My female roommate seems to be much more of a social butterfly than I am -- she's pretty much out at bars every night this past week. She's invited me to tag along a couple of times, but today and yesterday I pretty much just stayed in and had my "alone" time. At age 23, I really should stop caring about what other people think of me, but I can't help but wonder if she thinks I'm a hermit.
Part of the problem is that I've heard soooo many older med students here talk about how awesome my roommates are, and how I'm so lucky to be living with them. And it's true -- they're great. But it's putting all the pressure on me to be awesome enough to be part of this trio...
Anyways, today I drove downtown to run some errands. For starters, I've been deathly afraid of draining my car battery, so I haven't really been using the A/C in my car, which resulted in me literally soaking my shirt through with sweat. It was disgusting. I also was so stressed out about trying to find parking downtown that I forgot about an unprotected left turn and got majorly honked at.
But the good thing about today is that I ventured over to the New Orleans Public Library and got my library card. It's not a very fancy library--I've gotten so used to self-checkout stations at Duke and my home libraries in California that it was very strange handing my books over to the circulation desk and see the lady judging my book selection. But this library has lots of YA books I've been dying to get my hands on.
What sucks though is that adults aren't supposed to hang out on the second floor (where they keep all the YA books) because it's supposed to be an environment for youths. So the lady at the 2nd floor desk had to ask me how old I was and give me the spiel, and then I politely responded that I was only going to browse through the shelves and not plunk myself down next to the teenage young'uns.
Anyways, I found Megan Mccaferty's Second Helpings, which I've been waiting to read for a while now, ever since I finished Sloppy Firsts. So I stayed in tonight and read the whole thing.
Second Helpings by Megan Mccafferty
Okay, before I start... I've realized that reading books like this rubs off on me. It was the same thing with Saving Francesca -- after I read something with a very strong witty narrative voice, it affects the way I write. I just looked at that giant slab of mumbo-jumbo at the top of this post and did a double-take.
Anyways. I'm going to drop spoilers left and right, so please disregard if you plan on reading this book with virgin eyes.
So, I had quite an internal debate with myself about whether or not I liked Sloppy Firsts or Second Helpings better. Second Helpings was a bit off-key for me in the beginning, because Jessica came across as a lot whinier and unfunny than I recalled in Sloppy Firsts. The whole part about her summer camp I just wanted to skip past, because damn it, I wanted to read about Marcus Flutie. But on the other hand, this book had WAY more Marcus Flutie, which is pretty much the main reason why I picked up this book in the first place, considering how things ended in Sloppy Firsts. Also, we saw way more of Jessica's grandmother, who I totally imagined as Betty White because she's just that awesome.
In the end, I think I'm going to have to give it to Sloppy Firsts. For some reason, I feel like I laughed out loud more times with the first book, which also had a stronger narrative arc. Plus with this one, there were quite a few times when I wanted to shake Jessica and be like, "If you're so desperate to lose your V-card, why are you still dating Len Levy if he's so insistent on abstinence and you obviously are still in love with Marcus Flutie?!" I also didn't really sa-WOON over the scene where Marcus Flutie and Jessica finally get their shit together. I mean, I totally fist-pumped when they finally figured out their feelings and whatnot, because I've been shipping them since Day 1, but it takes A LOT for me to be impressed by love song lyrics/poetry. Sorry, Marcus Flutie -- I like you a lot, but your poems don't do it for me.
(Though I wonder if it'll be different if I'm ever on the receiving end of these things. I read somewhere today that Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, who are currently working on different continents, write handwritten letters to each other. I make fun of my ex-roommate's romantic boyfriend fantasies all the time, but I have to admit that I used to tell myself I'd be super impressed with someone who knew how to write an actual letter to me... kinda like how Koala said she'd be super impressed with someone who gives her his jacket when she's cold. Are we at an equivalent level of pathetique here? Actually, don't answer that.)
Anyways, I'm not going to read the rest of the Jessica Darling series. Why? Some credible sources have told me not to bother with Jessica's college and post-grad years. Kind of like how I've taken other people's advice not to read Mockingjay or Allegiant, I will just stop myself here unless I find myself incredibly bored one day and decide to see for myself. I can imagine if the series goes up to five books, Jessica and Marcus are bound to break-up at some point, and I'd rather just imagine every thing is fine and dandy when we close the pages on their high school graduation.
Okay, I need to go to bed. Toodleloo.
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