Yes, I look absolutely crazy right now, but that’s not my fault. Our apartment lacks central AC, and our AC on wheels is a piece of shit. Thought I’d provide y’all with an update on my life.
I’m taking a break from revising my novel, because in the last week revising the same sixty pages for the millionth time started to frustrate me. My friend, a novelist, told me to take a break and research my subject instead. So till the fall semester begins, I’m researching South Florida girls by interviewing old friends, roller skating with the muses, reading psychological studies and the literary works that made me decide that stories about teenagers are the best stories of all—Perks of Being A Wallflower, Judy Harry Potter, and Judy Blume novels—and revisiting Buffy Summers, Veronica Mars, and Angela Chase—the television heroines that sparked so much love, empathy, and hope for me during my darkest adolescent days, which is what I hope my novel will one day do for the confused gay boys and girls who watch The Hills and read Tolstoy with equal amounts of affection.
My childhood best friend has lived with me all week, which has sparked my interest in writing an article about stripping. A recession era college student, she started stripping to pay her bills. Really, what other job would pay her enough to pay for college? Hostessing? Camp counseling? Nope! I thought stripping would deteriorate her self-esteem and body image, but it’s actually made her a more confident person—possibly even happy for the first time in the eight years I’ve known her. She also has a very different feminist view on stripping then the ones I’ve heard from Diablo Cody and historians of Victorian Europe.
Another article I’m working on is a review of the Britney Spears/Nicki Minaj/Joe Jonas concert I attended on Friday, which was the least fun but most intellectually engaging pop spectacle I’d ever seen.
