bonny was right, tonight’s episode of This American Life, called MacGyver so reminded me of me. which is spooky.

in her portion, susan burton tells the story of Shane an older-man who was her boyfriend the summer before she went to college. the exchange letter during her freshman year and eventually shane writes that he loves her. then , as the letters start to dwindle and the time she spends thinking about shane starts to rise, he announces he’s getting married.

it’s good. you have to listen to hear about her plan to get over shane– writing a short story for a summer ficition writing class she’s taking based on her real-life, what she’s going through trying to get over shane. really, it’s genius. she decides to write a story about a girl who has 24 hours before the wedding of her ex, 24 hours to get over him. she decides that she’ll write this story and then with the help of her classmates (who will tell her what to do with the story) she’ll figure out how to get over shane before the wedding. as the classmates deconstruct her story susan comes up with the zinger, “duh, we are gathered here today to give the story and end.” i just loved the play on words.

anyway, i could totally relate. because, you know, i would never think to write some pseudo fiction to figure out what in the hell is going on in my life.

and then, during the telling of her story, susan says things like, “i thought about shane a lot. not in the serious, terminal sad girl way.”

and upon hearing he was getting married, “suddenly i was less shiny, less charming, less likely to be famous.”

and the one that hit home the most, the closest, the one that explains so much about myself to me that it’s eerie, “it made me feel lonely, the way they talked about my life made me feel so (some word i can’t remember), and not a real girl in the world.”

i can’t wait until it’s posted, so i can listen to it again.

now is the time where i become one of those people who listen to public radio. this show was so great it makes me want to shout, “DO PEOPLE KNOW ABOUT THIS?”

yeah, yeah, i know. i’ve know tons of people in my life who listen to public radio. but i just never did, opting to sing along to bad 80s music or the new alternative hits whenever the radio’s on. and i’ve sat through more than one of the TTHM’s lectures on the greatness of radio. and yet, i never listened. until now.