It's the picture of Paul Newman dressed up in different outfits depending on what type of dressing he's selling. Seeing that mock statue of his head as Cesaer makes me happy every time I pull the dressing out of my fridge. I couldn't find a picture of the French dressing, but let's just say it involves a beret. He's Cesaer, he's on a tropical island, he's on a ranch... What can't Newman do?
I've always wanted to be one of those angsty old women. You know, one of those ones that yells at misbehaving kids and is feisty about something random, like the signs on park benches. I was thisclose to being one this summer. I worked at a day camp this summer, and my campers were 6 or 7, so pretty young - first and second graders. We were at a roller rink and it was almost time to go so we were rounding the kids up. I checked the bathroom and when I waiting for a camper inside, I could hear these older kids talking shit outside by the water fountain. They were swearing, being catty and they were only 13 or 14, middle school or early high school at the latest. I knew one of my kids was standing in line at the water fountain and she didn't need to hear that. I just wanted to give those girls disapproving looks and tell them they needed to watch their language around young kids and I'd smack them back into the stone age if I heard another peep out of them. Unfortunately, some OTHER mother did the same thing before I had the chance. Damn, I was so excited to be able to tell those middle school kids off. Maybe it was all the little kids around, but there's no excuse for middle school kids being bratty in public. Jeeze, they can be little shits to their parents. Anyway, I'm really looking forward to more opportunities to yell at kids for misbehaving when their parents aren't around.
I decided I was going to try two new things: 1. drink more water and less soda and 2. use the voice that I have.
1. Drink more water and less soda.
Soda is flavored sugar water while water is just non flavored no sugar water. Plus it was cheaper. I don't like paying for bottled water because it seems silly that I should pay for something I can get from my kitchen for (virtually) free. and it's pretty much the same water. However, I keep forgetting my water bottle in my fridge, so then I buy one from the refectory. Since I'm also trying to be more ecologically conscious, I feel bad throwing away a water bottle I just bought. So I bring it home, fill it up with water and put it in my fridge. By now I have probably 6 or 7 bottles of water in my fridge in addition to my hard plastic water bottles. I just feel bad throwing away water bottles when I know they're not very recyclable. Plus Yale has it's own bottled water center so it seems like Yale will plaster their name over anything and sell it for 20% more. If they figure they can do it with degrees, why not bottled water?
2. Use my voice.
I hear about a lot of political issues every day - I do read the news - and I always get pissed off when something doesn't go the way I want it to. But then I think about it, and I didn't really do much beyond keep myself informed. I didn't write anyone to tell them I liked or disliked their actions or tell anyone about what I thought, or anything. So I have little right to be angsty over outcomes when I didn't do my part. So along with drinking more water, I've decided to take a part in speaking up. I went to a documentary this summer on sex education in the Minnesota Senate, and one thing the filmmaker said was that very few people let their representatives know how they feel on issues. If politicians don't know how their constituents feel on specific issues, how are they going to accurately represent them? One politician said not one of his constituents told him they were for the sex ed bill. I'm sure he didn't ask everyone, and it seems we always just assume that someone else is doing the speaking for us. I'm sure at least one person in his district was for comprehensive sex education. So I've decided that I need to let people know how I feel about the decisions they're making that affects my life and the lives of the people I care about. The first e-mail I sent was to the mayor of San Diego.
I'm not a very public person in issues of my personal life. I'm very transparent on how I feel with Andrew because well, he's the one concerned; everyone else gets a fairly opaque view of my relationship because honestly, it's not their business. I'll share if I want to. It's mostly my mom I share with and even then I'm tight lipped. However, Andrew and I were talking online the other day about some of the people I've dated in the past and saying everything about them all at once made me realize I dated some real assholes. It wasn't like I found out anything new about any of them, but listing one after another added up to a lot of douchebags who didn't put me first, or second, or third, or fourth, or fifth. I can only think of one person I dated before Andrew who I still even remotely like and I suppose it's because he was generally nice through the whole time we saw each other. It's sad when being nice is a plus as opposed to a given. Anyway, the trip down memory lane sucked and hurt but made me appreciate Andrew even more. I'm very excited to see him in 4 days. He's one of the good guys.
The first thirty seconds of this song are awesome: The State of Massachusetts. P.S. I spelled Massachusetts right on the first try.
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