The Way We Were Themed

(Mostly because it's Barbra Streisand's birthday)

1. At the end of every April for the last decade or so, despite my being a Hemingway girl through and through, I find myself returning to the F. Scott Fitzgerald quote, “Well, let it pass; April is over, April is over. There are all kinds of love in the world, but never the same love twice.” I don’t have any platitudes to share about it, I just remember the person I was when I first came across that quote, I’m glad to not be that person anymore, and I breathe in and breathe out and go about my day like I always have.

2. Back in the 5th grade, my teacher, Mr. Chaifetz, read the entirety of the 1974 novel, My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier and Christopher Collier out loud to our class and man, I still remember how much drama that book caused. “Mr. Chaifetz, what’s a ‘bastard’?“ was very innocently asked because the word was used in the book, and when our teacher clumsily explained that it was an insult targeted at someone whose parents weren’t married, we were all like, but how is that a reflection of the individual??? Then, we wasted the entire class period discussing that topic because we were obnoxious 10-year-olds. Also, I referred to the book as My Brother Sam Is Alive And Well so many times that year that even now, 17 years later, I instinctively bring up that "alternate” title whenever I think of the book.

3. I’ve gotten kind of into hockey lately, which makes sense since I find enjoyment in both ice skating and near medieval levels of violence.

4. The monkey’s paw of Dhaaruni’s memory is such that I remember literally everything I pay attention to, but I struggle to pay attention and I also have very specific mental blockages towards subjects I don’t care for lmao. For instance, I know freakish amount about the Civil War and World War I (including the battles like I’m some kind of boomer Dad with battle reenactments in my basement) but basically nothing from high school biology despite taking a year of AP Biology and a semester of college biology. I don’t know what a stamen or anther is (although I know they have something to do with plants), but I can give you a detailed summary of the Battle of Antietam!

5. Semi-relatedly, good things about my brain include:

   • I have a borderline eidetic/photographic memory (when I pay attention of course, which I generally don’t)

   • I’m good with numbers and almost as good with words

   • I’m extremely quick-witted

   However, something horrible about my brain is that there’s just objectively way too much going on inside it to the extent there are psychosomatic consequences to it all aka near-constant exhaustion and my breaking out in hives every time I get extremely stressed out, which is more often than I’d like. Not to be like self-aggrandizing or whatever but I would gladly trade some of my brain’s intellectual capabilities to not have to deal with the consequences of said capabilities. I’d be less fun but I wouldn’t constantly feel all “uneasy is the head that wears a crown” either!

6. I just saw a tweet about how women exercising is about “affirming gender” and I’m once again convinced that nobody knows what words mean.

7. As a profoundly difficult™ person, this being on my shoes is so in-character