Pumpkins and a white lie

Over the weekend, JG and I set off for a pick-your-own pumpkin patch — the same farm where we got our Christmas tree — to find good specimens for carving this year. We showed up as soon as it opened on Sunday morning and had the place to ourselves. The sky was super-saturated with blue, the air was chilly enough for me to wear a jacket and a scarf, and I loved being outside on a perfect fall morning for a classic fall activity. It was the first time I’d picked a pumpkin from a farm, so the whole experience was quite the novelty. We took a bumpy, tractor-pulled hayride to a field littered with gourds and began the hunt.

I tramped through the vines and thumped on different pumpkins to find that elusive “solid but hollow” sound (isn’t that an oxymoron?) that marked a winner. I spied a nice, round guy with a whimsical vine trailing off the stem and pounced. “Don’t forget,” JG cautioned me, “you have to pick a pumpkin that you can carry.” Hmph. We gave my pumpkin a once-over for mushy spots, thumped the sides, and pronounced it a keeper. JG soon found his own jack-o’-lantern victim and we trotted back to catch the hayride on its return loop. Now, all that’s left is to pick or make a pattern to carve. I think I want to go geeky this year…

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Last week, Audrey challenged readers to guess which statement, out of three, was not true in the fashion of the classic ice-breaker game, “Two Truths and a Lie.” Well, in my years as a freshman dorm mentor, camp counselor, and youth group worker, I have played this game many a time. I love it. It’s such a good way to get to know people and allows them to choose what they share, rather than being interrogated. For lies, the trick is to choose statements that could be true, but no one knows for sure; for truths, the statements need to be outlandish enough that people might not ordinarily ascribe them to you. That said, I am not very good at this game. I am completely hopeless at identifying people’s lies and only slightly better at choosing lies for myself. Apparently, I have a “tell,” to lapse into poker speak, but no one will fill me in on what it is. Darn.

I made a guess and shared three facts of my own over at Audrey’s, but I thought it might be fun to play here, too, before revealing all. For this round, here are my two truths and a lie. Which statement is the lie?

1. I was a cheerleader in high school, a flier.
2. I love roller coasters and I try to ride at least 3 times in a row before switching to another.
3. If not for the bad breath, I would eat dill pickles all day long.

Take a guess and check out the answers after the jump!

1. I was a cheerleader in high school, a flier. That’s a big lie. Although I was a gymnast for seven years, I was never a cheerleader. I was asked to try out to be a flier (or so they called the girls who flipped for stunts), but I knew who would be catching me and I had heard that they did not always do so. On purpose. Shudder.

2. I love roller coasters and I try to ride at least 3 times in a row before switching to another. Very true. Despite my weak stomach when it comes to blood and gore on television, I can ride crazy roller coasters six or eight times in a row before even feeling a twinge of motion sickness (#76). Usually, JG is the limiting factor when it comes to repetition and we have to take a breather around Time #4. Wimp. (Just kidding!) It goes without saying that my love of roller coasters always invites jokes about how we never know if I’ll be tall enough to get in. Har har. Just get in line.

3. If not for the bad breath, I would eat dill pickles all day long. Sad, but true. I love dill pickles so much, but they produce such terrible breath that eating them ad nauseum would be, well, nauseating to my awaiting public. We used to keep pickles in the fridge for my snacking needs, but it was so not worth JG’s groan of, “Pickle breath!” whenever I drew near. You see the things I sacrifice for love? Of course, I will take any opportunity to “rescue” a neglected dill spear from a hater’s plate. Are you going to eat that? No? Fabulous.