What’s the statue of limitations on referring to oneself with a former title? For example, recently we saw a woman advertise herself as “Miss (Whatever) 1990″. I’m thinking, you won that title 20 years ago and you still refer to yourself that way? Is that really your whole identity? I’m thinking maybe five years of bragging rights is acceptable plus a lifelong right to casually mention the fact if it is relevant to the situation at hand. But those people still calling themselves whatever they were 20 years ago? They need to go beyond their “glory days” and forge a new identity instead of relying on one that gets more obsolete each year.
Archive for August, 2010
Getting past your “Glory Days”
Tuesday, August 31st, 2010“You haven’t changed a bit!!”
Monday, August 30th, 2010My BFF says she hates when people she hasn’t seen since high school say this to her. She thinks they’re implying that her hairstyle, etc. is stuck in the 80s. I pondered this issue for a few minutes, then decided this. If you looked great in high school and still look great (like my BFF), this is a compliment. However, if you looked bad in high school and look great now, it’s an insult. Conversely, if people say, “Oh my God, I never would have recognized you!” it’s a compliment if you looked bad in high school and look great now. However, if you looked great in high school and you’ve gone downhill so much that no one recognizes you, well, maybe you should think about skipping that high school reunion.
This little white lie is okay
Monday, August 30th, 2010So you’re talking with someone you know slightly and they tell you how old they are because they just celebrated a birthday. You should answer, “Really?! I thought you were much younger than that! You look great!” Even if you don’t mean it. Trust me, it’s okay. Because if you respond with silence the other person thinks, “Oh God, do I really look my age? Or, God forbid, do I look even older?? Then they’re bound to fret the rest of the day.
Is the World of Coca-Cola in Atlanta …
Sunday, August 29th, 2010
Worth a visit? As Coke fans, this was a must-see on our trip to Atlanta last month. I’m glad we went but I wouldn’t go again. Some of it is lovely — the artsy stuff like the giant painted Coke bottles made for the1996 Olympics and the architecture of the building itself. But some of it is just strange. There is a “documentary” film you watch early in your visit. It’s all computer-generated; “employees” talk about what working for Coke means to them. Unfortunately, the “employees” all come across as, to put it gently, like they’re all crazy/goofy/stupid. There’s a 4-D movie about Coke’s secret formula, again, all animated. The film experience uses all the bells and whistles of a 4-D movie — the moving seats, the spray of water, the feel of wind. But the “plot” itself is just plain stupid.
What everyone talks about is the tasting room, where you get to taste over 60 different Coke-brand beverages from around the world. I couldn’t try more than eight — they were mostly pretty sweet and/or pretty disgusting. I’ll stick with Coke, thanks. My husband, on the other hand, tried close to 30. Needless to say, he was feeling pretty sick by the end of it!! I have to say though that the tasting room was one of the kids’ very favorite parts of our whole trip to Atlanta (we only allow pop for special occasions, and even then, they’re not caffeinated drinks so that’s why the tasting room was such a treat for them).
Your visit ends, of course, in the Coke store. I was disappointed by the offerings. I expected really spectacular, one-of-a-kind, funky Coke merchandise. But it was pretty much T-shirts , kitchen items and such.
One thing I found fascinating, though. Coke was invented in 1886. A couple years later, some guy named Asa Chandler bought the company and used marketing like no one else. He’s the guy who first put the distinctive Coca-Cola logo on all kinds of household items, which eventually led to its being the most recognized product in the world. Hard to believe that started more than 100 years ago. Ah, the power of marketing.
Roommates: a life lesson
Saturday, August 28th, 2010
May 1985: A former college roommate (left) and I
Okay, one more comment on something I read in the paper. There was an editorial about how back in the day, college roommates were assigned at random. And then you were pretty much stuck with that person, for better or worse, unless worse was like, life-threatening. But now, kids are using online roommate matching services through companies like Facebook and end up choosing someone just like themselves. Which takes away one of the life lessons of college: living in close quarters with someone totally different from you. And what you might learn about them, or yourself, in the process. For example, I was placed with five other girls in an apartment-turned-dorm. We were different as different could be. For example, one was an Army brat from Germany who shaved her legs with a dry razor on the living room couch. Another came from a teeny tiny farm community in southern Ohio where everyone knew everyone’s business. Another was an extremely religious senior who once indiscretely showered with her boyfriend in our tiny bathroom while my dad was visiting. Another girl, a perky blonde opposite to me in many ways, became like a sister to me. The bond didn’t last, however, and we drifted apart a couple years later and never spoke again. I could go on and on about all the girls in my room and on my floor and their eccentricities, but I think you get the point. It’s not easy to work things out with people so different, but isn’t that what life is about? Not everyone everywhere you go is going to be exactly like you, so isn’t the sooner you learn that lesson the better??
Another morbid story, sorry
Saturday, August 28th, 2010Again, from the newspaper a couple weeks ago. I read that the Taliban in Afganistan stoned to death a couple for committing adultery — a 20-year-old woman engaged to someone else and the 28-year-old man who left his wife for her. First, what a horrible horrible way to die, stoned to death in front of a crowd of about 150 men. Second, if all, or even a small portion of, the people in the U.S. who had committed adultery were stoned to death — could you imagine? Especially with statistics that well more than half of people have.
Is this a mixed message or what?
Saturday, August 28th, 2010One of MSN.com’s top stories today is “60 is the New Sexy”. They feature 26 women age 60 and over and fawn over their looks and/or accomplishments. It looked to me like just 3 of the 26 women had gray/ing hair: Helen Mirren, Debbie Harry and Alice Walker. So a substory under the “60 is the New Sexy” story is “Ten reasons to stop coloring your hair and go gray”. If gray is so sexy (which is one of the 10 reasons listed) why do only three of these women have gray hair? And as an aside, how many of these women have had some sort of plastic surgery to boot? And actually, I think some of them look like they’re trying wayyyyyyyy too hard to look young (i.e. Carly Simon, whose voice I like, but she looks ridiculous in the photo). You don’t have to be dowdy and frumpy just because you’re 60, but you do need to realize you are not in your 20s and never will be again.
More proof of my absentmindness
Thursday, August 26th, 2010The other day my son handed me his homework to look at. I looked at it, then put it … somewhere … never to be found in time for school the next day. We’ve all heard the line about the dog eating your homework, but your mom losing it?? I was so embarrassed!! My son was so upset and thought the teacher would make him do it again. I wrote the teacher a note and sent my unhappy son to school. The good news is, I found it at 3 p.m. … today. I actually have to keep a LIST in my planner of things I need to find (3 lawn tickets to Blossom, car charger for my phone which is dead half the time, my daughter’s spare set of glasses — it goes on and on). Sigh.
A sign of the times
Thursday, August 26th, 2010I’m at the playground the other day. A boy rides up on his bike and starts calling out to the kids swinging on the swings. “Hey, does anyone have a cell phone?,” he shouts over and over. Finally someone asks what he needs with a cell phone. “I just need to know what time it is,” the kid replies. Sigh. I know, you hear all the time about how watches are becoming obsolete. But I just thought it was so odd how he phrased the question. Wouldn’t a “Does anyone know what time it is?” cut to the chase a bit quicker? No, it’s all about the phone.