When you’re sick of your partner, your husband, or your wife you can always leave the room, go for a walk, or even take some time apart.  But what can you do when you’re sick of yourself?  Hmmm.  I find myself wondering about this lately because, well, I’m growing quite sick of Josh.

It’s not just the little things about Josh that annoy me – his tendency to sit in exactly the same chairs and eat exactly the same foods every day – but there are also many big things about Josh that get on my nerves:  His bizarre, singular focus on preschool TV, his oddly cute characters with their unhelpful speech impediments, and don’t even get me started on Josh’s self-serving, narcissistic blog.  If he writes about the Small Potatoes one more time I swear I won’t be responsible for what happens to the next potato I see.

For reasons that are beyond me, Josh seems to think that his weekly ruminations about everything from creativity to animation are worthy of publication.  They are not.  I know for a fact that Josh knows almost nothing about animation. He could not animate a ball rolling into a brick.  Josh is the most technologically challenged person I have ever met in my life.  He cannot even charge his iPhone without a midnight call to his IT Director, Malcolm Butler.  (Who, by the way, should get a medal for putting up with Josh.)

And when Josh writes about licensing in his blog I just have to laugh.  It’s a well-known fact that, despite Josh’s mysterious ability to find homes for his preschool shows with many of the world’s top broadcasters, these shows do not sell toys.  I mean, what’s the point of making a preschool show that doesn’t sell toys?  Hello, that’s why we make preschool shows!  Maybe when Josh began his career the big question was, “Can you tell me how to get to Sesame Street?”  But, now, the only real question is “How do you get to Walmart?” and I know for certain Josh hasn’t a clue.

But worse than all of these things (at least for me) is Josh’s self-importance.  I suspect that this arrogance of his is just a cover for some deeply rooted childhood insecurity but, I mean, really, who cares?  He’s still annoying.  Josh is both ambitious and self-destructive, a good writer and a bad communicator, his own harshest critic and a one man PR team.  Oh, and he’s moody.  Trust me.

But I must confess that despite his many shortcomings, I still have a soft spot for Josh.  He has clearly worked hard to make some good and memorable shows for the very youngest viewers.  He is deeply loyal to those who are deeply loyal to him.  When he has riches, he happily shares them with those around him.  He is good to Mary and Buffy and his mother.  And he is honest.  So, as much as Josh annoys me, I’ll continue to put up with him for a while longer.  And, as much as I wish he would stop writing about himself in his blog, I find I simply can’t stop reading it.