Today Sam and I were in Walmart for the essentials- you know, razors, underwear, banana pudding ingredients. The usual. In the produce section we witnessed the following bit of conversation:
Manager: My daughter's supposed to come in today, have you seen her?
Produce Guy: Yeah, I think so... was she with a friend?
M: Well there are two of them.
PG: How old are they?
M: Uh, one of them is 16 and one is 17.
PG: Yeah, I saw her earlier.
M: Great. (He starts walking away.)
PG: I mean, I was looking at her or anything sir, you know. I just saw her....
Saturday, March 24, 2007
My Entire Upbringing Explained
A while back I was talking to my Grandmother on the phone, when she got on the subject of Oprah.
"Oprah! I am just disgusted with that woman!"
"Really? What did she do now?"
"Have you seen her school for girls in Africa? Did you hear about this? She spent $240 million or billion dollars on this school. Something like that.... She could have spent half the money and helped twice as many people but nooooo, she had to have marble topped tables! In a cafeteria! For kids!"
"You mean she didn't call and consult with you first grandma?"
"No! And she really should have," she chuckled to herself. "She should have called me."
"Well isn't it good that she's doing something?"
"I don't know about that... and she said she's going to tell those girls they are pretty every day! To build their self-esteem! HA! That's not how you build self-esteem. You build self-esteem through achievement."
Oh WOW, my whole entire childhood makes sense now. Don't be too pretty. Get as much education as you possibly can. And don't just get education, get lots of it and make good grades and make something of yourself through hard work. Did I mention my forebears were farmers? The only way to get off the farm was to get through, say, high school.
Of course, after this conversation I called my Mom (she cringed, I could hear it) and my sister who just laughed. ACHIEVEMENT! It's the only way to self-esteem!
"Oprah! I am just disgusted with that woman!"
"Really? What did she do now?"
"Have you seen her school for girls in Africa? Did you hear about this? She spent $240 million or billion dollars on this school. Something like that.... She could have spent half the money and helped twice as many people but nooooo, she had to have marble topped tables! In a cafeteria! For kids!"
"You mean she didn't call and consult with you first grandma?"
"No! And she really should have," she chuckled to herself. "She should have called me."
"Well isn't it good that she's doing something?"
"I don't know about that... and she said she's going to tell those girls they are pretty every day! To build their self-esteem! HA! That's not how you build self-esteem. You build self-esteem through achievement."
Oh WOW, my whole entire childhood makes sense now. Don't be too pretty. Get as much education as you possibly can. And don't just get education, get lots of it and make good grades and make something of yourself through hard work. Did I mention my forebears were farmers? The only way to get off the farm was to get through, say, high school.
Of course, after this conversation I called my Mom (she cringed, I could hear it) and my sister who just laughed. ACHIEVEMENT! It's the only way to self-esteem!
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Reading List
I've been reading a lot lately, and as I am terrible with titles AND authors, I figured this would be a good place to keep track of all the stuff being poured into my brain via novels. Or non-novels. Most of my books I get from the libary, so it isn't like I can just browse my bookshelf for whatever it is I'm thinking of. So here's the list since, say, January. I'm sure there are more, I'll add them as I remember them....
Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick. Really great descriptive account of the Pilgrims all the way from England to Holland to New England. And the ensueing war with the Natives. Great book, with lots of first-hand accounts. Feeds my fascination with 17th century American History.
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison. Started really slow, but the ending was so good. The whole entire story came together in the last chapter, and somehow a search for family history was actually very gripping.
The Best Life Diet, by Bob Greene. It's smart. It makes sense. I'm just hanging out here in Phase 1 and I don't feel like I'm dieting. So I guess the book is doing its job.
The Buccaneers, by Edith Wharton. This was so Jane Austen-y, as in who is going to marry whom and will they be of the correct class and what happens when, gasp!, when they realize a marriage based on 1 month of courtship might not cut it? American women take on London in the 1800s. And they all marry titled men. And most are completely miserable. It was an odd little book, but I still enjoyed it.
Are Men Necessary? by Maureen Dowd. I'm not finished with this one yet, but lots of modern cultural references point to the fact that women's lib has probably gone the way of the corset. Women are actually turning back into 50s house wife wannabees and not noticing or caring. I guess we all want to relax from all of that pressure of career AND children. Pick one. And enjoy it.
Mayflower, by Nathaniel Philbrick. Really great descriptive account of the Pilgrims all the way from England to Holland to New England. And the ensueing war with the Natives. Great book, with lots of first-hand accounts. Feeds my fascination with 17th century American History.
Song of Solomon, by Toni Morrison. Started really slow, but the ending was so good. The whole entire story came together in the last chapter, and somehow a search for family history was actually very gripping.
The Best Life Diet, by Bob Greene. It's smart. It makes sense. I'm just hanging out here in Phase 1 and I don't feel like I'm dieting. So I guess the book is doing its job.
The Buccaneers, by Edith Wharton. This was so Jane Austen-y, as in who is going to marry whom and will they be of the correct class and what happens when, gasp!, when they realize a marriage based on 1 month of courtship might not cut it? American women take on London in the 1800s. And they all marry titled men. And most are completely miserable. It was an odd little book, but I still enjoyed it.
Are Men Necessary? by Maureen Dowd. I'm not finished with this one yet, but lots of modern cultural references point to the fact that women's lib has probably gone the way of the corset. Women are actually turning back into 50s house wife wannabees and not noticing or caring. I guess we all want to relax from all of that pressure of career AND children. Pick one. And enjoy it.
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