Yes Is A World

 The Boy was recently in a music video. It's up on You Tube. And yes, it's real, unlike what many of the commentors are saying...

Three little known facts about Yes is a World:

01) I normally have a very strong stomach. Most foods don't affect me.

02) When I was little, if I was really excited about something, I'd make myself sick. For example, when I was in first grade we had a vacation planned to Disney World. Of course I was so excited about it, the day before we were leaving I came down with an awful stomach bug. We couldn't plan trips to go see my grandparents, they had to come see us. And even so, I'd always get sick before they came. I also had to reschedule many birthday parties for the exact same reason. 

03) Fortunately, I grew out of that phase pretty quickly. A new one, however, took it's place. Panic attacks. They've happened very sporadically, but one Thanksgiving while in college I made myself so upset over everything I had to do from them  until finals that I spent hours crying over a toilet and throwing up. In was in the middle of the night, but I still woke my mom up and we had a very long chat, and she gave me cold compresses, and told me that she gets panic attacks sometimes too.

So.

Last night I was very very sick.

At first I thought it was food poisoning of some sort, because let me tell you, it was not pretty. But, noting number 1, that would be very rare. I've never had food poisoning, that I can remember.  I'm definitely not excited about anything, well, the holidays, but nothing out of the ordinary. So it had to be number 3. I'm completely freaking out because for my third piece that I'm working on for workshop (that is due tomorrow) it's something much more personal and experimental than the first two pieces I wrote. I was at a complete stop yesterday and couldn't write anything.

I finally called my sister, because she also suffers from panic attacks and a great tendency towards perfectionism, and also because at midnight I'd knew she'd be up and getting ready for finals today. It was the first time that I had leaned on my little sister like that, to talk me through my completely irrational fears and remind me that the reason I am going to school is for fun and to get better, that it's okay if my rough drafts aren't completely perfect.  She was the best and said all the right things and suggested that I do some yoga to clear my mind and then just go to sleep. We decided it was perfectly okay for me to call in sick today, to take a little mental health day, and after sleeping I could spend the day writing.

Which turns out to be the best plan, because I'm still have crazy stomach cramps, although thankfully things have stopped coming out of my body.

So anyway, it's 8:30, I'm up, I've showered, and I'm ready to get to writing. And I know it's okay if everything is not perfect right now.  

We were invited to a party tonight, a little Hanukkah party, if you will.  I lost some time today, doing chores and writing, and didn't realize how late it was until The Boy called to see what our plan was. So it's all figured out, and I'm getting ready, and I'm going to be picked up in like 45 minutes. And then I get another call from him, "oh, by the way, it's a pot luck..." and he sort of trails off.

"Are you suggesting that you want me to whip something up now, while I'm showering and getting ready and within 30 minutes?"

"Why? Is that not possible?"

This is why I sometimes hate boys. It's so frustrating that HIS friends are having a party, HE'S not prepared, and then expects ME to cook, while looking pretty. It never ceases to amaze me that boys don't think, oh, what should I make? But instead think, I'll call my girlfriend and ask her to make something.

And he's very rarely sexist, so I can't even imagine being with someone who is even more so. And I know that recently I'm being more Girl Power (maybe because Spice Girls are going back on tour?) than I normally am, but what is expected of women vs. men is sometimes completely mind blowing.

 Argh. In protest, I'm bringing a 6 pack of beer. And I don't even feel bad about it.

I Hope So mentioned that she wants a Kindle. And I think a lot of other people do too - and I really believe that anything that will get people to read more is a great great thing. But I just can't bring myself to want one. I have such a physical connection to books that I really don't think a hand held reader can live up. In class we were reading Hopscotch and you literally have to flip through out the book (in a previous post I talk about moving from chapter 73 and from there he tells you to read chapter 1 and then chapter 2 and then chapter 116 and so on...). One of my points I wanted to discuss in class was, 

And my teacher's response was:

So I think I would really miss holding the physical object of the book, the bending, and dog earing, and coming away with this thing, the book itself, which has been changed because I have made my way through it.

I also love highlighting and underlining and marking up my books. I think it's invaluable for finding things later on, and I've heard that Kindle's copy and paste isn't great (only does one line at a time, which can lead to choppiness?). And I also love going back to an old favorite like Franny & Zooey and seeing what I thought were important passages at different times through my life, and what I may have missed. And I'm also one of those people who doesn't mind a used book full of notes and underlines by other readers - I love seeing what they thought was important, I think you can learn a lot about someone that way, and it makes me feel like I'm part of something bigger, a group that has read something and could someday meet on the street and talk about it.

Doc Ern had posted earlier about smelling books. Which I don't do it religiously, I've been known to dip my nose into a particularly strong smelling book, and there is nothing like the smell of a used book store. Siiiigh.  Something I imagine you just don't get with an electronic device.

So yeah, basically I love that it could get more people to read who normally don't,  but I think I'll stick with the traditional book for now. 

And also, I came to a realization while writing this. I don't *get* those people who are this way about music. If I can still see the artwork online to go with the tracks, then I'm a happy camper. But I guess if you're a musician I could see why you'd want the physical object, and maybe that means I'm more of a writer than I thought, if the object means that much to me. And I also think that draws some interesting conclusions to "the artist" who creates a physical work of art, and how that draws anyone in a creative field into the title of artist, if what you're creating is a physical thing. But then what about artists who work solely in a digital medium? 

I have to go do some reading. But those are my rambled thoughts on it.  

My Simple Sunday for today is a movie. Last night The Boy and I went to see Juno . The movie was written by Diablo Cody and should definitely click that link because even thought I wanted to see the movie, that article about Diablo Cody made me want to see it immedately. (And I'm sorry for everyone who cannot run out and see it tonight because it's still in limited run, but if any of you are in NY or LA, you should go see it tonight.)

It's just really really rare to see a movie in which the women are strong and their own people making their own decisions and not simply reacting to what is happening in the lives of their men. Plus, it's really funny, and also heartwarming.

I totally have a crush on it.  

And also, since we tried to go to the 11:20 movie, but arrived to find it had sold out, we had to go to the 12:20 movie, which meant we had an hour to spare. So we popped into Beowolf. Uh, gross. I hate Robert Zemeck's animation because the faces look all doughy and super fake (see: The Polar Express) and so the whole time I'm just thinking about punching him in the face. And also, we only saw the last 30 minutes or so, but there were more continuity errors than I could count. Which is also amazingly distracting for someone like me. So if you have the choice between these two, I'd go with Juno.