i thought i was the only one

So, I finished reading Queen Bees & Wannabees yesterday night, and started reading a book called Milkrun, which is a really silly girl book - I kind of needed a little break from the more serious stuff I've been reading recently. Anyway, the main character is a copyeditor (what I want to do, I think!), and on a slow Monday, she says "It's just so hard to focus. I've started to see commas in my sleep, like when you play too much Tetris and start to mentally insert your pencil holder into that space between your bulletin board and the wall." Aaahhh! I SO remember the days when I used to do that, back when we had our little Apple IIGs. My dad and I were pretty crazy competitors, and we would pretty much sit down and play until we had beaten each others' scores. I had forgotten all about that little competition (and the resulting "mental Tetris" I found myself playing almost constantly when I wasn't in front of the screen - mostly I would try to fit pieces in between words or letters in a book I was reading) until I read that. Aww. Brings back good memories...

Anyway, back to Queen Bees, THAT was an interesting book! It is written for parents of teenage girls, particularly mothers, so yes I know, it doesn't really apply to me. But I was interested to read it because, of course, I was once a teenage girl, too. The book actually took me much longer to read than it otherwise might have, because I spent so much time putting the book down to pause and flashback to what high school was like for me, and how it was the same as or different from what Wiseman describes. In many, many ways, she was spot-on, though. A lot of the issues she says girls deal with as they mature really do happen, and it was interesting also to see how the girls that she worked with dealt with their problems in different ways, some of which I didn't necessarily agree with. But it's all part of growing up - you learn what is best for you. For girls, that can take quite a while to figure out, but I think it happens, mostly. We're always learning more about ourselves, though, I think - no matter at what age.

The other weird thing is that there was a girl named Chandra in the book, which is the name of one of my best friends from high school, and there was a couple named "Anna" and "Derek" in one of Wiseman's scenarios - I know the names are not THAT uncommon, but that was one of the Big Couples in our school for a few years. So while the book in general was making me think of my awkward adolescent years, those little coincidences really struck me and put me mentally back there even more! Whew - glad I'm done with that book, as interesting as it was. I certainly don't want to relive high school.

More later. xoxo

Currently Reading:

TITLE: V for Vendetta
AUTHOR: Alan Moore & David Lloyd


TITLE: Milkrun
AUTHOR: Sarah Mlynowski