Book Report

I finished reading J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye today, and though I still haven't quite processed the book's deeper meaning, it was most definitely an entertaining read. In fact, I'm just gonna' have to share some favorite quotes with you:

"She had some Navy officer with her that looked like he had a poker up his ass...then she introduced me to the Navy guy. His name was commander Blop or something. He was one of those guys that think they're being a pansy if they don't break around forty of your fingers when they shake hands with you. God I hate that stuff."
(After laughing hysterically at this part, all I could think about were the guys in the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University. Don't get me wrong, I had a ton of friends in the Corps and respect the tradition, but let's be honest...some were way too intense for their own good.)

"The best thing, though, in that museum was that everything always stayed right where is was. Nobody'd move. You could go there a hundred thousand times, and that Eskimo would still be just finished catching those two fish, the birds would still be on their way south...Certain things they should stay the way they are. You ought to be able to stick them in one of those big glass cases and just leave them alone."
(I was just imagining all the moments/people in my life I would like to put in a glass case and be able to go back to at any given time.)

"Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score...Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them--if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry."
( I especially like that last part about poetry...all of these beautiful cyclical relationships that are so profound without saying a word. Sometimes labels ruin things--they make things like history and poetry seem too intentional, which I think was Holden's struggle with school throughout the whole book.)

Ok, those are pretty much all the profound thoughts I have to offer...it's way past this literary scholar's bedtime. More keen insight headed your way in the near future...
on deck: Fat Girl by Judith Moore.

Gay Sex 101

So today I received a certificate for completing a 6 hour training entitled "Crystal Methamphetamine, Barebacking and Men Who Have Sex With Men." I think I'll frame it and put it by my bedside. Gosh, won't my parents be proud?

Ok, the story is that I signed up for the training under the impression I would be learning a lot about crystal meth with a side note about it's more recent impact on the gay community. I'm making efforts to be a little more savvy on substance abuse issues seeing as I've sent about 3 clients off to rehab in the past 2 weeks. Needless to say I ended up learning more than I ever wanted or needed to know about the sex lives of gay men. I did make a new friend named Alejandro--a gay Domican man with a charming accent...he definitely added some much-needed comic relief to my whole experience.

From a spiritual standpoint I guess you could say that I was violated with what us Christians call "worldliness" on so many levels. There are some issues in which the Christian perspective/practice has a few common threads with its worldly counterpart. For the record, sex (and homosexuality) is not one of those issues. I would go into more detail about some moral dilemas and questions that have been running through my head about this matter, but I'm tired and still recovering from the day's culture shock. As I e-mailed to my dad earlier: "It was one of those New York moments where you just feel assaulted by worldliness wondering how a conservative Christian white girl from Texas can possibly help change such a twisted world view....oh the stories Iwill have to tell my kids one day"

All Pierced Up

So tonight my friend Debby and I got our noses pierced. I'd been thinking about it for a while, and she was planning on getting hers done this weekend anyways.....so why not go for it at midnight on a Friday? Technically we were 3 hours late since the place closed at 9:00 but the owner and her mom happened to be going into the store the same time we got there, so they let us in for a special "after hours" piercing---surely it was sign from God ;) I'm kind of in the shock phase right now. It just looks really big since I'm not used to having a silver ball in my nostril, but I think it will grow on me. Can't wait to see what the general feedack is. The family is coming to visit in a month....My oh my, what will Grandma have to say about this? I have a feeling that once she gets a load of my new look, a few extra rosaries will be prayed on my behalf. "Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us piercers...."

Thought

Do you ever have that feeling that you're trying to hold out for something that's just not there? And then you make a stupid comment--like a last desperate attempt to find whatever that thing is you're looking for--but you already know it's not there. And yeah it's disappointing but you'll get over it. It's probably better to see things as they are and not just how you wish they could be. Do you ever have that feeling? Yeah, me too.