100 Word Challenge: Pretend

I live near Seaside, Florida. For all you movie buffs, this cottage community was the film location for the 1998 movie, “The Truman Show.” The town, and it is an actual town, was the backdrop for the story of Truman Burbank, portrayed by Jim Carrey.

In the movie, Truman’s entire life, from birth to adulthood, is one huge, complicated reality show. All the other town people – his co-workers, his friends, even his wife – are actors.

There have been times during my life that I’ve felt like I’m living inside a movie. That’s not because it’s in any way glamorous or exciting, but because it’s so weird that it could only be made up.

The bizarre cast of support characters – the cadaverous nosy neighbor who called us concerned that the smoke from our BBQ grill was actually our house burning down, a boundary-challenged neighbor who continually “borrowed” our dogs out of our backyard while we were at work for play dates with her pets, and another neighbor who couldn’t let go of a 3rd grade feud between our daughters (if you don’t want to do the math – that’s 19 years ago) and continued to yell at me from her front yard.

The even stranger comic relief “scenes” – the empty house next door flooding into the street after the second story bathtub overflowed for as many as two days, skim boarding down the same street as a Category 2 Hurricane raged around us, or dancing the Electric Slide with several taekwondo Senior Masters – including the 9th degree Grand Master.

The cliché plot – a college coed is setup on a blind date with her roommate’s boyfriend’s roommate. The two hit it off, have a whirlwind romance (we really dated for three years, but for plot purposes, you know), marry, have two fabulous children, 2.5 household pets, and live happily ever after (most of the time.)

Some days I feel like my life is some melodramatic Greek tragedy (is that redundant?), some days a slapstick comedy. There are weeks where I feel trapped in a vapid Lifetime Channel presentation or a ’70’s rerun from TV Land. When I was younger it was more like an After School Special gone horribly wrong.

There are times that I feel like a detached observer, incapable of communicating with the other “characters” in this movie. Other times, I’m the director behind the camera, or just the caterer filling up the dining table in the Green Room. Some days I just know Allen Funt is going to jump out from behind a wall and yell, “Smile! You’re on Candid Camera!” Allen, I’m not laughing! (I’m too old to be Punk’d!)

Have you ever felt like the direction of your life or just your day-to-day routine is totally out of your control? That something, or someone is messing with you just for kicks?

“Only thing worse than watching a bad movie is being in one” ~ Elvis Presley

This week’s word is:

Pretend

Using “pretend” for inspiration, write 100 Words – no more, no less. You can either use the word – or any form of the word – as one of your 100, or it can be implied. Include a link in your post back here , and add your story to the Mister Linky list. If you don’t have a blog, you can leave your submission in the comment section, or as a Facebook status post. Remember to keep spreading the love with supportive comments for your fellow wordsters.