I am surprisingly good at the game Two Truths and a Lie, more because I know how to invent good lies than because I am good at lying. My classic trio is this:

1) My parents met at a leprosy hospital.
2) I once watched "Melrose Place" with Drew Barrymore at her house.
3) In sixth grade, I wrote a musical about the New Kids on the Block.

My parents did meet at a leprosy hospital in Thailand -- they were employees, not patients. My dad was working with the children of the patients and my mom worked in the office (administrative work is in my blood). On my first trip toThailand, I visited the hospital, which now focuses on AIDS patients, and saw the little white house on stilts that was their first.

In high school, I did somehow end up at Drew Barrymore's house, watching "Melrose Place" with her and a handful of other people, all at least ten years older than me. It was during my fleeting affair with this guy who was 26 to my 16 and who was best friends with the owner of a club I always went to, a club that Drew also went to. I remember that she gave me a glass of iced tea and there were about a million records strewn across her living room floor that she said she had bought that day at Aron's Records and she was a lot nicer than I expected her to be. Maybe she felt bad for me with my 16-year-old awkwardness and creepy older man friend.

Alas, I never did write a musical about the NKOTB. I didn't even like them very much. This is true. Even at the tender age of eleven, I found their squeaky voices and habit of wearing overalls with nothing underneath vaguely disturbing. I did, however, write a long play about a group of friends who snub the soft-spoken, bookwormish member of their group, even though she is in the right. Eventually they admit their folly and beg for her forgiveness. This was written one weekend after fighting with my friends and I made them perform it on Monday. Strangely, it didn't garner the rave reviews I expected.

If I was going to tell two truths and a lie about the last couple weeks, they would be:

1) I joined an all-girl roller derby league that practices on a rooftop track in Chinatown.
2) I started seeing a therapist.
3) I saw The Village last night and really, really liked it.

Well, the Derby Dolls do exist and I now only answer to Babe Ruthless. And I am weirdly proud of my second foray into the world of therapy -- the first was when I was in eighth grade and dealing with my parents' divorce. I'm tired of shameful secrets. I'm ready to live with all the doors open.

(So yeah, I found The Village strange and sucky. I did like Joaquin though and I usually don't.)