Category: insights/observations

We’re All Pretty, Pretty, Neurotic Princesses

On By KathleenIn Dating, fashion, insights/observations, Love, relationships, romance10 Comments

Of late, I’ve found a kindred spirit in Cinderella.

Sure, I have neither an evil step-mother who locks me in an attic nor ugly step-sisters who steal my clothes and spill pizza grease on them, but I have my share of chores that keep me looking like I just rolled around in a cinder bin.

 

Every Cinderella needs her own set of seamstress mice

 

Mornings are spent makeupless in old jeans and a t-shirt running errands for the family while my mother recovers from her recent hip replacement. I race through grocery stores, power-mop the kitchen floor, dust away the cobwebs from the corners of the living room, transfer the laundry from the hamper to the washing machines, groom the dogs, and put two meals on the table while prepping the third for my return at night. The projects I’m working on have me on call 24-7, and the majority of what I accomplish during the day is done between blackberry emails on the run and conference calls from my compact-SUV. At night, I’m “training” and if I’m lucky, home in my sweats by 10PM.

In short, I’m like every other modern woman as she tries to make her way in life on her own two feet while contributing to her family’s overall well-being. There isn’t much in the way of glamor, but there isn’t much to complain about.

On the console table near my front door sits an invitation to a charity ball. The event is being organized by a woman whose generosity, strength, and heart I greatly admire, and who has recently emerged as a fairy god-mother of sorts. A little bit of sparkle is something to look forward to, especially in the name of a good cause. As for the Cinderella transformation, do you remember that scene in the Disney movie when all the worker mice team-up and create a ball-gown for Cinderella from scraps of material? Yea, I’ve got seamstress mice too. Rather than buy something new, my tailor is reviving a unique vintage piece. It is a recession after all, and I’m a big believer in “once couture, always couture.” A needle, some thread, a little bibbidi, bobbidi, boo, and I’m good to go.

Hopefully, I won’t leave a Ferragamo behind on the dance floor.

All these parallels got my friend Annie and I thinking: If the 21st century New Yorker edition of Cinderella looks like me, what would the some of the other princesses look like in today’s Grimm fairytale?

 

Grace (of "Will & Grace") is the modern Snow White, and we love her

 

Rapunzel is that girl that lets men walk all over her. She’s the one most likely to get back together with the jerk who dumped her. Because she spends most of the day locked away in her room/office, Rapunzel is bound to get into trouble when she’s partying away a Friday night. As she goes off to the bathroom to make-out with the bartender, her friends say “It’s no wonder her mother had to lock her in a tower!”

Snow White shares a flat with 3 gay guys. In fact, all of her friends are handsome gay guys who take her shopping and tell her she’s fabulous and that they can’t live without her. She stopped having girlfriends after her jealous best friend slept with her boyfriend. Snow often eats indiscriminately and feels bad about it later when she’s passed out on her sofa in an apple-turnover-induced food coma.

Sleeping Beauty is the girl we all hate because every guy hits on her and she’s totally oblivious. She has no idea how beautiful she is or how charming. Men stumble over themselves trying to buy her a drink. She’s nonchalant about dating because she never has to work to get asked out, but she doesn’t like to ruin a good night’s sleep by having a strange guy stay over.  All her friends secretly hope she has an eating disorder…

The Nobel Judges Missed a Nominee

On By KathleenIn fashion, insights/observations3 Comments

Dear Nobel Prize Judges,

The Scientists behind Victoria's Secret Push-Up bras have been overlooked for one of these in physics

In your selection of nominees for outstanding achievement in physics, you overlooked a team of  accomplished researchers who have bent the rules of spacial relations and defied Earth’s gravity.

The scientists behind the Victoria’s Secret Miraculous push-up bra deserve significant recognition. Thanks to their developments in fabric engineering, for the

first time in my 25 years, I have cleavage. It really was miraculous: I looked down and there it was — a bosom. I am not the only lab rat who experienced this phenomenon. There are witnesses and other consumers who have been able to repeat the results of the experiment.

Regards,

Formerly Bosomless

~

I lost my favorite bra at the Atlanta Convention Center. Don’t ask. The resulting shortage of  support-wear meant it was time to cash in my VS gift card and replace the wayward undergarment. Hence the fitting-room laboratory discovery and my subsequent letter to Sweden.

The first time I ever shopped at Victoria’s Secret I was desperate. I was in college, it was exam week, some classmates were coming over for an all-night study session, and I had just gotten out of the shower to face the reality that I hadn’t done my laundry. Sure I could have gone commando, but knowing it would be another day or two before the items in the hamper would make it to the washing machine, I pushed my study-session back, threw my towel in the corner, and hopped on the 1-train.

that signature "don't you want to know what I just bought" pink bag

Prior to this excursion, I viewed the home of Heidi Klum and such other buxom bombshells as a store I had no business shopping in. It was only for those with boyfriends or double-D’s. I had neither. But I was in need of underwear. It was time to go where (I thought) no single, b-cup had gone before.

