So today, I was going to grace you all with a funny series of quips on words that make me go "buuuhhhhh" (Ron White style, for any of you out there who have seen Tater Salad too many times.) Then I became incensed with the metro (again) for no particular reason....other than that the North Dupont Metro down escalator is STILL out of service....and had mentally planned out my post about hating WMATA....
But then. Something special happened. I had a Planet Earth Goes Corporate moment. You know that one scene where after like days of waiting, the camera man catches the bird of paradise doing that ridiculous mating dance?
This was like seeing that. I was in shock and awe, because I have seen probably every single strange incident that can happen in normal daily corporate life. Examples include:
- Sexually harassed by clients? Been there, done that, over a seminar on shipping corpses, nonetheless.
- Watched boss drink straight from wine bottle in the office? Check.
- Had my skirt blow up while delivering a massive proposal and show my underwear to my senior manager and co-worker? You betcha.
But this one, this one takes the cake. I finally witnessed a CD in action. The CD's. I can't really flesh out for you what that means because I'm in no mood for someone to google and randomly come up with that and trace it somehow back to me. But. While the C stands for....Corporate...Suffice to say, the D's stands for douchebag.
As I am rarely in my own office, I don't often get to see CD's in action. You see, CD's are amazingly well camoflagued as normal, caring individuals who would rather avoid conflict and putter along at work than get in your face and make a scene. CD's only show their true colors when threatened while in a state of holier-than-thou-art. When a male CD is threatened during this phase of his lifecycle, he becomes immensely douchey, territorial, and excreets something that smells vaguely of shit, coffee, and menthols. Office behaviorial scientists of dubbed this secretion "self importance" and have determined that it comes from a mixture of brown nosing, large quantities of bad coffee intake, and, clearly, a nicotine addiction. Smarter CDs have tried to cover their self-importance by dousing themselves in cologne. Usually to much avail as it amps up the smell of the self love stink. Non-CDs can smell the predator coming and usually run. A classic example would be Andy from The Office. And I don't mean heart-broken, sweet, kinda weird Andy....I mean the asshole pre-anger management Andy.
So. My experience.
I've been sitting in what my office calls a telephone room. Probably because it's just about the same size as an old school telephone booth with a chair and a small shelf that comes out of the wall for your laptop. I love these rooms. Why? There is a door. I can pretend that I'm important enough to have a door to close. Mostly, these rooms are used for having conference calls about sensitive information. I use this room becasue there aren't any other desks available and because they're hidden behind the other cubes....so no one ever walks by and I can gchat my life away while waiting for some work--any work.
This has not been an issue for the past month that I have randomly been in this office and taken one of these telephone cubes. Until today. You see, you can't reserve these rooms. These are the only 4 rooms, aside from partner's offices, that cannot be reserved. While I was actually doing work (amazing! my manager gave me something to do!) I heard a little "tink tink tink" on the glass door. I turned around, confused, to face....a CD. I knew it from the little smirk he was trying to guise as apologetic.
The M/CD exchange
M: Hi, can I help you?
CD: Yes, I believe I reserved this room.
M: I don't think that's possible, actually, these rooms can't be reserved.
CD: Well I reserved it.
M: Okay, well it's possible that you're looking for the cubes on the other side of that wall.
CD: No, it's this cube.
M: *looks for cube number, cannot find one, gives up* well, there are three other phone cubes here, the two there are available.
CD: I reserved this one.
M: *thinks CD is joking...realizes he isn't* .....since I have all my stuff spread out here, would you mind using that one down there? I'm sure that if you're expecting to cram another person in there with you, that they will find you if you move one door down.
CD: Listen, I have a phone call in 5 minutes, I need to use this room.
M: That phone room is just fine, no one is in it, and the phone works just as well.
CD: I reserved this room, it is policy for you to leave this room. You shouldn't even be using this room if you didn't reserve it.
***** at this point in time, I'm somewhere between extremely pissed and totally amused. This guy was so anal retentive that he literally had to have this cube that he just knew as a reserved room. He was going to shit himself if I didn't conceed and give it to him. I was tempted, but already really ready to go back to my gchat with K.*****
M: If it's really that big of a deal to you, would you mind moving out of the way so I can move to the room next to you? And by the way, for future reference, even if you did reserve the room, if you're not here by 10am, that reservation is cancelled. Just an FYI so you don't make someone needless move all their stuff next time.
CD: Oh thank you so much. I know I reserved this room. I've had it for the past two days. Sorry about the hassle.
********
No. You are not sorry about the hassle. You basically just splooged yourself over this hassle and, like the f'ing spinless moron that I am, I MOVED. COME ON M.
Ugh. So. To all those CDs out there. Your boy here got a pass. One pass. This isn't three strikes you're out....this is next time, I'm going to be a bitch and accidentally spill my coffee on you while I'm moving all my shit. I hope that cube still smells like my god awful commuter shoes.
Friday, November 20, 2009
K - I Wish I Were an Engineer
I haven’t been writing this week for essentially one reason - I’ve been stuck writing the same fucking thing over and over again. So, in the tradition of this blog, I’m going to tool on the project in question – the personal essay.
We have all had to write that shit. College applications, cover letters for jobs, fellowship proposals…you name it. Everyone wants some kind of personal statement, usually in addition to a more formal and professional statement of purpose. I, for one, am terrible at personal statements. I write critically, not artistically. If I were applying to a fucking MFA program or to be a reporter, yeah, I get it. I should be creative and engaging, I should let the committee or whoever get to know me. Creative and engaging I may be in some venues, but possibility not at the level of…shall we say propriety? they’re looking for. I definitely have neither the patience nor the skill set to do this kind of shit.
I’ve come up with a few different “types” of personal essays. No matter how original organizations think they are with coming up with the stupid questions, they’re not. Every single personal prompt falls into one of a few categories. I came up with three – but mostly because I had to stop writing this in order to do my actual job. The broadly personal essay, the social essay, and the practical essay. I’ll start with one I’ve been struggling with.
“We place great weight on your personal statement. This statement is your opportunity to get the committee interested in you, in your potential as a professional and as a human being.”
I’m sorry, but what the fuck does that even mean? As a human being? I can give you all the evidence of professionalism that you what, but what the fuck does my value as a human being matter? Do you think I can tell you in 500 words anything significant, let alone convincing? Hell the shit I’d say in 500 words about myself is likely to be a lie anyway. Umm…I like poor people and flowers and organic food? (lies right there.) I really passionately enjoy whatever it is the fuck I am telling you I want to be doing? The answer to that is either yes or no, and you both want me to answer yes and tell me explicitly that it doesn’t matter if I answer yes because presumably everybody is answering yes. My value as a human being has nothing to do with why you’d hire/admit me. You have hired/admitted many complete assholes before, and you will do so in the future. You want me because I can do this shit and I can do it well, but you refuse to acknowledge that. Instead, you come up with elaborately useless prompts that probably serve more to deter applications than encourage creative responses. Unfortunately, my value as a human being is going to have to be fabricated.
Another kind is the one places in California just skeet over. The “minority disadvantaged” type. Or social service/service to society one. This is another one I have to answer.
“Please describe how your personal background informs your decision to pursue a graduate degree. Please include information on how you have overcome barriers to access higher education, evidence of how you have come to understand the barriers faced by others, evidence of your academic service to advance equitable access to higher education for women, racial minorities, and individuals from other groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education, evidence of your research focusing on underserved populations or related issues of inequality, or evidence of your leadership among such groups.”
I am not a minority. I do not come from an underprivileged background, nor do I have any kind of racial, sexual, or religious identifier that sets me apart. I had no barriers. I did what I wanted, when I wanted to. I have mostly paid for shit myself, but hey…a lot of people do that. Not anything spectacular. Do I have any intention of focusing on underserved populations? Asshole, if you read my PROFESSIONAL RESPONSE, you would see that I want to get a fucking advanced degree in literature. THEY ARE ALL DEAD. THIS WILL NOT HELP ANYONE. ACADEMIA IS LARGELY CHARACTERIZED BY THE STUDY OF SHIT THAT ONLY VAGUELY HELPS ANYONE, AND ALMOST ALWAYS IS JUST KIND OF COOL. I am ok with building a career on stuff that I think is “kind of cool.” But now I have to make it seem like this somehow correlates to an interest in helping Malaysian children with AIDS express their religious freedom in Kansas. Or some shit like that. Really?
One that M would know more about is actually a prompt that I think comes up more in interviews for the corporate world. It’s the scenario question. It also, however, comes up when you’re interviewing for a writing tutor job – so that’s where I’ve seen it. "If x and y happens, and there are spaghettios on the ceiling and your dog is missing and you’re eating a taco, and it’s raining …how would you sell z product to a client in Malayasia?" My response is again, what the fuck? M has done shit like this before, and is probably good at it.
