THROW A BUCKET OF WATER ON ME...

Okay, this is the last day of crushes. I know that you are going to find this hard to believe, but I decided to list no more than 10 (and wished that I had started out like that) because I had more crushes than I had room at the end. I know that you are scratching your head on that. How can this be? Yes, it is true. I had to painstakingly make a list for these last ten and it hurt. Part of me wanted to cheat with my men from Grey's Anatomy, like I did with my men from Lost, and just use one video that picked them all up. I even found one, but I realized that the problem with that was that it didn't really show which men were my primary crushes and why. In other words, it was a cop-out. However, as I had to hatchet out some of my favorites, it became really tempting.

Tomorrow, I will post a list of all the crushes with the dates of their videos. Again, I am still at 14 traits. I am still flexible with your button or buttons for your sidebar to reflect the accuracy of your ability to track my patterns of crushing. I think that everyone who is going to respond to this will have their emails in by Thursday at midnight, Eastern time. I will post the results on Friday's blog and you can let me know how you want your prize(s).

Remember to turn off my music player. It's the last day to ogle my friends. Let's enjoy it.

1) Dr. Derek Shepherd, played by Patrick Dempsey, was the first doctor on Grey's Anatomy to steal my heart. Of course, he was the first to break it, too. And then put it back together. Love hurts sometimes. When Derek moved to Seattle he was still married (he sorta forgot to mention that) and was in some emotional pain (an excuse, but not a good one) and was really a train wreck. The thing was that he appeared all put together and emotionally healthy. Looks can be deceiving. Anyway, it became this emotional roller coaster when his wife, Addison, showed up because he had to own up and face himself. He did what he thought was the right thing (reconciling), but it wasn't, because his heart wasn't in it, and it was a lie. So, he and Addison got a divorce and then he got to find out who he really was. And so did we. And it was love...




2) Dr. Alex Karev, played by Justin Chambers, is a tough cookie, doesn't let people in, isn't an easy guy to like, let alone love. Alex Karev is an onion. It is an ordeal loving him. You have to constantly peel layers. Just when you think you are making progress, guess what you get? More layers. The guy is determined not to be hurt. Very few people make it past that outer core. He let Izzie in just a little and she left him for Denny. He let Rebecca in and she left. He thought about letting Addison in and she left. Denny died, Rebecca came back, went crazy, then Izzy finally let him in, got cancer, went crazy, and left. People leave. Right now, he is tangled up with Lexie, but that spells disaster, because her heart is with Mark Sloane, whether she will admit it or not. I can see the door slamming. I feel a tear coming on. Oh yeah, it's love...




3) Dr. Mark Sloane, aka McSteamy, played by Eric Dane, spent his first year (at least) at Seattle Grace (on Grey's Anatomy) mostly pissing people off. He slept with anything female that moved and they were more than willing (and happy) until he moved on, which he always did. It created an "unhappy" working environment. There was one really hilarious scene when Dr. Miranda Bailey called all of the nurses together and told them to knock it off. They knew he was a whore and they should get over it. She defended him by calling him a whore. Hilarious. Well, it all turned around when he actually started dating "Little Grey." Once he and Lexie got into a relationship everything changed. It was love...




4) Henry DeTamble, played by Eric Bana, is a character from the book The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger. I haven't actually seen the movie, so that makes showing the youtube footage a bit odd, I know. I wanted to see the film, but never got round to it. I think I was afraid it would disappoint. The book was very fresh and it was so good. It was one of those books that I cried my way through. For me, that is the highest of accolades. As the title suggests, Henry time traveled. He had no control over it, though he was pulled toward the people that he loved. That meant that he often time traveled to see his wife when she was only a child. She knew him all her life, but it always meant she was waiting. Of course, the same could be said for him. He was always waiting to whisked away without warning. Just thinking about this book is making me cry all over again. It was love...




