Thank you, Farellys!

There's Something About Mary was on Star Movies today, and I watched it for the first time ever. It was already halfway through when I caught it but I liked it still. It's too cute for words. Ice was right beside me and he could not believe that I haven't seen the movie- which he described as groundbreaking- before. Where have I been hiding? When I got to the scene where Matt Dillon mouth-to-mouth resuscitated and burned Cameron Diaz's dog back to life, I, myself, could not believe that I took so long to watch it. Why, this movie is genius!

Truth be told, There's Something About Mary is just one among a fairly big congeries of 90s movies that I have yet to see. You see- and I say this without a tinge of exaggeration- I did not have a proper adolescence. I did not have my fair share of pop music, teen flicks and TV shows. I did not know Freddie Prinze Jr. and I thought the Hansons were a rap group. I went straight from Home Alone to Lifestyle Network and Audrey Hepburn. When I finally did watch teen flicks, they were from the 80s. Breakfast Club, Sixteen candles, Pretty in Pink, and, my favorite teen flick in all the world, Say Anything ("She gave me a pen. I gave her my heart. She gave me a pen!"). Usually, I try to defend this cultural penury by stating, a tad too belligerently at times, that my taste is just too cultivated for my generation. However, looking back, I am beginning to think that it's highly possible that this argument is but an obstinate refusal to succumb to self pity. It could be that I was never an adolescent not because of my sophisticated, discriminating taste, but because I was too scared. You see, back then, my brothers always gave me a hard time whenever I tried to fit in with other girls my age. The moment I started doing something remotely "in," they would pick on me relentlessly. The torture, I tell you! It was akin to the Spanish Inquisition. This is not to hold a grudge against my brothers, though. They were, themselves, just being adolescents-- boys who did not know how to deal with girls if their lives depended on it.

My coping mechanism, no matter how seemingly pretentious now, worked well to my defense. I do not remember a time when I regretted not having a normal adolescence. I did not mind being absolutely clueless during reunions with my high school friends and the conversation suddenly turned to Clueless and Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls and the recent American Pie. I liked my 1950s/Martha Stewart/FTV adolescence just fine. After watching There's Something About Mary, though, I could not help but pay heed to this little thought in my head that maybe, just maybe, I missed out on a very important stage in my life. And so, here's what I intend to do: I think I'll have my adolescence now-- film-wise, at least. :)