A Tuesday Babble

Since blogger adamantly refuses to upload my latest progress, hooray for my latest delivery of books! I decided to renew my love affair with Susan Orlean's books and articles from The New Yorker. She also wrote for some time in our area for a few Boston publications. I first read her work in high school, when Mrs Sholar (mean wench) ordered us to write articles and stories in the style of our favorite writers-mine were James Joyce, and for brevity I chose Orlean. In retrospect I think the assignment was fluffy and weak-instead of understanding their style and prose, just imitate them! Sure...

Nevertheless, it was fun and quick writing. I loved the way Orlean found direction and stirred interest in the mundane in her book "Saturday Night." I was thinking about it on one of my own saturday nights some time ago, when I had been cooerced into bar-hopping with some people I barely knew. (Growing up I had always felt like there was no place I truly belonged-being an anthropology student allowed me to "use" this feeling of being an outsider to my best advantage by being an active observer.) Well, I had never felt like more of an outsider than at that moment- clearly I did not belong to this group of pretty 20-somethings (and I say that generously because I swear one of the women could have passed for 40-45 if you had peeled her out of her crimson club-wear and done something with her bleached-blonde hair.)

I joined them as they collected at some new Boston nightspot, where they had reserved a table by calling ahead for an order of champagne. The lounge was a bit bare, but thematically decorated in some kind of woodsy theme, with bamboo walls and bars. The dress code appeared to be a cross of late 90's Urban Outfitters and DEB, with the exception of myself (tshirt and jeans). As the night wound down and I stared wistfully at the door, the "women of indeterminable age" began to dance with one another in the nearly empty lounge. Their next attempt to create a party where none existed involved snapping pictures of themselves in ridiculous poses, leading me to wonder if there was some sort on event or happening that I had missed. Had someone won the lottery? Reached their 45th birthday perhaps? Nope, someone handed me a camera so I could take their group shot, the sultry and ridiculous faces no likely to be posted on someone's MYSPACE page the next day.

Now I know Susan Orleans never intended to document this sort of saturday night at all, but when I finally escaped home that night, it did lead me to wonder what is it about saturday nights that are special? Why do we reserve all our excited for THAT ONE NIGHT? I personally prefer thursdays.....