I suck at it. I’d say something along the lines of… “well the spaghettios represent the commercialization and commodification of the Italian culture, and their presence on the ceiling signifies their rejection of the subjugating culture of Anglo-patriarchy, while the consumption of the taco represents the erasure of femininity through the corruption of the vaginal symbol, as well as the violent oppression of female minorities. And…umm, the dog missing is indicative of the disruption of domestic spaces and the interruption of the ways in which familial bonds are forged through misplaced identification with the non-human in such a fashion as to recreate new boundaries and new ways of living in western society. And…I would not sell z product to Malaysia because that again represents the hegemonic economic culture recursively possessing and repossessing eastern culture in a move that is once blatant Orientalism and a systematic assertion of sexual authority. And the rain is a manifestation of fertility that suggests a hope for renewal and the elision of polluted ideals.”
M would say “Clean the shit off the ceiling, put a call to animal control for the dog, throw out the taco and eat a salad, and convince the bastards they want whatever shit you’re selling because it will make them sexy/skinny/trendy. And who gives a shit if it’s raining? Work from home!”
Constructive versus deconstructive. Guess who wins that one?
Bottom line, a statement about you personally is likely not going to make you stand out unless you hit one of several levels of qualification. All organizations like to set standards for their applicants, with a set list of previous experience and/or qualifications they’d like to see in their potential hires, whether pre-determined by them or by social standard. I’m assuming we’re all out of college, so I’m not going to include things like “playing sports, debate team, and national honors society” because that’s crap no one cares about post-18.
Category 1: Cure a disease/do some kind of absurd precocious genetics work, start a not-for-profit organization benefiting abused women/children/animals, or build a Whole-Foods level organic vegetable business in your mom’s kitchen garden. Category one is the one no one in our age group gets to, and one that 95% of people won’t get to. NO ONE.
Category 2: Write a book, volunteer in the Peace Corps, serve in the military, or pursue some kind of completely different career for a while and have a dramatic and genius change of heart. Category two handles the people with multiple, diverse perspectives, prestigious social service, or people whose acceptance is basically mandated (veterans). People who have either less drive than me or more time on their hands.
Category 3: Volunteer with Teach for America or Americorps, teach English in some random ass Asian country, do some kind of pro-bono work. People who have done the less adventurous and tamer of the social services, or people who have the balls to live in shitty countries and eat grossly unhealthy food for the “experience,” all while doing nothing that any other asshole with a college degree couldn’t do. (I really do feel like Peace Corps has more social capital than the others ones do…maybe because of the risk of death or AIDS.) (Yes, Malaysia and AIDS are our recurring themes for today.)
Category 4: Volunteer in schools, work with charities, donate money, organize benefit events or donation drives. Stuff most people can do if they decide to get off their asses. This is the category I am in. I have done a decent amount of volunteer work and directed some benefit projects. I only donate money to a few causes, but I do so regularly.
I would not get hired. Because anyone can do this shit. This is majorly fucking depressing. I’ve figured out that you need to do the math on this. You can mostly reside in one category, but you need to have at least one thing a category above you. My idea is to print some kind of shitty chapbook on recycled paper of free verse poems and see what happens. So I have mostly Category 4, but something I’m hoping will count as quasi Category 2. I have never written a poem before. Yeah…not gonna happen.
I still haven’t answered the prompt.
We have all had to write that shit. College applications, cover letters for jobs, fellowship proposals…you name it. Everyone wants some kind of personal statement, usually in addition to a more formal and professional statement of purpose. I, for one, am terrible at personal statements. I write critically, not artistically. If I were applying to a fucking MFA program or to be a reporter, yeah, I get it. I should be creative and engaging, I should let the committee or whoever get to know me. Creative and engaging I may be in some venues, but possibility not at the level of…shall we say propriety? they’re looking for. I definitely have neither the patience nor the skill set to do this kind of shit.
I’ve come up with a few different “types” of personal essays. No matter how original organizations think they are with coming up with the stupid questions, they’re not. Every single personal prompt falls into one of a few categories. I came up with three – but mostly because I had to stop writing this in order to do my actual job. The broadly personal essay, the social essay, and the practical essay. I’ll start with one I’ve been struggling with.
“We place great weight on your personal statement. This statement is your opportunity to get the committee interested in you, in your potential as a professional and as a human being.”
I’m sorry, but what the fuck does that even mean? As a human being? I can give you all the evidence of professionalism that you what, but what the fuck does my value as a human being matter? Do you think I can tell you in 500 words anything significant, let alone convincing? Hell the shit I’d say in 500 words about myself is likely to be a lie anyway. Umm…I like poor people and flowers and organic food? (lies right there.) I really passionately enjoy whatever it is the fuck I am telling you I want to be doing? The answer to that is either yes or no, and you both want me to answer yes and tell me explicitly that it doesn’t matter if I answer yes because presumably everybody is answering yes. My value as a human being has nothing to do with why you’d hire/admit me. You have hired/admitted many complete assholes before, and you will do so in the future. You want me because I can do this shit and I can do it well, but you refuse to acknowledge that. Instead, you come up with elaborately useless prompts that probably serve more to deter applications than encourage creative responses. Unfortunately, my value as a human being is going to have to be fabricated.
Another kind is the one places in California just skeet over. The “minority disadvantaged” type. Or social service/service to society one. This is another one I have to answer.
“Please describe how your personal background informs your decision to pursue a graduate degree. Please include information on how you have overcome barriers to access higher education, evidence of how you have come to understand the barriers faced by others, evidence of your academic service to advance equitable access to higher education for women, racial minorities, and individuals from other groups that have been historically underrepresented in higher education, evidence of your research focusing on underserved populations or related issues of inequality, or evidence of your leadership among such groups.”
I am not a minority. I do not come from an underprivileged background, nor do I have any kind of racial, sexual, or religious identifier that sets me apart. I had no barriers. I did what I wanted, when I wanted to. I have mostly paid for shit myself, but hey…a lot of people do that. Not anything spectacular. Do I have any intention of focusing on underserved populations? Asshole, if you read my PROFESSIONAL RESPONSE, you would see that I want to get a fucking advanced degree in literature. THEY ARE ALL DEAD. THIS WILL NOT HELP ANYONE. ACADEMIA IS LARGELY CHARACTERIZED BY THE STUDY OF SHIT THAT ONLY VAGUELY HELPS ANYONE, AND ALMOST ALWAYS IS JUST KIND OF COOL. I am ok with building a career on stuff that I think is “kind of cool.” But now I have to make it seem like this somehow correlates to an interest in helping Malaysian children with AIDS express their religious freedom in Kansas. Or some shit like that. Really?
One that M would know more about is actually a prompt that I think comes up more in interviews for the corporate world. It’s the scenario question. It also, however, comes up when you’re interviewing for a writing tutor job – so that’s where I’ve seen it. "If x and y happens, and there are spaghettios on the ceiling and your dog is missing and you’re eating a taco, and it’s raining …how would you sell z product to a client in Malayasia?" My response is again, what the fuck? M has done shit like this before, and is probably good at it.
I suck at it. I’d say something along the lines of… “well the spaghettios represent the commercialization and commodification of the Italian culture, and their presence on the ceiling signifies their rejection of the subjugating culture of Anglo-patriarchy, while the consumption of the taco represents the erasure of femininity through the corruption of the vaginal symbol, as well as the violent oppression of female minorities. And…umm, the dog missing is indicative of the disruption of domestic spaces and the interruption of the ways in which familial bonds are forged through misplaced identification with the non-human in such a fashion as to recreate new boundaries and new ways of living in western society. And…I would not sell z product to Malaysia because that again represents the hegemonic economic culture recursively possessing and repossessing eastern culture in a move that is once blatant Orientalism and a systematic assertion of sexual authority. And the rain is a manifestation of fertility that suggests a hope for renewal and the elision of polluted ideals.”
M would say “Clean the shit off the ceiling, put a call to animal control for the dog, throw out the taco and eat a salad, and convince the bastards they want whatever shit you’re selling because it will make them sexy/skinny/trendy. And who gives a shit if it’s raining? Work from home!”
Constructive versus deconstructive. Guess who wins that one?
Bottom line, a statement about you personally is likely not going to make you stand out unless you hit one of several levels of qualification. All organizations like to set standards for their applicants, with a set list of previous experience and/or qualifications they’d like to see in their potential hires, whether pre-determined by them or by social standard. I’m assuming we’re all out of college, so I’m not going to include things like “playing sports, debate team, and national honors society” because that’s crap no one cares about post-18.
Category 1: Cure a disease/do some kind of absurd precocious genetics work, start a not-for-profit organization benefiting abused women/children/animals, or build a Whole-Foods level organic vegetable business in your mom’s kitchen garden. Category one is the one no one in our age group gets to, and one that 95% of people won’t get to. NO ONE.
