A Scholarly Debate

Ok, I just can't take it anymore. Last night's episode of The O.C. finally pushed me to this:

EJTakesLife and I discuss: MARISSA COOPER vs. KELLY TAYLOR


Libberash: last night's coke put it over the edge
EJTakesLife: omigod
EJTakesLife: i almost rolled off the couch laughing
EJTakesLife: so funny
Libberash: both attracted to bad boys
Libberash: both came off kind of bitchy in the first season
Libberash: but ultimately lovable
Libberash: both have been raped or near raped
EJTakesLife: oh see i don't find marissa cooper lovable at all
Libberash: she had her moments
Libberash: (i'm watching the first season on dvd)
EJTakesLife: ahhh
EJTakesLife: kelly taylor is the bad girl who isn't
EJTakesLife: and marissa cooper is the good girl who isn't
Libberash: did kelly ever shoplift?
Libberash: both had stalkers
Libberash: every guy falls in love with them
EJTakesLife: both have weird relationships with their moms
Libberash: they both had best friends who had long term relationships with kinda dorky guys (David Silver in his near-glorious rappin' heyday)
EJTakesLife: both of their moms married the dads of their friends
Libberash: haha, true
Libberash: marissa hasn't joined a cult yet, but there's still time
EJTakesLife: oh yeah, it's only the 3rd season
Libberash: both have weird/horrible fashion sense
EJTakesLife: both of them are obsessed with fashion but often wear ridiculous things
EJTakesLife: oh wow! great minds..
EJTakesLife: but there are some differences
EJTakesLife: marissa cooper will never have short hair
Libberash: true
EJTakesLife: and kelly taylor, to my knowledge, never f*cked the pool boy
Libberash: hey, the pool boy was probably the most normal guy she ever hooked up with
EJTakesLife: true
Libberash: both had love triangles
Libberash: brandon-kelly-dylan and ryan-marissa-luke
EJTakesLife: yeah, but you always knew that ryan and marissa would end up together
EJTakesLife: with brandon and dylan it was up in the air
Libberash: she and summer have never fought over a boy
Libberash: and the most obvious difference
Libberash: kelly's a blonde, marissa's a brunette
EJTakesLife: yes, but they've both flirted with the other side
EJTakesLife: OOH!
EJTakesLife: speaking of
EJTakesLife: did kelly taylor ever have a lesbian relationship?
Libberash: hmmm
Libberash: i don't think so
Libberash: 90210 wasn't quite there yet
EJTakesLife: there was the fire girl, but that was more single-white-female
Libberash: but she was friends with that gay guy that had AIDS!
EJTakesLife: that's RIGHT
EJTakesLife: how progressive
Libberash: oh totally
Libberash: that was like 1997
Libberash: and she cut her hand!
Libberash: GASP!
EJTakesLife: one woman's AIDS scare is another woman's sweeps-timed lesbian experiment
Libberash: wait
EJTakesLife: what?
Libberash: kaitlin's like that girl... erica!
EJTakesLife: who was erica?
EJTakesLife: was that the fire girl?
Libberash: dylan's long-lost little sister
EJTakesLife: yes! that's right!
Libberash: who ended up being a hooker i think
EJTakesLife: but kaitlin's a skanky evil whore
EJTakesLife: i thought they took erica to brazil for the cult
EJTakesLife: no, they went to brazil b/c they stole dylan's money
EJTakesLife: did she become a hooker after that??
Libberash: yes, she did
Libberash: not brazil, mexico
Libberash: and valerie went with dylan
Libberash: yes
EJTakesLife: and JONESY
EJTakesLife: omigod
EJTakesLife: why do we remember these things?
EJTakesLife: ooh, i've got another one: sadie is totally emily valentine
Libberash: nooooooo, i like sadie!
EJTakesLife: exactly! she's the Other Woman for the brandon figure who is actually a much better fit for him
EJTakesLife: but who, because she'd get in the heroine's way, has her contract canceled
Libberash: but brandon and kelly weren't together yet
EJTakesLife: this is true. but sadie and emily valentine are both funky and live up north and make the hero waaaay happier than the heroine ever did
Libberash: i thought kelly and brandon were cute!
EJTakesLife: they were, but it never felt right... like two kids playing house, but not two people who really wanted each other
EJTakesLife: none of the kelly-dylan heat
Libberash: that's true...
EJTakesLife: did we just spend the last 20 minutes of our lives thinking about this?
Libberash: yes we did
EJTakesLife: works for me
Libberash: me too

Kickbooze

I finally did it. I joined a kickball team. DC is famed for its casual sports scene (softball, kickball, and even bocce ball) and after I was the groupie for Calkimmy's team last year I decided now was the time to join.

