So Over Justin Bieber B*tching About His 19th Birthday
Poor rich and famous Justin Bieber. You see, he's so very famous that his fans wanted to spend his 19th birthday with him--those stupid, overly aggressive dummies!-- and that made it just horrible--in fact the worst birthday of his whole 19 years. Those rude people who won't let him have the life in the public eye he wanted all while maintaining extreme privacy! And then those same rude people had the nerve to insinuate that he had underage kids with him at a nightclub celebrating his birthday--an allegation the nightclub backs up. If those haters had been paying attention, they would have known that one of the rich and famous underage kids just "Gave Justin His Cartier Then Went Home." That's not at all the same as going to a nightclub... even though he kinda did [just didn't stay]. And he was in London for cripes' sake. London!! Just awful. Horrible. Inhumane!
Oh, gee! Poor baby! Too many people wanted to spend his 19th birthday with him, and the nightclub didn't bend the rules of legality to allow him to celebrate his 19th birthday the way he wanted, with all of his not-quite-yet-18 friends present and zero fans. First world problems doesn't even begin to cover this. Meanwhile... somewhere in the world, some kid didn't even make it to his 19th birthday, because he starved or was killed by violence long before that. But let's all take a moment of silence for Justin's awful £8,000 party....
Okay, I won't begrudge the kid (too much) bitching about his birthday or other first-world (and 1% of the first-world) problems. We all bitch from time to time. But even without the extremes of starvation/early, violent death vs. not-getting-your-wayitis, the kid still needs to learn some gratitude?
Here's the story of my 19th birthday: I was taking summer classes, so I was living in the international wing of my dormitory [which, with its high, black iron gate, somewhat resembled a prison], while the rest of it was closed for the summer. I didn't know a single person (out of the 35) in the dorms that summer. All of my friends were gone. My parents each went out of town (separate trips). Neither called me on that day at ALL. They had absolutely forgotten about my birthday.
While I was moping in the tiny courtyard, one of the other students found me, asked why I was glum, and then he felt bad about my parents and friends forgetting my birthday. So he took me to Whole Foods and bought me lunch. He didn't even know me. It was a really sweet gesture. Later that day, there was a knock on my door. The kind no-longer-stranger had told his roommate that it was my birthday and that my parents and friends had forgotten about me. His roommate came to let me know he was going to a party, and even though I probably didn't know anyone there, I could come along. I went. And he was right, I knew maybe one person who was there. But everyone was super duper nice, and all told me stories about how much their 19th birthdays sucked. Apparently, 19 is the most forgotten birthday. It's wedged in between the "you're officially an adult" birthday and the "congrats, you're in your 20s!" birthday, so people just don't give a crap about 19. One of the people who shared his "19 sucks" birthday stories with me was in the hospital on his birthday, so... ya know... could be worse.
Even though my 19th birthday started out pretty sucky, in the end, it wasn't bad. When I think about that birthday, I always laugh about how everyone had forgotten it; but their forgetting actually made it one of my most interesting and coolest birthdays. That was the day I experienced an incredible kindness from complete strangers. These guys didn't know me at all and had no reason to try to cheer me up, but they did it anyway. There were no ulterior motives behind it. They were just genuinely nice people. All of the people I met that night were generally just nice people who didn't want me to finish off my first day of 19 on a crappy note. For the sheer fact that it restored my faith in humanity [only for it to be later destroyed... but that's another story], my 19th birthday kinda rocked.
The thing is, all of us with 19th birthday horror stories had been forgotten. Bieber's problem? That too many people remembered. People wanted him to feel loved and adored. Instead, he felt annoyed and entitled. Suck it up, dude!
Photograph: Alex Davies/FilmMagic
So... Tell Me About Yourself
"Tell me about yourself..."--four little words that seem so simple. But are they?
We've all heard it before. Dates, job interviews, small talk at a party or professional event. But how do we answer it? And what does our answer say about us?
Obviously the answer to "tell me about yourself" is going to depend in part on the setting and the audience. You're not going to answer that question on a job interview or at a professional networking event with "On the weekends, I'm really into being tied up and beaten with small, light whips," even jokingly [unless, of course, your business industry happens to be related to S&M]. Just like I'm sure your attachment parenting support group doesn't really want to hear you laundry-list your resumé and all of your professional accomplishments. But even within a tailored setting, the way you answer that question can be tricky. Not to mention, there are those times when you are asked the question in one setting, when the intention is another altogether.
