Araby

Many people say that they find Araby boring, but I think that is what makes it beautiful. Araby is a normal person living his normal life in his normal town and normal neighborhood. He is just like us. He reminds me of myself as a little girl. He has a crush on one of his neighbors and she is all that he can wrap his mind around to think about for any amount of time. When I was in elementary school there were boys that I had crushes on and I went through much the same thought process as the little boy in this story did. Sitting in class was impossible, going to bed without dreaming of the cute guy in my class was equally as difficult. And if we had a scheduled a "date" it was all that I could think about until the day finally came. Granted my lovers and I would never go to a bazaar, a movie was equally as exciting. I think that the boy felt that he was blown off when his date wasn't at the bazaar and he had traveled all that way for nothing. I can feel his pain. Everyone goes through their own heartbreaks. The first one is usually unexpected, but the boy had to go through this to grow and mature.

Winning the lottery!

I first read "The Lottery" when I was a senior in High School. It struck me that first time because when it starts out, all of the people in the town seem to act like it is a normal day. Everybody is bustling around, chatting with one another while their children play as they would in their own backyard. It seems to be a closely knit town that knows everyone and is friendly with their neighbors. As the story progresses however, you can tell that the mood shifts slightly. The closer to the time of the drawing, the more somber the environment. I did not understand this at first. Isn't winning the lottery supposed to be a good thing? Not in this town. The way that Tessie dies takes me back to reading the gruesome ways that people were sometimes killed in the Bible. Even her own children and husband helped the town to rid of their family member. Some societies still partook in acts similar to this not too long ago. Why? To keep the population low? Their town was already fairly small. Or is this because of the lottery? Whatever the reason, it worked well for this community. I just hope Bozeman never decides to make this an annual activity.

A Good Man

"A Good Man Is Hard to Find" started out almost like our logs of Groundhogs Day. It relayed every aspect of the characters day to the reader. Everything that was said was recorded and even the small details were included. As it went on the reader gets to know the characters better. It seems the author wanted to especially emphasize the grandmother and never mentioned her real name. The reader also got to know the children fairly well, at least enough to know that they acted like children, even a little on the spoiled side. The mother and father's personalities were hard to grasp as they remained fairly quiet throughout the story. The grandmother's worst fear is running into "The Misfit", a runaway criminal. The Misfit reminds me of Arnold Friend in a way as do many other themes of the story. As soon as they spot the misfit for the first time, the grandmother recognizes him, but can't remember where from. This theme was also in "Where are you going, where have you been", when Arnold Friend says, "You know who I am, you just don't remember". Soon after the grandmother does remember that he is indeed the infamous criminal, but does not realize until the end that he is actually her son. Unlike Arnold Friend however, I feel that the criminal himself may have some mental problems. He himself can not remember why he was in prison in the first place, and he seems to be a little off kilter generally. I find this story to be extremely tragic, but I feel that there is a deeper meaning to it. Although, the moral of the story........ is the story.

Lot's Wife

The story of Lot's wife reminds me of worries that are still in the air today. Most of America, and many other parts of the world are dreading, and even terrified, of 2012. Theories of Yellowstone Volcano blowing up, a solar flair that could end life for all, and countless other explanations of how the world will end circulate throughout our planet. Lot and his family had similar worries when their town was promised to be destroyed. I can feel the fear as I read the story that must have been pulsing through their veins. Lot's wife could not help, but to look behind her to see what havoc was unfolding in the city that she left behind. This mistake turned her into a pillar of salt, never to see or breathe again. The daughter's fear of having nobody to reproduce with, led them to lie with their father and bear his children. This story makes me think, if the world was to "end" would God find another chosen family to save mankind as in this story and the story of Noah? I know that stories, like history, repeat and are retold, so is it even possible for our world to truly end?

