...Let's all admit something awesome about ourselves. Or embarassing. Whichever. It's a holiday week and no one is around, so...why not? It's cleansing, and fun! (Just like soap on a rope.)I'll go first:
1. I own a copy of Dr. Laura's Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives, read it several times a year, and find it inspirational.
2. I think the biggest challenge of relationships in your twenties is not really knowing who you are or what you want.
3. I think the biggest challenge of relationships in my thirties is that I know full well who I am and what I want, and have therefore become too set in my ways. (For example, I have become almost completely unable to be sociable in the mornings, and will instead zone out in front of the newspaper. Sadly, I've found that few people can deal with being ignored for hours on end.)
4. I'm grateful to the new readers who came here via the New York Times article...but I'm also grateful that my blog traffic has gone back to semi-normal. I find readership spikes a little overwhelming.
5. I get annoyed when friends suggest I be an event planner for a living, because I don't want to turn my beloved hobby into something money-oriented and stressful.
Your turn! In the comments, entertain us by admitting something awesome.
19 comments:
I'm loud. Meaning my voice. Like disturbingly, been talked to in hushed HR terms loud.
I also talk to myself.
Hey guess what? Today will be one of those rare days where I agree with you! On about every point, except #1 which I'm not sure what to make of.
But the last one I have found to be very much a truism in my own life. I spend a huge amount of my free time doing home improvement projects. I probably own more tools than Tool Time.
But when I actually tried doing it for a living (I did, I'll tell you the story sometime...) it sucked. It wasn't because I didn't still enjoy some of the same challenges that make it a fun hobby, but for some reason when it wasn't my own house I was fixing up, I found it a lot harder to care about it. And it was a daily struggle to balance doing a good job with getting the work done on time and actually making money. I just wasn't fun when it had to be done on someone else's terms and I didn't get to enjoy the rewards of my labor.
Beyond that, manual labor 8 hours a day, especially for someone of my advanced years, takes a toll very quickly. But that's neither here nor there. So it's back to computer programming by day, and hammer swinging on the weekends.
I really like the etiquette feature of the blog :-)
That's all I got - I am more grinchy this time of the year
I'd admit something embarrassing about myself but I don't think I have the ability to feel shame. And that is pretty awesome.
Though it should be a bit embarrassing that I want to fill a soda can with wine so I can make my violent hand gestures without spilling.
bh - But does anyone answer?
Jamie - Exactly! Why would I want to deal with the stress and drama of planning someone else's party, when i could just have the gang over for cocktails?
Zip - Thanks!
I'm here! I'm always here.
Watching.
Waiting.
Staring.
I enjoy doing laundry. Also, I have been known to eat an entire sandwich's worth of peanut butter and jelly without the bread (by the spoonsful, straight from the jars).
Brando - Considering I just bought a new rug last month, I gotta agree with you on the canned wine.
Ibid - You didn't just see me eat a donut off the floor, did you?
Dagny - I've never done that. But that's only because I never would have through that up myself.
Hi Shannon,
I'm actually one of those new readers who found your blog by way of the NYT article. Love your site! Insightful, humorous, and very honest!
Speaking of honesty, now it's my turn:
1. Being a DC-native, I cannot shake this bias that the transient population who flock to DC, stay for a couple of years and then take off thereafter are just not as cool as us 'Townies.'
2. That being said, I don't know why I generalize EVERYONE here in DC to lack any sense of style. A recent Sunday afternoon along the 14th St corridor has proven me wrong and actually makes me feel warm and tingly inside in a fashionista way - Hallelujah, MY PEOPLE HAVE ARRIVED!
3. I was born in Vietnam, but have lived here since I was an infant. Every time someone asks me if I've been back, I lie and tell them "Yes, it's wonderful, you should go!" - even though I have never been back, and kinda don't really care to either.
4. I love making eye contact with people here as I walk by them on the streets bc I know it freaks them out!
5. I'm torn between feeling I should be more ambitious with my career given my relative youth, but sometimes I dig my low key, well paid federal gov't job. Why can't I just settle with "Okay for now" vs. "Go! Go! Go!"
6. As someone in my early thirties, I would totally date an apple cheeked, bushy tailed recent college grad. The reality is I haven't gone out on a date in almost three years :-/
I even saw what was crawling on the floor before you got there.
Holy crap, I just noticed that your tumbleweed pic is the exact same one I used on my post about Cleveland Park a while ago.
Unfortunately it appears that I linked directly to it from its source, they blocked me or something since it's broken now, though if you click the broken link the original source is still there...
Anyway, funny.
I too own Dr. Laura's "Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives". I think I've broken most of her rules at this point, but absolutely love my life, so go figure.
When I find one of my dog's whiskers, I put it in a brandy snifter, which I keep in my dresser.
I have no idea why. None.
IsmeSon - Thanks for the compliments! I get crabby at the whole "DC is transient" mythology --- it's actually not that different from anywhere else in that regard. But there's a highly insular affluent professional class that stays a few years and moves on...and since they never meet the 'real DC', they perpetuate the myth of transience.
Ibid - It was Madonna, in her Express Yourself getup, right?
Jamie - Ah, the joy of Google Image search!
pixability - Ha! How did you wind up with your copy? I received mine as a gift from a former colleague - and have spent the last 8 years trying to parse the message in that weirdo-shaped bottle.
Velvet - Congratulations. In the 7 years I've had this site, that is the weirdest comment ever received.
Uh.. what Brando said... but I'm not ashamed.
Gulp gulp gulp.. no this is not Fresca.
I totally agree with number two. I made a lot of poor decisions. I dated a 39 year-old in my twenties. While we dated, I read The Game by Neil Strauss, which was sad, insightful, and terrible all at once. I didn't use any of the "game" to be a manwhore, but I did figure out how confidence plays a huge part in attraction. I'm not real proud of that.
I totally agree with 1-3. I bought my copy of Dr. Laura's book in my twenties hoping it would help me stop making all those bad relationship decisions that come as a result of not knowing who you are. Not exactly a fan of hers, but I do think it's a good book.
Couple of other things: I can spend hours killing brain cells watching marathons of America's Next Top Model or What Not to Wear. And it really annoys me that people in DC assume you should have this important "career". I'm not even sure I know what that is anymore.
1. I don't own that book, but now I am very tempted to borrow/buy it
I definitely agree with 2 and 3, but 3 also means that I am becoming more difficult and baggage keeps increasing.
Something awesome, I was a turkey virgin until last week, cooked my very first turkey, I think it was delicious, along with some very tasty roasted potatoes.
I am currently unemployed and trying to figure wtf to do with this situation that constitutes a completely unknown to me
I feel like I spend my life admitting to embarrassing stuff, like watching the Duggars. How can I top that?
And I feel you on #3. I doubt I will ever remarry or live with another man, just simply because I am too used to having control of what I want to do when I want to do it. Except for the pesky job thing.
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