It was when my 21-year old co-worker asked me what my plans were after work and I answered, 'Go to the grocery store,' that I realized with horror that I have become an uninteresting person. When the hell did that happen? I suppose it's so easy in college to find things to do and an abundance of people to do those things with, and post-college is a bit of burn out with 40-hour weeks and leftover fatigue of all-nighters.
When did I become so boring? My latest news isn't some great local band I just saw or some crazy party or whatever; my current news is dentist appointments and buying hamburger meat.
Or maybe I'm not boring?
Today, an average Tuesday, I woke next to my boyfriend and made some oatmeal as the neighbors congregated on the back porch in an array of thrift sundresses, wetsuits, and a rolled up pair of Smurf pjs. Strawberries and weed pipes were passed around as we talked about the warming weather and upcoming onslaught of tourists. A little stoned, a little wet, and little tanned, we all went back to our houses or back to the beach.
I hopped the shower for a delicious half hour, enjoying my Lush products like the lemon peel soap and mango butter moisturizer as my boyfriend read the latest news of the world and 4/20 politics. A warm round of sex later and off to a brief trip to the beach. Open sand, warm sun, cool wind, holding hands, talking about seeing old friends and the energy, apart-ness, and love that comes from that.
His turn for a shower and I'm grilling onions and slicing up avocados for a reheat of the cheeseburgers we grilled yesterday for Memorial Day, which, by the way, if you're grilling this summer please use lighter fluid. He was using printer paper and vanilla candles among other things to get the damn thing started, lol.
Off to work he went to the medical marijuana collective and I had the day off, spending it working on a upcoming literary magazine I have in the works (and hoping to launch June 1st), plus a little sunbathing and watching a downloaded version of The Lucky One.
Boring or not boring? Beach living. Slow, indulgent, sandy, warm, and salty.
Which brings me to my next point, have you seen HBO's Girls?
The Dietitian is all about it and insisted that I would love it, as it's a play off of Sex and the City but with average 24-year old characters. My first impression: this show is uninteresting because these girls are uninteresting, and they're uninteresting because they're so realistic.
They look like average 24 year-olds. They dress like average 24-year olds (hello, frumpy Forever 21). And they have average 24-year old problems like job hunting and being cut off financially from parents. We watch television to escape and be inspired by false fantastical/humorous/glamorous/heroic lives. STD tests aren't very interesting and neither are secretary jobs, so I admit that my first impression was to write-off the show. But then, I kept watching.
Marnie Michaels--Miss Perfect. She is kinda what us 24-year olds are trying to be. Beautiful, entry level career path, Pottery Barn, perfect hair. But then the cracks. Someone 24-going-on-44 is rather annoying. There's no excitement in being perfect, not to mention off-putting. You want her ex to rebound in two weeks with some fun Bohemian chick with a crop top because you hate Marnie but at the same time you want to be like Marnie. It's a weird conflict. Are you more like Marnie or the Bohrmian chick? And who are do you want to like?
Shoshanna Shapiro--Virgins are petty uninteresting. Sex brings all the conflict, the things to talk about the morning after, the stress, the joy, the you-are-so-right-and-he's-such-an-idiot, and love, and craziness. Sex makes us more interseting, so virgins tend to be boring BUT...losing virginity or almost losing it or should you lose it and who to and saving it and all that sort of intrigue of WHEN, well, now that's exciting.
Jessa Johansson--My favorite character, who, surprise surprise is the most unrealistic person on the show. And isn't that the point? Don't we like characters who say things we'd never say, or do things we'd never do, and dress like we'd never dress? In the 2nd episode she's drinking a White Russian before her abortion appointment, and in Sunday''s episode she's dressed in all feathers to a warehouse party in Brooklyn.
Hannah Horvath--The lead character. Average smart sightly chubby twentysomething with wit and a few misplaced tattoos. She's looking a job and not getting hired, sleeping with a quiet skinny Brooklyn guy with a hipster mustache, and is trying to be a writer in her spare time of making rent and watching tv with friends. In other words, she's you or your roommate or someone you definitely know. And that's why you stay watching--because you want to know if she turns into a 9-to-5er or if she can break though the banality of life and be that interesting shiny girl you secretly want to be as well.
And so I....like it. I'm....interested. What's going to happen to these 24-year olds on the verge of being boring because I'm right there on the cross-roads with them. They're in their twenties with a Sex and the City poster on the wall to guide them though each lame party, each non-hire, each maybe boyfriend, and the infinite and all-important question: what's next? I'm staying tuned.
1 comments:
What I dig about Girls, as opposed to Sex and the City, is that each episode and storyline doesn't tie up at the end with a bow and pretty theme. It's fucking chaotic. Not to say that the writing is disorganized. There is definitely intelligence there. But it feels real because it's not perfect or pretty. I'm obsessed with Lena Dunham because she is dripping with authenticity, frumpy outfits and all. She doesn't give a fuck. She's writing and living her truth and making a living out of it, and that is so gorgeous and exotic to me. I want to bottle it up and drink the kool-aid. But I'm still stuck in the surface-level bullshit like the majority of us.
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