Status Updates From Solutions and Other Problems

“You might be thinking, Why, though? Why is the person who does that somebody’s best friend? Because that’s intimacy, Buckaroos. Somebody who understands exactly how weird you are, and you understand how weird they are, and you’re in a sort of mutually beneficial hostage situation.”

“And only now, as I’m writing this 20 years later, am I making the connection that our interests lined up fucking perfectly.”

“It would have made sense to be friends with my sister. We were both children. We were both stranded at least 20 miles from the alternatives. There was even a lot we could relate to each other about, probably.”

“There was no points system, no strategy. I didn’t need them. I just liked finding things, but didn’t know anyone who would hide them for me.”

"When Mouse started to fall apart, we bought new mouse toys. We thought this would work. I mean, why wouldn't it? He obviously has the power of imagination on lockdown, so why wouldn't he be able to seamlessly transition between mouse friends? Just pretend it's the same mouse and move on with your life. He hates the new mice. He refuses to acknowledge them. If they try to be his friends, he puts them in the bathroom.

"My handle on their relationship is limited to the basics. Like, I can tell when he's mad at it because he puts it in the bathroom. I get that. Sometimes, when you're fed up with your mouse friend that you can't even look at it, you've gotta do something. Teach it a lesson. Put it in the bathroom so it can think about itself."

“I wanted to really go into detail about how awkward death can be, and describe the lack of closure and how it always just sits there, and the guilt, and the regrets, and which crossing it was, and all my guesses for what her last thoughts might have been, and how I still have dreams about her.”

“A family acquaintance us afterward. He said he had some herbs to help with my emotional volatility. I explained that I was just sad about my sister being dead- she used to be alive, see, now she isn’t anymore, and it just really came through in the last part of the slideshow for me… and he gently pointed out that I’d been crying significantly louder than anybody else.”

“I tried to keep it together so nobody would notice, and I wanted to explain how difficult it was, and how forcefully the sadness exited my body when I finally broke down during the closing ceremonies.”

“I wanted to describe how violently my dad hugged me when I came home, and how much he was crying, and how scared I felt when j realized I would need to lead the family. I wasn’t ready to lead the family, but somebody needs to do that, you know? Somebody needs to maintain the family’s image of impunity at the village meetings. And my parents suddenly seemed too lost and small to protect us.”

“I’m a tragic, greedy animal with too many dreams to feel satisfied by reality. I want to know what everything cool feels like. I want to ride dragons into battle. I want to be important. I want to know what it would be like if everybody believed in me.

....okay there was a serious chapter that I maybe teared up a bit at but otherwise this is still just hilarious

Crying laughing at work rn

I don't understand how she does this. How her art style and writing just comes together so well. I just finished the chapter called Losing and....how does this one hurt more than the first book? I thought I was prepared.

I love this woman.

I love it because Charles Preston Johnstone bought it for me at the half price books on Kirkwood like 5 days ago

Some chapters are hilarious and some not. Having trouble finishing 🤷‍♀️

Trying to read this during SSR (sustained silent reading) with my kids is incredibly difficult because oh my god the humor.

Chapter 10 - Losing

Allie Brosh knows how to write about life

Chapter 9 - Bananas was a good one

The Bananas chapter 🤣🤣🤣

Not nearly as good as her first collection. DNF.

Found at savers for $4, what a steal!

thought i'd read this for fun, since the last book i read was very heavy. turned out to not be the case, lol. i had to take a break because i was flat-out sobbing. she really knows how to bury the sad stuff until you're lulled into a false sense of security and then BAM.

today I read a chapter of this where she drew a weird black bird she saw dancing on tv
the drawing was very strange, a black circle moving around in ellipses like a dervish
taking it as an artist's interpretation of the animal i laughed and moved on.
Later, sitting sitting at a cafe reading, I randomly look up to the muted tv and there it is! the same bird doing the dance in the exact way!
life is weird sometimes

132

Screaming-into-the-pillows laughter. Some devastating encounters with mortality: "I did my best to pare it down, but there's no way to hide a sprawling tragedy sequence in the exact middle of nothing." And yet: "Death can take away your friends and pets, but it can't take away the weird shit they did." For whatever reason, I did not realize this followup to "Hyperbole and a Half" existed, but I'm very glad it does.

At 15% I have already laughed out loud more than I have at any book in quite some time. Fingers crossed that it continues this way!

At

made me lol