5) Dean Winchester, played by Jensen Ackles, is a hunter on the show Supernatural with his brother Sam (Jared Padalecki). They don't hunt wild game or go fishing. It isn't one of those kind of shows. They hunt demons and other supernatural bad stuff. It's a family occupation. Their mother was killed by a demon and their dad became a hunter. Dean in the earlier seasons was a bit more light hearted. He smiled, joked, and flirted occasionally. However, he is all about the job. because if he and Sam mess up people die. In fact, Sam did die and Dean traded his soul for Sam's life. That meant that Dean literally went to hell for Sam. You don't make that deal lightly. An angel, Castiel, pulled Dean out, but a person isn't the same after spending what feels like an eternity in hell. On top of that, Lucifer has been set free from hell and Dean is the only person who can save the world from the Apocalypse. In this video, Dean and Sam, along with two other hunters, Jo and her mom, are in a town where they know Lucifer will be. They have a weapon that they hope will kill him. Jo saves Dean's life when he gets taken down by the (invisible) hell hounds, but she is mortally injured in the process. The explosion at the end is Jo and her mom blowing the building (with themselves and the hellhounds inside) so that Dean and Sam can finish the mission. It was love...



6) John Bender, played by Judd Nelson, was the bad boy in The Breakfast Club. He acted rough, talked tough, and made it clear that he didn't care what anyone thought. At least, at first. When the group took their "field trip" into the school and they were all going to get caught, John Bender took the fall for them all. What kind of "bad guy" does that? The truth be told, The Breakfast Club was my coming of age movie. It was the movie that I saw in high school that allowed me to actually see things the way that they really are. I loved all of those characters, because they walked in looking at themselves, and everyone else one way, and walked out seeing each other a totally different way. I actually had crushes on all of them just for having the courage to be real and honest and true. It was love...




7) Ren McCormack, played by Kevin Bacon, brought dancing and chaos to a small town in Footloose. My friend, Shelle, saw the movie before I did and she said, "I knew that I was going to love it before the movie started. As soon as the parade of shoes started across the screen, I was hooked." Yep. That is how high schoolers think. I know I am showing my age, but that movie came out the summer before my junior year of high school and I loved it. Ren was gorgeous (obviously) but he was more than that. He believed in music, dancing, the right to read, that censorship is wrong and was strong enough to stand up and say so in a town that didn't want to hear it. That took guts, particularly when you're the new kid. I admired the crap out him. It was love...




8) Leopold, Duke of Albany, played by Hugh Jackman, accidentally time travels to present day New York in Kate & Leopold. I am a sucker for all movies Hugh Jackman and all things time travel, so this was a no brainer. Naturally, he didn't fit in well. It wasn't just the technology that set him apart, but manners and the way people treat people. I suppose that there are jackasses in all time periods, but there are gentlemen and then there are "gentlemen." And Leopold was the latter. *sigh* He does all of those things that women love, not because he knows that we expect it, and will get mad if we don't get it, but because he thinks it is the right thing to do. Unfortunately, I think he may be the only man on my list who actually embraces this trait. However, he is also smart, funny, charming, honorable, loyal, and all around good person. It was love...




9) Patrick Jane, played by Simon Baker, is wary of all things psychic because he pretended to be one for his entire life. However, he is wicked observant and uses his powers for good on The Mentalist. Patrick is charming, funny, cunning, sly (is that the same as cunning?), deeply hurt, cares more about others than he would like to admit, wary of attachments, and extremely handsome. Right from the start I knew it was love...

You can click here to watch the video.


10) Noah Calhoun, played by Ryan Gosling, is another one of my favorite books come to life on the big screen. I read The Notebook, by Nicholas Sparks, shortly after he wrote it and I cried through the last half of the book. It is very difficult to read and cry at the same time. I saw the movie many years later. I know that they tinkered with the ending to give it some flair, but they didn't alter the integrity of the story, so I can live with that. What also helped me was that there was enough distance between when I read the book and when I saw the film that my "vision" of what the characters looked like wasn't fresh anymore. So, it was love...

You have to click here to watch the clip.


I know that you are going to find this hard to believe, but I was left holding the bag on several crushes that didn't make the list. One of the most significant, was the book The Outsiders. For those of you who have followed my blog for a while, you are aware that this book made an enormous impression on me. I gave a Sunrise Sermon on The Outsiders. (I just found the sermon intact. It was worse than I remembered.) Part of the problem was the youtube footage and the other part was I couldn't define my crush. I liked them all. Another biggie was Duncan MacCloud from the Highlander TV series. And Gary Hobson from Early Edition, played by Kyle Chandler. I even had the footage from youtube, but not the space. Oh well, they won't be included on the final list, but you will know that it was a tough call.