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I just finished watching Billy Elliott. I've seen it a few times before, but I guess it had been awhile. That movie kills me. I mean, it really does slay me. My eyes are practically swollen shut. I forgot how much I love it.

I get so emotionally involved in movies, some shows, some books. My chest was actually hurting in some parts of this movie. I have been known to go into full-on sobs in movie theaters, on planes, in doctor's offices. After I saw Hotel Rwanda (by myself) I sat in the parking lot and cried for almost an hour. I had to call my mom and have her help me calm down. It was the holiday season and I couldn't listen to the trivial bullshit on the radio for days afterwards.

On the flip side, I have peed in my pants laughing at movies more times than I care to count. People have turned around to stare. I swear I could barely breathe in sitting next to my friend Anj when we saw Pineapple Express. Good thing she is demonstrative too since I kept finding myself smacking her on the arms and legs while laughing.

Not only did I laugh and cry my way through the last Harry Potter, but I also laid in bed and cried afterwards because it was all over. I love Haven Kimmel and her family so much that when I read her stories I feel it like a stone in the pit of my stomach. Davis Sedaris makes me laugh so hard I have dropped not one, but two of his memoirs into my bathtub.

Sometimes I wish I could let things slide a little more - it's only a television show, for Christ's sake! I actually had to stop watching ER because I was crying myself into a headache every freaking week. When I watch 30 Rock or Arrested Development it is so funny to me - SURELY funnier to me than anyone else - so perfectly "my sense of humor" that it seems odd that I am not friends with those people in real life. They would like me! I'm sure of it! What? That's not sad, is it?

Yes, I have an active imagination. I have always gotten so involved in my books that I can't hear or see what's going on around me. Many times I absolutely have no idea if I have seen a movie of a book I have read. I will argue with myself - have I seen it or not? My brain creates such vivid scenes and scenarios when I read a really good book that I honestly am not sure.

Are other people like this, or am I an extreme case?

I went to see Rendition with people from work. I didn't even think it was that great of a movie, but I was so profoundly disturbed by the situation and the fact that it was true that when the lights came up I was sobbing away. None of the other EIGHT ladies were crying. In fact they seemed surprised that I was. Tim rolls his eyes when I come out of the bathtub with a runny nose and swollen eyes where I have been reading Edward's Eyes - a children's book (for god's sake again).

Honestly, however inconvenient - I wouldn't get rid of this strange part of myself. I am sometimes incredulous that other people aren't as moved as I am. I guess this is just a piece of what makes me that nut that I am.

P.S. I have been agonizing over finding the right one word to describe a person who is completely taken in by something. Can you help? Zealot sounds too negative...