this ain't no taradiddle

"Taradiddle" means "fib" or "pretentious nonsense." If my name were Tara, this would be perfect. But my name is Katie.


I'm 18 years old, enjoying the summer between high school graduation and the first year of college. I'll be going to Earlham College this fall, and I'm about to die of excitement and fear and joy and nerves. Right now I'm spending lots of hours working in a fantastic ice cream shop and hanging out with my friends and reading good books and trying to write.


More than anything else, I want to be a writer. I suppose you could say I am a writer, but I long to someday be able to walk into a bookstore or library and see my name on a few spines. I love writing poetry and fiction, and enjoy even essays and papers enough to want to be an English major. I also want to major in Art. I haven't decided if my focus should be painting or photography. There are many decisions I find difficult to make, but I'm mostly a happy person and I try not to buy into the concept of "time" too much. I usually fail miserably, and thus have developed a fascination with time and what everybody thinks about time and why time is defined the way it is and how amazing it is that humans basically invented its measurement and people stick to it but to different degrees in different places and...


I think it would be great if everybody could be classified by a sound. It could change as many times during one's lifetime as necessary, of course...but to have your own sound! I envy musicians. If I were a sound, maybe I would be the fluttery bird noise that comes at the beginning of Beck's cover of "Diamond Dogs," found on the soundtrack to Moulin Rouge (which happens to be my all-time favorite movie).


I should add that my faith is probably the most essential part of my life. As a Christian, faith in God's incredible love. As a human, faith in humanity. As a liberal, faith that the 2004 election will bring better news. As a feminist, faith that women will eventually earn the same amount of money as men for the same amount of work. Unfortunately, my Christianity, as happy as I am with my religion, is something that at times fills me with the desire to explain myself to others even if I haven't been asked. I almost feel like I have to have a disclaimer ready during all discussions even remotely pertaining to religion: yes, I am a Christian, but I am NOT one of the Bible thumpers who keeps writing those letters to the editors about posting the 10 Commandments in state-operated buildings, putting a Nativity scene on the Courthouse lawn, the deterioration of society and morals due to the "homosexual agenda." As a matter of fact, I enjoy learning about other faiths and lifestyles and I promise not to warn you about hellfire within five minutes of learning your name. I think the term "equal rights," was meant to apply to everyone: even females and homosexuals. I think it's rather inconsiderate to God to favor the denial of rights and respect to any of His creations--and we're all His creations.


At risk of appearing to downplay the seriousness of the problems in this world, I think everybody should just listen to Patty Griffin and eat some ice cream and calm down.

a happy list

THE WRITTEN WORD
The Hours by Michael Cunningham. East of Eden by John Steinbeck. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg. Orlando, A Room of One's Own and Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf. The Bullfighter Checks Her Makeup and The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean. Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James. Light in August by William Faulkner. Up the Down Staircase by Bel Kaufman. Moby-Dick by Herman Melville (especially now that I don't have to write any more papers about it!) The Age of Innocence by Edith Wharton. White Oleander by Janet Fitch. The Bell Jar, Ariel, and The Colossus and Other Poems by Sylvia Plath. Girl With a Pearl Earring and Falling Angels by Tracy Chevalier. Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison. The Blind Assassin and The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood. Possession by A. S. Byatt. Jane Eyre by Charlotte Brontë. Almost anything written by Madeleine L'Engle, especially Certain Women, The Other Side of the Sun, and The Small Rain. The Joy Luck Club and The Hundred Secret Senses by Amy Tan. The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck. Fahrenheit 541 and The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury. The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky. The Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. The Harry Potter Series by J.K. Rowling. Matilda and The Witches by Roald Dahl. Poetry Speaks by assorted. "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor. Stories by Katherine Mansfield. The Group by Mary McCarthy"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Let Nothing You Dismay by Mark O'Donnell. A Passage to India by E.M. Forster.


FILMS
Moulin Rouge. Adaptation. The Sound of Music. The Hours. Fried Green Tomatoes. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Chicago. Amélie. Pleasantville. The Bourne Supremacy. Collateral. Girl With a Pearl Earring. Possession. Finding Nemo. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Lord of the Rings trilogy. Toy Story II. Pride and Prejudice (A&E/BBC mini-series version). The Graduate. The American President. Chocolat. You've Got Mail. It Happened One Night. It's a Wonderful Life. What Dreams May Come. Love Actually. Whale Rider. Mean Girls. Almost Famous. Lost in Translation. The Bourne Identity.


STAGE
The Secret Garden. Into the Woods. A Christmas Carol. Big Love. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Les Miserables. The Lion King. The Phantom of the Opera. Annie. Romeo and Juliet. A Midsummer Night's Dream. Proof. Noises Off. Sueno.


MUSIC
Belle & Sebastian. Nellie McKay. Zero 7. Red Hot Chili Peppers. Patty Griffin. Franz Ferdinand. Fiona Apple. Of Montreal. Wilco. Dave Matthews Band. Radiohead. The Strokes. Sleater-Kinney. Simon and Garfunkel. The Beatles. Weezer. Carole King. Béla Fleck and the Flecktones. The Moulin Rouge soundtrack(s). Coldplay. Alanis Morissette. Jars of Clay. Sarah McLachlan. REM. Jill Scott. Natalie Merchant. PJ Harvey. The White Stripes. Ben Folds Five. Over the Rhine. Liz Phair. Norah Jones.


TELEVISION
The West Wing. Cheers. Frasier. Friends (I somehow missed the decade-plus friends craze that overwhelmed the nation, but my best friends love Friends and are loaning me their DVDs...so far I've finished season one.)


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