Hey, so this week I started knitting and so far so good. The pattern we wrote started from the bottom and is working up to the neck, then we'll add the sleeves, so far I'm just knitting a flat square, kind of like a scarf. One thing I'm kind of shocked by: I've never used this much yarn for a project before. I just bought the yarn for the body and I'm already about 5 skeins and $45 bucks into this thing. Worth it, but still, it makes you think if it costs this much to make a sweater, how is Walmart selling them for $10? (yes, obviously buying materials wholesale is cheaper, but I don't think that makes up for the entire difference) Also, I'm realizing if you put this much time and resources into an article of clothing, you kind of value it more. I like the idea of having a sweater that I made that means something to me more than having 5 sweaters that are just fast cheap and pointless. It makes you consider your clothing, what do you really need and what does it mean to you? If your clothes have real value to you, will you be happier to get dressed in the morning? Something to think about.
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| Not a scarf, I swear. |
Progress: 7 inches
In addition to knitting the sweater I wanted to re-watch the series.
I'll be recapping here each week, and you can follow along on Netflix
streaming or for free on
Hulu.
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| Oh, hey Jordan. |
Episode 2: Dancing in the Dark
Angela is daydreaming about her checkered kissing history,
which includes such moments as “camp counselor who already had girlfriend”,
“groomsman who lost a bet” and “cpr.” All the classics, really. What it all
boils down to is that now that they’ve spoken, she wants some kisses from
Jordan. And in the words of Rayanne “People throwing themselves at people is
like the basis of civilization.” Which is actually kind of true. So to
facilitate the throwing process, Rayanne arranges for Jordan to get Angela a
fake ID.
Meanwhile, Angela’s neighbor Brian is totally in love with
her. Like cleaning up her dissected pig heart kind of in love with her. Which
Sharon pities, because obviously Angela isn’t into him at all. Brian has
basically done all the work on their extra credit project, but Angela agrees to
help with the final experiment after Rayanne convinces her that his parentless
house is the perfect place to make the ID swap/seduction with Jordan.
Patty is having her own problems. She is worried her
marriage has gone stale, so she’s considering stealing a page from her
daughter’s book and changing her hair, since she thinks men like variety.
Considering that last week Angela saw her dad outside talking to another woman,
she has no idea just how right she is.
On the night of the big experiment, Angela practices kissing
in the mirror and then heads over to Brian’s. But when Jordan shows up, she
gets nervous and considers scrapping the whole plan.
Across town her parents are trying an experiment of their
own: ballroom dancing. Patty shows up with a new short haircut and a tight red
dress. But the best compliment her husband can muster is “it shows your ears
more” which was not her desired result. After a terrible dance lesson the
instructor suggests dancing with other people, which Graham is obviously
into. She says dancing is really about timing
and that it takes confidence to hear the music. Back at Brian’s, at that same
moment, Angela musters up the confidence to walk to Jordan’s car.
But once she is in the passenger seat, things don’t go quite
as she hoped. Instead of a sweet romantic moment, Jordan tries to shove his
tongue down her throat every time she speaks. And when she pushes him off of
her he basically calls her immature. To her credit, she defends herself, telling
him he doesn’t know her well enough to judge her. And I really appreciate how
even though she’s like in love with Jordan, she doesn’t take his shit. Not
every girl has that presence of mind, especially not at 15. And she’s right
too. She’s not immature, he was being a jerk. Well done Angela.
Unfortunately, despite his bad behavior she still totally wants to make out with him. The moment is perfect
but instead of kissing her, when he leans over he opens the door for her to
leave. Dejected, she goes back inside to Rickie and Rayanne. Their experiment
failed.
At home Graham fesses up to his brother about the other
woman. Although he hasn’t done anything wrong yet, there are hotel plans for
the next day and he asks Neil to talk him out of it. Upstairs he and Patty
fight about their relationship, and when she breaks the Cinderella her father
gave her, out of frustration, Graham comforts her and they have parental
make-up sex.
Angela comes home, bummed about her night, and her father is
there to warm her some spaghetti and offer words of advice on dudes. “Boys
your age can sometimes, not know how to be what you want them to be.”(Actually
Graham, I don’t think there is a statute of limitations on this) “Sometimes it is really hard to
figure out how to be a man.” And with
that, he calls to cancel his hotel tryst. Which Angela overhears, some timing.