“Would you like to join our mailing list?” asked the cashier. Empowered and feeling flattered at the thought I could be one of “them,” I boldly answered “Yes.”  With the signature “don’t you want to know what I just bought” pink bag in hand I walked into the street like a victorious general. Victoria was willing to share her secret with me… and I had the goods to prove it.

Now every year for my birthday, my father gives me a Victoria’s Secret gift card. That’s right, some fathers give their daughters Barnes & Nobles or Crate & Barrel gift cards. Some fathers use birthdays to tell their daughters to read more or that they need a new lounge chair. Mine, concerned I’m not “going out” enough, hands me a “go buy some lingerie” card. Et tu, daddy?

Then again, maybe he’s just trying to save me the subway fare when I miss laundry day…. or lose my favorite bra in a convention center.

Woes of a Freshly Pressed Post: The Morning After

On By KathleenIn insights/observations, Uncategorized3 Comments
I'm your writer and you can't see me, or how publishing "They Told Me to Find a Rich Husband" as Anonymous got me no where.

When I started writing “They Told Me To Find a Rich Husband,” I had all intentions of remaining an anonymous authoress. It seemed that writing about loves won and lost, not offending anyone (that didn’t deserve it), and attaching my name were mutually exclusive requests. Convinced I could make my way in the blogosphere as another Nameless Sage, my first few “Rich Husband” entries went up sans byline and sans self-promotion. Neither a “by Kathleen”  nor facebook/gchat status with a “please read my blog!” were seen. And how do you think my little blog fared?

I got 5 hits in as many weeks.

Obscurity, thy name is Anonymous.

Now I’m a shameless self-promoter. Screw anonymity. Virginia Woolf said, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman,” and I’m a woman proud to have a blog of my own. I have a byline and my blog has a  facebook page and a twitter account. I’m branding. Former flings, be warned: you’re fair fodder… and names will  be changed  to protect only the innocent.

A year after I first shared my opinions on and my experiences in the realm of the single 20-something, educated females, “They Told Me to Find a Rich Husband” has been lucky enough to land two spots on WordPress’s Freshly Pressed. Each placement was accompanied

poised to press another winner? my blog is good for the soul

by a giddy victory dance and a warm feeling of satisfaction. It became my day’s occupation to watch the number of hits climb and the comments reel in (they like me! they really like me!). I was buzzing. I was on a high. It was like I’d finally been discovered.

And then there was the day after…

I never intended They Told Me to Find a Rich Husband (or my flagship blog, “Meet Me in the Drawing Room”) to be a daily diary, so I never felt pressed to produce content more often than inspiration deemed necessary. But now, thanks to Freshly Pressed, I have readers! woot woot! And you claim you want to read more! Hurrah!….. or is it eeeeeek! You have expectations, and what’s worse, a bar to measure me against.

So yes, earning a spot on Freshly Pressed is every blogger’s dream, and I’m honored. But with earning the publicity comes the pressure to produce and produce with quality.

I promise, dear readers, now that you’ve found me, I won’t let you down.

my real journal and a room with a view... it's time to go to the archives to keep you entertained

My Blog is Wearing a Push-Up Bra

On By KathleenIn Dating, insights/observations, T.W.i.T5 Comments

Yesterday, “They Told Me to Find a Rich Husband” got a Facebook page and a Twitter account. That’s right, loyal readers, your favorite social networks can help keep you abreast of my latest musings on the way we love and are expected to love now.

this is what my blog looks like when it's facebooking/tweeting

I confess that I felt a little guilty as I created the “FindRichHusband” twitter account. I’ve scoffed at such forms of self-promotion in the past. But I realized that syndicating my blog through social networks is a lot like wearing a lacey black push-up bra under a white plunge-neck shirt when you go out on a Friday night. It’s not a style approach I necessarily consider “classy,” but let’s face it — a girl can’t make it in this world on her smarts and charm alone. Sometimes to catch people’s attention, she has to flash a little cleavage. Once someone has bought her a drink, her intellectual talents and penchant for witty exchanges keep him in her corner.

Facebook and Twitter are my blog’s push-up bra: they’re a sneak-peak at the full-monty. They entice you in, and then I work it to put on a good show.

At my family’s Labor Day bbq, my mother asked me what I hoped to gain by creating a facebook profile for They Told Me to Find a Rich Husband. “Aren’t you just sharing it with the people who are already reading it?” she asked. I tried to explain how “liking” something on facebook works, how News Feeds are like mini-ads, how the possibilities of expanded exposure were endless, but I don’t think I convinced her my internet lingerie was a worthwhile effort.

To her, a facebook profile for a blog is the equivalent of wearing my black push-up bra and white shirt on a night in with my brother and first cousins — a whole lot of fuss for no action.

Maybe. Yet in this wireless age where everyone is connected to somebody with real connections, no chance at being discovered should be overlooked.

Then again, maybe I should be wary of all this internet pimping. “I worry that with all this attention you’ll end up having to kill the blog too soon to get a book deal,” a friend of mine said after liking They Told Me to Find a Rich Husband on facebook. He didn’t think I’d be on the dating market for too much longer. I chuckled and calmed his concerns.

