Not long ago, I wrote about some of my not-so-guilty
pleasures. I can happily report that given the increased number of page
hits on that post, I’m not the only one with some marginally embarrassing weirdness
in my closet. Always a lovely thing to find out.
Even better than this, though, is that there are people out
there who are willing to share their own bizarre proclivities. Case in point,
Lauren Grimley, (author, blogger, and teacher extraordinaire)
who I had the pleasure of getting to know at the Backspace
conference. Here’s what she had to say:
My Not-So-Secret Guilty Pleasures
- Reading Kelly’s post on guilty pleasures I realized that apparently my first guilty pleasure is revealing too much. As I started to rattle off a list of the dorky things I love in life, it occurred to me that I’ve never bothered to keep such things secret. When I wanted to be a greaser from S. E. Hinton’s Outsiders, I dressed like Ponyboy, rolled t-shirt sleeves and all. When my obsession switched to Harry Potter I created t-shirts with sayings like “I believe in Nargles,” which I actually wore out in public. When my seventh graders starting talking about Pretty Little Liars, I jumped right in, without even considering the fact that I could have, and maybe should have, pretended not to know what they were talking about.
- This brings me to my next guilty pleasure: teen television shows. My DVR recordings more closely resemble those of the thirteen-year-old girls I teach than those of an average educated thirty-two-year-old woman. Vampire Diaries, Pretty Little Liars, The Lying Game–I love them all. What’s really sad is that these are a step up from what I used to watch when I first started teaching. The Suite Life, anyone? I thought I was becoming a sophisticated viewer when I moved from Zach and Cody to Damen and Stefan. Or maybe I’d just developed a stronger liking for eye-candy.
- Candy. Another place I lack sophisticated tastes. Out of all my food favorites, the one I’d consider a somewhat embarrassing guilty pleasure is my love of Sour Patch Kids. Most people above the age of fifteen lose their enthusiasm for shredding their taste buds with sour crystals. Not this girl. I can polish off an entire package of these gummy goodies in one sitting and have been known to lick my finger so that I can dip it in the bitter crumbs. Sour, sweet, gone. Yum!
- Guilty pleasure number four is all about tactile gratification. If that sounds dirty, I promise you it’s not. I just love all things fuzzy. While most women trawl the local T.J. Maxx with an eye for fashion, I walk through the aisles running my fingers along everything I see. If it’s sexy but scratchy, forget it. Frumpy but soft and fuzzy, I’m likely to wear it. I’ve even been known to delay washing new sweatshirts long past the first or second wear just to retain the maximum fuzz factor. Okay, so I guess it is dirty, in the unlaundered sense.
- My last guilty pleasure (at least the last one I’m posting on the internet) I alluded to in number one. I love to eavesdrop. As I child I would hide in the dark corner of the living room so that I could listen to half of whatever telephone conversation my mother was having. As I teacher I pretend to be checking email during study halls, while I secretly snoop on my unknowing students. I listen to people at the grocery store, in waiting rooms, on the beach. I’m so nosy, I’ve been known to pretend to listen to who I’m with while really listening to the couple two tables over. Hey, I can’t help it if my friends and family aren’t that interesting to me anymore. Besides, as a writer, I chalk this one up to “research.”
Actually, I suppose I could claim all of these pleasures are
merely research for my writing. But that would be a lie. I love what I love.
And I’ve loved being a geek long before Kelly got me to confess here like a
Catholic schoolgirl. Still, it’s nice to know that when the dork parade marches
through town, I’ll have plenty of company. So thanks, Kelly!
Bio:
When Lauren Grimley isn’t sharing her quirks with the world,
she’s writing or teaching in central Massachusetts.
If she finds free time beyond these activities, she’s likely to spend it on a
beach with a book and bottle of wine close by. She’s recently published her
first novel, an urban fantasy entitled Unforeseen.
The second book in the series, Unveiled,
is off to the publisher, while the third is being dragged, kicking and
screaming, from Lauren’s imagination.
Links to learn more
about Lauren and her projects:
Personal website: http://www.laurengrimley.com
Twitter @legrimley: http://twitter.com/ - !/legrimley
Links to Unforeseen and “Unknown” (a short from
later in the series)
Amazon:
Unforeseen http://amzn.to/Iyas63
“Unknown” http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00865C4DM
Smashwords:
Unforeseen http://bit.ly/KESWTO
Barnes & Noble
Unforeseen http://bit.ly/M7v5MK
Fun!
ReplyDelete