I was recently asked this question in a professional context. As I usually do in a professional setting, I started answering it from a professional standpoint--what my practice area is, where I work, how long I've been doing it, etc. I was cut off. "Nah... I don't want to know about your legal career. I want to know what you like when you're not being a lawyer. What do you like to do? Do you have any hobbies?". Instantly, I relaxed. Suddenly, I no longer had that feeling of being "on." But then where to go? Do I mention that I have an unhealthy obsession (as many other lawyers do, I've found) to trash reality TV? Do I talk about my children? Shrug. So I began where I usually do, "I really like to write...".
For most of us, who we are is multi-layered. You can talk about your children or your hobbies. You could talk about your background from birth to present day. Or you could just talk about the week you've been having. But where do you begin? "Well, I was born in a small town near Timbuktu to John Doe and Jane Smith-Doe. There, I attended Almost-Timbuktu Elementary, where my first grade teacher was Miss Know-It-All...".
This is why "tell me about yourself" with nothing more bothers me. I don't know what information, if any, the asker is actually seeking. Not to mention, sometimes it feels like a trick: what do you prioritize about yourself? On a theoretical basis, the first thing that pops into your head should be the most important thing about you, right? But I suspect most people are like me, and within a millisecond, you've filtered your personality down to one innocuous thing about You© that you can share until you gauge who this stranger is and what his or her end game is. For any stranger who has used this question as some sort of personality or litmus test on me, sorry to burst your bubble, but you likely did not receive an answer that told you the things I feel are most important about me. We don't know each other well enough for that kind of disclosure. For anyone who used it because they really didn't know how to ask the right direct question to find out what it is about me they really want to know [which, I suppose in most cases is, "Do we have some common traits that can take this conversation from awkward introduction to a meaningful exchange?"], then I apologize if my answer did nothing but drag out the uncomfortable first-meeting scenario. But you've gotta work with me here!
For the personality test, I feel like there are so many other indirect ways you can find out what values a person holds dear. For someone like me (the "semi-open book" type), maybe your best bet is to skip the beating around the bush and just ask me direct questions. If you want to know if I'm a religious person in the same way you are, asking me "tell me about yourself" and hoping that somewhere in my rambling answer some church activities come up is really not a productive way to go [particularly if this is in a professional setting, since, ya know, it's usually best to avoid topics of religion and politics unless you have a reason to believe the other person is on the same page as you]. Why not just ask me outright, "So where do you go to church?" or "Do you go to church?". Yes, it might be momentarily awkward when I answer that no I do not go to church, nor am I Christian; but at least then we can quickly move on instead of you asking me over and over to "tell me something else about yourself." Because we will never get to anything close to that topic. We just won't. If there's something you want to know about a person, why not guide them in the right direction?
If "tell me about yourself" is your way of making small talk and getting past an awkward introduction, you have actually failed in that regard, because you have now made me more uncomfortable by forcing me into a situation where I am taking a 30-second personal inventory, where I have no idea what bits and pieces of information would be remotely relevant or interesting. How about asking more detailed questions, such as the person who stopped me mid-rehashing-my-resumé-track: "What are things you like to do outside of work? Do you have any hobbies?". In this particular instance, the pointed question led to skipping over my stock answer about writing [an area in which the asker had no interest], and into a nice back-and-forth about crafting, a rug I randomly decided to make, and an excellent kids' craft idea she made up for one of her children's birthday parties years ago. By focusing her general question on one particular aspect about me [hobbies], we were able to find some common ground which led to a pretty lengthy and mutually interesting discussion.
"Tell me about yourself" is such a horrible stock question. Whether you're interviewing someone, courting someone, trying to make a new friend, or just trying to fill some time while the person you really want to talk to is otherwise occupied, why not instead try something a little more direct or specific? You'll be glad you did.
Tell me: How do you all generally answer the magic "tell me about yourself" question?
