the underwear drawer

cortney read "sweet valley high," but don't tell her mom

This memory is courtesy of Cortney, another Wellesley alum. Thanks, Cortney!

I was addicted to those books all through middle school (I thought my life at Clackamas High school in sub-rural Oregon would be equally as glamorous, ha). I remember reading the one where Jessica joined a cult, and of course the Elizabeth-in-a-coma saga. I also remember the historical spin-off series, where one of the Wakefield twins in the twenties ran off to join the circus, and her twin came to save her, and somehow the good twin wound up getting bucked off a circus horse and dying.

My mom hated those books with a passion. Almost as much as she hated the Danielle Steele books I was reading around the same time.

Wait, how did I miss the one about Jessica joining a cult? I did read the historical "saga" mega-issue (they were bigger than the regular books, not unlike Archie comic "Double Digests"), and it was, of course, awesome. The history saga detailed the generations of the Wakefield family all the way back to, like, the 1800s or something, back to when the great ancestor of Alice Wakefield was on, like, a boat from Sweden and meets the ancestor of Ned Wakefield. And they fall in love! Scurvy love! Only their passions are torn asunder because of some Fievel-like circumstances, like they get separated in immigration or something. Maybe olden-days Ned was quarantined for having consumption. And then Alice gets whisked away by her Swedish relatives to the Midwest. But probably better that they didn't get married at that point, or else the Wakefield twins as we know them would be the products of incest. Actually, if that were the case, it could explain a lot.

Do you, too, have "Sweet Valley High" memories? E-mail me then, why don't you?

In other news, I was chewing something hard and I think one of my fillings fell out. Possibly, my tooth also chipped around where the filling was. It doesn't hurt or anything, it just feels jagged and nasty. The hole feels huge, but when I look in the mirror, I can barely see it. I need to try and make a dental appointment tomorrow. Wow, waiting for the Super, going to the dentist, walking the dog. So far, this vacation is not rocking my world.