Friday, August 22, 2008

'These Are the Days of Our Lives'.



For the past two weeks,  I wake up with the dawning realisation that, Yes, I've been Dumped, it wasn't just an Unpleasant Dream. 
Luckily I've got an outfit to Plan & Execute which gives me a reason to get out of bed. Once I've got it on, I may as well go out into the street & wear it. 
As I trot down the Hill towards School, I listen to a range of Wronged Women on my iPod. Dusty Springfield is the undisputed Queen of the genre, & I love her late career song with the Pet Shop Boys, 'What Have I Done to Deserve This?' 
Then, there's the New Dusty - Just the One Word, Duffy. Pretty crap name if you ask me. Duffy's voice is like a Toy Version of Dusty's or what Dusty's voice might have sounded like if she was a chipmunk, you know, like 'Alvin & the Chipmunks'.  But I do find myself singing along to her song, 'Stepping Stone .......take it all, or leave me alone'.
Then there's the Big Inspirational Belters - Christina Aguilera is my favourite, telling me to 'Spread Your Wings & Sour'. 
Oops! I meant SOAR! But Sour is kinda cute, don't you think?
Talking of sour, some days I just can't get enough of Poor Old Amy Winehouse who sings my story - 'he walks away, the sun  goes down.........tears dry on their own'.
By the time I get to school, I'm thoroughly cheered up & ready to begin my first lesson. One thing though, I have been finding myself drawing strange things on the whiteboard. Yesterday, when I was trying to make a point about the Symbolism of Sand, I drew on my memories of that long-lasting Soap Opera, 'Days of Our Lives' which my students assured me is still going. My  drawing of the famous hour glass which began each episode looks more like spotty sausages, or dare I say, Testicles.
I wonder what that might mean?
And then there's my feeble attempts to Hide My Tears behind a newspaper featuring one of my favourite sixties models, Twiggy. That trick never works.
In bed at night, I snuggle up with this wonderful book of short stories by David Sedaris. It's called, 'When You are Engulfed in Flames', another apt title which correctly mirrors my internal state. David has just been in Australia doing a whirlwind publicity tour. I saw him interviewed on TV. He's another one with a voice not unlike one of the Chipmunks from 'Alvin & the Chipmunks'. But what a guy! What a writer! I found myself actually LOLing alone in Bed. What an achievement!



2 comments:

Darla said...

I'm on the wait list at the library for the new Sedaris book. I read his earlier ones and really enjoyed them. Glad to hear you like this one.

Darla

Pearl C. Pritchard said...

I love David Sedaris too. I saw him give a reading at Carnegie Hall in NY (Woo hoo!) It was fun.

You're lucky you can read. When my first marriage fell apart I couldn't read but a few paragraphs at a time. So I read depressing poetry -- oh and I wrote a fair amount of depressing poetry. (As was referenced in a previous comment.) It got me through a lot.

Thinking of you...
Kim