what is your six word story?

I went to the B&N last night to use my “Thank-you for renewing your membership coupon.” That place is like primo 100% crack rock straight from Columbia for me.

I wanted to sit there all night and pour through the new releases I put in my basket. The shopkeepers there know my game. I leave stacks (9+ books in each) around the store in various spots while I’m browsing (they really need shopping carts). I then slowly move my purchases to the café (if the staff hasn’t already), where, more often than not, I occupy way more space than a single customer should. I make my café dinner order of a half-sandwich and a cup of soup (skipped the Godiva Cocoa this time--exhibiting iron will) and then lose myself in my treasures.

There are typically two piles into which I sort my treasures: “not gonna do it” & “you will be mine. Oh yes, you will be mine.” Sometimes there is a third nebulous pile: “I REALLY shouldn’t, but if my ‘oh yes’ pile is small, I don’t wanna lose you in the ‘not gonna’ pile.”

Now that you have the fascinating OCD back story--last night the book Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure made it into my ‘oh yes’ pile. I’m probably way behind the ball on this one and everyone has already heard about it (anyone else out there still roll-n-peg your jeans? j/k).

Just in case you haven’t…I read it last night (during the commercial breaks on the new Lost, of course). It was awesome. I loved it. It was put together by SMITH online mag way back in 2006 based on the notion that supposedly someone challenged ole Ernie Hemingway to tell a complete story in six words or less. Legend has it he came up with, “For sale: baby shoes, never worn.”

SMITH encouraged people all over the globe to share their own six word memoirs and post them on their site (www.sixwordmemoirs.com). This book is a compilation of some of their favorites from both celebrities (Mario Batali, Amy Sedaris, Stephen Colbert, Joan Rivers, etc.) and everyday joes and janes. I ate it up. In many ways it reminded me of PostSecret.

I’m not quite comfortable putting mine out there on the SMITH site, but in the relative safety of my own little world, here are some I came up with (although I’m sure someone, somewhere out there, had similar thoughts)…