a lot of non-sequitors and ranting...

Thursday, March 5, 2009 at 1:07pm

i have a lot of non-sequitors to express.


1- so i made a deal with the car crash lady. she brought me some BOGUS estimate for $800 that included things like painting and detailing. i said that's crazy, i'll give you $250. she said no way, i bluffed and said that i talked to lawyer and that she is obligated to provide two estimates and that my payment to her should "make her whole" not make her "better off" than she was before the accident (thank you People's Court) (and what the fuck is "detailing" anyway?!) we went back and forth, she said "i can get nasty if you want to make this nasty" and started talking to me about car rental fees and loss of wages (she sells Avon, btw). finally we agreed to settle for $500. not bad, i think. of course she wanted me to mail her a check and i laughed and said, i think we should get something notorized. so that's where we are now... (goodbye LV Sprouse speedy 30 :( i almost loved you)

2- i keep hearing how facebook and myspace and the digital age are de-humanizing youth. i think that is true. supposedly there are more and more sociopaths with every decade since the 80s. i can believe that. also, digital networking is making us all narcisists and anti-social. i find that funny.

here's the thing, i believe in evolution. not "big bang, anti-creationism" evolution, but the evolution of cultures. people were a lot more social when they were hunter/gatherers, people were a lot more social before TVs were invented. remember when our grandparents thought TVs would ruin society. and in a lot of ways it did... we don't come from the same communities that our parents did, there's no real "neighborhood" mentality. people don't want their kids to get kidnapped, so they park them inside and bribe them with videogames. we are evolving from a tribal society to an individual. i'm not saying it's good or bad, but it's not going to change. and it's starting younger and younger- just watch an episode of barney "you are special" "everyone is unique"

i keep thinking of two things- the first is that part in Fight Club when they're giving the "you are not a unique snowflake" speech and the second in from the novel Farenheit 451 (i think) it's that scene where the guys wife just sits in front of these massive, wall size, TV screens talking to "her family" (digitalized charecter images).

everytime someone brings up this whole Facebook/narcissism debate those are always the two visuals i get.

i'm going to finish this later, my attention span these days is deplorable and i want to get a nap in before the twins wake up...

****

i think it's funny that i'm all bemoaning the lack of community that technology has wrought and then i end abruptly with, "gotta go, my attention span is too short." hahaha, did i not just prove my own point or what?!


i also think it's funny that i keep defending facebook... ON FACEBOOK. why do i bother preaching to the choir? what did i expect? that you all would be like, "no grace! facebook sucks! it's damaging our children!" yeah right. i'm such a wuss. god forbid i'd say this to anyone *not* on facebook...

for instance, a while back i posted that news story "facebook is for fogies" and i also forwarded it via email to some of my older friends not on facebook, including my mother-in-law. i sort of wrote a generic "haha, check this out old people... everyone's on here!" not really expecting anyone to answer, and my mom-in-law wrote back, something to the effect of "people are nuts, that's crazy, i'm way too private for that" (but in nicer words of course) so then i, like a TOTAL weiner, answer back "oh yeah, TOTALLY, i'm barely on there... i just wanted to keep in touch with my friends from college..." not only am i wuss, my friends, but i am also a traitor to the cause. i will now accept your virtual slaps by way of "superpoke!"

this is not the first time email has gotten me in trouble with the inlaws... a while back Orion wrote this long-winded email about what a crazy day he was having at work and how much his job meant to him, but how nuts his clients are and all that. totally serious and all proper. SO, do i check the recipient list? try and discover for whose benefit he was being so proper? NOPE. i hit "reply" (or in this case "reply all") and send my husband's father, brother, mother, and step-mother a rather loopy email about how his orginal email ended up in my mailbox at exactly 4:20 and something to the effect of, "lets ditch work and celebrate 4:20 w/ 420 like the good 'ol days..." FUUUUUUCK

i didn't even try and fix that one... and what's really sad is that Orion just kind of shook his head and did the ol "*sigh* oh grace"

it couldn't have changed their opinion of me very much. i know they think i'm a little crazy, fortunately they know how crazy orion is, so i think they think we're a good match. his aunt recently commented on our wedding photos "i'm glad i finally got to see grace! she looks pretty rowdy and full of herself!" seriously. verbatim. orion was quite perturbed and was all like, "what does she mean by THAT?" i was like, "honey, i'm barefoot, muddy, and drunk at my own wedding... i'm taking 'rowdy' as a compliment."

I find it weird that people are prone to thinking that marriage has aged me, or that i'm finally all grown up. i'm suddenly getting all this pressure to clean up my act and figure out my life. i'm like, people... i'm 25. gimme a break.

conversely, being the first girl in my circle of friends to get married has come with this assuption that i hold some wisdom. all my girlfriends suddenly flipped from bemoaning my romantic choices and thinking i'd never settle down, to thinking i have this magic knowledge of how to get a man to marry you. i have never been the type of person you'd come to for romantic advice. now suddenly everyone want my opinion on their relationship?! this is a HUGE responsibility for a person who pretty much ruled her romantic life with the philosophy "no bullshit." it's difficult for me to give sage advice when internally i'm screaming "DON'T TAKE HIS FUCKING BULLSHIT" really the only thing i know about men (which really, i know from having 6 brothers, not being married) is that you have to set a standard right away. this is true for ALL people in general, not just in the dating world. if you applied for a job you'd have certain expectations; you'd know how much you wanted to make, you'd want to know how much opportunity for advancement there is, you'd want to know what the hours are, and most of all, you'd want to know what the fucking job is, right? the same is true in relationships i think. not everyone will meet your expectations, but then again, you're not the right person for every job, either. i guess what i mean to say is know what you want. i'm not saying let everyone know you're marriage minded, but don't bullshit people. oh my gosh, this paragraph is atrociously long. i guess what i'm trying to say is, i don't have some "golden ticket" i didn't "get" orion to marry me, there's no trickery involved. sheesh.

basically, i just needed to get that off my chest. i was at salon yesterday and my stylist was complaining about wanting to get married and her boyfriend's fear of commitment. i'm all like, "there's your answer right there." people keep telling me i need to read "He's just not that into you" whatever. i need to write "i'm just not that into him"

my sister is expecting her fifth baby. last night orion said, "how are we ever going to catch up to her? we'll have to have triplets or something" i was like, "WHOA, we are SOOOOOOOO not even racing..." i'm going to have to buy him a puppy or something soon.

also, to totally change the subject, my bff sara is in town this weekend, so if anyone is up for some old school partying call my hotline. there's going to a lot going on and i think we're having an insane lincoln square pub crawl on saturday night which ends up at the lesbian karaoke bar.

i miss warm weather and dresses, so i plan on fully embracing both in the next 4 days.

anyway, that's enough preaching and bitching for now. it's gorgeous outside and my charges are waking up from their naps. i think we'll spend the afternoon at the park (see, there are some advantages to not having a "real" job)