Coffee Table Declarations
Thursday, May 19, 2005
I got six inches of my hair cut off on Saturday. Six inches! And it's still generously past my shoulders. I like it like this but I will be letting it grow long again. I just needed a change.
After my haircut, I also got my eyebrows done. The lady doing them was chatting with me and she asked where I was from and I told her that I grew up in the town we were in but that I now lived in my new town. I told her my mom and sister come to that salon often because they still live in the town. Then I was randomly babbling and said how I had just moved into my apartment a month ago. She asked if I had roommates and I said yes. Then she asked how I liked living on my own. "Oh, I love it!" I replied.
Then I lay there wondering why she asked me that. I had just told her I had roommates so she wasn't asking how I liked living alone... on my own...what did she mean? Why would you ask an adult who has lived in various apartments for the past five and a half years how she liked living on her own? And then I realized what she meant. If the realization had been a dog, it would've bit me. She interpreted the fact that I look like really young and the fact that I said how my parents still lived there and I just moved into my apartment a month ago, to mean that I just moved out of my parents' house for the first time!
Honestly, this is the kind of craziness I have to deal with. It is nice to look young but it is really frustrating having people take me less seriously at work or talk down to me like I'm just a kid fresh out of college or worse, to have people recoil in shock when I tell them I'm 29. Sometimes they even argue with me, "You are not!" Yes, I really am. Do you need to see my id now?
The funny thing is, I still feel young too. When someone is say, 30 or 32, I still think they are much older than I am. I have to remind myself they are only a little older. I also expect people to be older based on certain clues. One of the realtors who showed us apartments dressed very professionally and talked about her husband and the house they owned. She was pretty and sophisticated and married with a professional "career". She asked us how old we were and then when we asked her she said "guess". (Side note, why the heck do people say that? When people ask me I simply say, "I'm a lot older than you think I am" and then I tell them.) I thought this realtor had to have been older than me so I thought about how old I was and then added a smidge. "Um... 30?" I asked thinking she was probably more like 31 or 32 and she would feel complimented. She was 23 and she was insulted. The fact that she was insulted by 30 made me feel insulted. All of this insult could've been averted if she had simply told me her age.
After my haircut, I also got my eyebrows done. The lady doing them was chatting with me and she asked where I was from and I told her that I grew up in the town we were in but that I now lived in my new town. I told her my mom and sister come to that salon often because they still live in the town. Then I was randomly babbling and said how I had just moved into my apartment a month ago. She asked if I had roommates and I said yes. Then she asked how I liked living on my own. "Oh, I love it!" I replied.
Then I lay there wondering why she asked me that. I had just told her I had roommates so she wasn't asking how I liked living alone... on my own...what did she mean? Why would you ask an adult who has lived in various apartments for the past five and a half years how she liked living on her own? And then I realized what she meant. If the realization had been a dog, it would've bit me. She interpreted the fact that I look like really young and the fact that I said how my parents still lived there and I just moved into my apartment a month ago, to mean that I just moved out of my parents' house for the first time!
Honestly, this is the kind of craziness I have to deal with. It is nice to look young but it is really frustrating having people take me less seriously at work or talk down to me like I'm just a kid fresh out of college or worse, to have people recoil in shock when I tell them I'm 29. Sometimes they even argue with me, "You are not!" Yes, I really am. Do you need to see my id now?
The funny thing is, I still feel young too. When someone is say, 30 or 32, I still think they are much older than I am. I have to remind myself they are only a little older. I also expect people to be older based on certain clues. One of the realtors who showed us apartments dressed very professionally and talked about her husband and the house they owned. She was pretty and sophisticated and married with a professional "career". She asked us how old we were and then when we asked her she said "guess". (Side note, why the heck do people say that? When people ask me I simply say, "I'm a lot older than you think I am" and then I tell them.) I thought this realtor had to have been older than me so I thought about how old I was and then added a smidge. "Um... 30?" I asked thinking she was probably more like 31 or 32 and she would feel complimented. She was 23 and she was insulted. The fact that she was insulted by 30 made me feel insulted. All of this insult could've been averted if she had simply told me her age.
