Can There Be Truth in a Pack of Lies?

You may remember that last Monday I told all of you that I'd been given the "Creative Writer" Award, and as part of the rules for the award, I had to tell you 6 outrageous lies about myself... and one outrageous truth.

To refresh your memory, here is the list I gave you:

-- Robert Redford once stood behind me in a checkout line at Albertson's supermarket.

--I met an acquaintance from a neighboring small town in central Illinois by a waterfall on the side of Mt. Rainer in Washington state. We hadn't been in touch with each other for decades.

--I once had to rescue an adult Vietnamese pot-bellied pig from my swimming pool.

--The Frankfort, Kentucky, restaurant in which I was dining was evacuated due to a bomb threat.

--I met five different Osmonds on five different days as they left JC Penney in the mall at Orem, Utah.

--I lived six blocks away from where Gary Gilmore went on his last crime spree.

--I was shopping in a mall in Salt Lake City at the same time as Ted Bundy. Needless to say, our shopping lists were completely different.

There's the list. All of 'em sound a bit far-fetched, don't they? Which one is the truth? You might remember that after listing all those things, I mentioned that there may be a surprise in store for you. Well, the surprise is...

Every single one of 'em is TRUE.

Robert Redford enjoyed standing behind me. You see... I thought everyone was staring at me, and I was trying surreptitiously to check on the state of my hair, buttons, zipper... anything that could make people stare at me. Behind my dark glasses, I looked at people again and noticed that they weren't staring at me, they were staring at someone behind me. I turned around, and there was that big hunk of gorgeousness grinning at me. He knew what had been going on in my tiny mind!

Two casual acquaintances who lived six miles apart until they graduated from high school. One moved to Phoenix, Arizona; the other moved to Knoxville, Tennessee. They don't speak for over twenty years. Of course they're going to meet at a waterfall on the side of a mountain thousands of miles away from their homes. Serendipity loves things like this!

Once the pig fell in the pool and I managed to haul its squealing bacon out of the water, I never saw it again. My bruises were extremely grateful!

The restaurant in Kentucky was a victim to a disgruntled former employee.

Meeting all those Osmonds was a bit of a fluke because I did not work retail at that time. All five times I was eating a meal after going to the mall to see a movie. I guess they all liked shopping at Penneys!

Gary Gilmore's last crime spree: I've never-- before or since-- seen so many police and emergency vehicles all in the same spot.

I didn't know the truth of the last one until I was reading a book about Bundy years later. The day I was in the mall was the day that Bundy chose the wrong girl... the one who managed to get out of his VW of Death and live to testify against him. I double checked the journal I kept at the time, and I was there during the exact same time frame that he was. Still gives me the shivers!

And as far as the last two items... I wonder if that's why I have a penchant for crime fiction? Who knows!