Celebrity Snarking and Responsibility

The past few weeks my colleagues and I have spent a lot of time celebrity snarking. Between Britney Spears' in and out of rehab, Anna Nicole Smith's death, and Tom Brady's babydaddy, we have had PLENTY of fodder. Then on Monday, there was Bobby Brown's arrest here in Massachusetts for not paying child support. These people are too stupid for words.

But you know what? I am getting really sick of celebrities getting loads attention for acting utterly irresponsibly. Where are the people being noted for being good parents, or helping people end drug addiction, or excelling as teachers in the public school system?? Schaudenfreude is all well and good, and I admit that I indulge in my fair share of it, but I really think that we need to celebrate successes more than failures. It is the only way to shake off this feeling of "nothing I do is going to make a difference" that I seem to walk around with.

I think that the stalkerazzi need to start going around taking photos of school crossing guards and the volunteers in town libraries. And maybe they should also give them some swag.

Social Responsibilities

It's that time of year again...

I don't buy them for myself... I buy them for the girls... (who am I kidding? I LOVE me some Thin Mints.)

Over the weekend, I worked up a mock up of something that I want to use in my personal life - a social calling card. It's a new fashioned spin on an old fashioned custom. In the past, before the age of dialing ahead, if a visitor called on a friend and the friend was out at the time, the visitor would leave a calling card so that the friend knew they had stopped in. My concept builds on that idea, combining it with the practicality of a business card. My card enables the carrier to provide new acquaintances with their social contact information effortlessly, like their mobile number and their personal e-mail address.

I ran into a bit of a snafu when I realized the pre-cut cards I had purchased were too small to run through my printer. I will have to start with a big sheet of card stock and cut them down for version 2.0. For now, I will just handwrite them, which looks okay, but I have such lovely fonts that I would have preferred to use. I am going to stick with the pink and brown because I love that color combo.

Perspective

My use, or misuse as the case may be, of caffiene all takes on a whole new angle put in the light of Robbie Williams' recent trip to rehab:

"The singer finds it impossible to get to sleep until 4 or 5am due to insomnia and is on sleeping pills. He is hooked on the powerful anti-depressant Seroxat, which has been linked to suicidal tendencies in teenagers. And daily he gets through an incredible 36 super-strength double espresso coffees, 60 Silk Cut cigarettes and around 20 cans of energy drink Red Bull."

Maybe he doesn't realize that he wouldn't need the sleeping pills if he cut out the coffee and the Red Bull.

This just makes me feel so much better.

Driver's Ed

One thing that I learned when learning to drive in the snow in New England (lessons consisted of my father forcing me to get into skids in a Buick Estate station wagon so that I could learn to pull out of them) is that common courtesy for other drivers means cleaning off your car. Your whole car. This includes the roof and your head and tail lights.

The apple green Volkwagon bug driving in front of me on the way to work this morning did not receive this instruction, clearly. I don't even think that they bothered to put on the rear defroster. One little patch of cleared glass really isn't going to get anyone very far.

With the freezing rain starting this morning, they are going to have an interesting time getting back into their car tonight. I hope that I don't end up behind them again.

Winning Stuff and Underwear, or, How I Spent the Weekend

I am currently eating my Kosy Shack rice pudding dessert cup while I wait for my Lean Cuisine lunch to warm up in the microwave. Yes, I eat dessert first at lunchtime; I am an elementary school cafeteria monitor's worse nightmare. Oddly enough, it is ONLY at lunchtime that I do this; I usually wait until after dinner to have something sweet.

On Saturday, I went to Whole Foods, where I realized that in addition to the fruits and fish that I was purchasing, I also needed some emergency cheese. As I couldn't find exactly the cheese I wanted, I went to the cheese counter to ask for help. There were three men working that afternoon and they were having a discussion about 80s pop music. They were discussing "I'm Turning Japanese," and one of the men was actually singing it because one of his co-workers was unfamiliar with the song. (God, I hate that song.) As I stood for a bit, patiently waiting for assistance, the two who knew the song were trying to figure out who sang it. Finally, tired of waiting for help and with the answer burning a hole on my tongue, I piped up, "it's The Vapours."
"What! Really!! How did you know that? You should be on Jeapordy!" were the assorted responses. But it was the singing cheese man who gave me the best response: "You deserve a prize for that. Do you like TRUFFLES?" So yes, dear reader, not only did I get help finding my cheese (aged Vermont cheddar,) but I also got free chocolate truffles.

Which I went home and promptly ate. Together. Mmmm.

You know that whole statistic about the ridiculous number of women who are wearing the wrong size bra? On Sunday, JR and I decided that we were no longer going to be a stastic so we headed over to Lady Grace (in Waltham, as Coolidge Corner is closed on Sundays) to be professionally fitted. It was an eye opener into the world of lingerie, where, much like jeans, the world is not created equal. Just because you measure one size, doesn't mean that is the right size for you in every brand. I must have tried on about 15 bras before having my EUREKA moment. The bra is PERFECT; everything you could ask for and more... the more being the PRICE!! MEEP. But seeing as one wears one's bra every day, the cost per use all works out in the end. (And it turns out that Oprah loves my bra...It's a keeper.)

JR brought up during the adventure that the Trinny and Susannah from What Not to Wear stress the importance of buying a good bra. And I always love it when I am following Their Rules. :)