Category 2: Write a book, volunteer in the Peace Corps, serve in the military, or pursue some kind of completely different career for a while and have a dramatic and genius change of heart. Category two handles the people with multiple, diverse perspectives, prestigious social service, or people whose acceptance is basically mandated (veterans). People who have either less drive than me or more time on their hands.
Category 3: Volunteer with Teach for America or Americorps, teach English in some random ass Asian country, do some kind of pro-bono work. People who have done the less adventurous and tamer of the social services, or people who have the balls to live in shitty countries and eat grossly unhealthy food for the “experience,” all while doing nothing that any other asshole with a college degree couldn’t do. (I really do feel like Peace Corps has more social capital than the others ones do…maybe because of the risk of death or AIDS.) (Yes, Malaysia and AIDS are our recurring themes for today.)
Category 4: Volunteer in schools, work with charities, donate money, organize benefit events or donation drives. Stuff most people can do if they decide to get off their asses. This is the category I am in. I have done a decent amount of volunteer work and directed some benefit projects. I only donate money to a few causes, but I do so regularly.
I would not get hired. Because anyone can do this shit. This is majorly fucking depressing. I’ve figured out that you need to do the math on this. You can mostly reside in one category, but you need to have at least one thing a category above you. My idea is to print some kind of shitty chapbook on recycled paper of free verse poems and see what happens. So I have mostly Category 4, but something I’m hoping will count as quasi Category 2. I have never written a poem before. Yeah…not gonna happen.
I still haven’t answered the prompt.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Being THAT Girl
I have another embarssing confession to make. To be honest with you, I myself am actually just now aware of it myself. That's how new this embarassing confession is. Talk about mortifying. It's like looking in the mirror after having dinner with an important dignitary and and noticing that you had lettuce in your teeth since the appetizer or running into an ex and his hot new girlfriend while wearing your "I have my period and I'm bloated" sweats with greasy hair. That's how bad this is.
What is it, you're all asking? Here it goes....
......
I am that girl.
You know THAT girl who is obsessed with weddings and has basically planned hers out in every conceivable situation? Yeah. That girl. The one who likes wedding shows and browses through wedding magazines.
You may have noticed this before I did in THIS post. Alas. I'll tell you how I came to that realization. About a year and a half ago, CW and I were on a vacation when he, in a burst of loving effusiveness told me that he wanted to get married a year from that October (that would have been last month). Now, before I sound like a crazy loon, I have to say and I hope that K will back me up on the, that I'm a fairly logical and rational person. I actually balked at this. I was clearly thrilled, but also really f'ing worried. Why? At the time, I just didn't feel like I was mature enough to get married, to look sophisticated in that white dress, to plan a wedding without asking my parents for permission to do x,y, or z thing. I know CW well enough now to know that until he's got all the pieces in a row, he can't act. So I held off being flustered that he wanted to get married in a year and a half (he had planned to propose "sometime in the new year"....being 2009). Instead, on my next business trip, I stopped in a newsstand and picked up a wedding magazine. I felt like I was committing a grave sin picking up a magazine like that without a ring. I didn't want to be THAT girl. But he literally wanted me to plan a wedding in 8 months! A girl has got to know what she likes with less than 8 months to plan a wedding officially, right? Right. Glad you all agree. Before this little adventure, the last time I looked at a wedding magazine was when I was looking for sophisticated inspiration for a prom hair style. I wasn't looking at flowers and centerpieces and DIY invitations and save the dates.
But there I was, early August of 2008, flipping through some bridal magazine, paging down dresses.
Fast forward to the economy crashing and CW jobless, looking for something, anything. What he found was basically a terror and the absolute destruction of the flame of wedding hope I'd turned into a raging bonfire without knowing it. It's like flicking a cigarette out a window only to start a forest fire. When the cops arrest you, you're like wtf I didn't start a forest fire...but there it is, engulfing the Hollywood Hills.
I know I mentioned that chicken recipe that women make to make their men propose in THIS post and how I had something similar with the quilt pattern I was trying to find....but it really goes a lot deeper than that. Weight loss (If I look stunning in this brand new Christmas party dress, he'll be blown away and totally in love with me and propose!); Patience (It'll be our 8 year anniversary of being involved--we took a 3 year break as "friends"--and he'll propose to me); etc. etc. etc. I have all these little gimmicks. Mostly, I use the added incentive of a potential proposal to make me do them (aka weightloss/toning), but sometimes it's those stupid day dreams that I come up with while I'm bored at my desk (aka, today.) The seem totally harmless and I know I've forgotten all of them, or brushed them off, but it's like telling a lie. The more you tell it, the more you believe it yourself.
It doesn't help that over a series of shitty business trips, I amassed a huge collection of wedding magazines (please keep in mind that I HATE flying...this was a great distraction) or that my favorite channel (TLC) has gone from What Not to Wear to "Say Yes to the Dress," among other wedding-y shows. Add to that a large quantity of my friends getting engaged, and close friends with that end in sight. It eventually builds up to the point where it seems weird to NOT have weddings on the brain. What really kills is that due to the length of time that we've been dating (since high school, again....off and on), everyone (especially my family) is expecting a proposal and a wedding soon. Very soon. Even my father made a trip up here to talk to CW, and I'm sure he was expecting CW to be all good and Southern and ask for my hand. That wasn't really what he got. I was actually, stupidly, mad at my father (I did have some reason, but in retrospect, not THAT good of a reason). I should be angry at the situation. At the economy and all those assholes with the subprime mortgages. Go fuckyourselfs. You RUINED my wedding dreams. Now it's all gouche to have a big ritzy wedding. See. There I go again, acting like I have a wedding to plan.
It's not that we don't want to get married, dont' get me wrong, we do, but clearly, with CW hating his job as much as he does and the economy the way it is....etc. etc. etc. my dreams are way on hold.
This all came crashing down when I did the dumb thing and failed to think out how a conversation would go. I've been guilty of this since a child. I hate awkward situations about as much as I hate 2012'ers. Any time I embarassed an adult, I felt so incredible ashamed. For what reason? Who knows. Maybe a double dose of Southern manners. I don't know. But ugh, I hated it. I would actually hide for a few hours before the shame wore off. My parents never came down hard on me, but I would dread a talk about it for hours, days sometimes. Regardless. Ever since then, when I have a serious topic to discuss (i.e. shaving my legs for the first time with my mom), I have planned out basically every single thing a person could say and prepared for it.
I wanted to have a conversation with CW about the location of his next job and how this related to me. Would I be invited along? Would I be consulted? Would he take it or leave if it came with? I had pretty much settled on the idea that the conversation would take, at max, an hour, and that I would basically hear something along the lines of "I'm going to go wherever I can get a job, and I would very much like for you to come with me, even if I have to go first, etc." We live together, afterall.
I won't even go into the shitstorm of that conversation, but suffice to say it took over 4 hours and my wedding dreams are like way on hold until CW gets a new job, gets himself together, makes a few friends and the confidence and happiness fairies pay him a little visit and basically vomit "everything will work out" dust all over him.
And here's where it happened. That gloriously embarssing realization that I am THAT girl. It suddenly struck me, deep in the pit of my stomach, that all those stupid little tricks that I joked about with my friends, the bank account I set aside for 5% of my income (to pay for the wedding....hey, over a year or two that builds up!), the quilt, the wedding magazines I have hidden under the futon....that I was that girl. And it all came crashing down as I sat on our bed, sobbing and laughing. Crying because I was so incredibly embarassed of myself, because everything I had desperately wanted and never really admited to myself were suddenly no where in the near future, and becasue it was funny. Funny because I had tried so hard to not be that girl, but wound up being that girl and it was funny that I had an insane diet and exercise routine and a secret bank account, and stashes of magazines, and Say Yes to the Dress scheduled on my DVR for the next month...and that's fucking funny when life shits on you on a random Sunday afternoon.
Suffice to say, CW feels bad. He doesn't know about any of those secrets, and it'll stay that way probably until we're married one day (see. there I go again.). Because he does want to get married. But unlike so many people today, he doesn't see it as the solution, but as the pinnacle. When we're there, we're there. But I guess we're not there yet.
Time to unschedule Say Yes to the Dress.
What is it, you're all asking? Here it goes....
......
I am that girl.
You know THAT girl who is obsessed with weddings and has basically planned hers out in every conceivable situation? Yeah. That girl. The one who likes wedding shows and browses through wedding magazines.
