|::| Friday, October 11, 2002
- |::| I'm An Adult, Now. And I've Got The Certificate To Prove It. 11:20:08 AM
-
There's something about the idea of planning an adventure that's always bothered me.
Down at the other end of the bar, a nattily-dressed young woman crowed about her good fortune: In three days, she'd landed a new job in NYC, found a nice apartment on Park, and found someone to assume her lease here. (Good for her.)
But then she went on. "You only live once," she said, "and I've got to get out of this town." But only for a while: "When I want to get married and have kids, then of course I'll want to move back to Rochester. I don't want to raise kids in Manhattan."
It's would be trite to remark that she'll get more than she bargained for, because I expect that most people don't. They run off to Manhattan or Los Angeles or San Francisco looking to have a (carefully controlled) life-adventure, and I think that most often they come out of it thinking they're Really Changed. But what's happened to them that wouldn't have happened in Rochester or Schenectady or Tulsa? Did they learn that [love/life/friendship/people] are somehow "different" in [Los Angeles/Boston/New York/Chicago/Philadelphia/Atlanta/Miami/Houston]? Would that really be learning much of anything?
Part of me says I'm being too hard, that I'm categorizing people when I shouldn't. But I've known so many people who struggled to make a life-changing event out of any tiny crisis.
It's great if someone wants to go to New York to change her life. It can be wonderful to throw yourself into an entirely new millieu, even on purpose, even by plan. But it strikes me as -- what, arrogant? presumptuous? naive? -- to do that with a clear plan for afterward. It's as though you're entering a carefully planned rite-of-passage where you know that When You Emerge, You Will Be A Grownup. When New York has taught her the lessons she plans to learn, she'll come back Home and Find Her Husband, and then bear and raise 2.5 children in [Irondquoit/Penfield/Pittsford/Webster] (because, of course, the schools are so much better there).
Is my quiet contempt for convention coming through a little too loud, today, perhaps?
- |::| Certainty is Certain. 10:59:23 AM
-
I sat down for a couple of beers last night. Three empty stools down sat a guy, talking loudly about something. Didn't seem to matter what, as long as everybody heard him and knew how sure he was of whatever he wanted to talk about.
I do know that he was very, very sure about noise. And about phone calls after 10pm. No one should ever play their stereo or make phone calls after 10pm. Period. Unless you're talking about a bar, of course. Then it's ok. [Adjusts his bill-cap and coiffs his premium pint.]
Conservative mooks are such a strange breed...
