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I was casually perusing blog-land tonight when I came across a photo of this little gal. She is a model for the current J.Crew season.
I passed her by without much thought, but a few blogs later she was still in my head. I decided to look again, but I couldn’t remember whose blog it was so I went straight to the source. As I searched for her, I realized that I was getting angry and that’s why she was still in my head.
I was annoyed at her lack of curves and youth, but not jealous mind you. Soon my annoyance turned to anger. But my vitriol was redirected to the appropriate source: J. Crew for the moment. Just who the hell do they think they are trying to sell me, a 31 year old woman (with curves), a lifestyle that this young girl can’t possibly know anything about. It was as absurd to me as a 10 year old wearing high heels and lipstick. Basically the message you’re sending me is that if (one) I buy this outfit I can be a 14-year-old-prepubescent-girl-with-the-bank-account-of-beyonce. And (two) if I don’t look like her then I am not worthy of praise and adoration. A bit extreme maybe, but not far from the mark I’m afraid.
Yes, I know this is not a new idea. There are whole blogs devoted to the topic, but it really irked me tonight. The usual lure of clean lines, soothing colors, and safe photos were lost on me. I looked beyond the shine.
On the casting choice of this young girl, I understand that the reason we hold these models in such high esteem is that, yes, very few people are blessed with the combination of such beautiful bone structure, height, and protruding hip bones. However, this look is attainable…for a 14 or year old. I would even cut retailers a little slack if they would God-forbid cast a model that is over 25 (and NOT Gisele, Cindy, or the like). Why not actually cast someone in your target audience (maybe I’m the idiot and they are targeting 15 year olds… with $300 t-shirts I’m sure they are.)
I’m not advocating having the every jane-frumpy-person on the cover of a magazine. Oh believe me, I don’t want to look at ugly! But I wouldn’t mind looking at someone slightly authentic… ok fine. I’ll say it, someone over 20 with boobs! I’m not wanting to get on the bandwagon of the whole “plus size” model that has recently been in the news. (But good for her if she is healthy) I just want to see a woman that is around a size 8 with curves (someone that is not a glamazon and 10 feet tall). So maybe I’m a little biased because I’m a size 8 and I have boobs, big ones that combined with my short torso continually make me look “thick in the middle”. But people pa-leaze… how long are we going to tolerate this? I like being in my 30s. I have no desire to be an adolescent again…nor look like one. A few less wrinkles, an easier time toning my muscles, sure; but I like my boobs. I just don’t want to be made to feel bad for having them.
ok. rant over. it’s just another fabulous reason to boycott the box-stores.
I rarely use this forum to express deep, personal emotion. I try to keep things light and focused on things that have made me smile or cleverness discovered. But today it’s different. Today I need all the positive thoughts and energy of the universe to head our way.
We have to sell our home.
It’s to a point that this has to happen. We’ve been through the circus that is the real estate market and agents. I’m so angry… so bloody angry. At the economy, at incompetent people, preconceived notions and f*ing stereotypes. Believe me I know that our property is a bit unorthodox (for this area), but my god people, it’s not like we’ve re-invented the wheel here. And I’m so angry that just because of things beyond our control we have to sacrifice our price tag. It’s just plain unfair. I know there are plenty of people way worse off than us, but we had so many plans… and now we have needs… not just wants.
I feel as if our home doesn’t sell (and soon) then nothing will work out. I’m usually quite a hopeful person, but this is too much. If I hear one more person make a negative comment about our situation I’m going to scream.
I see nothing but positives about our home. Seriously. Some people think 1100 sq ft of living space is too small…fine. Some think that the idea of not having a yard is a down side… fine. But the unwillingness to see how living above a commercial space (and having that person pay you rent… that yes, goes towards your mortgage) has HUGE advantages that seriously outweighs the perceived disadvantages drives me insane.
I’m so sad. I’m SO sad! I love my home. We built it to sell. I don’t understand why there isn’t a realtor out there who doesn’t know how to sell a mixed-use property!?! It’s these freaking real estate agents that are setting the bloody prices… for entire communities. And they screw them. You would think that since realtors are having such a hard time selling property right now that it would make them work that much harder. But you would be wrong.