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| As opposed to incomplete sex? |
Episode 3: Guns and Gossip
Angela is watching President Kennedy speech in her social
studies class. She thinks about how she is slightly jealous that adults always
know exactly where they were when Kennedy was shot, but she doesn’t have
anything like that yet (this was pre 9/11, after all). I understand. It is easy
to feel like everything that came before you was so important, because it has
the benefit of nostalgia and mythology. It can be hard to see the big moments
as they happen right in front of you. Just then two big moments happen: Angela
is passed a note with a rumor on it about herself and, oh yeah, a gun goes off
in the school.
Everyone is pretty worked up over the gun, which only harmed
a bottle of soda, except for Rayanne who points out that the fact that this is
the first gun to ever go off in their
public high school actually just proves how safe it is. And Angela is more upset
up over the note, which her friends actually have a pretty healthy attitude
about: people talk, let them.
Less amused by the gun are Angela’s parents, specifically
her mother who wants her to be able to grow up in a place where she doesn’t
have to worry about getting killed. Even though the threat is pretty minor and
still relatively abstract, they just want to protect her. But at school Angela
is facing a whole barrage of attention, now that the rumor that she puts out
has been spread. Girls are talking about
her and guys are talking to her.
Rayanne actually thinks it is a good thing, rumors make you famous after all,
but still she goes to Jordan to let him know he had better not be the one
telling lies.
The principal puts the squeeze on Brian to tell him who he
saw in the hallway when the gun went off. He thinks Brian is protecting
someone, which he claims he isn’t. But that is a lie, he saw Rickie in the
hallway just before the shot, and now he is keeping quiet.
At a parent meeting about the gun, Patty meets Rayanne’s
mother and gets her share of gossip. Rayanne’s mother tells Patty that her
daughter adores Angela and thinks she is in “major color,” which makes
sense. She also gushes about Angela
having great taste in Jordan and Patty feels majorly out of the loop, worrying
she is the last person to know about her daughter’s sex life. She asks about
Jordan and hints that she knows they might be getting it on, and Angela gets
understandably upset. Forget about being safe at School. She isn’t even safe
from the rumors in her own house.
The next day in the hall Jordan and Angela talk. At first it
seems nice; he wants her to know he isn’t the one spreading the rumor, because
he isn’t like that. But really he is there to suggest that since everyone is
already saying they had sex, they should go ahead and do it anyway. This.
Fucking. Guy. She walks away stunned.
Finally, in the girl’s room, the mystery is solved: Brian is
the one who started the rumor about Angela. She confronts Brian and tells him
he needs to keep quiet about Rickie, and they fight over the importance of the
truth. He admits he lied about her, but
only because she lied to him when she invited Jordan to his house. It seems
like he just wanted to hurt her back.
Jordan apologizes to Angela for suggesting they have sex. He
realizes now that she is different than other girls. He’ll even help solve the rumor
problem by making it clear to everyone that they didn’t hook up and that she means nothing to him. You know, you
really have to hand it to him, even when he is trying to be a good guy he
screws it up. How do you make yourself suck this much? I mean maybe he gets points for trying, but somehow the fact that he doesn't even notice how much he hurts her actually seems like it makes it that much worse.
Angela goes to talk to Rickie about the gun. But it turns
out, that just like the other rumor, it isn’t true. Rickie wasn’t the one with
a gun. His cousin brought it to school to sell it and during an argument it
fell out of the box and went off. But he wants people to keep believing he is
dangerous, because he thinks it will help protect him from the people who beat
him up for being gay. He doesn’t care if he gets in trouble, it is the only way
he can think of to stay safe. And your heart breaks for him. Angela hugs him,
and realizes that some people have like, actual problems.
In the end, amid all the pressure and gossip, Brian decides
to atone for his original lie with another one. He tells the principal and the
detectives that he didn’t see anybody re: the fatal soda murder, and they need
to back off or he’ll sue them for harassment. Who says two wrongs can’t make a
right? But even though the power of not-truth has been harnessed for good, the
school still has to look like it is doing something to keep the students safe,
so they install metal detectors, which everyone seems kind of uneasy about.
