Were you one of those people at high school who felt embarassed carrying their oversized strap-across water bottles? I was. I mean so what if its made in Sweden and keeps water cool for over 7 hours, I just found it perplexing. Not to mention my dad would come to the school, way inside the gate to pick me up, and that was like embarassment whammy.Its high school, Come on! And once school was out, I looked back and thought how silly I was and how I would never do stuff like that. But I thought too soon-- I was ready for college and this time, it was where I was from that was embarassing. Bangladesh. First of all its an obscure country and second of all the stuff you know about the country is all negative and bad stuff (mostly). Then I realized that I had to own a few pieces of clothing from Aeropostale and the Gap to appear 'normal'. I started joining social clubs on-campus, wearing hoodies,listening to hip hop and staying away from people who smell like curry.
But that was 9 years ago. Now I am married, and after you're married, coolness is measured in how many pieces of new Ikea furniture you own, how many cars you own, how much salmon you eat and how many trips to Costa Rica you take in a year. But do I feel the need for that? A part of me does but a part of me has also 'grown' a little since the last few years. These days I am just baffled with what defines coolness for my husband. He works in a office with very few married people ( I was going to add happily but I don't know that for sure). So what happens to a guy who just got married at work? He continues to act in the same way in fear of losing his position at the championship of cool. My hubby is a nice kid, but having said all that, he is also very much in love with his coolness quotient at work. And I am sure there are many married men out there who feel the same way--- to be able to discuss Sunday football,lame jokes and go-go girls all in one-breath while typing three reports. So when I call him at work, I can sense the queasy feeling in his voice, so I just keep it short and go about my day. Because hey, If I become the naggy types, I aint cool no more. So the cycle goes on.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Malls and people
The smell of Aunt Annie's Pretzels scrambling for attention alongside the whiff of mulberry and butter cookies from Yankee Candles---this is your quintessential American mall. You could go from one state to another, and nothing would have changed. The exact same smells, the exact same music, maybe not the exact same people, well some. And when you start to observe, spy, sight upon all the different people at the mall, you realize that, within those same malls live a thousand different stories.
So we park near Nordstrom, and upon entering, we see mommies, daddies and their kiddies in matching Uggs, looking for more full-priced Uggs in an almost frantic manner, as if it were the last pair of Uggs. Then you see a few younguns, at the cash register scrambling for which credit card to charge. But that doesn't keep them from buying two pairs of Uggs. Switch to the next and you see, a few like us, peering over the price tags and just moving forward. Dead sure that those boots can be bought for 1/4th the price elsewhere. But who are we?
My husband and I are a recently-married-south-asian-in-their-late-twenties-post-graduate-degrees-holding-single-income-couple. So what do people like us do at the mall? Besides walking blind past all the "40% off your entire purchase" signs, we deliberate-- constantly. A quick stop at the clearance rack at the Gap and we are convinced that we'd much rather put that 27.99 toward a pendant lamp. or not. Next, a quick stop at Sephora, a haven for madness for the both of us.While he sprays on the latest from Y'ves Saint Laurent, I try on NARS's lipgloss in Angelika which truly makes me look like an angel,except the price tag will set me back 25.99. A quick turnabout and we are still walking. Finally, we reach the upstairs and lo behold. There is a swarm of what look like rich people in front of Teavna- hogging the tea samples. I thought those samples were for the people who'd rather not go to Starbucks, but of well. Soon we land at the food court. Having frequented the mall more than once in our lives, we decide to hold on to the tiny cups from Teavana until I go home and whip up a quick beef stew, using of course, a cut of beef thats best described as 'gelatinous'.
So we park near Nordstrom, and upon entering, we see mommies, daddies and their kiddies in matching Uggs, looking for more full-priced Uggs in an almost frantic manner, as if it were the last pair of Uggs. Then you see a few younguns, at the cash register scrambling for which credit card to charge. But that doesn't keep them from buying two pairs of Uggs. Switch to the next and you see, a few like us, peering over the price tags and just moving forward. Dead sure that those boots can be bought for 1/4th the price elsewhere. But who are we?
My husband and I are a recently-married-south-asian-in-their-late-twenties-post-graduate-degrees-holding-single-income-couple. So what do people like us do at the mall? Besides walking blind past all the "40% off your entire purchase" signs, we deliberate-- constantly. A quick stop at the clearance rack at the Gap and we are convinced that we'd much rather put that 27.99 toward a pendant lamp. or not. Next, a quick stop at Sephora, a haven for madness for the both of us.While he sprays on the latest from Y'ves Saint Laurent, I try on NARS's lipgloss in Angelika which truly makes me look like an angel,except the price tag will set me back 25.99. A quick turnabout and we are still walking. Finally, we reach the upstairs and lo behold. There is a swarm of what look like rich people in front of Teavna- hogging the tea samples. I thought those samples were for the people who'd rather not go to Starbucks, but of well. Soon we land at the food court. Having frequented the mall more than once in our lives, we decide to hold on to the tiny cups from Teavana until I go home and whip up a quick beef stew, using of course, a cut of beef thats best described as 'gelatinous'.
Why Seven Eggs?
Just because. Well, actually, I'd initially thought there are seven days in a week, so maybe, every day has a different story? I don't know. I have another blog where I ramble about daily life stuff, which not everyone can relate to. But then I thought, what about little things and random things that I observe in my daily life, in other people's daily lives. Something that would resound with more than just one person, or one girl rather. So this isn't a diary, but it also is. This is just some place where I can put all those things that seem a little more than rantings and a little less than philosophical blurb.
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