Monday, June 27, 2011

falling for me

Who doesn't love a good makeover story? That's what half of television is these days, it seems. Take a ungroomed gal in baggy clothes and give her a dress and haircut and wow! Cut off the old guy's foot-long beard and shazam! Add some paint and throw pillows and presto! The allure of change endlessly appealing if it's happening to someone else.

"Falling for Me" by Anna David is a trusty example of the story. She was single and emotionally entangled with an unavailable man when she came across "Sex and the Single Girl" by Helen Gurley Brown and got inspired by her joie de vivre. She decorates her apartment, takes cooking classes, studies French and travels to Spain.

I think being single when you don't want to be single is analogous to being infertile. In both cases, you are yearning for a relationship that doesn't exist. It may never exist. It is out of your control. You feel blocked off from the life everyone else enjoys all around you. I think society has a greater amount of sympathy for the infertile. There are awareness efforts and a sense that it's terribly unjust. But being single? There's nothing anyone can do. I wish there was more empathy in that regard.

I found it gratifying to read about her efforts to improve her life. She is a likable writer and totally relatable. Her exploits in the kitchen made me remember my terror of cooking for others. She said her apartment was full of the cheapest possible functional things. I totally remember those days in grad school.

The match.com dating travails get tiresome - perhaps it's just not my thing but I can't get interested in date stories that are a string of IMing and emailing. It seems removed and synthetic. I remember a quote from somewhere about how young adults of the current generation will never get to know each other the way we (30-somethings) did. We fell in love in person, having conversations across the table, holdings hands on walks. Generation facebook will flirt and date and fall in love by virtual communication. He posted a message about me, he "poked" my page, he "winked" at me.

eating the rainbow

"Eating the Rainbow" published by Star Bright Books is a fun board book teaching both colors and food names. It has a simple organization, clear and attractive, of the foods (apple, raspberries, strawberry, tomato) and photos of cute babies chomping away. My son would love this book since he likes identifying colors and I love that he would learn some new vocabulary! He hasn't seen figs or litchis on his plate yet. I'm a big fan of introducing kids to healthy eating at an early age so this book is a perfect example.