And so now I feel stuck. Not knowing how to do this ourselves. (And clearly the realtor thing is not working out.) And every freaking website we go to doesn’t have a “box” for us to check. It’s either commercial step to the left, residential step to the right. And each excludes potential buyers. This place is perfect for someone who is looking for an investment property and they can cash-flow the entire purchase by renting the top and bottom. It’s perfect for someone looking to have commercial space and then pay their mortgage by renting the apartment or vice versa. I also think it’s a nice location. No… it’s not the uber-hip town just to our west, but it’s perfect for someone (or couple) who splits their time between the lake-shore and the city.
I don’t know what to do.
I think that I am personally responsible for the destruction of over half of the rain forest. Because it was 60 degrees and sunny on Sunday, Brad and I took the time to PURGE… and I mean trim down! We have a small, but cleverly over-stuffed storage space. It is located on the ground level of our building, right next to the door. Thus we began assembling what some thought was a “yard” sale… or more like a back-door sale.
I couldn’t believe just how much shit we’ve not only accumulated over 4 years as is natural, but all the shit that we’ve moved — multiple times! And as we are now looking to make a move again, I refused to relocate one more box of unnecessary crap. However, as I saw the last seven years of my life in the shambled boxes, I had mixed emotions. So much of that “stuff” made me feel terrible. I mean, who really wants to see all of their old school work… especially when it wasn’t exactly all A’s?! And what do you do with old photos…boxes of photos from college, summer trips, old flames? Well I made a decision that if I didn’t know what was in a box from looking at the outside, I probably didn’t need it. Tossed. All of it.
Well, not just tossed, but I then frantically started ripping apart every item as I pulled it out, hoping to find some way to recycle it. I mean, I alone had probably 20 spirals of class notes that turned into three different recycling piles: paper, cardboard, metal. I knew I should be feeling better about cleansing myself of this unnecessary yoke, but I was really aware of my “stuff factor.” For example, I had an entire rubbermaid container full of toiletries (that have been in that same box since the first time I moved in MA in 2004); if it was unopened it went to a give-away pile, but so much had to be thrown away: medicine that had expired, old make-up bags, samples of anything and everything. Why do I “collect” these things? They sit in drawers, unopened, for a special occasion or something else. I will admit that I have gotten much, much better about using and/or giving things away, but I still have an entire house full of stuff. It really can feel like a burden. Then I really started to get upset when I realized just how much couldn’t really be recycled and will probably sit in some landfill for the next millennia. Awful.
I guess all I can do is start to change a day at a time. The one nugget I took away for the day was in a box that I would have sworn I had lost in 2003. I had no idea that it has moved to SIX different locations with me. I was almost in tears I was so excited… Six of my old journals hidden under my LPs! I thought for certain that those journals were never to be found again…or worse, they would end up on some tacky website. AND THEN to get my records back was too much! Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Indigo Girls… ahhh vinyl.
It ended up being a pretty good day, despite my attempts to single-handedly destroy our environment!!
i hate going to the gym. no, i loathe going to the gym. there’s something about the entire process of being in a crowded, smelly room full of strangers trying not to be seen while doing things to your body that make you look completely uncoordinated. we get on these machines that have you run, climb, or cycle in place. where’s the sanity in that? i don’t usually like people that go to ‘gyms’ either. (probably because these people see it as another social outlet) i haven’t been to an official gym since grad school… until now.
a new gym just opened around the corner from my house. and seeing is how there is snow everywhere and it’s been just painfully cold lately, i won’t go walk outside. yes, i should be cross country skiing or snow-shoeing, but i seem to be losing my motivation for that. it’s just so bloody cold. it also seems that my motivation needs to be green…as in greenbacks. and if i pay to go torture myself it’s more likely that i will go or that i can at least guilt myself into it. so i figured why not try it for one month. this gym — and i use that word liberally — is running a special called ‘afternoon delight’ (like such a fallacious title would suck people like me in). if you’re willing to workout between 1pm & 4pm it’s only $20 for the entire month. not a bad deal. i also don’t mind that this is their lowest time of attendance and therefore i have to put up with fewer ‘gym people’. most of the folks that go during the ‘afternoon delight’ are the old ladies avoiding afternoon tea with the girls. i guess i’ll manage for a month…but we’ll see if i can make it a week.
