My New Resolution

Okay, so I have been super lax in updating this thing.

However, there's no reason for me to neglect this. I can type so much faster than I can write by hand so I need to be writing daily. And I really want to use this as an idea board for some other projects that I'm working on. So, with that said, I will attempt to write here everyday.

This is like talking into a mirror, knowing that this is mostly going only to myself. But whatever.

My willpower is bullshit. I promised myself that I was going to get up at 8 this morning, but that didn't work out. Astonishing. I would like to believe that I have a really strong will, but I know tht I honestly don't. Instead, when my alarm went off, I slept til 11. I just couldn't go to sleep last night. Instead, I finished the book I was reading.

I bought it for a dollar (I think it was a fluke in processing at the B&N, but whatever. I'm broke and in college so I'll take it). It's Mary Karr's second memoir, Cherry. It takes the female perspective of the classic, Southern, coming-of-age and coming-of-sexual-age story.

So, things I liked about this book: some great turns of phrase. This is the first time I've read anything by Karr (discounting the segment she wrote in Inventing the Truth [which, that whole book and experience was a tragedy on ice]). The idea of being "boned into guacamole" is hilarious. Plus, I can total relate to many of the experiences that she talks about like being one of the few thoughtful kids in high school and wanting to subvert the natural order. However, this differs from my life because the 1990's and 1970's are hardly the same. In the 90's and early new millennium, everyone I knew desparately wanted to be different and fit in at the same time. Karr talks about the ostracization and the rules of belonging, though different, apply to every group.

Further, the line "your normally disaffected face scorched by tears" describes just about every time that I can ever remember crying. It doesn't feel cold and melancholy. It feels hot and angry and feral.

However, I did have a few problems with the book. And by few, I mean just one big one. Most of the book is written in a very overt second person. While for most of the middle portions it doesn't bother me, the references to "your father" and the introduction and closing chapters are really strained. However, the overall story makes up for these shortcomings.