"Where's Andre?!"

In honor of the return of one of the best reality shows on TV (isn't THAT an oxymoron?), I've decided to start up the ole blog again. Several times I've started to write a new entry, but nothing seems important enough to share with the world. (And by world, I mean the handful of readers I've probably lost during my 8 month hiatus. Ah well!) Nothing important enough until the return of Project Runway! That's right, the return of high fashion, insanely short deadlines, all-nighters that make me tired just from watching them AND Tim Gunn and his ENORMOUS vocabulary. I mean really, how does he remember all those words?

Anyway, I'm excited about this for many reasons, and here they are:

1) The challenges are actually that: CHALLENGING. When would making an evening gown out of recycled material, flowers or nothing but denim be easy? It's impressive to me how creative the brains behind PR are. Is it really someone's job to think of these challenges for the contestants each season? I wouldn't even know where to begin if asked to construct something for a fellow contestant's mother. Yikes. That could get ugly. (And it did.) Put that with a tight budget, and even tighter time limit and you've got a real challenge in store along with some great entertainment. But what's more is that these challenges are also..

2) Rewarding! I guess it's rewarding to eat a grasshopper or lay in a pile of poo. Wait, no. No it's not. Is it? Color me crazy, but I'd feel better about myself by winning a challenge that had me make an outfit based on a famous piece of art rather than solving a riddle or not getting kicked of the island.

3) The contestants on PR aren't there just for the fame or money. Sure it's a bonus. I'd admit that. I don't know if they get compensated for their time on the show (I would think so?), but these people seem to really care about what they do and want to further their careers. Even though it's a reality show, PR is a great way to do that. I stopped watching any reality competition on MTV a long time ago because it was always the same old characters (and that's just what they are: characters) coming back to get paid so they don't have to get real jobs. It's disturbing.

4) The time limit. I mentioned it earlier, but some of these times limits are crazy short. I used to argue that they needed to lengthen them by maybe a day or even just 12 hours, but seeing what Christian Siriano did last season in a manner of minutes was baffling and made me take my arguments back. Now I just sit back and make guesses at who will be the first to crack under the pressure.

5) Michael Kors. He's hysterical. Even when he's completely ripping someone's creation to shreds, he comes up with the funniest sayings.

6) Nicole Kidman!! Okay, this is just for tonight's episode, but she's making a "cameo" to announce what the challenge will be. Sadly, she won't be guest judging (that seat will be filled by... Lindsay Lohan?! Since when has she EVER dressed appropriately?) Anyway, I was thisclose to seeing Nicole at the movie theater a couple weeks ago and have come to terms that I may not ever see her around town.. just the rest of my friends will. But I do have a theory: Either I'll never ever see her and my dreams will be crushed, OR I'll get to meet her, we'll be the best of friends, I'll babysit little Sunday Rose (what a great name) when she and Keith are busy. She'll introduce me to an Aussie fellow back in Sydney and we'll marry and I'll obtain dual citizenship and I'll split my time between the states and OZ and become part of Nicole's entourage..

But I digress and promise I'm not crazy. I'm just a fan! (That's what they all say...)

Anyway, I'm more than excited about Project Runway tonight! The countdown is on and I'm hoping the contestants are as fun and entertaining as they have been in seasons past.