Landing a rich husband doesn’t mean the end, it opens the door for a sequel. ‘I Found a Rich Husband. Now What?’ Stay tuned for that facebook page…

In the meantime:

They Told Me to Find a Rich Husband on Facebook

FindRichHusband on Twitter.

If My Blog Had Theme Song…

On By KathleenIn Dating, insights/observations, Love, relationships2 Comments

If They Told Me to Find a Rich Husband had a theme song it would be Sara Bereilles’ “Fairytale.”

Skeptical Princesses passing over not-so-enchanted Prince Charmings is not the only commonality between my blog (my life?) and the tune. Bereilles has written a song that is frisky and subversive as well as catchy and marketable — qualities I’m hoping to cultivate  here in blogland.

But it’s a disenchanted Sleeping Beauty that interests me at present…

When that psychic told me I was going to meet my soulmate within the next 6 weeks, she also told me not to worry, I wouldn’t have to do anything, Mr. Soulmate would come to me. If I just went about my day-to-day, he’d find me. If I just sat very still in my life, he’d come rescue me. If I pulled a Snow White or a Sleeping Beauty, he’d swagger up on his white horse, tear away the glass ceiling, and wake me from my romanticized slumber. This forecast appealed to my inner-12-year-old-Disney-fan.

The “sit still, don’t move, play dead” advice seemed vaguely familiar. Where had I heard it before? Was is from my friend who told me that the moment he stopped looking for love was the moment he found it? No… no, that wasn’t the conversation that came to mind. Was it the “don’t chase after him, he’ll chase after you” conclusion that punctuated each chapter of “He’s Just Not That into You?” No, it wasn’t that either.

Ah, yes! I remember! As my psychic prescribed a more passive approach to the future of my love life (“You don’t need eHarmony!”), I recalled a discussion I had with a strapping National Park Ranger… “sit still and play dead,” he said…he was instructing me on how to survive a Grizzly Bear attack.

Apparently, playing dead attracts Prince Charming and can save you from the jowls of an angry grizzly bear. It’s a surprisingly versatile tactic.

I’ll remember that when I go out tonight… and the next time I find myself lost in an enchanted forest.

Playing Dead attracts Prince Charmings but wards off hungry grizzly bears.

Ask not what your relationship can do for you…

On By KathleenIn Dating, insights/observations, marriage, Mr. Right, relationships10 Comments
shopping for labels? shopping for love?

When it comes to finding a mate, we all have long shopping lists. We have lists of superficial things we prefer (ex. he should be tall and work at Goldman), of values we want matched (he should like children and vote Democrat), and of qualities we think we need (he should be financially sound and be able to make me laugh).

But let’s not forget what we’re really after when we set out to find love everlasting…

What we really want is a travel companion or biking-buddy, fellow Trekkie or like minded museum-junkie, congenial Scrabble adversary or able party co-host. In short, what we’re really looking for is a teammate.

Everyone knows the cliche “there’s no ‘I’ in TEAM,” and anyone whose played a sport or watched a professional franchise win a championship knows what makes a team successful: synergy.  One person makes up for the short-comings of the other, while both foster and bolster each others’ talents. Yes, a successful team is whole that is greater that the sum of its parts, and love-based relationships are no different.

That being said, when it comes to finding the Misty May Treanor to your Kerri Walsh, or the Jorge Posada to your Mariano Rivera,  it’s important to have a grasp not only on what they bring to the relationship, but also on what you can or can’t provide in this partnership. I’m not necessarily prescribing a selfless “ask not what your relationship can do for you, ask what you can do for your relationship” approach to a new flame — that’s extremely dangerous territory in which to tread. But I do think it a worthwhile exercise to evaluate, as objectively as possible, your strengths and weaknesses as 1/2 of a couple.

I suppose, if I prescribe, I should take the first does:

My greatest strength as both a friend and lover is my loyalty. I’m an excellent and sincere cheerleader who will always be there on the sidelines ready to help you up after a bad game.

My greatest weakness? I want to me my own person. To some (read: a select few), my independent, stand on my own feet, “this is who I am, this is what I want and I’m going to get it”  attitude is attractive. But it’s often my biggest relationship roadblock. I have no doubt that my athletic aspirations and career goals have dead-ended several potentially awesome romances. For a long time, I simply wasn’t available enough to be someone’s girlfriend. Yet, while I may have more time in my schedule for dates and weekend getaways, I still refuse to subjugate my ambitions to those of someone else. Sorry, but I want Glen Lowry’s job, and I’m not going to get it if I have to move to Oklahoma with you.

In coming to terms with my relationship shortcoming, it seems I’ve found the critical, must-have quality on my significant-other shopping list: allows me to be independent.

I guess I don’t sound like too much of a team player, do I? That’s not entirely fair. Compromises will be made by both me and my mister, because at the end of the day, if I get to be my own person, so does he. The challenge is finding someone whose goals happen to be compatible with mine…and I don’t just mean retiring early to a villa in Tuscany.