You may have noticed this before I did in THIS post. Alas. I'll tell you how I came to that realization. About a year and a half ago, CW and I were on a vacation when he, in a burst of loving effusiveness told me that he wanted to get married a year from that October (that would have been last month). Now, before I sound like a crazy loon, I have to say and I hope that K will back me up on the, that I'm a fairly logical and rational person. I actually balked at this. I was clearly thrilled, but also really f'ing worried. Why? At the time, I just didn't feel like I was mature enough to get married, to look sophisticated in that white dress, to plan a wedding without asking my parents for permission to do x,y, or z thing. I know CW well enough now to know that until he's got all the pieces in a row, he can't act. So I held off being flustered that he wanted to get married in a year and a half (he had planned to propose "sometime in the new year"....being 2009). Instead, on my next business trip, I stopped in a newsstand and picked up a wedding magazine. I felt like I was committing a grave sin picking up a magazine like that without a ring. I didn't want to be THAT girl. But he literally wanted me to plan a wedding in 8 months! A girl has got to know what she likes with less than 8 months to plan a wedding officially, right? Right. Glad you all agree. Before this little adventure, the last time I looked at a wedding magazine was when I was looking for sophisticated inspiration for a prom hair style. I wasn't looking at flowers and centerpieces and DIY invitations and save the dates.
But there I was, early August of 2008, flipping through some bridal magazine, paging down dresses.
Fast forward to the economy crashing and CW jobless, looking for something, anything. What he found was basically a terror and the absolute destruction of the flame of wedding hope I'd turned into a raging bonfire without knowing it. It's like flicking a cigarette out a window only to start a forest fire. When the cops arrest you, you're like wtf I didn't start a forest fire...but there it is, engulfing the Hollywood Hills.
I know I mentioned that chicken recipe that women make to make their men propose in THIS post and how I had something similar with the quilt pattern I was trying to find....but it really goes a lot deeper than that. Weight loss (If I look stunning in this brand new Christmas party dress, he'll be blown away and totally in love with me and propose!); Patience (It'll be our 8 year anniversary of being involved--we took a 3 year break as "friends"--and he'll propose to me); etc. etc. etc. I have all these little gimmicks. Mostly, I use the added incentive of a potential proposal to make me do them (aka weightloss/toning), but sometimes it's those stupid day dreams that I come up with while I'm bored at my desk (aka, today.) The seem totally harmless and I know I've forgotten all of them, or brushed them off, but it's like telling a lie. The more you tell it, the more you believe it yourself.
It doesn't help that over a series of shitty business trips, I amassed a huge collection of wedding magazines (please keep in mind that I HATE flying...this was a great distraction) or that my favorite channel (TLC) has gone from What Not to Wear to "Say Yes to the Dress," among other wedding-y shows. Add to that a large quantity of my friends getting engaged, and close friends with that end in sight. It eventually builds up to the point where it seems weird to NOT have weddings on the brain. What really kills is that due to the length of time that we've been dating (since high school, again....off and on), everyone (especially my family) is expecting a proposal and a wedding soon. Very soon. Even my father made a trip up here to talk to CW, and I'm sure he was expecting CW to be all good and Southern and ask for my hand. That wasn't really what he got. I was actually, stupidly, mad at my father (I did have some reason, but in retrospect, not THAT good of a reason). I should be angry at the situation. At the economy and all those assholes with the subprime mortgages. Go fuckyourselfs. You RUINED my wedding dreams. Now it's all gouche to have a big ritzy wedding. See. There I go again, acting like I have a wedding to plan.
It's not that we don't want to get married, dont' get me wrong, we do, but clearly, with CW hating his job as much as he does and the economy the way it is....etc. etc. etc. my dreams are way on hold.
This all came crashing down when I did the dumb thing and failed to think out how a conversation would go. I've been guilty of this since a child. I hate awkward situations about as much as I hate 2012'ers. Any time I embarassed an adult, I felt so incredible ashamed. For what reason? Who knows. Maybe a double dose of Southern manners. I don't know. But ugh, I hated it. I would actually hide for a few hours before the shame wore off. My parents never came down hard on me, but I would dread a talk about it for hours, days sometimes. Regardless. Ever since then, when I have a serious topic to discuss (i.e. shaving my legs for the first time with my mom), I have planned out basically every single thing a person could say and prepared for it.
I wanted to have a conversation with CW about the location of his next job and how this related to me. Would I be invited along? Would I be consulted? Would he take it or leave if it came with? I had pretty much settled on the idea that the conversation would take, at max, an hour, and that I would basically hear something along the lines of "I'm going to go wherever I can get a job, and I would very much like for you to come with me, even if I have to go first, etc." We live together, afterall.
I won't even go into the shitstorm of that conversation, but suffice to say it took over 4 hours and my wedding dreams are like way on hold until CW gets a new job, gets himself together, makes a few friends and the confidence and happiness fairies pay him a little visit and basically vomit "everything will work out" dust all over him.
And here's where it happened. That gloriously embarssing realization that I am THAT girl. It suddenly struck me, deep in the pit of my stomach, that all those stupid little tricks that I joked about with my friends, the bank account I set aside for 5% of my income (to pay for the wedding....hey, over a year or two that builds up!), the quilt, the wedding magazines I have hidden under the futon....that I was that girl. And it all came crashing down as I sat on our bed, sobbing and laughing. Crying because I was so incredibly embarassed of myself, because everything I had desperately wanted and never really admited to myself were suddenly no where in the near future, and becasue it was funny. Funny because I had tried so hard to not be that girl, but wound up being that girl and it was funny that I had an insane diet and exercise routine and a secret bank account, and stashes of magazines, and Say Yes to the Dress scheduled on my DVR for the next month...and that's fucking funny when life shits on you on a random Sunday afternoon.
Suffice to say, CW feels bad. He doesn't know about any of those secrets, and it'll stay that way probably until we're married one day (see. there I go again.). Because he does want to get married. But unlike so many people today, he doesn't see it as the solution, but as the pinnacle. When we're there, we're there. But I guess we're not there yet.
Time to unschedule Say Yes to the Dress.
Friday, November 13, 2009
M - People I Hate, Part 1
Referencing K's last post, yes, cats do smell....in small apartment such as my own. Which is why I am singularly responsible for keeping the Febreeze/Arm&Hammer/Clorox industry afloat. We literally have a $20 air filter in the cat's bathroom. Yes, the cat's litter box takes over our small spare bathroom (we live in 600 sq. ft). As I told K after this post, "if my apartment smells like cat, I'm going to freak the f*ck out." Apparently my apartment is fine, but my cats "smell like cats." So sue me. They're cats. That's what they do. At least it's not wet dog.
Anyway. Today I'd like to talk about a particular type of person that I just.cannot.stand.
I'm sure you know at least ONE person who is like this.....the 2012'er.
I hate them. I cannot stand them. I actually have an irrational, strange, and vehement dislike for anything talking about any type of doomsday scenario. This is really because I'm an easy scare. I hate being scared and everything scares me. I once waved a butcher knife around my apartment because I came home to a light on in the bathroom that I thought I had turned off. I will stay awake until CW gets home, watching reruns of South Park because I'll have seen a trailer for Paranormal Activity and then every single creak of our apartment scares the bejeezus outta me.
But doomsday gets me at a level beyond cheap scares. It's so overwhelmingly horrible that I can't function beyond the "what if." The same paralyzing fear happens when I'm in an airplane. My brain goes on overdrive and tries to picture EXACTLY what would happen if tha plane crashed. When would I know I was going to die? What would kill me? The impact? The flames? A God-given heart attack? You can imagine that I'm great to travel with. So I think about doomsday. It's a horrific feeling of total lack of control (Who is type A and has two thumbs? THIS GIRL!).
So the actual scenario pisses me off, but on top of that....the people, the 2012'ers....these f*ckers are like the top of the foodchain of moronic cults. Take the hale-bopp comet idiots. They LOOKED like freaks. But 2012'ers, they're special beyond special because they blend in with us. That clown in the cube next to you...he could believe in this stupid Mayan sh*t. Take a look at this website: http://www.december212012.com/ Tell me that SCREAMS scientific insight and intellect to you. No? I thought not. Me either. And THAT'S what made it to the top of the google search aside from that horrendous movie. CW has a strange and sick fascination with the weird. He likes reading this stuff and sharing with me (he is not, for the record, a 2012'er, just a spectator into their world). I love sharing. I hate this kind of sharing. This kind of sharing makes me outrageously irritable and snippy. He hasn't quite learned yet that the two are correlated--doomsday news = bitchy M. Or maybe he has and just likes to torment me. I gather it's the later.
Well. It's MY turn to share. You can imagine my glee when this article came up: HAAAHAHA SCREW YOU on drudge today. Hi NASA! Thanks for clearing that whole "end of the world" thing up for the morons in this world. Also, I appreciated your little jab at their earlier doomsday date of sometime in 2003.
Kiss my ass, 2012'ers. Then again, I bet they're the same class of people who think that the moon landing was fake, so they probably think NASA is a sham and that Niribu is coming anyway and we're all going to be smashed to bits.
And if that's the case....I'll pray for the god-given heart attack before a space ball crashes into my world.
Anyway. Today I'd like to talk about a particular type of person that I just.cannot.stand.
I'm sure you know at least ONE person who is like this.....the 2012'er.
