I Saw David Sedaris

This may or may not make you think I'm a moron, but I do not read books written for adults.  The exceptions would be a) Stephen King, although I haven't completed one of his books in a while and b) travel guides.  So last night when Matt and I went to see David Sedaris speak, I hadn't read any of his works.  Nor had I listened to him on the radio.  Not for any reasons except that I am often fighting against the fact that I am an  adult and I enjoy adult things, and David Sedaris always struck me as having a very adult audience.  Plus, I'm a very slow reader.  Ridiculous thoughts, I know, being that I am a mom living in the suburbs and I'm closer to forty than thirty.  Whatever.  I very much enjoyed seeing Mr. Sedaris speak, sometimes relating as a child to his family stories, sometimes as a parent, and sometimes as an author.  Not an author who is flown all over the world and has books translated into a billion languages and, you know, speaks at theatres where people pay to see me, but, still, an author.

Part of his presentation was a reading from his journals, where he writes down humorous observations from his day.  For some reason it made me think of Seinfeld, also an observationalist (observationist?).  Later in the show, Sedaris mentioned that his mother had passed away years ago, and that was one of the good reasons to keep a diary: you can see that on June 8, 1982 you had a phone conversation with your mom about X. Some of you may know I wrote about journaling in Get Well Soon, where Anna talks about how depressing it is to look back at all of the crappy things you said about yourself, and I recently talked about this in regards to my own high school diaries when I spoke at a school.  So when Sedaris said this, my thoughts were conflicted.  I do love the idea of looking back and recalling a conversation with my mom (who is, gratefully, still alive), but think of all the journal reading and other content that I would have to wade through to get there.  Maybe Sedaris only journals about pleasant or observational things, not how he ate too much or embarrassed himself at a staff meeting.  Maybe I should keep a journal like that...  Tonight, just as I tried that Oprah thing years ago where you make a list of all the positive things that happened in your day, I will start an Observation Journal.  It will probably be more like, "Kids say the darnedest things," but I might as well try it.  In any case, it's the perfect excuse to buy a new notebook.  Anybody want to join me?  In the journal writing, not the notebook buying.  But feel free to buy a new notebook, too.