do you ever see people that you know that are sort of awkward but not to the point where it's hopeless, and you just want to give them a makeover? i just ran into my stats TA who is just such a character. He was wearing a very dreary colored pair of tapered jean that were also loose fitting. it kind of amazes me that such jeans are made let alone that people still by them. And i'm sure that the only reason levis continues to make these is because to some people this is their favorite cutot buy, mainly because thye don't know any better. I have this belief that the clothing industry should take a stance and just stop making these offenses to fashion. They should say "look old man in oklahama/unfashionable commoner/dorky grad student, we know these jeans are your favorite cut but they are a crime to fashion and thusly we shall stop making them forcing you to buy only normal bootcut jeans" or something liek that. Anyways he was wearing these jeans, some rugged useful shoes and a army green t shirt. And i imaged that with normal jeans, or even maybe some high end seven jeans, and perhaps a bitter fitting version of that t shirt from american apparel, he would have looked quite normal if not attractive. I see people like this all the time. Young girls wearing high wasted jeans and ecco old lady sandals. and i think...she has a nice body under all that stuff, all she needs are some tighter better fitting jeans, a properly fitting shirt and some cute flats or even more simply some converse all stars. it just makes me sad. This kind of just plays into my whole attitude toward life and the world. I see so much potential and htat is how i keep the constant disappointment from bringing me down.
Today i was reading mcsweeney's thinking to myself (and to emily on gchat) "i could be friends with these people." this is the same thought i have when i read go fug yourself or sandra cisneros books or john mayer's blog or other things by people i respect and kind of like. And granted it seems silly to say that things you willingly choose to read would suprisingly be likeable to you since if you are choosing to read them it is probably because they are reflecting your views. But still, i think in anohter life i could have been a writer. true story. my editor would have hated me and said "use spell check before you send this shit to me!" but still! ugh! there is a part of me (the fat, unpopular, high schooler) who thinks that i could be so much a cooler person if i just had some artistic venue for expressing myself. but most importnatly an art that people would read and say "wow that is EXACTLY how i feel" because isn't that what art is? so somehow this all led me conclude that this summer i'm going to become more cultured. I went to the public library to rent videos. Yes i live in a crazy version of the cultured world where i think videos equal culture. I guess what i meant by culture was that i'm going to become more cultured in things related to modern media...or something. So anyways i downloaded a bunch of indie music and bossa nova/jazz the other day and i'm going to listen to it while i do pretentious things like reading the new yorker. Maybe i'll even read more books.
So this is off topic but because i've been reading lots of magazines and today mcsweeney's i have decided to start a new segment called "things that i kind of really love." Perhaps this will be followed with "things that should die" on days when the spirit so moves me. so here it is in it's full glory
THING I KIND OF REALLY LOVE w/o 4/29/07
Spring - i really had no idea to invigorating glory of spring. purple, white and pink trees blooming everywhere! tulips! daffodils! like for reals! I'm not sure if spring is objectively as awesome as i think it is or if it's just that i've been cooped up for 6 months (what feels like 8 bagillion years) in the never ending midwestern winter. Whatever it may be i suggest you go outside, stare at the buds popping out from the tree outside of your house and appreccccccceate.
taking a day to organize your music/add labels/make playlists - there is nothing more cathartic than taking a few hours to compile the perfect "unrequited love mix." i mean really sometimes you feel sad and you want a soundtrack to your life to reflect these things. thus i recommend taking a few hours this weekend to create the soundtrack to your life.
Feist - along this same note i discovered some really good music while cleaning out my itunes. liek feist. she is totes awesome. you know how when you listen to some of the indie pop music out there right now there is always that girl with the sirenesque voice singing in teh background who has no name because a true artist takes no credit for their art? she is that girl. Might i recommend the "monarch" album if you are feeling a little down, and the newer album if you feel poppy.
farmer's markets - i usually criticize people who go to farmer's markets because it seems liek something a majority of people do just to be like "oh i went to the farmer's market" like that somehow makes them epicurean or takes them up a notch in the intellectual scale. No, you are still stupid even if you buy organic vegetables! But now i live in a small town about a block from the local farmer's market, and about an hour from many many farms so this shit is really fresh. And the people who go are real locals, not transposed city folks. And it is very unpretentious. last week i bought a sugar free raspberry muffin, sugar free apple butter and some apples. tomorrow i'm going to wake up early, take my reusable grocery bag and walk that long block to buy buy spring mixed baby greens and asparagus, which the foodnetwork tells me is in season.
Ina Gartner aka The barefoot contessa - what a charming, lovely woman, alwyas trying to please that insatiable jeffrey by tempting his pallet. I love this woman. I don't necessarily want to cook her food but i want to go to a dinner party that she throws. And let me tell you, this woman is the definition of hag. All of her friends are faggggulous gay men who do the tablescapes for her social events. as she would say "who doesn't love that?" Ina is like the mother i never had. She has no self control when it comes to eating things that are clealry bad for you, very un-my mother. Also she makes that horrid paula deen look like the white trash that she is.
charmin moist wipes - I have tried other brands and these are by far the best. As with all charmin products, you pay for what you get. And if you've never tries a moist wipe and you are totally grossed out that we are even having this conversation, like serioulsy TMI! i suggest you run out to your local target and make that purchase. Try it and tell me it's not the one thing that's been missing in your life.
