Thursday, August 15, 2013

Cringe

Cringe: Teenage Diaries, Journals, Notes, Letters, Poems, and Abandoned Rock Operas
Ed Sarah Brown
2008
Weight: 1.4 lbs
Method of Disposal: Donating


So much fun!  I loved reading Cringe.  It was hilarious.  I really appreciated the adult responses to the teenage love, angst, excitement.  Some of the authors had me laughing quite loudly, while all alone in my bedroom. 

I could, of course, and unfortunately, relate.  I wrote out wills and testaments.  I wrote love letters and fan letters trying to proclaim how not weird I was being to Gillian Anderson.  Things like, "I just really love you.  Not in a creepy way.  But I have to meet you.  Not to be weird."  So so scary.  SO glad Gillian probably never had to read them, but I feel bad for whoever did.  Or not.  I think I want THAT job.  I could read and respond to fan mail.  Totes!  Imagine the stories you could tell at the bar.



I also quoted Ani Difranco ALL. THE. TIME.  And turned in bizarre, worrisome, self-important bullshit to my teachers.  These pictures all show parts of an autobiography I wrote for class in high school.  Note the psychology appointments, the make-up down my eyes, the huge pants, hair colors, the walls of my bedroom, and the sad/absurd pictures of me dressed for a friend's funeral and me crying over breaking up with my "spiritual affinity."  Who thinks these are good picture taking times?  Who?

 

 
I, of course, am the hunched over girl in the Nine Inch Nails shirt.  I was not at all obsessed with the girl on the left...


Thank God for nice, patient teachers that do not write notes to students that say "Get over yourself!  You have hardly lived yet!"  I thought this teacher was MEAN but, after this note, and a few good book suggestions, I secretly loved her.  I am sure I showed her my appreciation by staring at her like I am looking at the camera in the picture with my dad, stepmother, and brother above.



 

2 comments:

  1. I enjoyed this post! although it was too close a reminder of my pre-/ teen years too. aiiii.

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  2. Thanks! A couple people at work are raising teenagers now, and I get the phone calls about their behavior from time to time. It makes me think of all the times my mother would be on the phone to her friends, complaining for hours. Life is so strange.

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