Mishmash Musings

I just got done reading Jeffrey Zaslow’s book The Girl From Ames. It had been on the New York Times Bestseller list for weeks, so I decided to find out what it was about. When I read that it chronicled the 40-year friendship of a group of 11 girls from Ames, IA, I ordered it for my Kindle.

The book made for some decent reading, but I didn’t think it explored the nature of friendship very much. That’s what I thought Zaslow aimed to do, but he opted instead to just profile the women of the group.

Anyway, this work kind of brought up some bad memories for me. I keep in touch with just a handful of friends from high school, and the ones I still email aren’t even people I was close to to begin with. For this reason, I’m somewhat fascinated by long, enduring friendships.

The bad memories? Well, there was one group of eight girls at my high school that was similar to the Ames group. They were really close, always together, had been friends long before high school, etc. I was friends with most of the girls in the group, but I wasn’t part of the group. I knew the different members from homeroom, various classes, and sports.

Then in junior year, I thought I was making a breakthrough. I started spending more and more time with the group, eating lunch with them, going to their tennis club after school, going out with them on Friday nights. I thought I was pretty good friends with the two leaders, which is why I ended up spending so much time with them that year.

But I guess they never really accepted me as part of the real group. This was driven home quite clearly one day when they showed up at school wearing custom baseball-style jerseys that they had ordered. Across the front of the jerseys was “The Tribe”, and they had their nicknames on the back.

I was stunned because I had never even heard them talking about the jerseys and didn’t know the plan was in place to get them. The fact that I wasn’t offered a chance to participate made it pretty obvious that they didn’t think of me on equal terms. I looked and felt so out of place when I went to lunch with them that day, the only girl in the group not to have a custom jersey.

After that, I started hanging out with them less and less. I don’t even think they noticed when I finally stopped altogether. If they did, it was probably only to say it was high time I got the hint!

I’m currently watching the 2008 film version of Brideshead Revisited. This is a story that always takes me back to my high school days because I had to read the Evelyn Waugh novel for my English Lit class during junior year. I really enjoyed the book (it was my first exposure to Waugh), so it’s one of the things that will forever represent high school to me.

It’s been nearly 20 years since I graduated, which means 95% of my memories of that time have faded. But along with Brideshead, there are a few other nostalgia triggers that take me right back to my teenage years. For instance, whenever someone mentions Cicero or Vergil, I recall grueling hours spent laboring over translations of the Orations Against Catiline or the Aeneid. Hamlet and Macbeth are also high school lit staples, and I still remember the various soliloquies that I had to memorize.

It’s not only books that set off my memories, of course. There’s always Old Style and Milwaukee’s Best, the cheapest beer available for us. Or that hot dog joint on Westgate Ave. that we used to go to for lunch all the time. Softball, badminton, floor hockey, and other sports I used to play.

Seriously, I cannot believe it’s been 20 years since I first stepped foot in high school. Where has all the time gone??

I regularly support a couple of local non-profits. These places are not big by any means, and are just run by people with a passion for what they do. I respect that for sure, but at the same time, I can’t help but notice how mismanaged one of these places is when compared to a national organization.

For one thing, the organization is always short on funds. I know this is a problem that plagues many small non-profits, but it seems like this particular org doesn’t even make much of an effort to raise money. I mean, I’ve donated to them before, but have NEVER been contacted for more funds.

Think about it… they’re just wasting valuable resources right there. They ought to have a mailing list with contact info for all previous donors, and they should send out emails at least twice a year to solicit donations. But this place inexplicably hasn’t done that. Major organizations like St. Jude contact previous donors at least four or five times per year, so twice wouldn’t be an invasion or anything like that.

For another thing, this org has very few relationships with corporate sponsors. They should offer local businesses the chance to sponsor events and so forth, but they don’t even make an effort to reach out to these entities.

I feel bad that the organization is struggling, but it’s due to their own mismanagement more than anything else. The unfortunate part is that it’s an animal shelter and I just worry about what will happen to all the furry critters if (when) the place goes under.

