Me Talk Pretty One Day.

"Giant Dreams, Midget Abilities."

In this chapter Sedaris introduces his father, Lou Sedaris, a conservative computer engineer who uses a concoction of vodka and jazz to melt away his daily stress. In fact, in this portrayal, Lou doesn't just sooth himself with jazz music, he is obsessed with it.

Sedaris recalls an evening during his childhood when his father takes him and his sisters, Gretchen and Lisa, to see the musician David Brubeck perform. It is notable that on this particular night, Mr. Brubeck is accompanied by his sons.

Shamelessly, Lou is the most active listener in a crowd of quietly observant fans. Unlike his quiet counterparts, he beats his head and chest wildly to the music, embarrassing his children.
During the ride home, Lou begins to daydream aloud about having a family jazz band. He then forces his children to pick up instruments.

David gets the guitar, even though he has no interest in playing the instrument. His teacher, a very short man, tells David the importance of a musicians instrument and that he should name his guitar and be devoted to it like a lover. David says he wants to give his guitar a name like Oliver but his teacher discourages this.

After a while of not practicing and lack of interest, David stops taking guitar lessons.

Observations

I've been thinking a lot lately. My grandfather had a heart attack recently and was in the hospital for about two weeks. He's fine now but my entire family's daily lives were thrown out of control. I while my mom was out at the hospital with her dad, I got left with a lot more responsibilities that I'm not used to. This all made me think about what I'm going to do with my life after college as well as thinking about my physical health.

I want to go to an art college and after I graduate I want to go into an ar career. But art colleges are very hard to get into. And with college competition and rising tutition, I'll proably end up at OSU or OU. More likely OU because its cheaper. I'm striving for CCAD but I need to keep my grades up or else my GPA won't be high enough and I won't be accepted. And this is me worrying just about getting to college. Afterwards is entirely different and far more negative.

And then there's my health both physical and mental. I'm average size, average weight, but my family is always pressing me to do more, more, more you're not doing enough to keep your weight off! And it makes me feel bad about my self, like I'm overweight. And I'm not. All my friends say that I'm not, and part of me says that I'm not but there's the other half of me that says that I am. I understand that I need to keep active because my family has a history of heart and weight related health problems but I feel that what I'm doing right now isn't good enough. I walk at least four miles every other day for more then two and a half hours. That's good, right? But my mom and my youngest sister, my sister especially, say that I do nothing but sit on ass and do nothing. Not only does this make me feel like heavy but it leaves me feeling very pissed off.

Sorry for the bitchfest. But now that I've said I feel much better.

Guilty Until Proven Innocent.

Because of the advancements in today's medical and criminal-related fields, I have a feeling that there are a lot of men that could be exonerated now when they couldn't have "back then". These articles, the ones Jen posted, could mean men that have spent the majority of their lives imprisoned on false charges can finally be free and live their lives.

T-shirts...?

I can't think of anyone, that I know, in their right mind that would wear a CNN t-shirt. Now if the headlines actually sounded funny or clever, I might consider buying one, but this, though, is a great example of our capitalist society wringing money out of the public in every way possible.

Honestly, CNN t-shirts.

In today's world, I don't think there isn't a thing that we can't sell. With internet access, a little money, and a creative/perverse/deranged mind, you could make and sell almost anything. My friend, Katie, once found a battery opperated yodelling pickle. No joke.

Me Talk Pretty One Day.

"Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris, one of his many entertaining autobiographies.

Chapter one: Go Carolina

David Sedaris begins this series of autobiographical essays with a story from his early childhood. While he is sitting in his fifth grade geography class, an unfamiliar teacher unexpectedly calls him out of the room. His mind flashes images of television shows where secret agents come knocking on doors in pursuit of a criminal. He then quickly runs through a list of crimes for which he might be punished. It is immediately evident that even as a child, Sedaris uses pop culture as a source of reference for many real life circumstances.

Further on in this chapter Sedaris talks more about how embarassing it is to be in speech thearpy. He says that only people in speech therapy boys that keep movie star scrapbooks and collect rose petals for use in a fragrant potpourri, addressing that a more proper name for the Speech Therapy Lab would be Future Homosexuals of America.

Sedaris also talks about the tactics he would use to avoid using his s's. Words such as "please" became "with your kind permission" and "yes" became "correct" or "affirmative". At the end of the chapter, it comes down to Sedaris and his speech therapist. His therapist is leaving for the year and wants to celebrate with cookies. She then starts to talk about her personal life and about how much of a failure she is at being a speech therapist. With teacher seemingly on the verge of tears, Sedaris says "I'm thorry." at which point his teacher looks at him and responds "Haha, I got you." She then signs him up for another session of speech therapy.