"But I want to talk about it now!"

I don't know where I was when The Poisonwood Bible came out (well, that's a lie, it was 1997 and I was in high school in Wayne), but I just got around to reading it last week, and let me tell you, it is the most awesome thing ever. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up. If you're normal, though, you'll have read it eight years ago. In eight years, I'll be recommending The Davinci Code, which you probably read six months ago, anyway.

I am, by and large, always behind trends, and not only in what I read. Sometimes it's only by a few months—I got my messenger bag about six months after everybody else who went to Rice did—and sometimes by whole entire years or more. Capri pants are another; I didn't get my first pair until last year in Austria when I couldn't find any shorts I liked to buy for the beach. In my defense, I thoroughly despised capri pants until I owned a pair. Now when I wear them, I feel self-conscious, because I'm all, I railed against these for years! I've succumbed to the trend! Then I remind myself that my legs are cool but mostly unexposed, and I move on. The capri pants are an unusual case, though, because I didn't like them and so wasn't trendy. I feel the same way about last year's poncho craze. Normally, however, I just don't pay enough attention, so about 90% of the population has to be doing something before I catch on. "Oh, we're all reading Harry Potter now, are we? Oh, fine." I didn't read the first HP book until 2002, by the way.

Just once I'd like to be on the cutting edge of a trend, or maybe start one. I'm not sure what, though. Being mouthy? Eating cereal three meals a day? Using Downy Wrinkle Release as an alternative perfume? I don't know, but I'll be thinking about it. Keep your eye on me for the next hip thing, because I'm going to start it.