I hate them. I cannot stand them. I actually have an irrational, strange, and vehement dislike for anything talking about any type of doomsday scenario. This is really because I'm an easy scare. I hate being scared and everything scares me. I once waved a butcher knife around my apartment because I came home to a light on in the bathroom that I thought I had turned off. I will stay awake until CW gets home, watching reruns of South Park because I'll have seen a trailer for Paranormal Activity and then every single creak of our apartment scares the bejeezus outta me.
But doomsday gets me at a level beyond cheap scares. It's so overwhelmingly horrible that I can't function beyond the "what if." The same paralyzing fear happens when I'm in an airplane. My brain goes on overdrive and tries to picture EXACTLY what would happen if tha plane crashed. When would I know I was going to die? What would kill me? The impact? The flames? A God-given heart attack? You can imagine that I'm great to travel with. So I think about doomsday. It's a horrific feeling of total lack of control (Who is type A and has two thumbs? THIS GIRL!).
So the actual scenario pisses me off, but on top of that....the people, the 2012'ers....these f*ckers are like the top of the foodchain of moronic cults. Take the hale-bopp comet idiots. They LOOKED like freaks. But 2012'ers, they're special beyond special because they blend in with us. That clown in the cube next to you...he could believe in this stupid Mayan sh*t. Take a look at this website: http://www.december212012.com/ Tell me that SCREAMS scientific insight and intellect to you. No? I thought not. Me either. And THAT'S what made it to the top of the google search aside from that horrendous movie. CW has a strange and sick fascination with the weird. He likes reading this stuff and sharing with me (he is not, for the record, a 2012'er, just a spectator into their world). I love sharing. I hate this kind of sharing. This kind of sharing makes me outrageously irritable and snippy. He hasn't quite learned yet that the two are correlated--doomsday news = bitchy M. Or maybe he has and just likes to torment me. I gather it's the later.
Well. It's MY turn to share. You can imagine my glee when this article came up: HAAAHAHA SCREW YOU on drudge today. Hi NASA! Thanks for clearing that whole "end of the world" thing up for the morons in this world. Also, I appreciated your little jab at their earlier doomsday date of sometime in 2003.
Kiss my ass, 2012'ers. Then again, I bet they're the same class of people who think that the moon landing was fake, so they probably think NASA is a sham and that Niribu is coming anyway and we're all going to be smashed to bits.
And if that's the case....I'll pray for the god-given heart attack before a space ball crashes into my world.
K - Attack of the Sample Sales
So I bought a Catherine Malandrino dress the other day, and I’m absolutely fucking thrilled. It’s the first thing I own by her, and I’ve always loved her designs. Not really being in the socio-economic bracket to buy her stuff on a regular basis, this is quite an achievement. (A fucking awesome one!) How did I pull off getting a $500 dress for $200? Members-only sample sale websites.
I’m not doing an advertisement (although I should look into that...), but these things are the shit. I started with Gilt Group. Spent an hour every day poring over the shit from brands I’d never be able to afford and still couldn’t afford with their discount. Valentino Red down from 5k to 3k? No thanks. But damn, those Marchesa dresses are GORGEOUS. Then I expanded to Hautelook and RueLaLa, and Gilt branched off to include Gilt Fuse. By the time Ideeli came around, I was over-e-mailed and couldn’t take another one. Plus, for some reason that name sounds stupid to me, even compared to RueLaLa, which is somewhat awkward to say out loud. At any rate, out of all of them, Hautelook is my favorite. They run the right brands at the right prices, and I suspect they have fewer subscribers than RueLaLa, because they don’t have the same quantity problems that the latter always seems to experience. The only things I can never buy successfully online is jeans, because with my figure I need the little bit of stretch in the fabric, so I usually try to stalk the Barneys sales for designer jeans. I don’t know what the hell is up with fashion, but since when is an hourglass figure unable to fit in ANY fucking jeans? Since ’91, actually, stupid me. Maybe I should get back into drugs…I hear blow really keeps your weight down. Fuck you, Kate Moss.
But anyway, there’s a major problem with these sites. When you spend an hour a day, every day, five or six days a week looking at expensive designer items, you get this bizarre financial numbness. Rather than, ok, I do not need a fifty dollar tank top, it’s omg that tank top is only fifty dollars! Or that Marc Jacobs tank top is only eighty dollars!! You lose the little voice inside your head that goes, “it’s a fucking tank top – go to Target.” [Side note: to be fair I probably shouldn’t say that, because I mostly don’t buy clothes from Target. But I know people who do, and these are people whose fashion sense I respect – so I don’t feel that bad about advocating something I won’t do personally. But seriously…go to fucking Target.] Where these sites are really good is when you have money to burn and you’re looking for the cachet of a brand name you really just can’t do on your own. Well, I guess that’s the whole fucking point, but my larger point is – you really shouldn’t be buying shit there just because it’s cheaper than you could get it elsewhere. Only if you really, really want it. Like my new dress – I thought it was honestly strikingly lovely when I saw it, and that’s the kind of reaction you want for something you’re going to spend that much money on.
My worst offender is designer handbags. They are my Achilles heel. I used to spend hours a day poring over every site I could think of staring those luscious leather bags I could never afford. Not just these, but Bloomies, Bluefly, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom’s, Saks, even Macys. I even looked at sites like Shopbop – although I think their web interface is poorly designed and tedious to use. I told myself, ok, just get yourself a nice designer bag in all of your major colors – black, white, and brown. But now I need a grey one, and there’s an MJ purple one I’m currently lusting over. And those deep jewel tones are so in right now – and that one is just such a great size! I can so easily justify to myself, ok, well it’s only $250 plus tax, or, I have a $50 AmEx giftcard left over from something, or that’s a really good deal for Rebecca Minkoff… This is where M comes in. She is usually my safety valve. She checks a) if it’s really as cute as I think it is, and b) if I should be spending that much money. She has saved me literally thousands of dollars by being like “ehh, I don’t know about those pockets,” or in one case, actually yelling at me to prevent me from spending $70 on a T-bags dress I had no use for. The one time I didn’t listen to her resulted in a nice black Cole Haan bag that she now admits is much cuter in person. (Although sadly, it’s a bit out of use at the moment because it’s not big enough.)
The thing you have to remember about these sites is that you're always competing against bitches with way too much time on their hands. Women who sit there and count down the seconds before that sale opens, ready to click furiously and immediately purchase that Gryson boot in every single fucking size. But there's an art to it that I've picked up during my tenure as someone who shops for a hobby. The trick *is* that furious clicking. You have about two minutes (if that) to scan the page before that gorgeous purse is gone. So what's the solution? Clicking on the item immediately and adding it to your cart - preserving it for your (possible) purchase. This, of course, only gives you about ten minutes to decide if you even have $350 to spend on a clutch from Tory Burch. So this turns the entire art of members-only shopping into a process of spending hundreds of dollars based on let's say 12 minutes total of consideration. And that's fucking brilliant - because these folks are counting on the fact that even a small percentage of their subscribers will make that quick decision. But assuming you have any vestige of fiscal awareness left after a few months of these sales, how do you know if something is worth betting those twelve minutes against a few hundred dollars? When something is really, absolutely lovely - which is a conclusion you will come to within 30 seconds of looking at something, likely even less. And that's how I ended up with my dress.
Just so you know, the point of this post was to brag about my new dress. It will be worn at M’s epic Christmas party, and I will be the shit. Flaunt it if you’ve got it!
I’m not doing an advertisement (although I should look into that...), but these things are the shit. I started with Gilt Group. Spent an hour every day poring over the shit from brands I’d never be able to afford and still couldn’t afford with their discount. Valentino Red down from 5k to 3k? No thanks. But damn, those Marchesa dresses are GORGEOUS. Then I expanded to Hautelook and RueLaLa, and Gilt branched off to include Gilt Fuse. By the time Ideeli came around, I was over-e-mailed and couldn’t take another one. Plus, for some reason that name sounds stupid to me, even compared to RueLaLa, which is somewhat awkward to say out loud. At any rate, out of all of them, Hautelook is my favorite. They run the right brands at the right prices, and I suspect they have fewer subscribers than RueLaLa, because they don’t have the same quantity problems that the latter always seems to experience. The only things I can never buy successfully online is jeans, because with my figure I need the little bit of stretch in the fabric, so I usually try to stalk the Barneys sales for designer jeans. I don’t know what the hell is up with fashion, but since when is an hourglass figure unable to fit in ANY fucking jeans? Since ’91, actually, stupid me. Maybe I should get back into drugs…I hear blow really keeps your weight down. Fuck you, Kate Moss.
