Monk

I’m so tempted to sneak out of here and walk over to Qualcomm Stadium. It’s not a long walk and I might catch a glimpse of……you’ll never guess who (okay, maybe the title gives it away), Adrian Monk! Yes, the Adrian Monk, of the USA Network’s hit show, Monk.

I had almost forgotten about this email I received last week tipping me off to Monk’s whereabouts:

> Date: Wed, 1 Oct 2008 15:16:22 -0700
> Subject: Employee Parking next week
>
> Please be advised that starting on Sunday Oct 5th thru Friday Oct 10th lot A1 and B1, also C1-D1 will be utilized by the TV show Monk. All stadium tenants, employees should park their personnel vehicles in another area.

But then on my drive in to work this morning I saw the lights, the cameras, the trailers, everything but the action.

I want to see the action.

As we all know (c’mon, you’ve never watched Monk???), Adrian Monk is “America’s favorite obsessive-compulsive detective.” He’s my favorite, that’s for sure. I’m not sure why I love the show so much, but something about Tony Shalhoub in this role cracks me up. It must crack other people up too, because he won the Emmy in 2003, 2005, and 2006 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series.

Okay, it’s true that the earlier shows were better than some of the more recent, but I still enjoy it. Other than the first 30 seconds of the show where someone gets murdered (which is never graphic), the show is clean. There’s no more violence, there’s no sex, no other glam to titillate your senses, just an old fashion crime that needs to be solved.

And Monk always solves it. Brilliantly. His powers of observation are unmatched. But so are his phobias. Here are his top 10:

Germs
Needles
Snakes
Milk (I get this one, it’s gross!)
Heights
Crowds
Death
Lightning
Elevators
Mushrooms

And so are his obsessions and compulsions. He’s always cleaning things, rearranging things, ordering things by tens.

This is another reason I like the show. I’m a bit Monkish. Are you? I’m not in the least germ phobic like Monk is. In my house there’s no 10-second rule; it’s more like a 1-minute rule. So what if you eat a little dirt? It’s good for you. And I hate those antibacterial soaps, you need bacteria. However, I do like order. I can’t leave those messy piles of advertisement postcards alone while in the bank line, or anywhere really. I hate un-orderly piles, and really appreciate symmetry.

I took the “What Would Monk Do?” quiz on the Monk website, and after completing the 10 questions this is what it said:

Beth, you’re a master of Monk’s mind; that much is clear. Whether you’ve achieved great insight into his mind through years of dedicated Monk viewership of whether you just based your guesses on your own similar life experineces and personal preferences, we can’t say. We really hope it’s the first one though. Because the second one would be a little strange. And sad. Mainly sad.

Luckily, it is my dedicated Monk viewership that got me that perfect score. Not my compulsions. But I do have to admit, I can’t stop thinking about that show being filmed 2 blocks away. I just can't let it go.... I think I’m going to grab some wipes and head over to the stadium….