Confessions Of A Former Brass Plum Girl
1) Twitter. (It's true I already stashed away my thoughts regarding this @ blogspot, but...). I'm aware it's popular and some of the cool kids are doing it. A few friends told me to check it out last year and I did, and went, "eh". What's the point? Seriously, someone please enlighten me: Are you pro-Twitter? (why?), anti-Twitter? (why?), or on-the-fence? or asking "what the hell is Twitter?"
2) Structural Equation Modeling. (a.k.a. "Statistics 5"). I'm a fool for taking it, and feel like I'm swimming against a rip current in that class. Hope I don't drown. I enrolled against my best instincts, but at my advisor's urging. It's the same professor I had for my Regressions class in 2007--he who gave us a midterm that took me 30 hours and a final exam that took 20 hours to finish. The homework is this incredibly dry syntax-based computer programming that takes hours and often days to complete. I usually can't even get the syntax to run without a "Fatal Error" message.
3) TWICE last week, I was told by people I *barely* know (VERY casual acquaintances), who are MUCH younger that I am (by 8 or 9 years), that they were "surprised that (I) drink". (And I'm thinking: "Huh? I mean, I've maybe hung out with you only once before at a professor's retirement reception, no less, so why and how on earth would you come to any types of sweeping conclusions about me in one way or another? Wow. I guess you really don't know me"). It can be interesting and surprising to get a glimpse of how a person you barely know perceives you.
I can only conclude that I must exude either an older and/or serious, studious, "no-fun", libraianish vibe or something. ;-) Honestly though, I do partly think it's this: I'm in my 30's and at a vastly different place in life than the under-26 crowd, but I *LOOK* young for my age. So some of the young ones who don't know my age probably get puzzled about why I don't hang out with them, and have just assumed I'm not very social. Indeed, most of my close grad school friends are also in their 30's and either: a) never go out because they're busy with their little kids, or b) we who aren't parents go to happy hour with other 30-somethings and not w/ the class of 2004 or later. We sit and commiserate about statistics and comprehensive exams and dissertations. BUT, we laugh a lot and have silly good times over fancy beer at the Tap House, or vodka gimlets and fancy cocktails downtown, or chic wine and tapas instead of beer pong.
Classy. Mature. Boring. Right? Maybe so, but I wouldn't have it any other way! And thanks to my ethnic heritage and size, I don't even have to spend that much money to achieve the perfect buzz. ;-)
**Btw, I am going to take Myra-Lee's and Red-Wine's recommendation/comments about jeans into consideration and not give up on good jeans just yet. Thanks! I may not "get" some of the hideous jeans that are out there, but that doesn't mean I'm done with denim just yet. I may not be all over the Brass Plum clothing section at Nordstrom anymore, though I miss the excitement of being a total Brass Plum Girl...but I'm definitely not old enough to choose the Not Your Daughter's Jeans from the rack at Nordstrom!