We've all heard it before. Dates, job interviews, small talk at a party or professional event. But how do we answer it? And what does our answer say about us?
Obviously the answer to "tell me about yourself" is going to depend in part on the setting and the audience. You're not going to answer that question on a job interview or at a professional networking event with "On the weekends, I'm really into being tied up and beaten with small, light whips," even jokingly [unless, of course, your business industry happens to be related to S&M]. Just like I'm sure your attachment parenting support group doesn't really want to hear you laundry-list your resumé and all of your professional accomplishments. But even within a tailored setting, the way you answer that question can be tricky. Not to mention, there are those times when you are asked the question in one setting, when the intention is another altogether.
I was recently asked this question in a professional context. As I usually do in a professional setting, I started answering it from a professional standpoint--what my practice area is, where I work, how long I've been doing it, etc. I was cut off. "Nah... I don't want to know about your legal career. I want to know what you like when you're not being a lawyer. What do you like to do? Do you have any hobbies?". Instantly, I relaxed. Suddenly, I no longer had that feeling of being "on." But then where to go? Do I mention that I have an unhealthy obsession (as many other lawyers do, I've found) to trash reality TV? Do I talk about my children? Shrug. So I began where I usually do, "I really like to write...".
For most of us, who we are is multi-layered. You can talk about your children or your hobbies. You could talk about your background from birth to present day. Or you could just talk about the week you've been having. But where do you begin? "Well, I was born in a small town near Timbuktu to John Doe and Jane Smith-Doe. There, I attended Almost-Timbuktu Elementary, where my first grade teacher was Miss Know-It-All...".
This is why "tell me about yourself" with nothing more bothers me. I don't know what information, if any, the asker is actually seeking. Not to mention, sometimes it feels like a trick: what do you prioritize about yourself? On a theoretical basis, the first thing that pops into your head should be the most important thing about you, right? But I suspect most people are like me, and within a millisecond, you've filtered your personality down to one innocuous thing about You© that you can share until you gauge who this stranger is and what his or her end game is. For any stranger who has used this question as some sort of personality or litmus test on me, sorry to burst your bubble, but you likely did not receive an answer that told you the things I feel are most important about me. We don't know each other well enough for that kind of disclosure. For anyone who used it because they really didn't know how to ask the right direct question to find out what it is about me they really want to know [which, I suppose in most cases is, "Do we have some common traits that can take this conversation from awkward introduction to a meaningful exchange?"], then I apologize if my answer did nothing but drag out the uncomfortable first-meeting scenario. But you've gotta work with me here!
For the personality test, I feel like there are so many other indirect ways you can find out what values a person holds dear. For someone like me (the "semi-open book" type), maybe your best bet is to skip the beating around the bush and just ask me direct questions. If you want to know if I'm a religious person in the same way you are, asking me "tell me about yourself" and hoping that somewhere in my rambling answer some church activities come up is really not a productive way to go [particularly if this is in a professional setting, since, ya know, it's usually best to avoid topics of religion and politics unless you have a reason to believe the other person is on the same page as you]. Why not just ask me outright, "So where do you go to church?" or "Do you go to church?". Yes, it might be momentarily awkward when I answer that no I do not go to church, nor am I Christian; but at least then we can quickly move on instead of you asking me over and over to "tell me something else about yourself." Because we will never get to anything close to that topic. We just won't. If there's something you want to know about a person, why not guide them in the right direction?
If "tell me about yourself" is your way of making small talk and getting past an awkward introduction, you have actually failed in that regard, because you have now made me more uncomfortable by forcing me into a situation where I am taking a 30-second personal inventory, where I have no idea what bits and pieces of information would be remotely relevant or interesting. How about asking more detailed questions, such as the person who stopped me mid-rehashing-my-resumé-track: "What are things you like to do outside of work? Do you have any hobbies?". In this particular instance, the pointed question led to skipping over my stock answer about writing [an area in which the asker had no interest], and into a nice back-and-forth about crafting, a rug I randomly decided to make, and an excellent kids' craft idea she made up for one of her children's birthday parties years ago. By focusing her general question on one particular aspect about me [hobbies], we were able to find some common ground which led to a pretty lengthy and mutually interesting discussion.
