Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Guilty Pleasures

I have a confession to make.

I adore the Spice Girls. I take an unnatural amount of delight in their campy little outfits and inability to really sing. For months and months, I tried to hide it. My friends would make snarky comments about going to see Spice World, and I would nod and snark along with them, but secretly I was wondering if I could possibly sneak out and see it without anyone finding out, or at least get a pair of those huge platform boots with the British flag printed on them.

Lucky for me, Best Friend has a secret weakness for all things Spice too. So we watched the movie together. We went on unsuccessful forays to find the boots but were brutally rebuffed. We got dressed up for our weekly trips to the dance clubs. She was Baby Spice, pigtails and all. I was totally Posh. I had the short skirts, the huge platforms (minus the flag print), and the haughty look.

We were so kewl.

So one year, I found Spice Girl Barbies on drastic markdown. And I bought them. Baby Spice for Best Friend, and Posh Spice for me. And then I wrapped them and gave them to us for Christmas. We opened them together, and boy was I surprised at what I got myself. It was the best gift I ever got me.

That was the year that Best Friend and I went on vacation together, and we took our Spice Girls with us. They had drinks with us at the airport bar before we left. Sat poolside with us in the hot Puerta Vallarta sun. They even went swimming, and let me tell you, those girls can really DIVE. Of course, they may have been aided by the fact that we were chucking them into the air as hard as we could, but still.

And here they are:


Unfortunately, Posh's hair did not do well in the water, and it was made even worse by the fact that I tried to brush it out while we were on the plane because it was fused to her head and looked painful. Besides, I was bored, and we'd already done about 15 pervy MadLibs. (The MadLibs themselves were not pervy, but we were. Durr.) So that's the reason she has such horrible bedhead.

I still have my Spice Girl, only I never could get her hair to look right after that. I should have never tried to mess with the fused hair. Unfortunately, Best Friend's dog ate hers. Chewed off her hands, most of her legs, and part of her head. So now she's Special Spice.

I am going to hell for that comment. I know it. But perhaps if everyone starts talking about their guilty pleasures, it will distract God and He will forget about what I just said. Fat chance, I know, but humor me.

25 comments:

K.C. Shaw said...

My guilty pleasure used to be those cop car chase shows on Tru TV, but I'm bored with them now. I haven't worked out what my next guilty pleasure will be, but it's sure not going to be the Spice Girls. Although I did like that one song.

Keri Mikulski said...

Hilarious. Love it. ;) Did you catch their reunion shows?

The pic reminds me how much I miss playing with Barbies.

Hanna Banana said...

I used to have a Barbie in a similar situation to "Special" Spice. Somehow, one of her boobs was dented in. I won't say what I used to refer to her as it is sooo very wrong, (I have a demented sense of humor).

Lady Clauson said...

OMG...special spice! Thats great! My sister use to cut off the hair of our barbies and called her Madonna Barbie. Either that or she would smoosh their faces up really bad and give her an Ugh face. Either way, we still prefered to play with our brother's He-man and his matchbox cars. We were a strange family back in the day. My secret love is all things Beyonce and Chingy. Not to mention Court TV. Well, you could also say I have an unhealthy obsession with all things Law & Order too!!!

p.s. Happy belated birthday! I'm sorry I missed it.

Aaron Polson said...

I had a lot of female neighbor's as a kid, so we did He-Man/Barbie crossover playdates.

By the way...I thought they were all special spice.

heh

Jamie Eyberg said...

I had two younger sisters and a five mile hike to town so I had quite a few barbie playdates, They didn't play well with G.I. Joe. I did that at least until I got an Atari 2600 and later a Comadore 64. Man, I rocked.

Kelly Polark said...

Too funny! I wanna! I wanna! Zigazig Ha!
My guilty pleasure is music, too. I'm a headbanger. A very cautious and conservative mother of three who loves hard rock/metal (all kinds, bad 80's hair bands to current hard rock).
Rock that, Posh Spice ;0)

Rob Brooks said...

Special Spice...so wrong. And so funny.

Guilty pleasures? All too many, unfortunately. I loved the TV show Alias. And Star Trek. And the band Third Eye Blind (and I just saw them in concert last week!). Oh, and old Steven Seagal movies.

Scillius Maximus said...

I remember the Spice Girls well, sort of . . . you see, they were the reason I had to turn in my official 'Kewl Card'. Signifying that I was no longer 'hip' or 'in the know'.

The reason this came about was when I was flipping channels and saw their Wannabe video, thought 'well this is cute', and flipped on.

10 months later the two teen daughters of a friend of mine (let's call him 'Homer') were going gaga of this new (to me) group called "Spice Girls". We're talking posters, clothes, dolls, the whole nine yards here. I'm like asking who's this group and they started playing me videos and telling about how hot they've been for over the last year.

I asked Homer about this new singing group and he thought it had something to with the Macarena.

