BOOK REVIEW

Super Sad True Love Story

By Gary Shteyngart

First of all, Gary Shteyngart is one of my favorite authors. If you haven't read Absurdistan or The Russian Debutante's Handbook, I would highly recommend doing so. His writing is humorous and gross and weird, but overall it's just really good.

Super Sad True Love Story, like Gary's previous novels, follows a young(-ish) Jewish guy, Lenny, on his quest to win the heart of a much younger and damaged woman - Eunice. Meanwhile the United States is literally collapsing around them and they are having to fight for survival.

In their dystopian world, people have to rely on technology as a means of communication and networking so much that when people actually speak face to face, they call it "verballing" and it is a foreign and strange occurrence. Super Sad goes back and forth between Lenny's e-mails and journal entries and Eunice's e-mail and chat accounts - never is there a conversation observed that is not through these means.

It's a dark story, but this book made me laugh a lot. It reads lightly, and it made an excellent pool read, but it is not vapid. It serves as a nice commentary on the government over governing, and our increased reliance on technology to communicate effectively. It also feels like a very relevant read, as the US is collapsing due to bankruptcy and their inability to pay off their loans to China. UH OH.

Here's a (funny! real funny.) promotional video for this book and the author:
So, yeah. Check it out from the library, buy it on Amazon, or you local bookstore. Two thumbs up.

Read more about Gary Shteyngart here.

Tangent

Isn't it funny that no matter when you go to Kroger you ALWAYS SEE PEOPLE YOU KNOW?? I took a "nap" and woke up at 10pm and my inner dialogue went like this:
me 1: "girl, get out of bed brush your hair and go buy some groceries."
me 2: "but I could skip dinner and just sleep... or I could eat flax seeds and green tea..."
me 1: "stop bitching and go buy groceries."
So I did. And I even put on a little mascara. And as I was leaving I was thinking that my chances of running in to people I know are pretty slim, seeing as it's 10:15 on a Saturday night. To further decrease my chances of awkward run-ins, I even chose the east-side Krogs.

And then I ran in to this girl who I used to work with in Madison, who once or twice supplied an under-21 me with over-21 libations and used to tell me about all the old men she had slept with. Only now she's dating our old boss. (To be fair, he's really nice and pretty cute.) And it was awkward because for some reason I feel like I need to explain what I'm doing with my life, like people just assume I'm flailing and floundering unless I tell them what I'm actually up to, which is mostly flailing and floundering. And hopping fences to go swimming. Not that me giving a life update is necessarily awkward. It's just that I always have to give them to people who don't care. This poor girl was just trying to do something normal, like buy some milk, and I verbal vomited all over her. Like she had even wondered what I had been up to in the last two years.

Finally she peeled herself away from me. I check my cell phone like a nervous tick: no new messages. I go home to my house, deserted except for Moof, and turn on Sex and the City reruns, and proceed to eat about half of the food I had just bought. Craving attention, I consider texting people who reliably text me back, but realize how sad that is and talk to the cat instead. Sex and the City goes off, should I watch Teen Mom, or go to bed? I turn on Teen Mom, feeling too lazy to walk upstairs, and then promptly turn it off when the teen couple starts arguing over who will buy their son's first birthday cake.

Speaking of cake, I witnessed a Family Doing A Family Thing while in Krogs: picking out a cake. The bakery was closed, so they were studying the leftover cakes in the cake case, while their teenaged son tries to look nonchalant and pretend like he's too cool to be looking at cakes with his fam but still trying to not look annoyed or embarassed even though he totally is. Meanwhile I'm trying to look cool and nonchalant checking out some fresh bread that I am never going to buy even though I'm really just spying on this Family Doing A Family Thing. It makes me miss my family. How fun it is to have a little brother going into his angsty phase! How I miss hearing him talk on the phone for hours and hours and hours. I miss embarassing him about his girlfriend.

Moral of this story: Always brush your hair before going to Kroger.

Now I'm off to internet-stalk Andy Samberg. Good night.

Baby in the Corner

Today is my first day of new work, and my biggest hope is that people (customers) stop calling me baby (ew.) Maybe the 200 mile move northward will help with this, or maybe people will magically develop manners. The kind of manners where skeezy old men* know it's not a-ok to brush against me, get really close to my face, or tell me how cute I am. It's not appropriate, dudes.

*or anyone.

Lundi Link-day

Links!

Did you know that plastics were first created to help save the environment? I didn't! This book has made it on to my summer reading list for sure.

A look at a few bathroom fixtures that were once standard that we have since done away with.

This article is sad and scary, but I think we all know someone who has had this happen to them. Watch your money!

MEOW! Cats in art. First cat looks like he's being tortured..

The nearly-magical (OK, I know it's not really magic...) Wolfram Alpha search engine turning two. Are we SURE it's not powered by Wolfram and Hart??

I haven't had pancakes in a year! These Quinoa Pancakes seem like a perfect recipe to break that dry spell AND eat more Quinoa - a protein powerhouse. The New York Times recipes for health all look delicious, fo real.

A 28-day Digital Diet. As much as I love breaking my Internet addiction every once and a while, 28 days is a long time to go. I really like the idea for a contest between friends to see who could text the least during a month.

Want some new music for Monday? This has been making me smile.

REPUBLICAN SMORGASBORD:
Awaiting the Rapture
Boring Candidates - Although I must disagree - John Edwards was pretty boring until he was at the center of his own sex scandal.
Let's Clear-Cut the Rain forest!
A decent article about different potential candidates
Newt loves Dancing Queen

Just so we're clear, the Britbrit vid is part of the Republican madness.

YAY for Zooey Deschanel and the other hilarious ladies behind HelloGiggles!

Have a really awesome week, STAY HYDRATED.

Lundi Link-day (belated)

The kid brother and I saw Pirates of the Caribbean 4 on Friday. It was fun, like the others, but they didn't bother changing up the soundtrack much - they basically took it straight from the first movie and did not vary the theme. That was a smidge disappointing.

Linktime:

See kids, facebook is draining.

Guess! The! Sentences!

Are you a negative person? I sometimes am, and this article really hits home for me.

This guy's blog is pretty awesome, here's one of my favorite articles. Could you do all 72 things? It's daunting but I bet it would make life way more enjoyable.

Swoon. Also: I really want a skirt guard.

Magnetic digital Cat Camera that takes saturated pictures.

Small week, yes.

Have you met my dog?

Meet Kingsley, my dog. He's a big scaredy-cat. In fact, he is scared of cats. And big, fluffy dogs. And Nikita.
He's a fun day trip partner. I haven't taken him on an overnight camping trip yet because he's a little unpredictable. We are going to try it out in 2 weeks though! That's my little brother with the dog. Only he's not so little any more - 13! Sheesh.

That last photo was taken with my new camera - a Diana Mini. The pictures turned out very Diana-esque, so I guess round 1 was a success.

Last Weekend

Just got my handy disposable cam developed from last weekend, and some of the pics were cute:

Terry and I split a delicious (read: too rich to finish) cupcake from Gigi's Cupcakes in Athens, and felt the need to document it. That's what happens when we spend too much time apart.

Nice work graduating, Terry.

Terry and Chris

Scary flash at night. Eek, a big downside to going disposable.