Last night's intro happy hour showed me what I will be up against: peer pressure, free booze, and competitive flip cup This is a deadly combination for most people, myself included. Did I also mentioned that I have joined TWO kickball teams? How can I reject alcohol when it's free? How can I not compete in anything? (Especially when your team is egging you on.) But most importantly, how can I do this twice a week? Adding Monday and Wednesday to "going out" days is a significant jump for someone who barely holding her own on the weekends. I know I drank 4 days a week in college, but I got to sleep until 11am everyday. 7am wake up calls and late night boozing are an instant recipe for oversleeping disasters.

I may have gotten more than I bargained for.

Pretty Little Boxes

I like things neat and tidy. I like things with a beginning, a middle, and an end. I am so predictable in my search for tidiness that my TiVo has punished me with little presents in the form of horrible romantic comedies (The Prince and Me and Cinderella Story). I watch these movies because as painful as they are, because they provide me with a semblance of order in an obviously chaotic world.

I have started to fixate on my own personal level of tidiness now that I know I will be leaving DC. I already took care of my professional loose ends--an end date has been secured with all the goodwill and connections that I could hope to have--and now I am keen on doing the same personally. But what does this mean? Isn't my leaving a loose end in and of itself? Well, yes and no. My friends here will either continue to be my friends or they won't. That is not what I'm looking to do. I'm more looking to clarify relationships. I want relationships cemented, for better or for worse. I want to say all the things I never said and do all the things I meant to do but didn't.

Personal closure is a highly underrated, but extremely worthwhile endeavor and I needs me some.

Not in your Zagat guide

DC rites of passage. You don't have live here very long to realize some of mainstays of the Capital life: humidity, tourists, interns, the overabundance of law enforcement. My coworker and I were talking about specific rites of passage that start to link you to this city more than you ever wanted to be (or planned on).

An abbreviated list:

*You have cried, got in a fight, or had some sort of emotional meltdown on the Metro.
*You have been stopped for directions by a tourist. Preferably wearing a fanny pack.
*You have seen an elected official doing something inappropriate. Not illegal, mind you, but something you kind of wish you hadn't seen.
*You started or commented on a blog.
*One day you wore a tank top. The next day you wore an overcoat.
*You have a bar where more than one person knows your name.
*You have attended a happy hour at one or more of the following places: The Front Page, Buffalo Billiards, Lucky Bar, or Bullfeathers.
*You have jogged down the Mall.
*You been to Screen on the Green.
*You've commented on the lack of fashion-foward women.
*You've commented on the overabundance of gay men.
*Girls: A man over 35 has hit on you.
*Guys: You've hit on an intern.
*All of your office events involve alcohol.
*You've snagged free invitations to a Hill lunch, a random reception, and a corporate xmas party.
*You've been to a show at the 930 Club.
*You've gotten lost in either SW or NE.
*You know the difference between Scott and Thomas Circle.

What am I missing?

Zipless F*ck (read the book and you'll understand)

Ok, raise your hand if you're a woman who reads this blog? Good. Now raise your hand if you're a woman who reads this blog but has not read the book Fear of Flying? If that's you, than I'm telling you that now is the time. I heard its author, Erica Jong, speak last night and the fact that my friend and I were the youngest people there by about 30 years was troublesome. I was first given this book by my mother when I was 15. All of my other friends were at camp or hiking the Rockies or doing something else adventurous and exciting and I was home working at my local hardware store. Out of sheer boredom (who reads what their mother gives them when they're 15?) I started this book and it happened. I have read it five times since that first summer, and every time it gets a little better and becomes a little more relevant.

It's not just a book about sex (though it has that in spades), it's about relationships with men, with women, with yourself. It's about your sanity and how that is clearly affected by the insanity that surrounds you. It's about family, friends, being rude, being selfish, and above all being impetuous. It was written in 1973 but don't let that deter you--other than talk of "after the war" (WWII in this case) you will have no idea that it wasn't written last week.

I have written about reading for pleasure's sake. I have even given suggestions of books that I have liked and why reading post-college is an important and sane-making activity.

This is not that. This is required reading. And you will be tested.

blajbiljaeighlh

On vacation and now too many thoughts have built up in my head...

**Skiing. It is for the young, adventurous and cold-tolerating. I used to be all of those things, but last week in Utah I realized that I am now only young. Last year's wrist, ligament, nose debacle killed adventurousness and I'm embarrassed to admit it but, DC has made me a wuss. It was 25 degrees in Utah, which is perfectly reasonable skiing weather, and I was freezing. I should turn in my Chicago AND Michigan badges. I use to wear tank tops in the single digits and now I can't wait to get back to DC and its random 80 degree days. Can skin really get thin that fast?