"Tell me about yourself" is such a horrible stock question. Whether you're interviewing someone, courting someone, trying to make a new friend, or just trying to fill some time while the person you really want to talk to is otherwise occupied, why not instead try something a little more direct or specific? You'll be glad you did.
Tell me: How do you all generally answer the magic "tell me about yourself" question?
If I Can Pin It, I CAN Do It: Pop Culture Toddler 2's First Birthday Party
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I started party planning mode months in advance. At first, I was set on doing a Lil' Angels theme after finding some of the decorations on clearance at Party City. I polled my gal pals about it. Most thought it was cute, but one thought skulls were a little morbid for a baby's birthday party. Although I disagree, I could see how some of my family members would have also had that viewpoint. Besides, after looking at and Pinning some of the Lil' Angel decorations to my Pinterest board for kids' birthday ideas, another idea was forming in my head.
PCT2 is such a little rock star. Early on, my friends gave her the nickname Super Baby. She was so ahead of everything, and so happy while doing it. She is honestly as close to perfect as a kid can come (minus her lack of sense of self-preservation). A rock star birthday seemed just too perfect for her. And, well, since we are practically the house that Sanrio built, a Hello Kitty rock star theme seemed perfect. I got to websurfing and Pinning.
I found a lot of great ideas online, but wasn't sure how I was going to pull them off. That led me to starting the decorations two months before PCT2's birthday, so I would have ample time to start over if I messed up.
The first thing I did were the invitations. I found some pink and black argyle images/digital scrapbook paper on Etsy. As I blogged about previously, I designed the invitations with an app on my iPad. I bought some 5x7 invitation paper to print them out (with gorgeous hot pink envelopes to match). When I had trouble getting the print settings perfect (going from iPad to PC), I got some help from one of my mommy board pals, Sweets4ever at Craftster.
The invitations were my starting point for the rest of the decorations. I found some a Hello Kitty buttons on Etsy also. While they never printed properly as 1" buttons, they did provide me with great backdrops for my other decorations. One of my favorite Hello Kitty rock star designs (the same one on the invite) served as the base for the lollipop decorations, some of the hanging decorations, the wall posters and the favor boxes.
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| Photo by M Photography |
Hanging and Wall Decorations
The second long-term design project were the aforementioned hanging decorations. Initially I thought about buying those Lil' Angel hangers in the clearance bin and pasting Hello Kitty over the skulls. I figured out, however, I could do it on my own. I got circular and scalloped punches in varying sizes. At night when everyone was asleep (I work, after all), I would sit up in bed punching out the Hello Kitty's and various plain black circles with either PCT2's name or a "1" on them and plain circles or scallops on either the argyle pattern, black, or silver sparkles. Once a had a quart-size Ziplock bag completely full of punched-out paper, I started matching various shapes, sizes and designs until I was happy. I then bough decorating ribbon in black, pink and silver, and spent my nights gluing and taping my designs. The result were hanging ribbon decorations with three circles on each. I saved the remaining paper cut outs for other decorations.I also bought several balloons to hang. We are in the process of selling our house, so the last thing I wanted to do is have tape and push puns everywhere. However, thanks to the helium shortage, my vision of floating balloon everywhere had to be curtailed. I did manage to procure two tanks, one of which was used almost exclusively on three gigantic mylar balloons shaped like the number one.
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| Photo by M Photography |
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| Photo by M Photography |
Candy Bar
I was desperate to do a candy bar. I always love seeing them at parties, and there were some very cool-looking ideas on Pinterest. However, I didn't want to spend three-figures making one. I bought some satin pink polka dot fabric on eBay to use as a table cloth and jars from the dollar store. I found pink and black candies on Amazon.com and from various candy wholesalers online. I also found some raspberry M&Ms in varying shades of dark pink and licorice bites from my local Super Target. I decorated the glass jars with ribbons I bought from Michael's and the punched-out designs I had made previously. For the lollipops, I got some flower decorating foam boards and wrapped them in black tissue paper, putting ribbons around one layer and pink and black argyle duct tape around the other. The personalized stickers on the lollipops were created on Microsoft Word with Avery 1" round labels. I took my favorite Hello Kitty button design and used Word to personalize the circle around her.
