"It's Not What Good Girls Do" (First Impressions - "Sex, Lies & Kickball" - Season 9, Episode 4)

Remember I said that we could safely exclude one of the items from this title as a possible Alex story?  Well, guess what - one does get eliminated, and another is unlikely.

“Ain't Nobody Else To Impress” (“The Long Goodbye” Recap)

Maybe it's just my still being sick, but a lot of Alex's story tonight just didn't make a lot of sense.

“Ring The Bell - School's Back In”

As much as I'd love to really go deep with this preview of tonight's “The Long Goodbye”, physically I'm just not up to it – I'm still dealing with this illness that's bugged me for the past two weeks (thankfully it's only bronchitis and not pneumonia again), and I'm only now just catching up on all the sleep I've lost. Sad, because this one has quite a bit going for it, with a story about Phil and Claire visiting Alex at her dorm (again):

"Joy(?) To The Fishes In The Deep Blue Sea" (First Impressions - "Catch Of The Day" - Season 9, Episode 3)

As you can probably guess by the question mark I placed in the lyric snippet, there really isn't much joy to be found in this upcoming episode's press release.

“Sundown, You Better Take Care” (“Lake Life” Recap)

OK, it was an eclipse and not sundown, but the show used the most obvious song in the ending so I had to come up with something else.

“Oh, The Shark, Babe, Has Such Teeth, Dear”

Getting sick sucks. Getting sick just as vacation starts? Let's just say there isn't a straw big enough in the world...

(I suppose one good thing about it happening now – I don't have to worry about working sick. Yay.)

Anyway, that's why you haven't heard as much from me in the past few days as I planned, even as Season 9 is about to begin – the head stuffiness and coughing fits have simply sapped me (IOW, kind of how Alex felt during her mono bout last season – no I'm pretty sure I don't have that). I'm just hoping I start feeling better in time to salvage the last half of this vacation.

Did I mention Season 9 starts tonight with “Lake Life”? Well, it does, so let's get the first pre-show post of the season up and running, somewhere between the sniffles, sneezes and wheezes:

"I Can Take Care Of Myself" (First Impressions - "The Long Goodbye" - Season 9, Episode 2)

Not surprisingly, it looks like from the press release for this episode, the title mostly fits the story of Manny heading off for college.

But while Alex doesn't look like she's going anywhere (well, anywhere new, anyway), there is still a story for her, and unusually it's the first story mentioned in the release: