Weird phase part 3

Date: December 25, 1998 Christmas

Age: 10

Location: San Francisco

Dear Diary,

Today, it was Christmas! I had a great time. There was a party which I hosted. I was with my family. As you know, we exchanged gifts. I am glad I had a great Christmas.

From,

Gina

Topic sentence: Today it was Christmas!

Assertion: I had a great time.

Details: There was a party which I hosted. I was with my family. As you know, we exchanged gifts.

Conclusion: I'm glad I had a great Christmas.

Nouns: Diary, today, Christmas (used 2 times), time, party, family, gifts, Gina, glad

Verbs: was (used 3 times), had, hosted, know, exchanged, am, had

Weird phase part 2

Date: December 21, 1998

Age: 10

Location: San Francisco

Dear Diary,

Today, I went to my friend's house. We did many fun things. We saw "Prince of Egypt." We played many fun games. We even kind of cleaned the swing-set. I would like to go over to her house again.

From,

Gina

Topic sentence: Today, I went to my friend's house.

Assertion: We did many fun things.

Details: We saw "Prince of Egypt." We played many fun games. We even kind of cleaned the swing-set.

Conclusion: I would like to go over to her house again.

Nouns: Diary, today, friend, house (used 2 times), things, Prince, Egypt, games, swing-set, Gina

Verbs: went, did, saw, played, cleaned, would, like, go

A Weird Phase Where I Love Grammar?

Date: December 20, 1998

Age: 10

Location: San Francisco

Dear Diary,

Today, it snowed a little. It melted when it touched the ground, but it was beautiful. The snow looked and felt fluffy, but it wasn't that big. It was about that big.-->o It was a great experience. I hope it snows again.

Also today, we went over to my friend's house. It was fun. She showed us around her house because it was our first time there. She taught us how to make three kinds of origami figures. She even showed us secret places near the house. I would like to go over to her house again.

From,

Gina

1st paragraph:

Topic Sentence: Today, it snowed a little.

Assertion: It melted when it touched the ground, but it was beautiful.

Details: The snow looked and felt fluffy, but it wasn't that big. It was about that big.-->o It was a great experience.

Conclusion: I hope it snows again.

Nouns: Diary, today, ground, snow, experience

Verbs: snowed, melted, touched, looked, felt, snows

2nd paragraph:

Topic Sentence: Also today, we went to my friend's house.

Assertion: It was fun.

Details: She showed us around her house because it was our first time there. She taught us how to make three kinds of origami figures. She even showed us secret places around the house.

Conclusion: I would like to go over to her house again.

Nouns: today, friend, house (used 4 times), time, origami, figures, secret, places, fun, Gina

Verbs: went, was, showed (used 2 times), taught, make, would, like, go

Reflection: Five Things I Fruitlessly Tried to Fix

Note: Occasionally, rather than posting old entries, I'll just write reflections about whatever. This is one of those times.

Since my personality is largely a combination of overconfidence and cheapness, I have a strong tendency to try to fix all the many broken things around me rather than doing something sensible like asking for help or simply replacing it. Here is a list of things I tried, in vain, to fix:

1. Y2K apparently--Yes, as we learned in the last entry, when I was 10 years old and barely scrapping by with a C in our once a week computer class, I thought I could solve the potential technological crisis that some predicted to come with the dawn of the new millennium. I actually remember this day very well. What stopping Y2K entailed, in this child's mind, was rummaging through a dumpster next to where the nun's lived at our school and finding an old, thrown out desktop computer and pretending to my friends that I knew what I was doing as I proceeding to make an already non-functioning computer even more broken.

2. My own computer--My insistence that I knew how to fix a computer actually lasted through college. Let me tell you that my computer really just needed to be busted up with a baseball bat. There was no saving it. It froze every 10 minutes, literally. And when it wasn't freezing, it was blue screening or doing this weird thing where the mouse dragged and a loud repetitive sound like a truck backing up emanated from it or this other weird thing where the screen would suddenly flip upside down or sideways or who know's what. So how long did I put up with this insistent that I could fix it? A month? Three months? Try three years.

3. Falling out of love--Brace yourself. This is a serious one. Most people, when they fall out of love, simply break up with their partner. But when Ms. Fix-it fell out of love, I was so confident that this was a tangible thing that I could fix, that I didn't let it go very easily. I led myself down the dubious path of spending hours scouring Christian websites that teach you how to learn how to choose to fall in love with someone. These may or may not have been websites geared towards reorienting gay people? I don't know. Whatever it was. It really didn't work.