But anyway, there’s a major problem with these sites. When you spend an hour a day, every day, five or six days a week looking at expensive designer items, you get this bizarre financial numbness. Rather than, ok, I do not need a fifty dollar tank top, it’s omg that tank top is only fifty dollars! Or that Marc Jacobs tank top is only eighty dollars!! You lose the little voice inside your head that goes, “it’s a fucking tank top – go to Target.” [Side note: to be fair I probably shouldn’t say that, because I mostly don’t buy clothes from Target. But I know people who do, and these are people whose fashion sense I respect – so I don’t feel that bad about advocating something I won’t do personally. But seriously…go to fucking Target.] Where these sites are really good is when you have money to burn and you’re looking for the cachet of a brand name you really just can’t do on your own. Well, I guess that’s the whole fucking point, but my larger point is – you really shouldn’t be buying shit there just because it’s cheaper than you could get it elsewhere. Only if you really, really want it. Like my new dress – I thought it was honestly strikingly lovely when I saw it, and that’s the kind of reaction you want for something you’re going to spend that much money on.
My worst offender is designer handbags. They are my Achilles heel. I used to spend hours a day poring over every site I could think of staring those luscious leather bags I could never afford. Not just these, but Bloomies, Bluefly, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom’s, Saks, even Macys. I even looked at sites like Shopbop – although I think their web interface is poorly designed and tedious to use. I told myself, ok, just get yourself a nice designer bag in all of your major colors – black, white, and brown. But now I need a grey one, and there’s an MJ purple one I’m currently lusting over. And those deep jewel tones are so in right now – and that one is just such a great size! I can so easily justify to myself, ok, well it’s only $250 plus tax, or, I have a $50 AmEx giftcard left over from something, or that’s a really good deal for Rebecca Minkoff… This is where M comes in. She is usually my safety valve. She checks a) if it’s really as cute as I think it is, and b) if I should be spending that much money. She has saved me literally thousands of dollars by being like “ehh, I don’t know about those pockets,” or in one case, actually yelling at me to prevent me from spending $70 on a T-bags dress I had no use for. The one time I didn’t listen to her resulted in a nice black Cole Haan bag that she now admits is much cuter in person. (Although sadly, it’s a bit out of use at the moment because it’s not big enough.)
The thing you have to remember about these sites is that you're always competing against bitches with way too much time on their hands. Women who sit there and count down the seconds before that sale opens, ready to click furiously and immediately purchase that Gryson boot in every single fucking size. But there's an art to it that I've picked up during my tenure as someone who shops for a hobby. The trick *is* that furious clicking. You have about two minutes (if that) to scan the page before that gorgeous purse is gone. So what's the solution? Clicking on the item immediately and adding it to your cart - preserving it for your (possible) purchase. This, of course, only gives you about ten minutes to decide if you even have $350 to spend on a clutch from Tory Burch. So this turns the entire art of members-only shopping into a process of spending hundreds of dollars based on let's say 12 minutes total of consideration. And that's fucking brilliant - because these folks are counting on the fact that even a small percentage of their subscribers will make that quick decision. But assuming you have any vestige of fiscal awareness left after a few months of these sales, how do you know if something is worth betting those twelve minutes against a few hundred dollars? When something is really, absolutely lovely - which is a conclusion you will come to within 30 seconds of looking at something, likely even less. And that's how I ended up with my dress.
Just so you know, the point of this post was to brag about my new dress. It will be worn at M’s epic Christmas party, and I will be the shit. Flaunt it if you’ve got it!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
K - The War of the Words
I keep losing commenter wars. Or, I tell myself they’re wars. Great, huge, important battles with the other anonymous commenters on the Gawker media conglomerate blogs. I have read a few of them (Jezebel and io9) for years, and only recently worked up the courage to post something – usually on Jezebel.
I have always thought I would be awesome at commenting. I would be sparklingly brilliant and absolutely hilarious, and everyone would just *love* all the dumb shit I had to say. Everyone else who posts on that site can’t possibly be as smart and funny as I am, so I could more than hold my own – I could dominate. After all, I have an MA – which goddamnit, has to count for something! (It totally doesn’t.)
I was wrong. It takes a singular breed of woman to withstand the shit that goes down on those comment threads. People will bite your head off, jump to conclusions, and eviscerate you if they don’t agree. They’ll launch into how you’re a “troll” (some sort of blogosphere lingo with which I’m still unfamiliar) and shouldn’t be around such intelligent charming feminists as themselves. They’ll accuse you of not doing your research, not understanding the topic, and speaking when you don’t know what you’re talking about. 95% of the people on this fucking blog don’t know what they’re talking about, because if we were fucking policy experts we wouldn’t have the time to be on Jezebel all fucking day.
So now I find myself starting all of my posts with, “I do not mean any offense at all, and I am very uneducated about this topic, so this is just a vague suggestion of a statement…” and sounding like a fucking pussy. I avoid anything having to do with a) abortion b) healthcare c) childbearing/raising, and d) fashion for the overweight – i.e., 80% of the fucking content. I get jumped on by starred and unstarred commenters alike. And believe me, I am not outside of the political realm of these posts – it’s not like I’m saying that women shouldn’t have jobs or we should read Bibles in schools and not teach evolution. I’m mostly aligned with the founding principles of those sites, although perhaps less vehemently than others. Yet no matter what I say, someone objects. And that pisses me off, because I’m not the kind of person to back down on shit. I’ve gotten into major pissing wars with some of my colleagues over inappropriately political e-mails (don’t get me started) and almost killed some shitty roommates over some bitchy comments.
Well of course, you say, and my boyfriend says, what did you expect? Well, to be greeted as some sort of commenter goddess, that’s what. I’m fucking brilliant, and they should recognize that. I need some kind of daily verification of my brilliance, and I’d like it to come through the admiration of dozens of adoring commenters. Clearly, I just need to drink more.
And then the Washington Post had to run an article on one of the star (in both senses) commenters on Jezebel, who goes by “morninggloria.” Aside from my devastation at learning her name wasn’t actually Gloria , I was pissed. Really fucking pissed. Who the hell is this financial analyst bitch who clearly spends hours all day every day practicing her witty one-liners? All of her stuff reads as forced, and unfunny. Why do some many people follow her anyway? I’m taking away my heart. All of you are a bunch of overweight women in your thirties with way too many fucking cats.
So have I learned my lesson? Not to take the comments to heart, because really, you’re always going to encounter that kind of shit on the internet. Not to let myself be fueled into fits of rage or shame because I didn’t know what a c-section was (and why the FUCK should I have known that?) or because I think cats smell (THEY DO, sorry M)? Of course not. I’m just going to smoke more, and drink more, and tell myself I’m better than them. I’m definitely skinnier, with nicer tits.
I have always thought I would be awesome at commenting. I would be sparklingly brilliant and absolutely hilarious, and everyone would just *love* all the dumb shit I had to say. Everyone else who posts on that site can’t possibly be as smart and funny as I am, so I could more than hold my own – I could dominate. After all, I have an MA – which goddamnit, has to count for something! (It totally doesn’t.)
I was wrong. It takes a singular breed of woman to withstand the shit that goes down on those comment threads. People will bite your head off, jump to conclusions, and eviscerate you if they don’t agree. They’ll launch into how you’re a “troll” (some sort of blogosphere lingo with which I’m still unfamiliar) and shouldn’t be around such intelligent charming feminists as themselves. They’ll accuse you of not doing your research, not understanding the topic, and speaking when you don’t know what you’re talking about. 95% of the people on this fucking blog don’t know what they’re talking about, because if we were fucking policy experts we wouldn’t have the time to be on Jezebel all fucking day.
So now I find myself starting all of my posts with, “I do not mean any offense at all, and I am very uneducated about this topic, so this is just a vague suggestion of a statement…” and sounding like a fucking pussy. I avoid anything having to do with a) abortion b) healthcare c) childbearing/raising, and d) fashion for the overweight – i.e., 80% of the fucking content. I get jumped on by starred and unstarred commenters alike. And believe me, I am not outside of the political realm of these posts – it’s not like I’m saying that women shouldn’t have jobs or we should read Bibles in schools and not teach evolution. I’m mostly aligned with the founding principles of those sites, although perhaps less vehemently than others. Yet no matter what I say, someone objects. And that pisses me off, because I’m not the kind of person to back down on shit. I’ve gotten into major pissing wars with some of my colleagues over inappropriately political e-mails (don’t get me started) and almost killed some shitty roommates over some bitchy comments.
Well of course, you say, and my boyfriend says, what did you expect? Well, to be greeted as some sort of commenter goddess, that’s what. I’m fucking brilliant, and they should recognize that. I need some kind of daily verification of my brilliance, and I’d like it to come through the admiration of dozens of adoring commenters. Clearly, I just need to drink more.
And then the Washington Post had to run an article on one of the star (in both senses) commenters on Jezebel, who goes by “morninggloria.” Aside from my devastation at learning her name wasn’t actually Gloria , I was pissed. Really fucking pissed. Who the hell is this financial analyst bitch who clearly spends hours all day every day practicing her witty one-liners? All of her stuff reads as forced, and unfunny. Why do some many people follow her anyway? I’m taking away my heart. All of you are a bunch of overweight women in your thirties with way too many fucking cats.
