On Saturday, I caught an afternoon matinee of the documentary American Teen at Sunshine Cinema on the Lower East Side with one of my sorority sisters. First, the theatre - I've always gone to the Angelika or Quad Cinema for independent films, but Sunshine is so much better! The lobby is still quirky, giving you the full experience, but the seats are actually a) comfortable and b) above ground. Woot.
Anyway, American Teen is about a few of the high school archetypes in a small Indiana town. Having grown up in an only slightly larger Midwestern town, I was curious to see how fair the portrayal was. I suspected the stereotypes would be exaggerated, but they weren't. This was a genuine slice of life look at seniors in high school.
What I found especially interesting (and accurate to my personal experiences) was that with one exception, there was very little intermingling of the groups despite the small size of the community. While Megan, the princess, was definitely a mean girl, her victims were often within her same circle. Likewise Jake, the geek, wasn't tormented by the jocks but by a more popular band geek. It's an accurate look at the pressures your typical American teenager faces. It's definitely worth checking out if you're as fascinated by the every day as I am.
After the movie, my friend and I grabbed some coffee, then dinner. It was fun to talk about just about everything and anything. I ended up getting home around 10 that night and felt bad abandoning Mr. ... until I got back to the apartment and realized he hadn't been home yet. The only thing that sucks worse than having to work the whole weekend is having to work late on the weekend. Poor guy; welcome to medicine.
Sunday morning I finished Peony in Love, which I had started on the subway on Saturday. It's set in 17th century China and is a fictional work about actual women who had all married, and widowed, the same man.It's well written in first person with a voice that sounds like that which you would expect from the character. Perhaps because of the setting, very different from anything I've experienced, I wasn't drawn emotionally to the story. However, I was still captivated. I simply couldn't put it down and had to know what happened next.
It kept me interested - I'd recommend it if you need something to read on a plane.
After I finished the novel, I made and ate lunch, did the dishes, went grocery shopping (which I would stop doing on Sunday afternoons if it weren't so darn convenient!), made dinner (chicken parm - shockingly easy!), did the laundry, and worked on my scrapbook.
Mr. came home and took a nap. Only 5 more days until he gets a day off.
