Cringe Night

So, I'm "working" from home today and came across an article on my desk that my Mom sent me a few months back: "On Cringe Night, the last laugh is on you." Seems there's a night at Freddy's Bar & Backroom in Brooklyn called "Cringe Night" where people read excerpts from their teenage diaries onstage. Why the Providence Journal is reporting on bars in Prospect Heights is beyond me but...

Oddly, this weekend had me swimming in nostalgia -- thanks to this new myspace page, I reconnected with a long lost "BFF" from high school...which of course sent me diving into the closet to retrieve old diaries from 8th grade. If I were to attend "Cringe Night," here's just one of MANY passages that had me cringing (written in painfully-executed bubble letters with circles for periods and over each "i"):

---from July 21, 1987 -- aka the year I was grounded for THE ENTIRE SUMMER---
...she thinks she's so important & good now that she's scammed with everyone - but u don't have 2 be pretty or nice 2 get scoop. just a ho - that's all u need 2 be. what a bitch! i wonder if she's ever gonna tell me? she knows i'll bitch at her about it. anyway. i babysat 2day from 6:30 2 9:30. i got $5.00. killer easy 5 bucks. the kids were good - patrick is so adorable & vanessa is sweet. Natalia wuz bein a real bitch 2 Pat & i wuz gettin pissed off. shit - did i ever bitch at her like that! smart ass runny nose bossy little bitch! get in my way - huh! fuck her! if i put my hand against my ear - i can hear the tickin of my watch. my dad wants to get me a $300 stereo system. but 4 me 2 keep the old speakers. i got mad at him and now feel real bad. i feel like i'm bitchin at him cuz he wants 2 get me somethin nice 4 my b-day. boy - am i a bitch! maybe keith wuz right. i hafta apologize 2 my dad & tell him whatever he wants 2 get me - i'll luv it.

Sooooo, I don't know what's more frightening: the fact that people let me babysit their children or that someone actually paid a person $5 to watch 3 kids for 2 hours. Happy to see ADD isn't the recent development I thought it was...