So have I learned my lesson? Not to take the comments to heart, because really, you’re always going to encounter that kind of shit on the internet. Not to let myself be fueled into fits of rage or shame because I didn’t know what a c-section was (and why the FUCK should I have known that?) or because I think cats smell (THEY DO, sorry M)? Of course not. I’m just going to smoke more, and drink more, and tell myself I’m better than them. I’m definitely skinnier, with nicer tits.
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Welcome to a Segment Titled "Really?!?" with K
Hi, my name is K, and I’m a bitch.
No, really.
Seriously.
Not the best introduction, perhaps, and maybe a given (c.f .– blog title), but it will explain the tone of this entry (and likely all of my other posts that don’t involve puppies).
Although there are many many (many) things in life that bring out the cattiness in me, this one in particular comes up often. In this case, it was inspired by a recent trip to a Massachusetts university for a conference. I get up there, all dolled up and looking nice (actually hot – ask M, she’s seen the dress), and I see 75% of the other conference attendees in what can best be described as “New England hipster drag.” I’m talking cheap polyester clothes that got dug out of a back alley Salvation Army bin, glaringly tacky plastic “handbags,” bad dye jobs tied into unflattering ‘dos, mismatched and filthy shoes, and trashy blue makeup (side note – blue makeup is ALWAYS A NO. Chances are, you’re doing it wrong.). Now yes, I could launch into a rant about people dressing inappropriately under all sorts of circumstances, but I’m not really talking about the inappropriate choice of clothes. I’m just talking about looking bad. I’m talking about people looking ugly. I get irritated by ugly people. I don’t like ugly people, and I’m not friends with ugly people.
And I don’t think I’m being cruel when I say that. There’s a vast spectrum of attractive any guy or girl could fall onto, with a whole bunch of variation regionally, sexually, ethnically, personally, whatever. There are people that are model gorgeous, or curvy “real-person” gorgeous, to sickly nasty, or even just downright busted. My problem is not inherently with these people. My problem is with people who don’t work with what they’ve got. I don’t want to be friends with people who don’t care about themselves or their bodies.
I’m going to go ahead and talk about women exclusively here. Yes, men are also ugly, but I feel bad for them because outside of California, makeup isn’t really an option to cover up that bad skin, and there is only so much you can do with guy’s hair. (I’m also going to point out that in this post (and most others) I’m keeping my comments confined to urban/metropolitan suburban women. I don’t know what bitches in Alaska are doing with themselves, nor do I give a shit.) Women, however, have SEVERAL multi-billion dollar industries dedicated to providing them with the products to shape it up a little. No, I’m not advocating materialism and rabid consumerism, even though I’m an avowed and unapologetic materialist (I like stuff, I like new stuff, and I like expensive stuff. Fuck off.), I’m talking about taking advantage of things that can only benefit you.
You say, well I don’t need to change who I am for people to like me? Wrong. At least partially. People will like you better if you look better. I don’t mean prettier, per se (although they are related), I just mean better. There have been dozens of psychological studies on babies or children (who are supposedly unbiased or acculturated) and hermits or whatever, that say people have positive brain wave reactions or some shit to people who look nicer. As an adult with a couple decades and change of nice, biased, narrow experience to base my judgments on, I’m going to like someone with whiter teeth and clean hair more than someone who is clearly a chainsmoker and looks like they haven’t seen a bottle of conditioner in a month. Whitening isn’t expensive, and good god, if you hair gets greasy easily, WASH IT MORE! You don’t need plastic surgery, expensive treatments, or designer clothes, or whatever. You have Target and a chain pharmacy. But learn what works for you, and learn how to do some of the easier little things that make you look so much better. I understand that so many women don’t have the financial resources to get manicures, or the time to do them themselves. I’m not really talking about that. I’m talking about putting on makeup and clothes that fit your body and coloring, BEING CLEAN and presentable, do your hair in a flattering way, etc. You will be more respected at work (assuming you don’t confuse pretty/nicer with slutty), be treated better by strangers and customer service people, and honestly, FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF!!! Don’t you want that?
What I will never understand is how people don’t care about how they look. My utter incomprehension of this bizarre phenomenon relates closely to how I feel about people who walk out the door without having looked at themselves in the mirror – because, to quote one of my favorite actors, DAMN these bitches look awfully nasty. (And we’re all just praying that those people didn’t look, because to think that they did look and go, “yeah, I look good!” is scary.) Why would you refuse to put the effort into something that could realistically make your life better? Tie your hair all the way back, instead of halfway. Wear pink-skin tone lipstick instead of red. Use a tougher astringent or better skincare product to get rid of some stubborn bad skin. Wear dark colors. Wear denim that works for your ass (that, I know all about. I have issues with ass to waist ratio in denim.) Wear a flattering top. If you don’t like or can’t wear contacts, get glasses with flattering frames. There are so many things a girl could do to make herself look just a little bit better. And a little bit goes a long way, my friends.
Because nobody likes an ugly girl.
No, really.
Seriously.
Not the best introduction, perhaps, and maybe a given (c.f .– blog title), but it will explain the tone of this entry (and likely all of my other posts that don’t involve puppies).
Although there are many many (many) things in life that bring out the cattiness in me, this one in particular comes up often. In this case, it was inspired by a recent trip to a Massachusetts university for a conference. I get up there, all dolled up and looking nice (actually hot – ask M, she’s seen the dress), and I see 75% of the other conference attendees in what can best be described as “New England hipster drag.” I’m talking cheap polyester clothes that got dug out of a back alley Salvation Army bin, glaringly tacky plastic “handbags,” bad dye jobs tied into unflattering ‘dos, mismatched and filthy shoes, and trashy blue makeup (side note – blue makeup is ALWAYS A NO. Chances are, you’re doing it wrong.). Now yes, I could launch into a rant about people dressing inappropriately under all sorts of circumstances, but I’m not really talking about the inappropriate choice of clothes. I’m just talking about looking bad. I’m talking about people looking ugly. I get irritated by ugly people. I don’t like ugly people, and I’m not friends with ugly people.
And I don’t think I’m being cruel when I say that. There’s a vast spectrum of attractive any guy or girl could fall onto, with a whole bunch of variation regionally, sexually, ethnically, personally, whatever. There are people that are model gorgeous, or curvy “real-person” gorgeous, to sickly nasty, or even just downright busted. My problem is not inherently with these people. My problem is with people who don’t work with what they’ve got. I don’t want to be friends with people who don’t care about themselves or their bodies.
I’m going to go ahead and talk about women exclusively here. Yes, men are also ugly, but I feel bad for them because outside of California, makeup isn’t really an option to cover up that bad skin, and there is only so much you can do with guy’s hair. (I’m also going to point out that in this post (and most others) I’m keeping my comments confined to urban/metropolitan suburban women. I don’t know what bitches in Alaska are doing with themselves, nor do I give a shit.) Women, however, have SEVERAL multi-billion dollar industries dedicated to providing them with the products to shape it up a little. No, I’m not advocating materialism and rabid consumerism, even though I’m an avowed and unapologetic materialist (I like stuff, I like new stuff, and I like expensive stuff. Fuck off.), I’m talking about taking advantage of things that can only benefit you.
You say, well I don’t need to change who I am for people to like me? Wrong. At least partially. People will like you better if you look better. I don’t mean prettier, per se (although they are related), I just mean better. There have been dozens of psychological studies on babies or children (who are supposedly unbiased or acculturated) and hermits or whatever, that say people have positive brain wave reactions or some shit to people who look nicer. As an adult with a couple decades and change of nice, biased, narrow experience to base my judgments on, I’m going to like someone with whiter teeth and clean hair more than someone who is clearly a chainsmoker and looks like they haven’t seen a bottle of conditioner in a month. Whitening isn’t expensive, and good god, if you hair gets greasy easily, WASH IT MORE! You don’t need plastic surgery, expensive treatments, or designer clothes, or whatever. You have Target and a chain pharmacy. But learn what works for you, and learn how to do some of the easier little things that make you look so much better. I understand that so many women don’t have the financial resources to get manicures, or the time to do them themselves. I’m not really talking about that. I’m talking about putting on makeup and clothes that fit your body and coloring, BEING CLEAN and presentable, do your hair in a flattering way, etc. You will be more respected at work (assuming you don’t confuse pretty/nicer with slutty), be treated better by strangers and customer service people, and honestly, FEEL BETTER ABOUT YOURSELF!!! Don’t you want that?
