Wednesday, April 17, 2013

Scaredy Baby



After watching one too many episodes of Monsters and Mysteries in America and sufficiently scaring myself out of my wits--yes I am a huge wuss and that show and all its grade D reenactments has the power to render me nervy and skittish. Yeah the Devils Highway and Native American curses are not to be trifled with, people, no joke!--I immediately had to put on an episode of I Love Lucy that DC ever so kindly recorded for me on DVR.

Watching I Love Lucy has not only been my favorite TV show since childhood, but my go to when I am scared, that and singing Jesus loves me, like I did last night when I had a wretched nightmare and DC was not much help as I clutched his hair while he tried to shush me back to sleep like I was a lil five-year-old and my ghost dream wasn't earth-shattering at 3A.M. or something, when everyone knows 3A.M. is so the worst time of night to wake up, it's in all the horror movies, but whatever. I wanted all the lights on and of course I Love Lucy. I didn't ask for either, but he put on The Office which worked in a bind.
In college my rotten, scary-movie-pushing best friend, Ashley made me watch Pet Sematary before I was ready, (I would've never been ready for the record) causing me to sleep in my living room for nights on end with all the lights on and I Love Lucy blasting in the background. Nothing wretched can happen when Lucy is getting into hijinks, irritating Ricky and crying, wahhhhhhhhh to get her way.
And it was no different this time when instantly my first reaction to any kind of being scared, besides getting Lucy on, is to lift my feet from the floor and tuck them underneath me assuming that there's obviously something lurking under the couch now that I am aware I'm scared. See this is exactly why you shouldn't watch creepy stuff as a child because it comes back to haunt you the rest of your life, literally! Or I really am a giant five-year-old and normal adults stop being scared about something grabbing their feet at around sixteen. But hey, I have never claimed to be a normal adult and I take pride in that fact.
Anyway, this huge digression into how big of a scaredy wuss I am is to say, that I think I realized something watching Lucy flail herself about, rip at her hair and wine to Ricky for a part in his show: That all these years I have been chalking up my love of theatrical drama, exaggerations of all outlandish sorts, and grandiose proclamations as a product of my DNA. But I am beginning to suspect it may have started as a mirroring of my favorite redhead, watching her and idolizing her as a young girl, then well into adulthood. Heck, I want to name my first born daughter after her and have wanted that since I was about seven, so... I think it's safe to say I'm fond of the hilarious lil minx.

Either way though, whether it truly is in my DNA to love making a statement with lots of broad gestures and theatrics, or it is because I secretly, or not so secretly want to make just as much of an impact on the world as Lucy did, the comedic genius that she was, I still can't help but salute her time and time again, as my comfort, a recollection of childhood, and taker-awayer of all things frightening.

Oh Lucy, I just hope one day to be even a fraction as brilliant as you.

1 comment:

Shawnee said...

Lucy really is the best - I remember watching her as a kid and I still do to this day. She never fails to make me laugh!

ps being a five-year-old is much more fun, I think. a lot of my tendencies involve food.. string cheese, fruit snacks.. also coloring/art, disney channel, swings are my favorite too. ha

curiosity & creativity, i suppose.