Smart Girls Like Me - Diane Vadino
Love, Life and Finding Yourself in Y2K
Betsy is in a panic - not only is the millennium coming - and possibly the end of the world - but also she must find a date to her best friend's wedding.
With Y2K and her best friend's wedding impending, twenty four year old Betsy Nilssen is in a panic. She needs to find a date for the wedding, which is just a few months away. But a more immediate concern is the coming millennium. Betsy is convinced that January 1, 2000 will bring the end of the world, and she has stocked up on enough freeze dried meals to last her for at least the first week or so. Never mind that she forgot to plan for water or any other necessities, a co-worker at the fashion Web site for which she works reminds her.
Through Thick and Thin
Betsy and Bridget Callahan have been friends since they were little girls, and shared every last secret with each other. So when Bridget announces her engagement, Betsy feels betrayed. Not only has she lost her best friend, but she is forced to spend more time and money than she intends on parties, planning and travel accommodations for Bridget's destination wedding in the middle of the South Pacific. She also has to cope with the other bridesmaids, a group of girls almost but not quite as pretty as Bridget, but equally as perfect in other ways. They're all married - most of them, happily - and Betsy has a hard time relating to them.
Happy New Year?
When Betsy realizes that she has survived the dawning of the new year and that the world is still in existence, it's time to get serious about finding a date. When office crush Ryan returns her interest, she is cautiously elated. She feels inadequate on a daily basis, when they work in an office frequented by thin, beautiful models who do not have juice stains on the hem of their shirt (unlike Betsy). So when dreamy Ryan shows interest in her, she has a hard time getting out of her own head and just enjoying spending time with him.
But no good thing ever lasts for Betsy, it seems. She finds out that he is also seeing her boss, and she breaks up with him. So she is alone, again, and dateless for the wedding that is now even sooner than before.
Hilarious High Jinks
Smart Girls Like Me is an immensely relatable book for anyone who has been there -- through the awkwardness of dating, nursed a crush on someone just outside of their reach, or even just needed a date to someone's wedding. Diane Vadino tells her story with wit and wisdom, and her writing portrays a touching and very real look at characters who are more like friends than just people in a fictional book. Betsy's neurotic obsessing is something that almost everyone who has ever dated has done.
About the Author
Diane Vadino was the inaugural main staff person at McSweeney’s. Her writing on film and design regularly appears in Nylon, I.D., and other publications. Born in Philadelphia and raised in New Jersey, she now resides in Brooklyn.
Vadino, Diane
Smart Girls Like Me
St. Martin's Press, New York, October 2, 2007