What I will never understand is how people don’t care about how they look. My utter incomprehension of this bizarre phenomenon relates closely to how I feel about people who walk out the door without having looked at themselves in the mirror – because, to quote one of my favorite actors, DAMN these bitches look awfully nasty. (And we’re all just praying that those people didn’t look, because to think that they did look and go, “yeah, I look good!” is scary.) Why would you refuse to put the effort into something that could realistically make your life better? Tie your hair all the way back, instead of halfway. Wear pink-skin tone lipstick instead of red. Use a tougher astringent or better skincare product to get rid of some stubborn bad skin. Wear dark colors. Wear denim that works for your ass (that, I know all about. I have issues with ass to waist ratio in denim.) Wear a flattering top. If you don’t like or can’t wear contacts, get glasses with flattering frames. There are so many things a girl could do to make herself look just a little bit better. And a little bit goes a long way, my friends.
Because nobody likes an ugly girl.
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
M - I'm the neurotic crafty one
Hi. My name is M and I am an internet addict.
[hi M]
Hi. My problem began some time ago, but I knew I was at my worst when I found "Aunt Fird's Quilting Haven" on the interwebs. It's the end. I had literally read everything. Even more proof, I can't find the page again, so you all think I'm insane and made up the name "Fird" or it's seriously the ever morphing end of the interwebs. It's like seeing into deep space, only to see the creation of the universe. A real mind f*ck.
So let me explain how I got to Goody Fird's. (If you caught my brilliant Arthur Miller reference, then you are indeed intelligent enough to read this blog). My family is party crafty. Not witchy crafty...just crafty.
We're like estranged cousins of the people who spend enough time a Michaels that they begin to smell like the fake flowers. You know those type? If you don't, have no fear, you're safe.
You see, my mom is a very talented artist and my dad comes from a long line of Midwestern sewing machine lovers. They can talk sewing machine models like high school boys talk about their wet dream cars. (P.S. Did you know that Husqsvarna, the company who makes CHAIN SAWS also makes a choice line of sewing machines? I did, because I have one. Sign #1 that I'm fairly lame and border line crafty. I have a sewing machine that was made by the good ol' boys over at Huxes, at least that's what I imagine they're like. Burly men putting together a sewing machine while wearing flannel.) I digress. My dad's sisters (all 3 of them) are into some sort of crafty craft. The Michaels type, not the "Goody Winthrop cast a spell on me" type. He's a tinker-er. He likes to build trellis (sp?) and gardens and does those things.
And I'm the product of that marriage. Example. One Christmas, I asked for a Wii. That Christmas, I got not a Wii, but a sewing machine. My parents clearly knew me entirely too well to see through my "that sounds cool" gift suggestion to my "but I really want a _____". Also, my mother and I have spent approximately 2.5 hours in Joann Fabrics before, a good portion of that debating the merits of a certain sheen on velvet. It's a sickness. You have to leave before the third hour or you turn into a pair of knitting needles or you start wearing quilted vests and wearing weird 2nd grade school teacher earrings.
As if my breeding wasn't enough, my aunts got to me quickly, being the first granddaughter in that family and before I reached middle school, I knew how to cross stitch. High school, my equally as bizarre theater friends (much love) taught me to knit (though I can't remember how). But quilting landing on my desk because my boyfriend, CW,'s mother is a super crafty woman of the professional sort. INTERIOR DESIGNER. Guys, if you haven't actually looked at decorating fabric, do yourself a favor. This stuff is like art but touchable. She gave me a whole pile of remnants and basically said "Here, you crazy crafty hopefully eventually daughter-in-law, go forth and create with this pile of fabric trash." And I did.
The result was CW's third anniversary gift. I'll take a picture and post it eventually. He loves it, actually, and still sleeps under it 4 years later. That quilt led to a quilt for my mother for Christmas (she cried), one for CW's mom (she cried, too, but my cat peed on it before I gave it to her, I guess, so her cat wouldn't get near it, so it's in a closet somewhere), and then a smattering of tiny omg-so-much-cuter-than-a-real-baby baby quilts for various family members and bosses. My brother got a t-shirt quilt of all his favorite/outgrown t-shirts for his college dorm. He says it's the shit, so I'll believe him. I guess it helps that he picked a ridiculous flannel plaid fabric for the back.
I haven't made myself a quilt. So I'm in the middle of one now for me, which is another crafty story for another boring day at the office. So back to how I found Aunt Fird. The real truth is that I have hyped myself up to believe that if I make a certain quilt, CW will propose. I'm not a lunatic, I swear, but I just get these weird ideas in my head. It's like women who make that chicken recipe that shows up every 3 years in lady mags that claims that if you make this chicken recipe, your boyfriend will propose. This quilt is that for me.
It's called the lover's knot, but it's not the traditional kind (don't google it, it isn't pretty). But the modern pattern that I bought years ago has long since gotten lost between dorms, apartments, and boxes of fabric. Hence, the quilting google spree. I've spent over 10 hours on the interwebs search and no go.
WHEN I find that quilt pattern, you just wait...I'll be speeding up or slowing down depending on how CW breathes that day. Poor kid.
Anyway. My name is M and I have reached the end of the interwebs.
[hi M]
Hi. My problem began some time ago, but I knew I was at my worst when I found "Aunt Fird's Quilting Haven" on the interwebs. It's the end. I had literally read everything. Even more proof, I can't find the page again, so you all think I'm insane and made up the name "Fird" or it's seriously the ever morphing end of the interwebs. It's like seeing into deep space, only to see the creation of the universe. A real mind f*ck.
So let me explain how I got to Goody Fird's. (If you caught my brilliant Arthur Miller reference, then you are indeed intelligent enough to read this blog). My family is party crafty. Not witchy crafty...just crafty.
We're like estranged cousins of the people who spend enough time a Michaels that they begin to smell like the fake flowers. You know those type? If you don't, have no fear, you're safe.
You see, my mom is a very talented artist and my dad comes from a long line of Midwestern sewing machine lovers. They can talk sewing machine models like high school boys talk about their wet dream cars. (P.S. Did you know that Husqsvarna, the company who makes CHAIN SAWS also makes a choice line of sewing machines? I did, because I have one. Sign #1 that I'm fairly lame and border line crafty. I have a sewing machine that was made by the good ol' boys over at Huxes, at least that's what I imagine they're like. Burly men putting together a sewing machine while wearing flannel.) I digress. My dad's sisters (all 3 of them) are into some sort of crafty craft. The Michaels type, not the "Goody Winthrop cast a spell on me" type. He's a tinker-er. He likes to build trellis (sp?) and gardens and does those things.
And I'm the product of that marriage. Example. One Christmas, I asked for a Wii. That Christmas, I got not a Wii, but a sewing machine. My parents clearly knew me entirely too well to see through my "that sounds cool" gift suggestion to my "but I really want a _____". Also, my mother and I have spent approximately 2.5 hours in Joann Fabrics before, a good portion of that debating the merits of a certain sheen on velvet. It's a sickness. You have to leave before the third hour or you turn into a pair of knitting needles or you start wearing quilted vests and wearing weird 2nd grade school teacher earrings.
As if my breeding wasn't enough, my aunts got to me quickly, being the first granddaughter in that family and before I reached middle school, I knew how to cross stitch. High school, my equally as bizarre theater friends (much love) taught me to knit (though I can't remember how). But quilting landing on my desk because my boyfriend, CW,'s mother is a super crafty woman of the professional sort. INTERIOR DESIGNER. Guys, if you haven't actually looked at decorating fabric, do yourself a favor. This stuff is like art but touchable. She gave me a whole pile of remnants and basically said "Here, you crazy crafty hopefully eventually daughter-in-law, go forth and create with this pile of fabric trash." And I did.
The result was CW's third anniversary gift. I'll take a picture and post it eventually. He loves it, actually, and still sleeps under it 4 years later. That quilt led to a quilt for my mother for Christmas (she cried), one for CW's mom (she cried, too, but my cat peed on it before I gave it to her, I guess, so her cat wouldn't get near it, so it's in a closet somewhere), and then a smattering of tiny omg-so-much-cuter-than-a-real-baby baby quilts for various family members and bosses. My brother got a t-shirt quilt of all his favorite/outgrown t-shirts for his college dorm. He says it's the shit, so I'll believe him. I guess it helps that he picked a ridiculous flannel plaid fabric for the back.
I haven't made myself a quilt. So I'm in the middle of one now for me, which is another crafty story for another boring day at the office. So back to how I found Aunt Fird. The real truth is that I have hyped myself up to believe that if I make a certain quilt, CW will propose. I'm not a lunatic, I swear, but I just get these weird ideas in my head. It's like women who make that chicken recipe that shows up every 3 years in lady mags that claims that if you make this chicken recipe, your boyfriend will propose. This quilt is that for me.
It's called the lover's knot, but it's not the traditional kind (don't google it, it isn't pretty). But the modern pattern that I bought years ago has long since gotten lost between dorms, apartments, and boxes of fabric. Hence, the quilting google spree. I've spent over 10 hours on the interwebs search and no go.
WHEN I find that quilt pattern, you just wait...I'll be speeding up or slowing down depending on how CW breathes that day. Poor kid.
Anyway. My name is M and I have reached the end of the interwebs.
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