Me? Adventurous? Risk-taker? - NOT.

Last Saturday was my SIL’s baby shower and it was a really nice time to get together and celebrate the upcoming birth of a baby girl. There was good food, great company, fun games and a host of adorable baby gifts. While I don’t have kids myself, I can already see myself shopping for baby girl outfits. They are just too cute for words!

After all the merriment and festivities, the family (minus the guests who had left by that time) sat down to cap off the evening with a DVD showing of “Land of the Dead”. Totally inappropriate for the mood of the day, but I guess, highly appropriate for the upcoming Halloween celebration. So there we were, gathered in my SIL’s living room watching super enhanced zombies walking thru land and water on a rampage to hack, devour and mutilate as many humans as they possibly can in two hours.

I can’t get over how gory and violent this movie was – or most movies are for that matter. Of course based on the title of this film, one does not expect great dialogue and cinematographic genius. But the film was just too graphically disgusting for words. I sat thru the first half of the movie with my hands over my eyes for the most part. After about forty-five minutes of blood, mutilation, gore, and zombies eating human guts, I finally found myself too disgusted to even finish the rest of the film. It was that bad. I walked over to the next room and watched “The Adventures of Winnie the Pooh” with my nieces. Much better.

I know a lot of people enjoy horror movies. Something about the thrill of watching in suspense, or the realm of fantasy that it touches on, or maybe just the idea that one can walk away unscathed by such violence. Whatever. But for the life of me, I cannot in good faith pay good money to have myself scared silly.

Safe to say, I abhor horror movies. Violent movies I can tolerate IF and ONLY IF the plot absolutely calls for it (which in most cases it does not). I do not enjoy thrill rides in amusement parks (again the concept of my not wanting to pay good money to have my insides turned upside down applies). I do not enjoy extreme sports (skydiving, bungee jumping, paragliding, not my idea of having a good time). I cannot imagine getting tattoos or body piercings (mainly because they involve needles). I also do not like rap and heavy metal music (they literally hurt my ears). I don’t like the odds of gambling (and really enjoy weekend trips to Las Vegas for the food and the shows). And despite my love for reality television, I will never be a contestant on Fear Factor.

I have no qualms admitting all that. Nor do I discriminate against people who enjoy the things that I don’t. It’s just that my idea of fun is more laid-back and certainly more conservative that most. "Adventurous", "daring" and "wild" are very rarely words used to describe me. I guess I have been known to lean more towards the traditional side. I take calculated risks and will follow my intuition only after making sure I’ve got my bases covered. I think that for the most part it has worked out well for me when I’m not so impulsive, but there are times I know that I’ve got to cut lose and learn to throw caution to the wind, and be less … well … prudent. I’ve been working on that and sometimes I find myself getting pretty good at it … especially when it involves shopping and ordering food! :)