That's right. I'm a grown woman. And damn it, I like Gossip Girl.

Vivian Manning-Schaffel: First, I noticed how the show's twinkling stars overtook the glossy rags I read at the gym. Then, a few of my friends started congregating at each other's houses to watch. It seemed the universe was sending me signals that I fought harder and harder to ignore at every turn.

So one Monday night -- much to my husband's chagrin -- whilst performing a mundane task like folding laundry, I let my curiosity get the best of me. And now, I'm here to say that I'm a grown woman who is hopelessly devoted to "Gossip Girl."

The show, in many ways, is the love letter to New York City that "Sex And The City" once was, featuring a bevy of its hip locales as backdrop to each dramatic makeup and breakup. My only beef is that it depicts my Brooklyn (and in parallel, BKLYN goes Upper Crust Jenny Humphrey) as Manhattan's scrappy, underprivileged, cloying artsy-fartsy step-sister, but I digress.

Sure, there's a set of gorgeous parental figures in my age range, but oh, to be young, beautiful, loaded and loaded in New York -- a far cry from my own, ramen-eating college experience there. It's cute to see the platonic (well, newly complicated) friendship between the adoradork Dan (Penn Bagely) and the noble, lovely Vanessa (Jessica Szohr) as they balance midterms and threesomes, but Ed Westwick's Chuck Bass just frigging slays me. I don't know what I find more appealing: that single-sided smirk he wears when protecting those he loves from their own idiocy, or his wry, sly way of implying to his paramour that he's kissed a few boys in his day.

Then there's the leggy, saucy "S" or Serena, played by the comely Blake Lively. The way she tosses her golden hair and glistening cleavage about before closing each scene with a throaty, pensive, "I've got to go" holds a certain charm. But by far, the best dialogue is dispersed by Leighton Meester's Blair Waldorf. Take these bon mots, for example:

"Enough! I am in no mood to hear you fawn over some girl with tacky accessories who lives to recycle."

"Here's the situation. Each of us attended elite schools, failed to go Ivy and now find ourselves toiling away in a patchouli-scented purgatory."

"The only no I want to hear is if Ruth Madoff asks for an invite."

But the cherry on this frothy whipped cream is how music is utilized. Each episode weaves a live performance by some formidable artists -- from Lady GaGa to a band from my era, Sonic Youth. Now that my ear is off the ground and attuned to a baby monitor, GG keeps me up on all those bands 'the kids' are into these days.

Now don't you Twi-hards go hating on me. I've not seen "Twilight," so for all I know it could lure me from my comfy lair and into a full-blown, teen style regression. But for now, with all its youth, beauty, scenery, money, music and conflama -- ma-jhore, "Gossip Girl" rules.

Vivian Manning-Schaffel has written for Babble, Parenting, The Advocate, The New York Post, Business Week and a variety of other publications and lives and works in the heart of breeder Brooklyn with her husband and two kids. She authors two pop culture blogs: The Mad Mom and A Hag Supreme, and is on the web at vivianmanningschaffel.com.