iPods, Trains, & Cocaines
Over the long President's weekend, I ended some previously held boycotts. In case you cannot wait until the end of the blog, rest assured, Kate Moss and I have in common only the fact that we're pioneering fashionistas; she's the only one of us doing the blow.
How long did you think it would take for me to cave?
I am now the owner of a Video iPod.
One of the best things about GW is that there is no date anywhere on my student ID so I got $30 off the pod - score. Though I think I'm owed more than $30 for the emotional distress caused by the Apple store and the Apple-hole who "helped" me. I asked him what I thought were valid questions about my new video iPod and he looked at me with such shock and disbelief, his eyes literally bugged out and his mouth fell open. He looked at me the way George W. Bush's Yale classmates must've looked at him when he participated in class.
Now that I have a new iPod, I no longer have an excuse to skip the gym. And now that I have a video iPod, I have an easy way catch up on the American version of The Office. I will try my hardest not to compare it to the BBC perfection. If there's enough convincing evidence, I will cancel a boycott. In this case, it was 3 things that put me over my previously adamant edge: that I have some distance from the BBC version, that many people I respect love the NBC version, and the fact that I love me some Steve Carell. I recently watched the DVD of The 40 Year Old Virgin and I highly recommend it - great deleted scenes and commentary. Seth Rogen is one of those "celebrities" who I think I could actually date, if we met. I'm not sure if that's a compliment to me.
I was on a lot of trains this weekend.* And because of this, I ended another boycott - this one against the book Prep. The pastel belts on the cover, a female author named Curtis, the popularity - all turned me off. But I needed a good travel book in a pinch and it was a loaner, so I gave in. I'm about half-way through and it's okay. But I don't like shy people and the protagonist is shy and so bottled up that if she wasn't first-person narrating this book, she'd explode. I guess it's sort of interesting to visit the world of boarding schools, my only previous experience was with my freshmen year college roommate who had attended boarding school at Exeter. This roommate, let's call her Lindsey, turned out to be quite normal. She's one of my best friends and I wear my Exeter t-shirt proudly, whereas I'm sort of embarassed to be seen with Prep. Sometimes I find myself not liking things (like Prep, and the group Outkast) partially because of their popularity and I guess that is not really a valid reason. I know there's a time and place for easy reads, there's just SO many GREAT books out there that I haven't read, it seems silly to waste time. I saw someone else on the train to Philly reading Prep. It's weird when that happens - once a guy across from me on the Metro in DC was reading The Fountainhead at the same time I was and I wanted to be like "I don't really feel like I'm getting brainwashed, do you?"
*I took the train to Philly on Sunday to see my friend Peter in a play. Peter is a great actor and I feel as if I witnessed him becoming a star. It was awesome. I took the train to Strong Island on Monday to visit a co-worker and her two lil' sons. The two year-old boy LOVES to play a game where you throw him - like literally chuck him from a decent distance - onto a soft, giant leather couch. I hope I have boys.
I have never done cocaine. I think I've explained this before, that I don't do "scary" drugs because I have bad luck, and would totally OD from just like, the aroma. I don't know much about cocaine, but I will say that the scene I witnessed this weekend went against any preconceived notions that I did have. (These notions probably included hyper spazzes of people dancing to club music). Instead, I observed what I can only describe as the hyper intellectual spazzes of people version - in which New York Liberals in the East Village vigorously debate such topics as whether or not The New York Times should have printed the controversial Mohammed cartoons, whether or not children should be allowed to use webcams unsupervised, and whether or not current U.S. capitalism is providing a wealthy, flawless economic system for our country. I'm not ending my boycott on cocaine, but I will say that I couldn't even keep up with some facets of the debates, so I was impressed. I'm wondering why the woman who visited Ethical Culture in 6th grade to talk to us about the dangers of drugs (whom we all, from that point on, nicknamed "the drug lady") didn't warn me about this. I remember she said that people on acid often hallucinate and see, for example, "pink elephants on their windowsill". But she never mentioned that cocaine could induce a magical hybrid of The Daily Show meets a very excited Christiane Amanpour .
Having a long weekend is nice. And I feel like I accomplished a lot. Now I'm off to the country house - to do some laundry, eat a home-cooked meal, get my sister's songs, and to try to explain to my Mom why she shouldn't be worried about the cocaine paragraph.
