around, I’m pretty much watching it. Now I don’t watch ALL of it, because there’s just too much. I will, without fail, watch Survivor, The Amazing Race and pretty much anything Mark Burnett touches. I do not watch ANY of the Real Housewives, I cant stand all the screaming, and I hear I’m missing some good stuff, but I have a message board I can go to if I really want a recap.

One of my favorite shows ever is Hoarders. Watching other people’s train wreck of a house makes me feel a little better about the basket of laundry I haven’t put away or that the dishwasher hasn’t been emptied. While watching the season premiere last night, I was live-tweeting and commenting on basically everything using the #Hoarders hashtag and keeping up with other’s snarky opinions on the drama.

A few friends of mine got into a conversation about whether being a hoarder was an illness or was it just a bad case of lazy-ass, and whether or not we should be judging these people and talking about them.

I’m no psychiatrist, but I’m almost 100% sure that you are messed up in the head if you choose to live the way some of these people do. Especially the ones that put their children into an unsanitary and potentially dangerous environment.

Unfortunately there are no laws against being stupid and/or lazy, so I assume what we see on the magic tv box is just the tip of the iceberg. Judging from some of the pictures I’ve seen people post of their homes on Facebook and the internet, it’s a damn big iceberg.

The conversation basically boiled down to this for me: If you put yourself “out there” on a television show, you are basically giving those who watch the right to judge you and express their own opinions on your situation. It’s exactly the way I put myself “out there” on this blog, on Twitter, on Facebook, wherever. People have the right to have their own opinions about my opinions.

Basically, if you don’t want people to see your own personal train wreck, don’t go on TV, don’t blog, and just throw your computer in the trash.

Well, that’s easy, isn’t it? And yes, I’m being sarcastic.

What do you think? Are people on reality tv fair game for opinion?

Yesterday I went to my “surviving spouses” group. I’ll admit , I was apprehensive at first. Even nervous. I actually still am.

It was OK. I can’t say good, because really, no one wanted to be there. But it wasn’t bad either. I guess it just was.

We ate , then did the circle sit and had to tell a bit about ourselves and what brought us there. I did ok, didn’t collapse into a wailing heap. Thank God. Some people did, and one person couldn’t even talk. Ouch.

One of the things they suggested we do is “journaling”, where we write down our feelings and thoughts,etc,etc. Well, I think I’ll say I jumped right to the head of the class right there. Cause basically, this is just a journal….in electronic form.

And it does help. Alot.

Not sure if I told them that.

Oh, I was the youngest one there. Yes, uncomfy much? No Twitterers, Facebookers or Bloggers. One person said they had NEVER BEEN ON THE INTERNET. Eeeek!

So I will go back next week and see if it “fits” better. We shall see. I’m still more comfy with my one-on-one person that I see (hi!!), but I’ll do both and see where it takes me.

The last time I sat around in a circle and talked about myself, the other half of me was sitting next to me holding my hand.

I missed that last night. I guess I always will.