**The Oscars. The show itself was kinda sucky, a little boring, and my usual Oscar watching experience lost a considerable amount of joy because my brother and father mocked me as I watched the E! Arrival Pre-Show. Do I mock them when they start watching Super Bowl coverage at 11am?? Um, nooooooooooooooo. My boy(friend) Jon Stewart was hilarious, if a little nervous, but that's okay because he had the best line of the night: "3-6 Mafia: 1 Academy Award, Martin Scorese: 0."

**Happy Hours. Why does everyone want to drink at 5pm all of the sudden? I am pretty confident that DC is more of a Happy Hour town that most, but lately it's like the Early Bird special around here. People: if you start drinking that early you will end up in Adams Morgan wearing a pink twin-set, smudged make-up, and carrying all your personal belongings in a purse that can fit a human child. Go home. Shower. Play some funky music and then go out and make a night of it. You will be much happier.

**Airline Vouchers. I bumped myself off my flight from Dallas to DC on Saturday and I couldn't be happier. Sure, I missed a night out (good and bad because I probably saved ~$40 in the process), didn't have pajamas, or a contact case. But I did have a free dinner, a hotel room, a Law & Order: SVU marathon, a king-size bed AND A $300 VOUCHER. Vouchers are to airlines as seeing two movies for the price of one is for theatres: it's really the only way those crappy institutions give back. In your face, American.

**Coldplay. Yes I saw them in September but they were back in DC two weeks ago and they were great. It was Chris Martin's birthday which definitely added a level of enjoyment to the show that wasn't there before, and Beds and I did our best to rock out to great if virtually undanceable music. (Try dancing to Yellow, I dare you) No matter, if they don't come out with a live version of Clocks from this tour I'm going to kick some skinny, British ass.

**Computers. I didn't sit in front of a computer for 10 days and it was awesome. Seriously, it was ultra-therapeutic. No typing. No infomania. No ridiculously long list of websites to check or crashing programs. My punishment for ignoring my master: 120 emails in my gmail account. The only good thing was that I had more in gmail than at work. I'm still not chained to that desk, whew.

**Bonuses. Christmas in March you say? That's right. I returned to work yesterday and was rewarded with a sweet bonus. It's more exciting to get a present when you're not expecting it than when it's owed to you in my opinion and that is why Monday was awesome. Well that, and I think that's the biggest check I've ever seen that was written to me and not from Ed McMahon.

**Inside jokes. Have you and friend ever made a list of inside jokes that you have? My friend Lizzie and I spent one summer in Israel together we have one kickass list of inside jokes to show for it. Just carry a little notebook with you and poof: Working under 100 degree heat while digging up 6,000 year-old artifacts becomes hysterical! I stumbled upon this list tonight and five years later every single one still makes me laugh so hard I snort. 150 Israeli soldiers stationed at our Kibbutz and only five age-appropriate girls, getting up at 4am everyday for six weeks (see sleeping), language barriers, hangovers, dirt...everything becomes hysterical when your main activity is digging. How many times does something funny actually make you snort?

Ok, sufficient brain purge...ahhhh.

A Change Would Do You Good

I don't do change. I mean, everyone does change because change is constant, but I don't do change well. At all. I blame my parents for providing the type of stability that is seemingly impossible to achieve for such a long stretch of time: 20 years in the same house, nine years at the same school, taking the same vacation for 12 years (ok, there I could have used some variation), three living grandparents, neither parent switched careers, no divorce or significant death... I mean this is once-in-a-millenium kind of stability the provided me with a ridiculously happy and well-adjusted childhood and allowed me to come almost unhinged at any sign of change thereafter. So you can imagine between starting college, interning in DC, studying abroad, graduating, falling in love and breaking up, and starting and ending jobs that I don't always deal very well with these situations.

But as of late change has been overtaking me at a pace that I can no longer ignore. Things are changing and I can stand on the side and freak out or I can let it happen while freaking out. I choose the latter. Freaking out is a natural part of my adaptation skills.

At point of change: "This is sooooooooo crazy?!?! How did I get in this situation?? What is it going to be like? This is weird! What will I do?? (Tears optional)

Six months later: "This is awesome. I can't believe I flipped out. I was being silly/immature/ridiculous."

So what's the big change, you ask? Well, getting into grad school seems like a big deal. I feel like I gave birth. One day I was bitching about what I was going to do with my life and the next day I was starting an application, writing and re-writing an essay, and harassing old professors for recommendations. Three and a half weeks later, boom! I log onto my application status page and I'm in. Huh?? How did that happen? Yesterday I got the BIG envelope in the mail which means that this whole thing is real. They like me, they really like me!

So regardless of whether I initiated the change (you should have seen me before college!), it is still allowable for me to freak out, right? Well, this is where there is a differing of opinion. Some say, "Yeah, change is overwhelming so you need to do whatever works to handle it." But others say, "Libberash, stop being a brat! You wanted this and you got it!! This. Is. A. Good. Thing."

I am both of those people.