Week 5: Connector

This week's chapters have been quite different but in a good way. Fey describes age, motherhood, and tradition in her house when she was younger. I can relate to the motherhood portion in a way that might not seem like it fits. I grew up taking care of my sister, and now, I am taking care of my boyfriend's siblings little by little. Whether it's helping his sister with homework or teaching his brother a new way of defeating a Indominus Rex on his tablet, I am always around them learning. Watching their mother handle a perfect house on top of four kids is quite a challenge, and she never ceases to amaze me with how well she performs under pressure.
 I think Fey is trying to make a point that no matter what, having children is a blessing and even if things fall apart every so often, it doesn't make you a bad person for trying. Nobody is perfect and everyone has their bad days. Fey definitely wants her readers to know that she isn't a perfect, well-managed mother, and I don't think anyone is.

This book has been so wonderful and I feel like I have taken so many things away from it.

Here are some questions for this week's reading:

1. In There's a Drunk Midget in My House (great chapter name by the way), Tina Fey gives advice about motherhood. Do you want to have kids, and, if so, do you think you might look back at this book when you do have kids and revisit it for advice?

2. In A Celebrity's Guide to Celebrating the Birth of Jesus, Fey recounts her holiday traditions, with her eclectic family. What are some of your traditions, and do you have family that always makes the party more interesting?

3. What Turning Forty Means To Me is 3 sentences long, and I quote, "I need to take my pants off as soon as I get home. I didn't used to have to do that. But now I do." I'm using this as a jumping off point. What does being (insert your age here) mean to you?

Passage Person: Week 4

I feel like I say this every week, but my gosh I love this book! It's intelligent, quirky, and Fey's voice really comes through. One passage that I - and I feel everyone - can connect with is:

'I was a little excited but mostly blorft. "Blorft" is an adjective I just made up that means "Completely overwhelmed but proceeding as if everything is fine and reacting to the stress with the torpor of a possum." I have been blorft every day for the past seven years.' (156).

I think that I relate to this because senior year, especially first semester, has been so stressful. Now that the second semester is beginning to wind down, it is getting easier, but I know I felt "blorft" on more than one occasion, between college applications, college classes, high school classes, work, internship, and then time to relax. Although I am known to express my emotions easily (my mom always says that I get upset, I cry for a couple minutes, and I'm done; I get it out of my system), I know that I have felt "blorft" - which I think is a very good word for the feeling.

Have you ever felt "blorft"? If so, when?

~Adi

Week 4: Connector

I've been able to connect to this book on many levels. In this chapter is was easiest to relate to Tina's crazy stress from a very demanding schedule. My favorite part was when she talked about the "best part of the worst thing every," when she said everything she loved most was within 10 feet of her. If I'm having an especially overwhelming week and I go to my theatre group, it is such a relief. I like to walk into a room with them, take a deep breath, and think 'everyone here loves me and knows me, there's no one here that could cause me any harm.' I suppose it sounds cheesy, but it's such a relief to me to think that the people I love are all together, we all love the same things, and we can all understand each other. It makes everything seem a little bit smaller in an overwhelming week. It's nice to just have that group of people that you can be yourself around and not have to be so tightly wound.

Week 3: Passage

For this week's passages, I chose the following two:
"You can barely recognize yourself with the amount of digital correction. They've taken out your knuckles and given you baby hands.The muscular calves that you are generally very proud of are slimmed to the bone (141)."
"So my unsolicited advice to women in the workplace is this. When faced with sexism or ageism or lookism or even the really aggressive Buddhism, ask yourself the following question: 'Is this person in between me and what I want to do?' (130)."
I enjoyed both of these passages because they speak directly to the women in life on huge issues: Photoshop and gender inequality. Fey puts her voice out there to be heard and she definitely makes it happen. I loved how easy it is to stop and actually question myself on what we consider every day things in the United States.
-Madison

Week 3: Discussion Leader

In this portion of the book, we see Tina's fame develop and her career take flight. As a reader, you begin to feel like you really know her and you can relate with her.

