Zoey's Journal

Whenever I go to junk stores or smaller thrift stores, I always flip through the journals and blank books. I can't help it -- I'm nosy, and it's a chance to maybe see part of someone else's life. This is the only diary I've ever found which gave me such an emotional vicarious thrill.

First, the cover features a cut-out square so you can see the design on page one:



Nice enough, I guess, for a blank book which hopefully cost the owner, Zoey M., less than a dollar. (The manufacturer's website is here but they aren't open to the public and I can't find a retail source for blank copies of this.)

The first page contains Zoey's To Do List (transcript follows, click to embiggen):


Zoey's To-Do List
Change.
Read 2 chapters of Crispin.
Wash Checker's cage with Cinch.
Wash Checkers.
Wash Jessie.
Lunch.
Read.

Zoey's completed her tasks (presumably "Crispin" is this book right here, or one of the two sequels), and underneath she appears to be considering screen names for, I dunno, instant messaging or something:

Screen names:
GoalieGirl02
(illegible)MuffinZM
SOM 02
Goal2Girl
GoalieGial02
GoalieChic02

and then settled definitively on
GoalieChic02

Did Zoey know "chick" is misspelled? Or is she more of a trendsetter than a tomboy? Can't tell. I know, not fascinating, but it gets better. After a few doodles, we have an exhortation to:

Is it Steve Holt? I'd vote 4 Steve Holt!

There are a few miscellaneous pages, where Zoey practices spelling plurals ("studios/radios/rodeos...cargoes/buffaloes") and lists a lot of other screen names, likely her friends'.

Now we come to the meat of the sandwich, where Zoey actually uses the book as a diary. Transcript follows, again:





Once a pon a time is so overrated and so is a happily over after. I mean I know some people find their true love but most people marry someone they think they love but regret it later. Movies now are all about true love and finding some one special, but how many people find their true love at seventeen. Not me though. I'm sixteen and I've never gotten a boyfriend and probably never will.
There's this boys band right, and it is called the bonus triple fury. Well, they are considered so cool and all of the girls love them. I used to love them too until I found out they say the care for their fans but they don't. I signed up for a mytubedface which has meeting friends, videos, and well I'm no sure what else. Anyway, I joined just so I could meet triple fury. I wanted to do an article about them for the school paper.
Turns out that the band does not even check the site any more. They have some computer geek doing it for them. It stunk. I was so mad that I never wanted to see a picture of them again.

My best friend's name is Nick but + I've never told always had a crush on him since we became best friends

...and that's it. That ends a third of the way down the page, and the next page is ripped out. So, the question is, is this Zoey's real diary, or a story she's writing? I can't find a boyband called The Triple Fury (and the strikethrough of "bonus" makes me think it could be a Jonas Brothers stand-in), and of course "mytubedface" isn't a real thing.

In the larger arena of what we call "real life," it doesn't matter what's true -- the emotions and writing patterns in this book actually affect me, to the point I felt the need to read this whole thing out loud to my wife. Whether Zoey really knows and has a crush on Nick, or she doesn't, I've still never met her. The Jonases of last week are really the same as the Hansons of 15 years ago, or the New Kids beloved by the little girls I grew up with (that is, busy and inaccessible). Zoey learned a hard lesson about celebrity and real life, and new people are learning it every day. Similarly, new people are always learning about how friendship and love work (that is, not always at the same time).

However, I can still hope and expect that Zoey is happily surprised with a boyfriend, or at least contentment and a consolation hug from Nick. Not believing in "happily over after" is an important part of becoming a truly happy adult, and if Zoey's hitting that nail right on the head, maybe she needs to, in order to truly drive it home for herself.