There are many reasons why I love How I Met Your Mother, one of CBS’ coveted Monday night sitcoms. I could spout out a huge list but in short, it’s set in New York, the girls - yes even Alyson Hannigan (of American Pie fame) - are cute, Neil Patrick Harris (Barney) is hilarious (and even has a blog), the ‘Slap Bet / Robin’s Secret’ episode is probably one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on television, and, most importantly, the show in general seems to have a lot of subtle parallels with my own life.

Case in point:

6:30pm Monday evening. I’m nearing the end of my day while Rishi, who is working halfway around the world in the Philippines, is just getting started with his. We’re IMing with each other and he sends me a link to the following picture, which we discuss for a few minutes:

Less than two hours later…

I’m home from work. I’m kicking off my regular Monday evening HIMYM-TheClass-24-Studio60 three-hour marathon. (Can the networks please get together and spread some of this stuff out?!)

Right after the opening credits, the scene opens up to Marshall and Barney sitting in their regular booth at the gang’s regular bar (in other words, the grown up version of The Max). Marshall opens the dialogue with:

OK…so you have to have sex with one. EITHER, classic mermaid - bottom half fish, top half human - OR, inverted mermaid - top half fish, bottom half human - GO!

I just about fell off of the couch. Talk about a subtle parallel to my life! You know when you have a song in your head and turn on the radio and its playing? It’s like that, only much more creepier. Because honestly, a ‘would-you-rather’ about mermaids? WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?!

For the record, I picked ‘top half human’.