the truth about 5 truths and a lie

I promised I would reveal which one of the statements I made yesterday was the lie. From your guesses, many of you are going to be more shocked at which ones are actually true.

Here goes:

I wrote a newspaper article about a New York slumlord under a fake name because I was afraid he would come after me.

TRUE. I would definitely not be a good investigative reporter. This kind of stuff totally freaks me out. It’s why I’m much better off just writing about me –although sometimes I do feel like coming after myself.

I have voted for a Republican.

TRUE. Trust me, this is unlikely to ever happen again. I voted for Rudy Guiliani for mayor when we lived in New York, and when I tell you why, you’ll understand. We lived in his building in Manhattan, and every time we rode down the elevator with him, he would pet our chow chow, and say how beautiful she was. Needless to say, the way to my heart has always been through my dogs. It’s also how I chose our kids’ nanny but that’s a story for another post. I’m happy with the way both decisions turned out, although I can guarantee you that even if George Bush painted a portrait of Jessie and Sophie, I would NEVER have voted for him.

I allowed my 2-year-old daughter to ride a killer whale.

TRUE. When the kids were little, we took them to Disney World every year and, once or twice, added SeaWorld to the itinerary. We were sitting, waiting for the Shamu show to start, and one of the trainers asked us if Sara would be interested in participating. Duh! We handed her right down the row, and let the trainer just take her. In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t the world’s best idea but, oh, what a good story it made. We have a great picture taken off the Jumbotron of our little girl on that magnificent creature. I made sure to put  it away in a safe place. Unfortunately, all these years later, I can’t remember where that safe place is.

I spent an evening with Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes in my dorm room.

TRUE. My friend, Michelle, and I worked on the Concert Commission in college, and we made our own t-shirts to wear to the Southside Johnny show. Hers said, “It ain’t the meat” and mine said, “It’s the motion.” The boys loved seeing their lyrics on our chests and came back to my dorm room with us, where we just hung out, talking and laughing and probably drinking, although, again, I just don’t remember. I do remember there were no groupie goings-on; we were just a couple of girls who loved music.

I once ate a dozen Dunkin’ Donuts on a cross-country flight.

FALSE, and I am appalled that so many of you thought I could/would do that. Really???

I only ate half a dozen.

I found out I was pregnant in Bloomingdale’s.

TRUE. I practically grew up in Bloomingdale’s in Fresh Meadows (it has since been turned into a Kmart, which is a surefire sign of the decline of civilization). When Michael and I moved to Manhattan, I was relieved to be so close to the Lexington Avenue mother ship. I shopped there, ate there, got my make-up done there. So it made sense that, after buying a pregnancy test at the Duane Reade down the street, I would run into Bloomies’ homey ladies room rather than wait until I actually got home. That way, after I got the good news, I was able to celebrate with a frozen yogurt and a new sweater. Why would you think that was in any way weird?

Tomorrow I’ll be posting a few readers’ truths and lies. If you want to play along, just leave yours in the comments.