Britney, one more time

Imagine how pissed I was last Wednesday when I rushed to get home so I can watch the Britney Spears Glee episode only to find out our cable was disconnected just that afternoon. Apparently, I left two months worth of cable bill in my jewelry box and found it there the following morning. Red alerts of aging, anyone?

In preparation, Britney was on repeat mode in my iPod on my ride home, so I really wanted to burn down the CCV office right then and there. Luckily, I was able to watch it online today and loved it so much. Thank you Brit for saving me from being an arsonist.

Most teenage girls during the latter half of the 90's to the early 2000's can relate to Britney Spears. She was probably the Lady Gaga of our angst-ridden, love-sick growing up years. Although most dismissed her saccharine sweet but sexually-laced music as silly bubblegum pop, nobody can deny that when you hear the words "Hit me baby" or "Ooops I did it again," it's gonna stick to you for the rest of the day. Up to this day, I never fail to sing one Britney song during videoke sessions or resist dancing whenever her tunes come up in the DJ's playlist.

My first real exposure to Britney was when we bought our first desktop computer. There was a preloaded concert video of Britney back in 2000 in Hawaii. I remember watching it over and over again, and although I wasn't that impressed with her voice, I coveted her abs and dancing prowess the moment she popped on stage in shimmering skin-tight pants and cropped top and started gyrating to her highly addictive songs. Here's an innocent looking gril who sang openly about love and sex and boys while looking so damn fine. We all wanted to be her.

Years later, growing up in the limelight while earning ridiculous amount of money finally caught up with Britney and everyone started dismissing her as another crazy, mixed up Hollywood kid. Some already considered her a has-been. And while I smirked every time I would see a picture of her without underwear or read a news bit of yet another DUI incident or rehab entry, I also felt sad for someone who was such an idolized star before.

She's not a role model for the faint-hearted, but she's definitely someone a troubled person yearning for a redemption story, can look up to. She's had many boo-boos - that awkward VMA number, underwear allergy phase, custody battles and that icky K-Fed thing - but she always came back up, well, "Stronger than yesterday..."

I may not want to be her now, making mistakes in front of the whole world. I don't want to make her blunders or go through her humiliation. But I can say I want a little Britney Spears in me, some bit of that courage, that tiny piece of can't-bring-me-down 'tude, a pinch of determination and a smudge of hot momma-ness.

So, yay for Glee, and yay for Britney!