The Trouble with Triffids

A couple of weeks ago, Charlie and I went to see the new Star Trek movie.  You know, the one where the HOTTEST MAN ALIVE plays Spock?  Yeah, that one.  When he asked if I wanted to see it, I played it off casually..."Sure, if that's what YOU want to see."  But deep down, I was quivering with excitement.  Not because of the Zachary Quinto factor (although he is TOTALLY quiver-worthy), but because of my secret.  My big, fat, geeky, pocket-protector-wearing secret:

I love Star Trek.

Like, I really love Star Trek.  I've seen pretty much every episode of the original series, and all of the movies (even the ones with folks from "Next Generation," even though I didn't watch that show).  I blame my mother for this -- she let me watch "The Wrath of Khan" at a really young age, and I was hooked.  I think it was Ricardo Montalban as the baddest of baddies that sold me on it.  That, and the ear bugs.

As I got older, however, I quickly learned that crazy love for a 60's TV show is not something that makes you wildly popular.  I was fat, had braces, wore glasses (and some really atrocious outfits), and usually became the teacher's pet.  Star Trek would have been the final nail in my coffin (RIP Jenny, Another Victim of Social Leprosy).  So, I buried my love, wayyyy down deep, underneath my "Friends" DVDs, J. Lo records, and everything else that didn't fit the "artsy indie-rocker" persona I adopted around age 17.

Fast-forward 14 years, and I'm sitting in a dark movie theatre next to my best friend, the guy who has seen me at my absolute worst (and best) and still finds me tolerable enough to stick around.  He's watching the movie, enjoying the special effects, and looks at me in surprise when I say "OOooooh, ROMULANS!"

For a second, I pretended I didn't say anything. "What?" 

"How'd you know they were Romulans?" he asked.

"Well, didn't somebody just SAY they were Romulans?"

"Uh, no..."

A huge dramatic explosion saved me from further discussion.  

After the movie, I was riding a huge geek-high.  When I told Charlie that this was going to be in my top ten movies of all time, he made me explain.  And I cracked...I confessed my secret.  He of course thought it was hilarious, and said something about being Star Trek characters for Halloween.  I stopped dead in my tracks. "Seriously?  You'd do that?"

"C'mon, Austin as a tiny Captain Kirk? How cool would THAT be?" he said.

This, my friends, is why I married this guy.  A few minutes of teasing, and then he's 100% on board with whatever nuttiness I want to pursue.

Now that he knows about my secret love of sci-fi cheese, he's been adding all sorts of random shiz to our Netflix queue.  Like, "The Day of the Triffids," a BBC mini-series from 1980 about poisonous, man-eating plants...THAT CAN WALK!  

It's one of those movies that's a remake of a remake of a remake of a ridiculous 50's novel.  Not quite as good as Star Trek, but I still enjoyed it.

So, my secret's out...anybody else out there have a crazy hidden love?