Groundhog Day

My day was another usual Tuesday, filled with class, homework, and other bits of randomness.
6AM: Alarm goes off, hit the snooze button
6:15 AM: Alarm goes off again, decide I better get up
6:25 AM: go to the bathroom, shower, put in contacts
6:45AM: go downstairs and make Special K cereal, watch TV while eating
7:00AM: go back upstairs to dry and style my hair, change clothes, and put on makeup
7:35 AM: scurry out the door to start my car and begin my drive to campus
7:50AM: finally find a parking spot and continue to Reid Hall for my Multicultural Education Class
8:00: Class starts, teacher is sick today so we have a sub. She can't get DVD player to work, so we have another boring lecture instead of a relaxing morning
9:15AM: class ends, go home
11:00AM: start making eggs and toast for lunch (I know this sounds more like breakfast, but it sounded good)
11:45AM: pull out my art supplies to work on a drawing that I started on Thursday
12:30PM: Finish art project
12:30-12:40: Watch a bit of TV
12:40: Go back to school for my 1:10 art class
1:10: art class starts, we critique each others work and begin talking about cross contours and our next assignment
4:00: class ends
400-4:10: make my way back to my car and my boyfriend, Vinny, calls. Tells me about his homework, mentions he needs to pick up a newspaper. I offer to get one for him.
4:25: arrive at Smith's Grocery to get newspaper. Remember I need some other things too. Pick up milk, cereal, and deodorant as well.
4:40: Arrive at boyfriend's house
4:40-6:00: Both of us work on our homework. I have physics to do, he has calculus.
6:00: We are hungry. He begins cooking spaghetti. Tells me he doesn't need any help, so I watch some TV.
6:20: Dinner is ready! It tasted fantastic too. Owen, Vinny's roommate joins us for dinner.
6:45: Jason, Vinny's friend arrives
7:00: The season premier of "Lost" begins.
7:45: I fall asleep watching it (ashamedly)
10:00: Lost is over, Vinny wakes me up
10:15: I head back to my house
10:20: take out contacts, take off makeup
10:25: Put on pajamas
10:30: Finally crawl into bed
11:00: Last time I look at clock, fall asleep shortly after
I tried to be as accurate as possible, but realize that there is a lot of little things that I am leaving out. I'm sure there are things that other people around me were doing that I noticed, but didn't remember long enough to include into my blog. I have no idea how Ulysses was written, as my day probably wouldn't even take up a page.

Memories

I have so many memories from my early childhood, from getting into major trouble, to some pretty funny moments with my sister. I honestly don't even know which one would be the earliest, but I will share one of the ones that sticks out in my mind. One of the first ones that I remember took place underneath my grandparents' ping pong table. I was three years old and my friend from preschool had come over to spend the day with me. We told my grandmother that we were going to play under the infamous ping pong table while she prepared lunch. My grandfather was in the same room, but as always he was taking his afternoon snooze. Kara and I thought it would be a good idea to play barbershop, with real scissors. I cut her hair first and when I was finished it was her turn. We must have been pretty quick, because we were done by the time my grandma called us in for lunch. As soon as she saw our hair she immediately panicked, probably thinking about how she was going to tell my parents. As soon as my dad saw me, he began laughing hysterically. He said that my head looked like a roosters feathers. I don't remember telling my mom, but from what I hear she was not pleased. The next day we went to Fantastic Sam's to repair the damage that my friend and I had done to our precious locks.

Smooth Talk

Wednesday, in class, we watched the movie "Smooth Talk" and compared it with the story "Where are you going, Where have you been?". I felt that the movie followed the book very well until the end, which many people were disappointed with. After giving some more thought to the movie however, I learned that the ending can be somewhat enjoyable. In the book I got the feeling that Arnold Friend was the Devil himself, going to take Connie to hell with him. The movie however, gave me a different perspective of him. I see him more as the force that takes away a woman's innocence. He could be anybody. He could be the boy that Connie was with the night before. He could also be another boy at school that Connie thought was attractive. He is whoever takes Connie's innocence. The fact that he appeared 40 makes sense since many view losing their virginity as something that makes you more of an adult that you were previously. She went into it as being very scared, but after it was all over she seemed more at ease and somewhat pleased.
Arnold Friend does not seem as evil to me anymore, but more of an initiation to growing up.