part of the whole gym thing is knowing that spring is just around the corner and I will yet again be exposing myself to the world in ways i should not. it’s bad enough that i’m pasty white (not the pretty-model-from-ireland-way, but rather that of one-dark-haired girl-who-has-not-seen-the-sun-in-months-sort-of-way) but to be flabby and pasty white is just humiliating. i wouldn’t even be bothering with it except that my current swimsuit finally needs to be retired and this has forced me to face the fact that i will have to purchase another one. i have had the same one-piece swimsuit since 2003, originally purchased from the only provider of non-athletic/old-lady one-piece swimsuits and call-girls outfits. the underwire is popping out, the bottom has thinned a bit and maybe the elasticity is not what is should be. if i’m going to have to don one of these vile contraptions, it might as well look like something other than a swimsuit, but not quite a moo-moo. i don’t think i’ll ever be fully comfortable in a swimsuit again, but hopefully i’ll at least not scare small children this year. while at a trip to mecca the other day I saw this little gem. praise jesus for target because they actually have nice one-piece swimsuits this year…well nice-er than in the past. this just might be the one for the next 6 years of my life…that is if i keep working out!
I’m so frustrated I could crack an egg! Let’s just say that my would be Easter project is just that, would be. I don’t know why I continue to think that I will gain any sufficient knowledge from the All-Mighty Herself. She always leaves out critical steps designed to make me feel like an idiot for then failing and somehow be in awe of her perfectness.
It was such a disaster I don’t even have pictures to post. Maybe I’ll get around to trying again, but this good-will gesture just may have to go down as “it’s the thought that counts.”
Do you remember those days when Mac not only set themselves apart by offering a higher caliber product, but also on quirky customer service? They were young, hip, and here to help you stick-it-to-the-man. It’s too bad that it seems that they have given way to the bottom dollar and turned into ‘the man’. My issue is not with the products they offer; it’s hard to disagree that Mac offers not only a more user-friendly product but also puts it in a visually stimulating package.
But what I don’t understand is that the once charismatic personality attached with Mac has become nothing more than the homogeneous voice of a bland and unhelpful phone tree. Why in God’s name is it so difficult to get an actual, live person to talk to you? And then when someone does finally answer, he/she wants to try to filter your issue, assign a case number and then politely say, “It’ll be just a few minutes.” As your hope builds that you might actually get to talk to someone who will be able to answer your seemingly basic question, you begin to pace. Your pacing turns to doubt as you check your phone and see that the 15 minutes they suggested you would be on hold has past. At this point you don’t know why you keep listening to the ‘hold-music’ designed to keep you interested and patient, but you can’t imagine the thought of having to start over again. Finally after 41 minutes and 04 seconds the phone goes dead, but not from your end, from theirs. Oh…the rage…the rage rises to the top.
I remember the day 3 1/2 years ago my husband and I decided to become a Mac family. As we talked to Joey, our helpful and enthusiastic Mac associate, she assured us the our Powerbook G4 would be more than we would need for at least the next 5 years. Maybe I was just starry-eyed from all the white and clean lines in the store, but slap sucker across my forehead because boy was she wrong. Little did I know that corporate Mac was lying dormant for only a short while longer.
It started with the iSight camera. Yes, we probably should have gotten one when they were available but we were new to all this…as were our friends and family. And here is the perfect example of how Mac no longer had the customer in mind, but rather the bottom line. The iSight camera was pulled off all shelves December 16, 2006, the day they unveiled the new computers with a built in camera. What?! I guess it makes perfect business sense, but really? And thus began a series of products that would wow and inspire when introduced, but are shortly replaced and seemingly obsolete. How many iPods and generations of iPods are out there that you can no longer get cases or plugs, etc. from the source, much less even produced? And of course it goes without saying that the ultimate slap in the face was with the iPhone. Another example is one of my personal issues. The new OS X requires you to have purchased OS 10.4 to run the new OS 10.5. However, I made the conscious decision to wait until 10.5 came out so as to save money, but what was I thinking? Of course I’m going to have to pay for an upgrade just to use the upgrade I really want (and already paid for). I feel like my parents did when I brought home a grade less than what they thought was my best. I’m not angry, just really disappointed. I wanted the whole package.
I guess Mr. Jobs is fortunate that the competition is so far behind or else I might have to reconsider my loyalties. But alas, I am sucked into the bright, shiny world of Apple. Hopefully my ‘Genius’ meeting tomorrow will lift my spirits and change my outlook.
