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July 07, 2008
Head Out of the Sand for a Moment
Suddenly work isn't so bad, HOLY CRAP, I had Friday off!, and it gives me time to think.
I spent Independence Day, well, independently, watching from my balcony about 5 different displays of fireworks from afar, none of which I managed to capture as more than a blur, before I returned to the task at hand, moving everything out of one of my bedrooms to accommodate incoming Neeta (she's like a missile, yo!).
Then I hung out with Penny, Jeff, Jeff's wife Jen, Mom and Dad in SF for a day, site of the groundhog? above, before driving back down to LA.
And having this whole weekend to myself, it gave me a lot to chew on, aside from the beef jerky, my ABFAV and ABNEC road trip treat, that I gnawed on as I headed there and back across the Grapevine with my windows down and HEAT ON to protect my 111,789-mile Subaru.
Soooo.
Questions for you:
1. [Question removed because I've already made up my mind and if you disagree with my choice, what is the point in knowing that? Instead, I will tell you that I could really go for some ice cream right now! And it's 8:30 a.m.!]
2. Signs that I am grown up: (a) I have kept a basil plant alive for a couple months now; (b) I eat fruit on a daily basis; (c) I make my bed; (d) I stopped finding two-buck Chuck tolerable about 2 years ago; and (e) I take 6:00 a.m. Pilates Plus, with all the moms. The hotties take the 7:00, so they stroll in and watch me and the moms grunt through the oblique teasers in our (ok, MY, the moms in my neighborhood are quite fashionable) 1992 (really!) holey Champion tees and Target sweatpants, while they're in their tank tops and Lululemon pants (OK, I am totally getting a pair). What are the tell-tale signs of adulthood for you?
3. Do you think there is an innate level of Cheese that you just can never get accustomed to? Like, for instance, I have never begun an email, "Hey, handsome." I have, however, begun and concluded an email with, "DUDE! I think I may have a hernia. You are the funniest person I know. xoxo, Gossip Girl," or started off with, "Dear Crazy Person." You know what I mean? I am not just talking about emails to dudes, here, although for some reason (maybe because I watched it with Penny this weekend), that episode of SATC is coming to mind where Carrie freaks out because she just can't handle The Russian's largesse of romantic gestures and has to go to Mickey Ds for a sodium-laden reprieve. Anyway, maybe that is the wrong term, Cheese, maybe I just mean, you know, earnestness when it comes to being affectionate. Can you get used to someone who's more earnest than you?
Also, do you want fries with that?
Inquiring minds want to know.
xoxo,
Gossip Girl
Posted by jen at July 7, 2008 09:13 PM
Comments
1. The older I get, the more I think that one cannot go home again.
2. I got rid of the futon in my living room and bought real furniture. Those shorter skirts in my closet? I look at them and think, "Sure they still fit but they just don't seem to be appropriate anymore."
3. I guess one could get used to one who is more earnest but I think it might take a great deal of time.
Oh, and no fries for me but I will take some onion rings.
Posted by: Dagny at July 8, 2008 06:10 AM
1. I think you can, at least in this case, because it wasn't so much "home" as maybe a hotel you stayed in a couple of times. If that makes sense.
2. Our furniture is almost all made of wood and not particle board. It's still from IKEA, but I think the real wood makes it grown-up furniture.
3. If someone ever wrote me an email that started with "Hey, beautiful", I would probably die laughing. And if that person didn't mean it to be funny? We could probably never work. I'm not sure it's about earnestness so much as style -- A and I are very sincere in the silly pet names we have for each other, but "hey handsome" is just not us, nor will it ever be.
Posted by: Gwen at July 8, 2008 08:26 AM
1. have no clue as to the question so i think ice cream, being a dairy, is a fine breakfast food
2. 4 kids? nope, not when i'm on the floor with them building lego objects. getting laundry done all in one weekend? BWAHAHAHAHAHA like that happens. I think the best signs that i am grow up are:
a) being happy with myself for the most part.
b) not being afraid to admit mistakes
c) asking for help, but only sometimes, because dammit i am a woman and i can do just about anything
d) knowing when one of the kids needs a day off and letting him/her have it. and also, giving them all dessert before dinner on those few days.
3. it totally depends on the level of earnestness. fine line between oh how sweet and dude you are SUCH a freaking stalker
Posted by: TS at July 8, 2008 09:35 AM
Oh dear, I come in after canned meat product.
Most of my "grown-up" stuff has to do with financial independence. But being too old to expect to sleep on someone's couch when I visit, no longer playing hooky from work (lately, anyway), and hiring movers are all signs for me.
I mistrust people who are more apparently unself-consciously effusive than me because in my experience it's turned out to be an act. I prefer someone who thinks before he speaks.
Posted by: Anne at July 8, 2008 06:44 PM
Late to the party, but Ima answer anyhoo.
1. I want ice cream right now too. Ice cream sandwich, to be exact.
2. Adulthood for me: I don't eat junky food hardly at all and I regularly have fruit as a dessert because I like it. I wake up, even on weekends, by 8am at the latest. Staying out after midnight is really, really late for me. I consider my job a "career." I don't have any drama and haven't for a really, really long time.
3. I think the trick is to be on the same level of Cheese. Whatever level, high or low, if it matches, it's good. And if it doesn't match and you stay together, eventually it will match because either the lesser Cheese will kill the bigger Cheese or the lesser Cheese will up their Cheese ante until it is on par with the bigger Cheese. What the hell am I even saying right now?
Posted by: Librarian Girl at July 10, 2008 07:38 PM