We will reuse the jars and the fabric. I can't sew to save my life, but my mother is very good at it and plans to make the girls dresses with the fabric.
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| Photo by M Photography |
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| Photo by M Photography |
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| Photo by M Photography |
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| Photo by M Photography |
Favor Boxes
I found cheap hot pink and black boxes on Amazon and used the same Hello Kitty design, but on the 2" Avery stickers to decorate the favor boxes. The favor boxes were all empty for the kids to fill up with cookies (see below) and candy from the candy bar.
Cookies
I bought some Hello Kitty cookie cutters from Sanrio.com and a guitar cookie cutter from Amazon. I already had the star [honestly, I can't believe we didn't have a Hello Kitty cookie cutter before now!]. I baked several dozen cookies and frosted them all. 
For the packaging, I got Avery Printable Bag Toppers, which also came with the plastic bags. They perfectly fit all of my oversized cookies, except for a couple of the guitars, which had spread when baked. Most of those broke in half as I was trying to get them into the bags, anyway, so it all worked out. I also had some trouble with the black cookie frosting refusing to harden, but over all, the cookies weren't bad. My mom assumed I had bought them somewhere, so I take that as a compliment. |
Water Bottles
Thank you, Pinterest! I made the water bottles by removing the existing labels from water bottles and putting pink and black argyle duct tape where the labels used to be. They matched the party beautifully, and unlike paper labels you make yourself, these could go in a cooler without being destroyed.
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| Photo by M Photography |
Cake and Smash Cake
I take no credit for the actual birthday cake. After getting custom cake quotes that were way out of budget for a one-year old birthday party, I contacted a coworker of mine, who was the person who made Pop Culture Preschooler's first birthday cake [a cute princess castle; after the first birthday, we stick to sheet cakes from the grocery store]. I sent her the invitation design and asked what she thought she could do with it. She told me she would try a few things, but had never used fondant before. I set my expectations low. When she arrived with the cake on PCT2's birthday, I nearly fell over. The cake arrived in four beautiful parts, ready to be assembled. The last two parts of the cake were the Hello Kitty (head and body)—the part of the cake we were both worried wouldn't work. I had already bought s plush Hello Kitty to use as a cake topper just in case. No need. This Kitty was (is) FABULOUS. She's also edible (made of Rice Krispie treats on the inside). However, we won't touch her. She is too beautiful to eat. [okay, okay... We did crack open her body at work. Delish!]
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| Photo by M Photography |
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| All photos by M Photography |
My smash cake did not go as well, though. No matter. Its purpose was to be demolished! I am proud of myself for figuring out how to (kind of) use fondant, though. And PCT2 sure didn't seem to mind!
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| Photo by M Photography |
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| Photo by M Photography |
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| Photo by M Photography |
Birthday Board
This is one of my proudest Pinterest-inspired creations. I spent weeks playing around with fonts on my computer and drawing things out on my iPad and by hand until I was satisfied with how the board would look. Initially I wanted to do a chalkboard with chalk markers, but I couldn't find a board with a frame I liked. So I settled instead on a black canvas with paint markers.
Some of my numbers proved wrong at the well-baby checkup the next day (she's actually 30.25" long and 19 lbs 12 oz), but it still looks good.
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| Photo by M Photography |
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| Photo by M Photography |
Pictures
Special thanks to my friend Mirna at M Photography for taking pictures. Mirna does all of our family pictures, and she totally rocks! If anyone is in the Houston area, I highly recommend you give her a call!
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| Pop Culture Preschooler ready to rock out. Photo by M Photography |
Note: any picture that doesn't say "Photo by M Photography" under it was taken with my iPad (that's why the quality isn't as good).
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Really?!?! Gummy Envelopes??
First birthday party planning is in full swing. Although the stupid stamps have still not arrived, the envelopes are all stuffed and in the process of being sealed.
Speaking of the envelopes... Am I the only one who gets flashbacks of the episode of Seinfeld where George's fiancée died licking the recalled glue on their wedding invitations every time I see a gummed envelope?? C'mon! I know it's not just me. Why do they even still make gummed envelopes? Such a pain. It's not like the sticker kind haven't been invented!
/mini-rant
Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
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