Which I replied 'What's the Macarena?'

Side note: You being Posh Spice makes sense since to me, considering Slayer's proclivity for all things Soccer/Futbol.

Cate Gardner said...

I never thought I'd say this but you are sad, sad, sad.

Michelle D. Argyle said...

Guilty Pleasure: (well, one of them) I like Magnum P.I. I think it's Tom Selleck in the super-short 80's shorts.

Yikes. I can't believe I just admitted that!

*blushes*

Adrienne said...

Aw, poor Baby Spice. I was just thinkng about my old Barbies - now I'm going to have to go hunt for them.
My daughter and I watch America's Next Top Model sometimes...um, yeah.

Fox Lee said...

I probably have ones that I should feel guilty about, but it's not in me. For instance, I claim that Supermodel is one of the best movies ever made. And I have every season of the Golden Girls on DVD.

Carrie Harris said...

KC: Hmmm... we could take a vote or something. I promise not to vote for the Spice Girls. :)

Keri: I missed them. Mostly because I was afraid to ruin the memories. Because I have such fond ones. Which is really weird, now that I think about it.

Hanna: Awww, now I REALLY want to know.

Lady Clauson: I think I saw a Beyonce Barbie the last time I went toy shopping...

Aaron: We did that too. Except that Barbie was taller than HeMan, and he had some problems with that.

Jamie: You didn't have Pitfall for your Atari, did you? I love Pitfall for some strange reason.

Kelly: Would it impress you then to know that I once partied with Warrant? :)

Rob: Seagal movies are perfect for MST3K. PERFECT.

Skilli: I never thought of Slayer as the Beckham to my Posh, but that's so right. HAH!

Cate: I know. I know. That's why it's a GUILTY pleasure.

Glamis: And the chest hair. Can't forget the chest hair!

Adrienne: I miss my Barbies. I used to make clothes for them and put on fashion shows. Those were the days.

Natalie: I love the Golden Girls too. And Rue McClanahan once kissed my son in an airport.

Jamie Eyberg said...

Pitfall harry was the coolest pixelated person on the planet.

Rob Brooks said...

MST3K rocks. And I don't feel guilty about that at all. Check out Riff Trax if you get the chance--you can upload your own mp3 tracks of riffing movies and sell them. Site's run by the MST3K folks.

Hanna Banana said...

She was Breast Cancer Barbie (and I am SOOO going to hell for it) :)

Michele Thornton said...

My latest guilty pleasure is Destroyed in Seconds. It's like watching a train wreck. Exactly like watching a train wreck, in fact, there was a train wreck on it the other night. But it gives me an unreasonable fear hangover, so usually I stick to milder guilty pleasures like Entertainment Tonight, or playing on my daughter's Webkins site.

Bringerofbrains said...

You are not getting out of that one, but that's OK, I'll be right there with you because if i were drinking when I read it, guess what.... snot bubbles, yup....snarf...

Brenda said...

My guilty pleasure is Tetris...I love that game and I have to hide the fact that I play it because I usually forget everything else in life...I can play all day long and not know where the day went...ahhhh, to have the time to do that now...

Anonymous said...

Ha ha! Loved this post. I also happen to be a closet-admiring Spice Fan. The other guilty pleasure: New Kids on the Block. They're coming in concert this week, and I DON'T have tickets cuz I couldn't find an excuse to get out of the house for hours and hours without anyone noticing. Le sigh.

Rena Jones said...

OMG! "Special Spice"! LMAO!

Thanks Carrie -- great post!

Carrie Harris said...

Jamie: No doubt. He totally could take Lara Croft.

Rob: How have I never heard of this? Now I've got ANOTHER way to waste time!

Hanna: Well, we're both going to hell, so we can have dinner there. Probably barbecue.

Michele: Oh, I love Entertainment Tonight. Slayer thinks it's akin to torture.

brains: HAH! I still feel absurdly triumphant when that happens. :)

Brenda: I used to be the Tetris Queen at my dorm. I was UNBEATABLE. Me love the Tetris.

Elana: I once saw NKOTB in concert. With Tiffany. Man, was I cool. Snarf.

Rena: I'm glad to meet someone else as politically incorrect as I am!

sruble said...

Ha!

Special Spice? Hee!

I can just hear Robin Williams channeling Gomer Pyle in Good Morning Vietnam, "You're going straight to hell for that one!"

Thanks for the laughs!!

Tiny T said...

Rift tracks are great, although you have to watch them with other people. Just watching them by yourself is no fun and watching a rift of a movie you haven't seen already kind of sucks because then you don't get to enjoy the movie.

Guilty pleasures..... Reading. I could read and read... Sometimes I read in class, especially if it's a boring class or it has lots of breaks, and then I'll stop paying attention because I'm so focused on imagining what I'm reading. I'm getting better at multitasking though ;)