Reconnecting in 3, 2, and...

OK, this is to be the blog entry that the last one was originally supposed to be. Now, I mentioned this book Citizen Girl, which I read over the last two grueling TV and internet-free days. The main character is a 24-year-old "feminist" who graduated from Wesleyan with a degree in gender studies. The story is about being true to "thine own self", if  you will, as this character gets a job with a seemingly female-oriented marketing agency that ends up being outrageously sexist and she struggles to do the right thing even though she is making really good money, yada, yada. The character's name is Girl, which I get in an overt connect-to-the theme sort of way, but it just didn't work for me. Everyone kept calling her "Girl" and it bugged me every time.

One thing I did love, however, was toward to beginning, Girl gets fired from this really crappy job and lands in a heap of depression, so her mom sends her a box of old relics (including the pantaloons she wore in a tenth-grade production of Twelfth Night) with a note telling Girl she needs to "reconnect with her root accomplishments". I love this. And I have decided that since it is winter, and it snowed today, and darn it, I've been feeling a little blue, I should explore this root accomplishments thing myself. Here you go folks, a look into all I have done in my little life:

1. I spent three years in high school decorating for dances of every conceivable theme. Most of these dances I did not attend. Then, I spent three years of my adult life (read: career) decorating for dances of every conceivable theme (ok, well mostly just Hawaiian and Sea of Love). All of these dances I wish I hadn't attended.

2. I wrote a kick-ass story about unicorns when I was in 3rd grade and was selected to go the Young Author's Conference at the community college. This is the highest formal recognition I've received for my writing.

3. 8th grade was a great year for me vocally. I got to sing two solos at a choir concert-one for a song from Les Miserables, and another from Phantom of the Opera (whatever the famous lovish songs are from each). And I was part of a quartet that sang at our creepy principal's retirement shin-dig. We sang "Scarborough Fair". Parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme...

Wow. I feel better already. You should take a few minutes and reconnect with your own root accomplishments.

TV is for the birds

This week marks the beginning of a new lifestyle for me, as we have officially disconnected our cable service for an undetermined amount of time. Do not read into this, thinking that I have come to the conclusion that television will be the demise of us all--it was purely a financial decision, and one that I did not take lightly. Believe me, there were a lot of things I suggested getting rid of that are less useful to me. Such as heat. I am naturally warm anyway, so I figured we could do without that one. If it wasn't for the ever-pestilent problem of the children...

I digress. I did, however, in the absence of televised anything, manage to read a book this week. Citizen Girl (great cover art, some interesting plot points, and somewhat vague and underdeveloped characters) by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus. I love the name Nicola and had never heard it before I met a colleague-turned-friend who calls herself this. I thought it was totally unique until I picked up this book-what do you know? I think I will put it on the collective nomenclature of potential names for the daughter I will never have.

This is turning into some kind of crazy awesome stream-of-consciousness activity and we are rapidly floating away from my primary objective. I think I will start over.

Famously Insecure Women in Lit.

I was thinking this would be a good title for a college course I would like to teach. I wonder if someone would like to hire me as an adjunct faculty to do just this (probably not, unless it is the University of I Live on an Island). I came up with this class today as I was looking at recent pictures of myself and wondering who that woman is with collagen injected into multiple locations spread across her entire face. And thighs. Hhmmmm (heavy sigh)...aren't we, as women, so often motivated by the things in our lives that make us the most insecure? I mean, if I wanted to still wear maternity clothes, I wouldn't have stopped being pregnant, you know what I mean? 

Here are some women who I think can relate to this womanly plight of insecurity:

1. Bridget Jones. I read Bridget Jones's Diary when I was in college and it was as if I had finally met a woman who could measure up to my mania. As an English major who wanted to be a writer, I spent many nights cooped up in a computer lab under the guise of "writing a paper". But really I was mostly surfing the internet for exotic job postings in Europe or coming up with elaborate stories about what my life would be like if I were dating or married to some guy sitting at the computer behind me. I got up to go to the bathroom A LOT. Bridget was my soul mate.

2. Lady Macbeth. Talk about a hot mess. Like many women (myself included, on occasion) Lady M's insecurities reach beyond her physical being to encompass her total realm of influence--namely, her husband. She is a total control freak. I mean, when was the last time you killed someone to raise your own status and make yourself feel better? Huh?

3.  Daisy Buchanan. She is married, yet enters into a love affair with Gatsby anyway due to his charm and apparent wealth. Then she runs over her husband's mistress with Gatsby's car and speeds away. Need I say more?

Do you know who is not insecure? Nancy Drew. Did you know that she is perpetually a teenager? I have never met a teenage girl (and trust me, I've met a few) with her kind of confidence and poise.  And she is so insightful.  Now I want to be Tina Fey and Nancy Drew.

A Lack of Literary Prowess

The only things I've read in the last week are Entertainment Weekly and a rather lengthy medical document on how to care for my son's newly circumcised boy part. I feel guilty, I really do. And now I have nothing to say other than all this birth-giving has gotten me slightly off-task. Well, we'll just say "alternately-tasked".  We even tried to watch a movie last night, but I fell asleep for about 90 minutes in the middle and couldn't seem to figure out what was happening once I roused myself.

I did find this great little video called Lost Untangled where the producers use action figures to explain (sort of) current and pending situations both on and off the island. I did not purpose this blog to be strictly about Lost, or television for that matter, but it is all I've got right now so there you have it.