At 12:40 am, I didn't wander the streets like this. Mainly because it was like 25 degrees outside with winds gusting up to 25 miles per hour. And more importantly my red bra is in the hamper and there is no way in hell I could walk the streets barefoot. As I said in an earlier post, I am a Wire junkie and with the end of the series I am forced to go to rehab. I was supposed to go to a Wire party that I invited myself to but after a long conversation with my cousin and the prospect of going back outside led me to reconsider my self-extended invitation. And besides I knew I would be in state of draining withdrawal when the instrumental began to play for the closing credits for the last time.

Because I missed its initial showing at 9 (damn daylight savings time had me all screwed up) I closed myself off from the outside world at 11:05 for the replay. I stretched out across my bed with my head at the foot of the bed, propped up on my arms, tossed both phones to the other side of the bed, and prepared myself for the end.

And what an end it was. I like that everything wasn't answered and wrapped up in a nice pretty bow. There is nothing pretty and nice about this show, about this life it portrayed. I inwardly cheered when Bubbles sat at the table with his sister for dinner after being ostracized in the basement for his past sins. I outwardly wept and cried out "Dukie, no! Noooooooooo" when Dukie put the needle in his arm in a dark alley. Dukie reminds me of some of the students I used to teach. So much potential but without guidance and loving support the potential just turns into pipe dreams. I felt just as helpless watching him turn to the darker addictive side of street life as I did most days when I used to teach. And that helplessness was one of the reasons I left the profession. Of all the story lines in the show, this one hit me the hardest (thus my tears). Probably because it hit so close to home. I know kids who will go from Dukie to Bubbles circa Bubbles Depo era in a matter of a few years. And that's not being pessimistic. That's real. And that's what I love about the show. It's so realistic. No one is absolute in their good or evil. There were shades of grey to this shit. The ones you deemed good got screwed or walked the road to hell on good intentions. Not all the bad guys got what's coming to them in the end of the show. But you got the feeling that a bitch named payback was lurking right around the corner. And that's how life plays out.

My mother asked me how could a "girly girl" like me love The Wire, the same 'girly girl' who adores Sex and the City. Its the writing. Plain and simple. The layers upon layers of nuances. The characters who are no longer characters but seem like real people. I was sucked in and lived as a fly on the wall for six years in places I normally have no access to (really didn't want to take a trip to the docks but I now see why). The realism of each plot and subplot almost makes my reality a work of fiction.

I will continue to look at kids and wonder if they are "street kids" or "corner kids". I will read between the lines when I read the newspaper and wonder if there is any fabrication going on under those bylines(SIDEBAR: did anyone else want GUS to knock templeton OUT just once for being such a bitchass or was that just me??). Sheeeeeiiiiiiiit, I will continue to say sheeeeeeeiiiiiiiit. I will pray that one day the pipe dreams can no longer overcome potential.

Thank you David Simons and the rest of the producers, writers, directors, cast and crew. Thank you for stepping to the plate and making a work of art that scared Hollywood (hence no emmy...now that's some bitchassness right there...hahahaha) and opened our eyes to the complexities of life, no matter what side of the law that you happen to reside on.

And HBO I hope you have a complete DVD collection in the works for this masterpiece. I promise to store it right next to my Sex and the City Collector's Edition.

More to come on my birthday festivities wrap up. This weekend was a blast and just like The Wire, I didn't want it to end. But I had to address my addiction first. Now, I'm off to rehab.

Oh for true Wire Fans, David Simons posted a very thought provoking letter on HBO's website. Find it here.