1. Do you agree with Tina Fey's opinions of Photoshopping? She makes a funny statement about how she is against it until it actually applies to her and helps her, can you relate to a situation like this? 

2. As a person in the spotlight, do you think it is better to seriously address what people say about you and actually defend yourself and your pride, or do what Tina did and make a joke out of the idiots that have commented of the silliest lies about her? When it comes to cyberbullying these days, do you think that her responses to peoples' comments serve as a good role model?

3. Tina talks about men and woman having senses of humor, but overall, having a common ground for humor, do you agree with this? Do you think there are extremes on either end? 

-Katie

Week 3: Connector

I have been loving this book so far! It always puts me in a good mood and I can find a lot of things that Tina Fey and I have in common (which makes me happy because she's Tina Fey). I can relate to the chapter A Childhood Dream, Realized because I have gone through similar processes. Because - like Fey - I am an actor, I have to put myself out there and be my own advocate. Especially for college auditions, I flew halfway across the country to audition, similar to what Fey had to do when she flew to New York to interview for Saturday Night Live. But more than this, I think that all women can relate because often times, we have to be our own cheerleaders and our own agents and managers and producers and be productive and tenacious. Not only can women relate to this, but I think that all women can learn from this - that you have to go after what you want, fight for what you want, and work as hard and be as fearless as possible to get where you want to be.

~Adi

Week 2: Passage Person

I enjoyed Tina Fey’s story about working at the YMCA and thought that it was one of the nice times she comes to the light of reality. She describes her quirky experiencing and interactions working at the front desk of an urban YMCA. She stops to take a moment to address the reality of the situation:

The twenty-third came. I punched my time card and headed out, excited to see my family and enjoy some middle-class comforts. On my way out of the building, I passed the Men’s Residence Christmas Dinner. If you’ve ever witnessed a school bus accident or a dog trying to nudge its dead owner back to life, then the sight of this dinner probably wouldn’t affect you. But for me, it was easily the third-saddest thing I’ve ever seen in my life.

The residents were at a long table in the basement, and Mr. Mkvcrkvckz was wearing a Santa hat with his dingy suit. There had been some kind of turkey dinner, because the place smelled like gravy, and they were just opening their presents. A tall goony kid named Timmy held up a pair of tube socks.

There were tube socks for Mr. Engler. Opening tube socks over here, boss! They all got tube socks. It wasn’t the tube socks that got me. It wasn’t knowing that these guys would get nothing else for Christmas. It was the thought of Mr. Mvzkrskchs at the dollar store buying forty pairs of tube socks that set me weeping all the way home.  

She takes a step back to look at how these people are really living and it allows her to see that there is something more out there for her. After this experience at Christmas, she takes a step forward to acquire an office job at the YMCA to fund her improv classes.

Have you ever witnessed or experienced something that has given you an extra push

to go after what you want? Have you ever had to drudge your way through something difficult to get to the light at the end of the tunnel? What was this experience like?

Week 1: Connector

I can relate to the “Delaware County Summer Showtime!” chapter in more ways than I’d like to admit. Growing up in a very close-knit theatre group, I can relate to just about all of Tina Fey’s experiences. While most people may think that her antidotes may seem outrageous and exaggerated, they are very true to real life in the the theatre world, at least my theatre world. She describes her relationships with theatre friends and school friends as very separate and independent from each other. This reigns very very true in my life. With my theatre group, I have a deeper connection with most the people and it is easier to relate with them. However, at school, I am quieter and tend to try to keep to myself. Tina Fey describes this odd, two-sided life exactly how it is.

I love that her book is like a conversation. You can keep reading and feel included in everything that she says. I think that any reader from any walk of life could agree with the things that she says on some level.

