Second Installment: Friday Facts and Fiction

Not as rousing a turn-out as we had for the first one, (note to self: threaten to pout again, next time) but enough to make a post, for sure. So here we go... more facts and fiction from your hostess based on your questions!

Fraulein N asks: What's a book, movie or TV show I'm embarrassed to admit I like?

I just loved Britney Spears in Crossroads!! (Fiction. Haven't even seen it, nor will I, unless you're holding a gun to the head of one of my kids.)

I can't think of a book I'd be embarrassed to admit, as I tend to either love a book and evangelize about it or lose interest and never finish it. Ditto with movies. Now... ummmm... TV is a different story. I watch lots of schlock television. And I have no excuse. So here goes: When I was in high school, there was a show on PBS called Degrassi Junior High. It's produced in Canada and was kind of the granddaddy of After School Specials meets canuck-90210. Lame really doesn't begin to describe this thing. Anyway, during my first year of college I ended up doing a rather intensive program for treatment of teenage depression and drug use (just so we're clear, I was in the former group), and one of our regular sessions was based on this show. Oooooooh it was great; all of us poking fun at the bad acting, the predictable storylines, the accents! It was torture.

This is not the show I'm confessing to liking, by the way. This is known as exposition; bear with me.

Well, I've recently come to find out that those brilliant Canadians never let this masterpiece actually die. After Degrassi Junior High, there was Degrassi High (duh), and most recently I've discovered that Noggin now shows the latest version, Degrassi: The Next Generation, in the evenings. I have been strangely compelled to watch this program. I don't know if it's nostalgia or just brain damage, but I think I've seen every episode. And I'd like to tell you that it's far superior to the original, but that would be stretching the truth. By quite a lot. (Fact. Maybe I should check into some sort of support group? Degrassiholics Anonymous?)

Kira asks: Do I think I'll date/marry again?

What are you talking about? I'm already married. To Brad Pitt. Bitch. (Fiction!!)

Well that's the proverbial $64,000 question, isn't it? I'm a very social person. Despite what you might find me saying on my down days, I figure it's pretty much impossible that I will never date again. Never is a long time. So yeah, I'll date. Get married again? Hmmmm. I dunno. I would like to, but I don't know that it's in the cards for me. I'm still a little too raw from the last couple of years' events to consider a risk of that magnitude, again. (Truth.)

Also from Kira: What's my favorite food to turn to when I'm in an unhealthy state of anxiety or fear?

Mustard. Perhaps you saw the picture of me at the Smackdown yesterday...? (Fiction, thank God.)

I'm afraid that in this way I am something of a typical girl. Gimme chocolate! Candybars, cookies, brownies, cake, whatever. As long as it's chocolate, I'm happy. And it's truly a wonder I'm not a much larger person. (Fact.)

Debby asks: What's my favorite movie and book of all time?

Didn't I already declare my love for Britney's masterpiece, above? *snort*

Last week I said that my favorite book is "A Prayer for Owen Meany" by John Irving. If I have to pick just one favorite, that's it. But give me a little time and latitude and I'll generate a whole reading list. I devour books, and if I read something I like by an author I haven't read before, I then go out and read everything else they've ever written. I'm weird that way.

Favorite movie... hmmmmm.... That's much harder, because I don't actually watch a lot of movies. The simplest answer is "The Princess Bride," although the book is even better than the movie (that's always the way, though). I'm also a sucker for "The Big Chill" and the first two Alien movies. (Truth.)

Debby also asks: Nightgown or jammies?

I sleep in the nude. In the shower. Upside-down. (Fiction.)

I was a strict jammies kinda gal for years and years. Recently I've leaned back in the nightgown direction, leaving me with a fairly even mix in my slumbertime apparel. (Truth, but I feel so ambiguous, now!)

Oliquig asks: What was my best vacation ever?

