Sep
11
September 11, 2007
I read an immensely sad blog entry a while back—a series of them, actually, from an author whose life had been impacted by an unthinkable tragedy. I wasn’t familiar with the writer, I had just followed a link from someone else’s blog, which got me thinking: is it weird to do that, to link to people’s journals when they’re in the midst of a crisis?
I see it fairly often, where someone will link to another blogger with the plea that they need some good thoughts/prayers/support. I’m not sure I would want that, personally. Not that I can control (or would want to) who links to my website, but if I shared some devastating personal news I don’t think I’d want strangers being guided here, some just looking to fill their lunch break, some arriving to crane their neck at the bloody wreck in the road.
I suppose if the practice makes me uncomfortable, I could certainly choose not to follow these types of links—but I always do. Then I’m in the midst of someone else’s most vulnerable confessions, and me a total stranger, suddenly privy to it by virtue of an idle mouse click.
Google makes it easy enough to accidentally stumble upon any blog entry you can think of, and those of us who choose to discuss our personal lives online must be aware that anyone can read at any time, but still. I just don’t know about the practice of actively pointing the way to our friends’ unhappiness, regardless of good intent.
What do you guys think?
Sep
10
September 10, 2007
Are any of you fans of LinkedIn? I’ve been trying to add more contacts there, and the other day I went through and revamped my resume information, which was woefully tainted with embarrassing terms like “leveraged” and “extensible” and “orchestrated user-centric business development wins” (what?). I still need to work on making some sense out of the last few jobs I’ve had, but the jargon had to go— I figure any company who gets a boner from reading crap like that is a company I no longer want to work for. Anyway, I’m not yet sure what the value of LinkedIn really is, other than nosy resume-snooping, but if you want to add me to your contacts shoot me an email with your profile link.
Social networking sites are funny, aren’t they? Eighty million ways to meet and learn about people, custom-designed for those of us who are typically too damn shy to say hello in person. Truly, the idea of networking in the traditional mingling-during-an-industry-event sense makes me want to claw my face-meat off in giant bloody chunks, just like that memorable scene in Poltergeist. Then again, I may be a defective human being. I mean, did you see what I just wrote about tearing off my own face? Jesus, that’s disgusting.
In utterly unrelated news, I’m finding that I am far more picky about maternity wear this time around. Granted, it’s early enough in this pregnancy that I haven’t quite reached the I Am a Massive, Exhausted Whale, Please Drape Me In Whatever Covers My Unfurling Akiralike Flesh phase, but my belly has definitely achieved a certain state of rotundity, and I am feeling a vain desire to clothe myself in the most flattering tent-fabrics possible.
Having tried a variety of styles from Gap Maternity, Motherhood/Mimi Maternity, eBay, and a stupidly expensive maternity shop near my office, I have come to the following conclusions:
THE GOOD
• Wrap necklines are the most flattering. In fact, wrap/kimono styles in general are the best, as long as they make allowances for the Giant Blue-Veined Monstrosities, if you know what I mean and I think some of you do.
• Ruched (am I spelling that right? TextEdit says NO), slightly clingy shirts are the bomb. I LOVE that style right now, which is all about showing rather than hiding. Although I’m not sure it will continue to be charming when you can see every cavernous detail of my strained belly button.
• Two words: demi panel. All the other belly panel styles make me crazy, especially the kind that stretch from the top of your ribcage to your pelvic region. I have been living in these Gap jeans (note that the name is highly misleading, for hello, I am neither long NOR lean at the moment), and they are as comfortable as a stretchy-waisted, no-fly pair of jeans can be.
THE BAD
• Designer maternity jeans. Maybe I just haven’t tried the right style, but I wedged myself into several pairs of premium denim brands recently and they all blew. They all had this huge spandex-like band at the top (a “roll panel”, I think this is called) which was uncomfortable, unflattering (it must be called a roll because that’s exactly what it creates: a giant belly roll), and did nothing whatsoever to keep the pants—designed from the panel down as low-rise—from being dragging halfway down my ass. HATE.
• Babydoll tops. Oh god no. Just . . . no. Not a good idea if your breasts are larger than a B cup, unless you want to look like some of the more unfortunate photos of Salma Hayek surfacing in recent copies of Us Weekly.
• Giant bows. What’s up with all the goddamned bows?
• Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha NO.
I know it’s kind of silly to spend much effort on a wardrobe that has such a short lifespan, but what the hell, if a reasonably-priced outfit makes me feel good about myself and I get a decent amount of wear out of it, I say money well spent. Besides, soon enough I’ll be living in baggy yoga pants and spitup-stained t-shirts, so I might as well enjoy the novelty of being at least marginally pulled together—that is, until I take a time out from feeling all fashionably fancy to discover a dried post-tantrum Toddler Snail Trail across the front of my shirt. Which happens, oh, about every single day.
Which reminds me: never buy maternity wear that has to be dry-cleaned, because even if you don’t have a mucusy child to contend with, the combination of pregnancy clumsiness, nonstop snacking, and a growing belly tends to result in a troublesome amount of staining. In fact, you may just want to consider a bib, or possibly a feed bag. Filled with candy corn, if your name is Linda.
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