leave comments (which i know you won't but i say it anyway) with things that you love
Today i was reading mcsweeney's thinking to myself (and to emily on gchat) "i could be friends with these people." this is the same thought i have when i read go fug yourself or sandra cisneros books or john mayer's blog or other things by people i respect and kind of like. And granted it seems silly to say that things you willingly choose to read would suprisingly be likeable to you since if you are choosing to read them it is probably because they are reflecting your views. But still, i think in anohter life i could have been a writer. true story. my editor would have hated me and said "use spell check before you send this shit to me!" but still! ugh! there is a part of me (the fat, unpopular, high schooler) who thinks that i could be so much a cooler person if i just had some artistic venue for expressing myself. but most importnatly an art that people would read and say "wow that is EXACTLY how i feel" because isn't that what art is? so somehow this all led me conclude that this summer i'm going to become more cultured. I went to the public library to rent videos. Yes i live in a crazy version of the cultured world where i think videos equal culture. I guess what i meant by culture was that i'm going to become more cultured in things related to modern media...or something. So anyways i downloaded a bunch of indie music and bossa nova/jazz the other day and i'm going to listen to it while i do pretentious things like reading the new yorker. Maybe i'll even read more books.
So this is off topic but because i've been reading lots of magazines and today mcsweeney's i have decided to start a new segment called "things that i kind of really love." Perhaps this will be followed with "things that should die" on days when the spirit so moves me. so here it is in it's full glory
THING I KIND OF REALLY LOVE w/o 4/29/07
Spring - i really had no idea to invigorating glory of spring. purple, white and pink trees blooming everywhere! tulips! daffodils! like for reals! I'm not sure if spring is objectively as awesome as i think it is or if it's just that i've been cooped up for 6 months (what feels like 8 bagillion years) in the never ending midwestern winter. Whatever it may be i suggest you go outside, stare at the buds popping out from the tree outside of your house and appreccccccceate.
taking a day to organize your music/add labels/make playlists - there is nothing more cathartic than taking a few hours to compile the perfect "unrequited love mix." i mean really sometimes you feel sad and you want a soundtrack to your life to reflect these things. thus i recommend taking a few hours this weekend to create the soundtrack to your life.
Feist - along this same note i discovered some really good music while cleaning out my itunes. liek feist. she is totes awesome. you know how when you listen to some of the indie pop music out there right now there is always that girl with the sirenesque voice singing in teh background who has no name because a true artist takes no credit for their art? she is that girl. Might i recommend the "monarch" album if you are feeling a little down, and the newer album if you feel poppy.
farmer's markets - i usually criticize people who go to farmer's markets because it seems liek something a majority of people do just to be like "oh i went to the farmer's market" like that somehow makes them epicurean or takes them up a notch in the intellectual scale. No, you are still stupid even if you buy organic vegetables! But now i live in a small town about a block from the local farmer's market, and about an hour from many many farms so this shit is really fresh. And the people who go are real locals, not transposed city folks. And it is very unpretentious. last week i bought a sugar free raspberry muffin, sugar free apple butter and some apples. tomorrow i'm going to wake up early, take my reusable grocery bag and walk that long block to buy buy spring mixed baby greens and asparagus, which the foodnetwork tells me is in season.
Ina Gartner aka The barefoot contessa - what a charming, lovely woman, alwyas trying to please that insatiable jeffrey by tempting his pallet. I love this woman. I don't necessarily want to cook her food but i want to go to a dinner party that she throws. And let me tell you, this woman is the definition of hag. All of her friends are faggggulous gay men who do the tablescapes for her social events. as she would say "who doesn't love that?" Ina is like the mother i never had. She has no self control when it comes to eating things that are clealry bad for you, very un-my mother. Also she makes that horrid paula deen look like the white trash that she is.
charmin moist wipes - I have tried other brands and these are by far the best. As with all charmin products, you pay for what you get. And if you've never tries a moist wipe and you are totally grossed out that we are even having this conversation, like serioulsy TMI! i suggest you run out to your local target and make that purchase. Try it and tell me it's not the one thing that's been missing in your life.
leave comments (which i know you won't but i say it anyway) with things that you love
2 comments:
ok, several thoughts. first, am i the only person who comments? i know cathy does sometimes. second, the thing you wrote about the makeover makes me think of anne of green gables when she is sitting in church and things that she can fix everyone's appearance really easily (Except for someone's nose). it's true! it does not take much. it wouldn't even take seven jeans to fix that guy.
anyway, on the subject of things i kind of really love:
blogreading, yes i know it is really excessive
the feeling you get when you have done something really lame but productive like cleaning your room and doing laundry and you make your bed and get into it at the end of the night and think, i have my life together.
urban outfitters. ugh i know i shouldn't but i can't help it!
john mayer. again. i can't help it. i just think we should be friends.
listening to the same song on repeat like 5 times in the car and not caring because you are the only one there. (see: feist, josh ritter, john mayer.)
before sunset. and julie delpy. and watching movies with friends.
going to bed sober.
waking up and having a coffee and a conversation BEFORE work. a little bit of real life.
miniature food.
(That's my comment for the day. i like this feature.)
ok ok ok ok I have comments because I like things too!
in addition to what you two already mentioned (music organization = awesome AND relaxing; feist = really good, recommended to me by one of the dudes at my old job; farmers' markets = rock!; julie delpy = love!) there are these:
having a full social calendar. seriously. there is nothing like waking up on a monday and feeling all great and shit, and be totally booked for every night of the week. Except one, which is "me time". i've got dinner to go to tonight with some business execs, then a friend of a friend's birthday party at a club, and then tomorrow i'm going shopping, and then wednesday it's pizza and beer and a movie with the boys and then thursday is my "me day" and then friday, a wedding! fuck the summertime blues.
ok, i love many more things, but i'm at work and i have to go.
-o
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