i’m taking this american literature class right now with the theme of women and the houses they live in. we started with some pretty typical stuff: anne bradstreet’s “upon the burning of our house”, emily dickinson’s “there’s been a death in the opposite house”, but now we’re moving on to more contemporary stuff. last week, we were supposed to read toni morrison’s beloved and i absolutely hated it. i know that toni morrison is supposed to be this amazing writer, and i don’t doubt for a millisecond that she is. it’s just that i’d never read anything by her, and all of a sudden, i’m expected to read beloved and it’s crazy. definitely too heavy for me. there’s all this talk about dead babies and their angry ghosts and cow-fuckers and i hated it. i couldn’t get past the first few chapters. i know i’ll have to, because i’ll be tested on my knowledge of the course content, but i’m not looking forward to it. i’m simply not. (more…)

most of my close friends know about my current crushes. i pluralize the word because there are always several, and i use the word “current” because i tend to fall in and out of “love” quite often. however, in the proverbial spinning rolodex that contains all the usually inadequate objects of my attentions, there has been one person whose contact card has not been crumpled up and thrown out. for obvious reasons, i won’t actually name this lucky fellow. i can imagine that if i did, someone who is acquainted with him would take a sudden yet totally innocent interest in this blog, see his name, raise their eyebrows in a somewhat high degree of incredulity, and bring it to this certain person’s attention. (more…)