Strange Machines

I used to be a very different person before I had my children. I loved horror movies, junk food, place without children, and sleeping.

Okay, I still love to sleep but I realise that my personal time is more important to my mental well-being than sleep.

I have cut out junk food from my diet and have turned organic.

And most tellingly, I actually feel nausea when I watch horror movies. This, from a woman who found humour and irony in horror.

I try very hard to explain the last because it perplexes me the most. I have the strongest stomach and yet motherhood ha turned me into a softy who prefers comedy, romance, and adventure.

The latest flick I caught, Piranha 3D was testament to that. I feel nothing but nausea, even at this humorous gory movie.

And with that I believe I have laid to rest the horror me, the girl who loved horror because it mocked death, laughed at death, made fun of it – at the end of every horror movie you tell yourself, hey I am still here. I am alive.

But not so with dramas and comedies or even adventures. They either hit close to home or reflect something simply unattainable that just depresses the hell out of me in the end.

Horror used to just entertain as a movie or be simply an outlet for venting my frustrations in writing. Now to me it is just gross and keeps me up at night.

So now I join you, Mom, in my distaste for campy horror movies, the ones I used to enjoy (yes, Dead Alive, I am talking about you). My sister in law will never hear me joke about horror movies being comedies anymore. And my dear brother will have to watch them on his own now.

For I have changed. Maybe through those hormones that have turned my body into a milk-making machine and rewired my brain to find those 2 munchkins I gave birth to unbelievably cute.

Motherhood has purged me of my dark side. That is the only explanation. I actually wear pink now. Shh…

So farewell to my beloved zombies and vampires (I’ll still watch Breaking Dawn and Buffy though) and things that bump in the night but are not real yet no longer entertain me. We had a good 30 years.

And hello comedies!