How long did you think it would take for me to cave?
I am now the owner of a Video iPod.
One of the best things about GW is that there is no date anywhere on my student ID so I got $30 off the pod - score. Though I think I'm owed more than $30 for the emotional distress caused by the Apple store and the Apple-hole who "helped" me. I asked him what I thought were valid questions about my new video iPod and he looked at me with such shock and disbelief, his eyes literally bugged out and his mouth fell open. He looked at me the way George W. Bush's Yale classmates must've looked at him when he participated in class.
Now that I have a new iPod, I no longer have an excuse to skip the gym. And now that I have a video iPod, I have an easy way catch up on the American version of The Office. I will try my hardest not to compare it to the BBC perfection. If there's enough convincing evidence, I will cancel a boycott. In this case, it was 3 things that put me over my previously adamant edge: that I have some distance from the BBC version, that many people I respect love the NBC version, and the fact that I love me some Steve Carell. I recently watched the DVD of The 40 Year Old Virgin and I highly recommend it - great deleted scenes and commentary. Seth Rogen is one of those "celebrities" who I think I could actually date, if we met. I'm not sure if that's a compliment to me.
I was on a lot of trains this weekend.* And because of this, I ended another boycott - this one against the book Prep. The pastel belts on the cover, a female author named Curtis, the popularity - all turned me off. But I needed a good travel book in a pinch and it was a loaner, so I gave in. I'm about half-way through and it's okay. But I don't like shy people and the protagonist is shy and so bottled up that if she wasn't first-person narrating this book, she'd explode. I guess it's sort of interesting to visit the world of boarding schools, my only previous experience was with my freshmen year college roommate who had attended boarding school at Exeter. This roommate, let's call her Lindsey, turned out to be quite normal. She's one of my best friends and I wear my Exeter t-shirt proudly, whereas I'm sort of embarassed to be seen with Prep. Sometimes I find myself not liking things (like Prep, and the group Outkast) partially because of their popularity and I guess that is not really a valid reason. I know there's a time and place for easy reads, there's just SO many GREAT books out there that I haven't read, it seems silly to waste time. I saw someone else on the train to Philly reading Prep. It's weird when that happens - once a guy across from me on the Metro in DC was reading The Fountainhead at the same time I was and I wanted to be like "I don't really feel like I'm getting brainwashed, do you?"
*I took the train to Philly on Sunday to see my friend Peter in a play. Peter is a great actor and I feel as if I witnessed him becoming a star. It was awesome. I took the train to Strong Island on Monday to visit a co-worker and her two lil' sons. The two year-old boy LOVES to play a game where you throw him - like literally chuck him from a decent distance - onto a soft, giant leather couch. I hope I have boys.
I have never done cocaine. I think I've explained this before, that I don't do "scary" drugs because I have bad luck, and would totally OD from just like, the aroma. I don't know much about cocaine, but I will say that the scene I witnessed this weekend went against any preconceived notions that I did have. (These notions probably included hyper spazzes of people dancing to club music). Instead, I observed what I can only describe as the hyper intellectual spazzes of people version - in which New York Liberals in the East Village vigorously debate such topics as whether or not The New York Times should have printed the controversial Mohammed cartoons, whether or not children should be allowed to use webcams unsupervised, and whether or not current U.S. capitalism is providing a wealthy, flawless economic system for our country. I'm not ending my boycott on cocaine, but I will say that I couldn't even keep up with some facets of the debates, so I was impressed. I'm wondering why the woman who visited Ethical Culture in 6th grade to talk to us about the dangers of drugs (whom we all, from that point on, nicknamed "the drug lady") didn't warn me about this. I remember she said that people on acid often hallucinate and see, for example, "pink elephants on their windowsill". But she never mentioned that cocaine could induce a magical hybrid of The Daily Show meets a very excited Christiane Amanpour .
Having a long weekend is nice. And I feel like I accomplished a lot. Now I'm off to the country house - to do some laundry, eat a home-cooked meal, get my sister's songs, and to try to explain to my Mom why she shouldn't be worried about the cocaine paragraph.
posted by Susan Goldberg at 7:39 PM
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