POST-TEETH

"Greeting cards routinely tell us everybody deserves love. No. Everybody deserves clean water. Not everybody deserves love all the time." - Zadie Smith, "White Teeth"

I've leisurely stretched out "White Teeth" throughout these past two weeks and in the meantime accomplished:

1. paper on Macbeth (final title: A Woman's Sacrifice: Macbeth's downfall as feminist
redemption... and guess what suckas...received first ever A+ on an English paper!!!
yeeee-ahhh.)

2. took an open-note final... without the open notes...(this may in fact effect point 4, see below)

3. attended a M.I.A. concert (she was a major diva, show opened at 8, had three opening
acts--for what, I ask you, for what?--didn't go on until 10:40, public transport stops at
midnight, many audience members, including myself & friend, left around 11:20, which was
just as well since she stopped playing about 5 minutes later, meaning we paid roughly
$1/minute [+$9 convenience charge, thanks ticketmaster!]. sf concourse sucks as a concert
venue. not recommended for sold-out shows with hipster kids eagerly thrusting this way and
that. there is a time and place for that..is called the warped tour, kiddies.)

4. graduated from college (!!!!!!!) with two degrees, and minimal job prospects (!!!!), but great
analytical skills (!!), fondness of parenthesis, exclamation points, bad spelling, scrabble,
beer, oakland, and vast knowledge of useless information on literature and history, and trivia
(useful for trivia nights & winning said appreciation for shitty beer).

I feel that it is appropriate that I ended "White Teeth" the same time I ended college. How/Why you ask? Well, it was terrific along the way, I didn't want it to end, but when it did, it tied up much too neatly, with all characters (periphery or not) coming back into play for that one last pivotal scene. At the end of "White Teeth", one character is metaphorically shot twice: once in the past, once in the present. It's a deja vu moment, and graduating from college is like that: the second time (well, you've already graduated from high school havent you, you're a pro at this) is always scarier because the prospects loom larger. Maybe the specific moment is a less big deal, maybe you're better prepared for that moment to come, but in the end, you also realize that what comes after is entirely out of your hands--it's not a repeat, exactly, it's a what if? it's your own alternate universe with your choosing of storylines, players, and stakes... that rise and rise and rise...

currently listening to:
Good Times Bad Times
Led Zeppelin

it's summer baby, tiffany