1 post tagged “guilty pleasures silly”
Ok, so I'm over the whole $42.50 for gas (kinda), but still need something to ease my mind....
Last Monday night, I was out in Concord at Half Price Books (Todos Santos Square--which I'm convinced is one of the Bay Area's hidden secret "date spots"--or at least a secret to me since I haven't "officially" been on a date in almost 3 years, but we'll save that for another blog. What was I saying again? Oh yes, Half Price Books...). My good friend, Mike G, and I decided to "walk" off our fat-full Chinese buffet dinner by perusing the nearby overflowing aisles of book bargains---everything from the $5.98 classics by Melville, Thoreau, and Machiavelli to display shelves filled with $1.00 copies of Politically Incorrect Bedtime Stories and the timeless classic "Snaps!" (Yo mama this...Yo mama that..)
Wedged between the postcard books, Painting Glass Beads kits and $3.95 blank journals in the gift book section sat a simple and discreetly placed, black book called, "The Encyclopedia of Guilty Pleasures: 1,001 Things You Hate to Love".
My interest...is peaked.
I'm a self-proclaimed QUEEN of Guilty Pleasures! If lovin' you is wrong, I don't wanna be right!
I first looked around to see if Mike would see me indulging in (ironically) this particular guilty pleasure. See, Mike has his degree in English and teaches English at a middle school. He's around it all day. In his spare time, he writes critiques--for FUN, mind you--on works by Gabriel Garcia Marquez and basks in the density and complexity of novels by his favorite author, Proust.
Me, on the other hand, somehow managed to have AP English in high school but failed the writing exam as a freshman in college so had to take the writing-for-dummies track (I even had to repeat one class over summer!), barely broke 400 on my verbal on the SATs (don't they give you like 200 for just writing your name??), and has shelves and shelves of ridiculously ridiculous (but granted, entertaining!) "literature" (if you can even call it that) in my home: The Analysis of Handwriting, Are you my Boyfriend? The Field Guide to Gestures and of course, the timeless classic Snaps! (for which, although it was a gift from my sister, I would have gladly paid the full price of $9.99 back when In Living Color was at its height).
After confirming the coast is clear, I thumb through the book and much to my surprise see interesting facts and tidbits for many of my very own guilty pleasures shamelessly exposed in black and white. "Gawd," I realize, "they *do* have a book for EVERYTHING!" Footsteps behind me signal that Mike's in the vicinity so I quickly shuffle the book back in its rightful place, grab my CD-less (for once) purchases for the evening of "The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to World Music" and Taschen's "Signs" book (all pictures, of course--it's a signs book for goodness sake!) and head towards the register, only to hear Mike exclaim, "Oh my gawd! You're buying books?!?" (thanks, Mike. I'm a musician, gimme a fricka-frackin' break!)
But the book still lingers in my thoughts...and so, a blog is born.
Top 10 Guilty Pleasures (really in no particular order, because they basically all tie for first place in my head)
10. "Flavor of Love" and anything else on VH1 or E! that either starts with "I Love the xx's" or "101..." and ends with "...where are they now?"
9. Re-runs. period. Golden Girls, Brady Bunch, Little House on the Prairie ("that's one less biscuit to roll in the morning!"), The Jefferson, Good Times, What's Happening? --you name it, I'm watchin' it! (and the bonus--playing trivia with myself to see if I can remember the theme song tunes *and* lyrics to those shows)
8. Disco and easy listening music from the 70's (yes I like pina coladas and getting caught in the rain)
7. Cartoons (especially Spongebob Squarepants who, incidentally, lives in a pineapple under the sea)
6. Infomercials (I'm currently saving up for a Magic Bullet so I can chop onions, grate cheese, scramble eggs and mix batter for two types of muffins in less than 10 seconds)
5. YouTube (that's a GUARANTEED 2 hours *minimum* in front of the computer---auuurgh!!)
4. Scented Markers (Turquoise--aka "Mango" is my favorite. Although I've never known mangos to smell like that...)
3. Hanging out at Target (this should be #1)
2. Books about nonsense (e.g., Guilty Pleasures. hee hee?)
1. Dollar store shopping!! (if you've got a store, I've got a $1!!)
What'd I miss? I'm sure it's something. But I'll just have to make note of it later and save it for the next list. It's always something new everyday.
To be continued...