There are two (real) answers to this. In terms of the location, it's definitely the week I spent in Maui. I really never knew perfect weather and gorgeous scenery like that even existed. Had I been there with someone other than my husband it would've been perfection. In terms of the company and/or my state of mind, it would have to be the weekend I spent camping in western Massachusetts last year. It was my first trip without my children that was not for a funeral or an educational reason... I got to see Garrison Keillor at Tanglewood... and I was newly in lurve with the prince who had not yet turned back into a toad. If I could bottle how I felt that weekend, I would be rich.

And what was the worst?

Okay, which is sadder: That the answer to this one is my honeymoon, or that I didn't even have to think about it for a nanosecond to know that? (Truth.) The ex and I were young and stupid... I believe I may have touched on that previously... anyway... we were completely ripped off by the agency we used to book our honeymoon. It was so horrible--as in B-movie unbelievable, including no running water in what was supposedly a 4-star hotel--that we returned after just two or three days (in my ever-continuing attempts to block it out entirely, I can't remember which is accurate). This would be a bad omen under the best of circumstances, but let's just say that the rotten accommodations turned out to be the least of our problems. The ex suffered from... uuhhhhhhh... anxiety. Yeah. Extreme anxiety. That's all I'm gonna say about that. (Unless he pisses me off again, in which case I may need to share more....)

And lastly, from our dear Oli: What's the funniest thing my kids have said that I had to not laugh at because it was bad?

"Someone should impeach Bush's ass." (Kidding, but wouldn't you all be envious if my kids were that astute?)

I can't think of a specific one (and someday if you have kids, Oli, you'll understand the mental atrophy that comes with raising them), but I have to say that it is always adorable to hear a toddler swear, and even moreso if he/she chooses a phrase that makes it crystal clear that these words are from your very own mouth. I mean, sure, there's that second of utter horror, but a teeny little voice saying "Oh, dammit aww" or worse is always funny.

And some of the things the kids say to each other slays me. (Michele did a great entry on this last month.) Yeah, I do tell them it's not appropriate to threaten to poop on each other, or step on each other's eyeballs, etc. It wasn't an issue of speech, but I will always have a very clear memory of the first time my very patient Monkey had had his fill of his big sister's manhandling and hauled off and hit her. I had to leave the room because she was howling with indignation and I didn't want her to see me laughing. (Truth)

Chewie apparently came along after I finished this week's post, then got very upset that I was "ignoring" her... so I'm editing just for her! (MWAH!) She asks, re: my 100 Things list: Aliens??

Ummmmm... yeah. I don't really have any details... never met any, myself. I just think it would be pretty narcissistic for us to assume we're the only intelligent beings in all of creation. I don't think there are any sentient beings here in our galaxy that we're just sort of missed, or anything, but yeah... I think they're out there. (Truth, though I may be wrong; it's what I think.)

And also from Chewie: What sort of "ookey spookey" stuff has happened to me that I believe in the paranormal?

Call my hotline to find out! It's only $4.99/minute! (False, although if I'm unemployed for much longer, I'll consider it....)

1) I had a friend in high school who got "after images" from rooms based on what had happened there before, and there were places that freaked him right out. After some digging, we discovered that one of the places that skeeved him out so bad (he was never even willing to tell me what exactly he saw there) had been the site of a gruesome murder.

2) I met a woman in college who knew things about me that there's simply no way she could've known (I had told no one), and she clearly didn't want to know them, either... but said it's happened to her that way her entire life.

3) Because of 1 and 2, I believe in people having of a variety of 6th sense abilities... although I also believe that people who are truly gifted in this way almost always wish they weren't, and don't advertise it. So I'm skeptical of "professional" psychics and whatnot, but I do think the real deal exists.

4) My grandmother haunted her home after she died, and in particular hassled my mother. Yes, I believe it.

5) I've stayed at a haunted inn. Didn't see anything weird, myself, but heard enough of the stories and believe the owners to buy it.

6) I used to study this stuff when I was a kid/young adult, and basically concluded there's too many things left unexplained for it all to be explainable without a little spooky ooky, y'know?

7) I am otherwise a very facts-oriented person.

Going once... going twice... aaaaand... that concludes this week's installment of Friday Facts and Fiction. Thanks to everyone who played!