New Meme: Things I wish I could be more serious about
Thursday 10 May 2007
But, Mom, he started it!
Yes, it’s another friendly meme brought to you by us silly web industries folks. Barry Schwartz started this one, and then Kim Krause Berg challenged everyone at the Cre8asite forum to respond.
First, I have to say, Kim, now I have no one to tag. I think everyone I know is in the forum! But I’ll forgive you because I read your post and see that, like me, you are more worried about being too serious rather than not serious enough. In point of fact, this meme has given me a new worry…I don’t know enough people! I feel lowly and unconnected. I’m a dot in a sea of bigger dots. No one loves me! I…I…wait, I need to calm down.
But, seriously speaking, I wish I could be more serious about one big thing:
Feeling like I’m finally a real grownup
By the time my parents were my age, they owned a home and had 5 kids. At the age of 34, I don’t even own a dog. Every time I meet with our accountant, my husband and I just kind of chuckle and shake our heads while the fellow runs down the list of possible assets we might own…a house, a car, jewelry, a seaworthy vessel. Nope, nope, nope, nope.
The change in the California economy has resulted in the fact that not one of my hard-working siblings owns their own home. None of us has been awarded a set of cufflinks by our boss to recognize a decade of loyal service. My brothers and sisters tell their kids they better make straight A’s if there’s to be any hope of college via a scholarship, because no one is able to put aside money for their children’s future education. Everything I’m detailing here seems to me to be the hallmarks of adulthood for a previous generation. Earning that family home, those perks, that security, were the achievements a man or woman could look at to measure the passage of time and the reality that they had become serious, empowered adults who were people of substance in their community.
At this point, I think I’ve had to become rather flip about the concept of planning for my future, longterm. Unless Matt Cutts hires me tomorrow to create a beautiful new look for Google, there’s just no foreseeable way that my husband and I can put away the $800,000.00 it takes to buy a 2 bedroom home in our corner of absurdly expensive California, where we remain in order to stay close to my family. I just can’t treat the idea as a serious subject.
But I wish I could.
I feel that I’m going to remain in a kind of psychological limbo unless I can figure out some way to become an ‘owner’ rather than a temporary ‘user’. Those earmarks of adulthood from the past apparently still carry a lot of weight with me, and I feel ashamed of this sense of drifting rather than having the next decade of my life charted out on paper. How I can get to the place where I’m planting my own tomatoes and crookneck squash in my own little garden is something I believe a grownup would know how to do, but both my husband and I just haven’t figured this out yet. So, I put it to the back of my mind and make jokes about it with the other young couples we know for whom such an idea is a pipe dream. But I know that without getting serious about this, and truly hitting upon that golden plan, it will never happen. I’ve got to figure this out. Seriously.
5 comments Thursday 10 May 2007 | admin | Inside the Igloo
California sounds a lot like Melbourne Miriam. We have the same problems. Houses you wouldn’t look twice at cost $750,00+. So I know how you feel.
Is it too pathetic to say, “tag me! tag me!” I know I’m not part of the SEO crowd, but I’m a faithful blogger =)
Sophie -
. Well, it’s comforting in a way, but not really good news for you or I!
So I’m not living in the only crazy place it the world
Lori,
I’ve just tagged you via your gmail account. I think it will be great to get this into the non-SEO/marketing world and hope you will spread it to all of your friends and colleagues.
It could just be the biggest meme ever!
Thanks for both of your comments, ladies
Miriam
Well, I’ve got the house — but I can’t say I’m feeling all that much like a grown-up yet! However, I certainly feel a little _more_ like a grown-up after spending 6 hours today expanding out vegetable garden! (Grown-up means “tired all the time” right?)
I’m sure it’ll be a nicer feeling once we’ve harvested our first vegetables…
Ahhh! Send me your excess vegetables, Joe.
They ARE going to be organic, right???
Here is my one word of advice to gardeners:
If you don’t check under the leaves of your zucchini plants EVERY day, you risk invasion of the giant, killer squash. We’re talking about 2 foot long monsters!
However, you can make an excellent stuffed zucchini in the following way:
Cut the zucchini lengthwise and scoop out the interior, leaving a rind about 1/2″ thick.
In a bowl, mix:
1 cup of breadcrumbs
2 grated carrots
1/2 chopped apple
1 stalk chopped celery
4 T. sunflower seeds
1 chopped green onion
salt and pepper
1/4 t. sage
1/4 t. dill
1/2 the zucchini ‘meat you scooped out, grated.
Sautee the above in 2 T. olive oil for about 4-5 minutes.
Fill the zucchs with this mixture. Place on a baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees until the mixture is brown on top and a fork sinks very easily into the squash. If the mixture begins to burn before the zucchini is tender, cover with aluminum foil until finished.
This will be very hot when you take it out of the oven, so wait a few minutes before eating.
Believe me, this is delicious and the best way to use up those killer squash!
Glad you’re getting to garden, Joe!
Miriam