And Then Things Fall Apart by Arlaina Tibensky

Author:Arlaina Tibensky
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Simon and Schuster Audio
Published: 2011-08-28T04:00:00+00:00

DATE: July 30

MOOD: Epicurious

BODY TEMP: 100

I am feeling so much better today that I actually feel like eating. I am not a vegetarian, but one day I would like to be one. I can totally eat meat formed into other shapes, like chicken nuggets, hamburger patties, hot dogs, fish sticks, etc. It’s when the meat is just, like, meat that I have a hard time with it. The chicken leg, the T-bone steak, the salmon fillet, all look like they were just on the actual animal a minute ago, helping them walk, graze, swim, whatever.

Besides, someone has to offset the D&D’s industrially slaughtered cow consumption. We provide prepared meats of all kinds to half the Chicago suburbs. Free delivery. I can’t wash my hands of it if it’s paying for college, now, can I? Gram has been very supportive, what with the egg salad sandwiches and such. And I really appreciate that.

She also brought all the ingredients I requested for my recipe festival and is going to look in the basement for some of her old Fiestaware and Corelle and teacups she got as wedding gifts. For the remainder of my incarceration/recovery/breakdown, I am going to prepare food items from The Bell Jar and report my findings. I will eat what Esther ate. I will consume the foods of the 1950s with glee and a sense of adventure.

It’s something to do.

Gram said the store carried only eight cans of Spam.

She is totally apologizing for invading my privacy by reading my pages.

If The Bell Jar has taught me anything, it is that everyone, no matter how seemingly normal, put together, and successful, is complicated. Everyone has lived through traumatic life events that you would never guess just by looking at them. Which is comforting to know as you go through your own screwed-up stuff. This was never truer for anyone than for my gram. We had a total girl extravaganza yesterday, complete with tea drinking, chitchatting, and the trying on of vintage dresses.

All she had to say was, “I have a bunch of old clothes in the guest bedroom you might get a kick out of,” and I was down the hall and in front of the closet door, as perky as one of Santa’s elves. At first I thought it was going to be clothes from a few years ago or, be still my heart, the 1980s. But when I opened the door, I saw cotton belted dresses, beaded cardigans, cigarette pants. Clothes from the 1950s. Some were Gram’s and some were her mom’s, and most were still in dry cleaner bags. I had to sit down on the carpet—SO I WOULDN’T FAINT.

The recipe festival would have to wait.

As Gram pulled out each garment, she told a little story about wearing it, which was hilarious and weird and inspiring. It was like I was on the sidewalk in front of the Amazon Hotel and Esther Greenwood was in her room tossing her city clothes out the window and I was catching them in my outstretched arms, one by one, as they fluttered down.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.