Diana's Diary

2001-08-25 - 6:28 p.m.

The Weekend Before Labor Day

In a perfect world, I would be doing one of the following things this weekend.

1) Driving up to Chico in the middle of the night with JB to go stay with Mil, and then proceed to spend the rest of the weekend pleasantly buzzed and stuffed with pizza.

2) Driving down to Monterey in the middle of the night with JB to go stay in a fleabag motel and wander through all of the wonderfully touristy places there.

3) Driving up to Tahoe in the middle of the night with JB to hang out by the lake, do some gambling in Reno, and eat room service breakfasts.

Yes. The weekend before Labor Day is supposed to be our annual road trip with JB. Which is not happening this year. JB is in Morro Bay, visiting her step-grandparents. Okay. I shouldn't be mad, because it's a family thing. (Even though her mother and stepfather got divorced six years ago and her stepfather has since passed away.) But why did it have to be this weekend, you know? She could have gone down there another weekend. The weekend before Labor Day has been a standing date for the past four years.

I'm a self-absorbed bitch. Bleh. I don't deal well with change.

So instead, so far this weekend, I have...read. That's all I've done. Well, until I started writing this. I am so lazy it is incredible.

I've come to the conclusion that I'm not a fan of Ha Jin's writing. For the past four years (at least), he's had stories in The Best American Short Stories anthologies. My reaction is completely irrational. It's not like the stories are badly written, or are offensive to me or anything. I mean, yes, the stories definitely have a political slant to them, but that's not what bugs me. I guess it's just that I read them to the end, and am always left scratching my head.

I guess I'm not smart enough to "get" them, and I resent that.

Or else, there's not really anything there to "get." Some stories seem like there's something there, but there's really not. Tricky bastards.

Curse my English degree and the "enhanced reading skills" I picked up while pursuing it.

(By the way, UCLA is making me pay them to send me my diploma. How annoying is that? Or else I could go down to Los Angeles and pick it up on campus for free, but somehow I think that wouldn't save me any money.)

I know, I'm not much of a critic, because I'm doing a lousy job of articulating why I don't like Ha Jin's writing.

Probably because I don't really know myself. It just doesn't do anything for me.

Good thing I'm not in college anymore and don't have to write a paper on anything he's written, huh?

So that's what I've done today. Read, and put way too much thought into why I don't like a certain author's writing.

The funny thing is, I'm sure next year I'll buy the Best American Short Stories of 2001, and Ha Jin will have a story in it, and I will read it without paying any attention to who the author is, and when I am done, I will say, "Eh? Oh, it was written by Ha Jin. I guess that makes sense."

Maybe it's the short story format. Maybe I should try reading one of his novels. Novels are longer and rarely have that little twist ending that leaves you going, "Whuh?" I might be able to get one of his novels.

But...now that I'm out of college, shouldn't I be reading for fun?

I need to go find a trashy magazine.

-Diana

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2003-12-16 - Ow! My Nose!
2003-12-15 - 'Tis the Season...For Moving
2003-11-17 - Rush, Rush
2003-11-03 - Apartment Hunting Sucks
2003-10-22 - Apparently, "nauseated" is a good look for me.

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