I had to drive by the strip mall that has a Wal-Mart and Best Buy in it, and let me tell you, it is completely nuts out there! The parking lot was jam-packed with cars even in the afternoon here, and there were throngs of people everywhere. I can’t even imagine what the scene inside must have been like, but I’m sure it wasn’t pretty.

I really don’t understand why people put themselves through this kind of stress and inconvenience. When did Christmas shopping become so important that people would do anything to get these bargains? Personally, I would prefer holing up in a cabin on the Outer Banks or something for a couple of weeks until the madness passes.

I promised myself long ago that I would not let Christmas become a totally commercialized event for my son, and it’s worked for the first five years so far. Let’s hope I never end up among the crazies who line up outside a store at 3 or 4 am in quest of some bargains!

Saying that there’s a liberal media bias isn’t exactly groundbreaking stuff, but could it be any more apparent in this election year [/Chandler Bing]? An overwhelming majority of the stories I read about the campaign are negative ones about McCain and/or Palin. McCain’s connection to the Keating Five. An “insider” at the McCain campaign says they’re going to go negative with their ads because they’re desperate now. Palin and “Troopergate”. Palin and the Bridge to Nowhere. Palin’s pregnant, unwed teen daughter. McCain’s link to Iran-Contra.

WTF?? I mean, where’s the equal exposure about Obama/Biden? Yeah, I know the media are in love with Obama, but are you telling me that they can’t find anything questionable about Biden, a career politician who’s been in office for 35 freakin’ years? Really??? There’s nothing even remotely “newsworthy” about his voting record or personal life?

Give me a break. This is yet another reason that U.S. presidential elections are a farce. To outsiders (my friends living overseas tell me this) coverage of the election absolutely favors Obama. Maybe they should start printing the “Obama defeats McCain” headlines right now.

I know cabin fever usually applies only to the winter months when it’s impossible (or at least very difficult) to get out and do things, but I’ve been feeling that way this summer as well. It’s probably because for the first time in years, we couldn’t afford to take a family vacation and have just been sitting around the house every weekend.

I have to admit that I never really appreciated any of our past trips before, but now that I’m looking back on some of our fun San Diego and Orlando vacations, I’m starting to feel differently. We’ve done a lot of fun things as a family and have seen a lot of great places, and for that I am thankful. Hopefully we’ll be able to start taking vacations again next year, as we really need to get away from it all!

There’s no question that money is tight for a lot of folks these days. It seems that nearly every personal blog I read talks of that person’s struggles to buy groceries, gas, and other basics for their family, which is depressing to say the least. I’ve also been reading a lot of posts about money-saving tips and so forth, and have actually found a couple of useful ones.

For example, it’s natural that people would want to cut back on extras first when trying to save money, which includes things like going to the movies or renting DVDs. Folks need their entertainment, though, so there have been lots of message board discussions about watching free movies online.

Although I haven’t gone this route myself, there are actually a surprising number of sites to choose from. They all offer free movies online, usually via a streaming source, and include new releases (Dark Knight, Step Brothers, etc.). They’re probably pretty crappy quality though, so there’s definitely a downside to watching this way.

I highly doubt that sites offering free movies online are legal, though. Again, I’m not recommending anything, nor am I linking to any specific sites. Just putting this out there because downloading extends far beyond high school and college students these days!

I’m currently listening to a series of literary lectures, and one of the topics being discussed is the heroic code as it applies to classical epic poetry. In ancient Greece, for example, there was a sort of “contract” between the hero and the city he represented. During the hero’s lifetime, he would enjoy elevated status in society and would always have the finest food, wine, women, armor, and horses available.

He would repay this bounty by laying down his life in battle — with the understanding that his fame would live on through the centuries. (Think of Book II of The Iliad, which contains a seemingly endless list of names of Greek warriors who were fighting in Troy.)

That brought up an interesting question: would you rather live the high life and die young (with everlasting fame as your reward), or would you rather live a long, full life and die peacefully in your sleep at a ripe old age and be forgotten forever?

I would have to go with the latter, since I don’t see much value in dying in a brutal battle far away from home. I would much rather live a long, quiet, happy life surrounded by friends and family. (Then again, I’ve always been a homebody anyway!)