RIGHT now, I say.

Growing up, my mother used to tell me little tales of white lies. Of course, I think I was always too smart to believe her most of the time. But now, now i think otherwise.

She'd tell me that if I kept biting my nails, worms would start growing inside my belly. Worms never grew, at least not that I've noticed. To top it off, I even bit my toenails just to prove it to her that it wasn't true. Uh, yeah, so I was a toenail biter.

Then, there was the rice tale. Over dinner she'd tell me that, for every teensie piece of rice I left behind, I'd end up with a spot on my skin. At the time, I imagined that's why my grandpa was so "spotty", not realizing that they were just age spots or sun spots.

My mom has a lot of freckles and I remembed at one point, I became a little smart-ass and retorted with a "Mom, is that why you have all those little brown specks on your face?"

So, my face is starting to look like leopard skin. I'm breaking out like a greasy-faced 16-yr old. The suckers are leaving scars here and there. Also, over the years, I've slowly accumulated a few freckles. Of course, it seems I'm always the only one who notices. Everyone else would just say, "What zit? What spot?" I think they're just being nice.

Now, I am all grown up and do you know what? I'm starting to wonder if the rice-spot tale is true.