DEAR Day

Have you heard of "DEAR Day"? I thought everyone had heard of DEAR Day, but I referenced it in a conversation with Twin Sister Corey and Boyfriend Stephen, and one of us had not heard of it.... (Hint: It wasn't Twin Sister Corey.)

DEAR Day = Drop Everything And Read Day

Circa second grade: When you get to wear your pj's to school and park with a pillow, blanket, and stack of books on a beanbag and you don't have to talk to anyone because you are reading! It's funny-- when I think back on my childhood, I remember not having friends in middle school, but perhaps my social struggle began earlier in life. I'll assume I was more excited about the reading than the not-talking-to-anyone, but I can't be 100% positive on that one.

Corey and I loved DEAR Day. We even recreated DEAR Day at home, where we each collected 10-40 books and stacked them up in our rooms with big glasses of ice water. We had our own bean bags, too, which our mother lovingly stuffed with packing peanuts once the beans began to wilt. We'd park our bean bags and books in our room or on the top bunk of our bed (In hindsight, was that safe?) or in the closet, or we'd ditch the bean bags and just bring our reading lamps under the bed. And we'd read until our parents forced us to eat or go outside. One Home DEAR Day, I read the entire American Girls Collection series... 40ish books. No big deal.

Then television happened. First it was The X Files, then on to ER, then every show on The CW. (Why???) Then Trading Spaces, A Wedding Story, and the cartoons of One Saturday Morning and every other crappy television show there is. My parents staged a major intervention when they limited TV watching to two hours a day. Applicable loopholes: (a) Movies don't count. (b) It doesn't count if I read during the commercials, right? (c) What if my homework is open while the TV is on? Alright fine. Finally, college happened, and my TV watching could continue uninterrupted. Recap: Middle school through college = not much reading (except Harry Potter, obviously).

The last time I had a good reading streak, I was in England in the middle of nowhere for three months without a tv, a computer, nail polish, or a straightening iron. Pathetic.

Resolutions:

(a) Stop killing brain cells.

(b) Bring back DEAR Day... or at least DEAR half-hour.