Week 2: Connector

I love this book so much I want to share this with my children and force them to enjoy it. Okay, that is a bit harsh but this is such a funny and lighthearted book that I can't get enough.
For this week's connection I related it to the The Secrets of Mommy's Beauty. I think most women can relate to this chapter because Fey talks about "fighting decay" as we age, making sure we always look as young and as beautiful as society wants us to. We don't have a chance to sit back and let nature take its course because for most of us, we are allowing others to tell us what is best for our skin, our lives. Fey can be hilarious, but she speaks the truth and she says what she means well.
Overall, I love this book so much and I probably will read it this summer while tanning because that's what pretty girls do (or so Instagram and Pinterest say).

Week 2: Discussion Leader

So far I am loving this book! I have always enjoyed Tina Fey's comedy and writing style for TV and movies, so I am really enjoying seeing more of that, but in a more personal tone. A few questions based on this week's reading:

1. Have you ever done anything to impress a guy, or tried to become friends with a guy that you liked, just to be let down or friend-zoned, like we see with Fey in the chapter "Climbing Old Rag Mountain"? Do you think that she talks about Old Rag Mountain for a reason - basically asking if there is a double meaning - since the term "Old Rag" could have a different meaning and/or a negative connotation?

2. In the chapter "Young Men's Christian Association," Fey says. "I'm the kind of person who likes to feel like part of a community. I will make strange bedfellows rather than have no bedfellows." Are you this way, or would you rather not have any relationships (friend wise) if you don't really connect with someone?

3. Tina Fey writes out the rules of improv and how they are translated into life lessons. Which of these life lessons do you think is the most important and/or applicable to your life and why?

~Adi

Week 1: Passage Person

I'm really liking this book so far! I think that it is very well written, and the reader can clearly hear Tina Fey's voice in every single word. One passage that I found very poignant - and one of the softer, deeper parts of the book - is the following:



I think that this is a very important passage, that shows a side of Tina Fey that has less fluff and more meaning (don't get me wrong, this book is full of important lessons - just not all of them are laid out this passionately), and I think that this hits close to home for many women. Just before this passage, Fey discusses the unreachable standard that society puts on women today, when it comes to looks.

What do you think about this passage? Can you relate to it in any way? With feminism becoming so prominent (via social media and elsewhere), do you think that more women are accepting the way they look, and abandoning the idea of a "perfect body"?

Adi

Week 1- Discussion Questions

1) Do you think Tina Fey enjoys being "the boss" and what she has gone through to get there?
2) Why do you think she avoids the subject of her scar?
3) Do you agree with how Tina Fey describes women in our society and why?

Madison

Introduction to Lit Circles

This blog was created by Adi Mullen, Katie Walsh, and Madison Jordan for a discussion on the book Bossypants by Tina Fey. We chose this book because last year we weren't allowed to read it, so we are rebelling for the cause of free choice. The book is about the wonderful Tina Fey and her life, which is all you could ever ask for in life. We hope to learn about how Tina Fey made her way to fame and success, being a woman in a male-dominated society, and what we can do as females to carve a path of importance in our lives.

Week 1 (February 29 - March 7) : Introduction - That's Don Fey
          Discussion Leader: Madison
          Connector: Katie
          Passage Person: Adi

Week 2 (March 7 - March 14) : Climbing Old Rag Mountain - The Secrets of Mommy's Beauty
          Discussion Leader: Adi
          Connector: Madison
          Passage Person: Katie

Week 3 (March 14 - March 21) : Remembrances of Being Very Very Skinny - Dear Internet
          Discussion Leader: Katie
          Connector: Adi
          Passage Person: Madison

Week 4 (March 28 - April 4) : 30 Rock: An Experiment to Confuse Your Grandparents - Sarah, Oprah, and Captain Hook
          Discussion Leader: Madison
          Connector: Katie
          Passage Person: Adi

Week 5 (April 4 - Aprill 11) : There's A Drunk Midget In My House - What Should I Do With My Last Five Minutes
          Discussion Leader: Adi
          Connector: Madison
          Passage Person: Katie