4. Plumbing--This year, sharing a bathroom with one sink with 20 girls had the predictable effect of having a perpetually clogged drain. Thus, one day I got it in my mind that even though I have no experience whatsoever with pipes or plumbing, I needed to disassemble the pipes, clean them out, and reassemble them. I got my friend Stephanie on board with this, and rather taken with the idea that we were the Mario Brothers, we set to work. Disassembling was easy. Reassembling was...less easy.

5. My pants (repeatedly)--This summer I had a great pair of thin waterproof pants. They were so awesome. But then, after about a month they ripped. And I was like, no problem I'll just so them up. Then they ripped again--like embarrassingly so during the work day on the trail I was working on. No problem. Sewed them up again. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat. Finally, my supervisors actually had to talk to me about it (mortifying).

Y2K

Date: November 19, 1998 Thurs.
Age: 10
Location: San Francisco

Dear Diary,

Today, I had a saint's project and I got 10 points extra credit. In day care I was trying to fix something that will happen in 2000. The electricity might run out. It is very scary. At home I did the rest of my homework and went to bed.

From,

Gina

Doormat

Date: November 18, 1998 Wednesday
Age: 10
Location: San Francisco

Dear Diary,

Today after school I was supposed to have swimming but it was cancelled. I talked to my mom about a problem with my friend. We came up with 5 solutions. They are (1) to be bossed around, (2) to get myself in another problem, (3) to unhappily pace, (4) to go to a different school, or (5) to record what she does and give her 3 chances.

From,

Gina

P.S. Most of the choices I didn't want to do.

Child's Play

Date: November 13, 1998 Friday
Age: 10
Location: San Francisco

Dear Diary,

Today, I went over to my friend's house. Today was Friday the 13th. I watched the movie "Friday the 13th." It scared me so much that I slept in my parents' bed. (I'm not usually scared of those movies.) But I still loved the movie.

From,

Gina

Toothy

Date: November 25, 1998 Wednesday
Age: 10
Location: San Francisco

Dear Diary,

Today, I have bad news and good news. The bad news is that I'm in trouble with my mom for not "being nice on the phone." The good news is that I losed my tooth. It took long time and I'm happy I losed it.

From,

Gina

What this blog is all about

So, this is only one in a line of MANY failed blogs, so just a warning. We'll see how it goes.

This blog has a simple concept. I've kept a diary since I was 10 years old and it charts my fairly normal development from closed off child to angst-ridden teenager to adult, whatever that means. This blog will be random excerpts from those diaries. I will admit that in a culture of oversharers, where people's privacy is hardly valued anymore, where people post Facebook statuses about abnormal pap smears and Twitters entries about their weird sexual attraction to Walter Matthau, exposing my own personal diary is hardy unique at all. And while it will conform to our culture well, it could hardly be called Avant-Garde literature.

But still, hopefully, it will be somewhat interesting for at least 3 reasons:

1. I'm an interesting person.

2. I'm interested in exploring the relationship between diarying (a dying art--although you can hardly call my chicken scratch art) and blogging (a blossoming art). I think the main difference is that a diary is intended to be unread by others and thus should be more honest or at least less self-critical whereas blogging is done almost solely to be read by others, to expose some aspect of one's identity, and thus is inherently self-critical. Therefore, I'm sure there will be heavy editing in terms of which entries I choose, what I want to hide, how far I can push myself to expose things that embarrass me. I'm a good writer, but like any average girl, my entries are sometimes literally, "OMG, I just saw the cutest boy EVER!!!!!!!!!" So I will, I guess, try to show that side of myself. In addition to excerpts from my diary, I might occasionally post my thoughts on the ideas of diarying, blogging, and writing in general.

3. I don't have a 3, but I just hate even numbers so there you go.


So, here's how this will work. The entries will be in no particular older, but will be categorized by time period in my life (e.g. teenager), specific age, date, location, theme, and whatever else seems important. Also, for now I will probably refer to the people I talk about (with some random exception) by their first initial so as to avoid dragging them into my overexposure. I will occasionally provide background or explanation, but try to avoid justifying my personality or analyzing my entries. I just want them to stand alone as they are. But because I love analyzing everything, I will probably fail in this regard. I don't know who will read this, but if you are reading, I hope you find it interesting, funny, or you know, whatever.