as you can tell by the entry title, what a day! i went to jury duty today. yeah, they finally got me. the first time i ever received a notice, if was for a county i didn't live in anymore. haha suckers, you missed me! then i got a notice and called each day but never had to go in. finally, this time i had to go in on the first day. i went to the court in the beautiful city of compton, you know, home of those nice boys, n.w.a.. that court has a '1 day or 1 trial' rule. if you don't get picked in the day you are there, then you're done. lucky me, i was one of a handful that didn't get picked to interview for a jury so i am over with jury duty. perhaps next time i'll get picked but i'm good for 1 year.

while i was doing all that waiting around, i was able to finish reading "the virgin suicides". nopalita let me borrow the book and the movie, damn she must really like this story. for being such a short book, it took me a very long time to get through it. the first half was the hardest half. it was so boring that i didn't know how i was ever going to get through it. one thing that bugged me were the extremely long chapters. when the reader turns a page and finishes a chapter, it is a sense of accomplishment. it feels good. if you lessen these good feelings, then your reader's pace slows down. at least that was the case for me. the book is divided into 5 chapters. i see where he's going with this. trying to be old school, 5 chapters like 5 acts. sorry man, it doesn't work. i really didn't see the 5 act progression in the narrative of each chapter. mainly though, i do not like the author's writing style. he writes long sentences that lack commas and steer off into other thoughts and never complete the original thought. it's his first novel so i'll let it slide a bit. perhaps he has since improved.

while i was sluggishly moving along in my reading i talked with nopalita on how i felt about the book, that it seemed to lack information. it was "suicides" plural but so far there has only been a singular suicide and it seems like the book will never cover the other suicides. as i talked about it, something in my brain clicked and i started to understand more about the book. the book is not about the people that killed themselves, the book is about those left behind and who have been affected. if you've never thought about it, then you'll never understand it. the book is about those who do not understand. it's about collecting pieces that you think are part of the puzzle and hoping to get answers. once i realized this, i was able to progress reading at a better pace, but still somewhat slow. jury duty allowed me undivided attention to finish the book.

i don't think the plural of the suicides was covered until the last few paragraphs of the book. there were a couple good lines in the book, such as when the 13 year old was rescued from her suicide attempt and the doctor cannot understand why she wanted to end her life when she is so young that she couldn't possibly have any problems. her reply is, "obviously doctor you have never been a 13 year old girl". oh how that takes me back. yes, i know those days and those feelings. probably the best part of the book is the last paragraph because it sums it all up for you.

since the reading was slow, i wanted to just hurry up and watch the film to get the story out of the way. only, i knew that the unfolding of the narrative would be completely different in the film than in the book so i was patient. as soon as i got home from jury duty though, i watched the movie. the book never specifically says who the narrators are, nor the time and place of the story. however, if you pick up the clues you can get a basic picture. it is only once after reading a large portion do you get the basic picture. the back of the dvd cover does the work for you (1970s in michigan) and takes away from reading experience. shame. too bad there wasn't a way to make the film more ambiguous like the book.

my day pretty much ended when my mom came home and the first thing out of her mouth is, "do you know there will be gay parade?" yeah mom, i know. what you want to be in it or something? she then turns through her japanese magazine with the zeal of an apt pupil to find the piece she had read. she finally finds it and gives me the magazine. ah yes, i see, the world famous parade on santa monica boulevard. yeah mom, thanks again. no seriously, do you want to be in the parade?