February 27, 2006
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Nothing but Pleasant
When I wake in the morning the paste on my tongue is powdered sugar and cartoon birds sweep my hair up with delighted claws. I’ve never eaten before. I have no pores. I tinkle lemonade through my belly button.
I am nothing. I am nothing but pleasant.
________________________________________________________________________Ever been labeled?
Comments (6)
Labeled? All the time. I don’t mind the labels like “pleasant” or “nice.” Unfortunately, though, I’ve made life choices that require that labels be attached to me. I’m a blonde, and thus all that goes with it. I was a cheerleader (way back in the stone age of high school … ok, it was the 90s), but was labeled with all that goes with it. Now, not only am I a lawyer (here come some labels) but a criminal defense lawyer (labels with obscenities included). I just laugh them off. Because I have to.
ryc: Thanks for your cookbook suggestions. I’m a big fan of the Moosewood cookbooks – those are usually pretty good. I love the new Gourmet cookbook (I find that Gourmet recipes – even in the magazine – are very well-edited and tested). I also get Cook’s Illustrated which I know tests everything. They even test things and require that people do their hardest to mess them up so that mere mortals can cook them. CI is my favorite, and I’ll recommend it to anyone any time. I gave Bittman’s book another try last night with a vanilla ice cream recipe. It seemed to work out ok, except it didn’t have any salt in it. I’m almost endlessly irritated by recipes for sweets that don’t contain salt.
I’m nice. Not anything else, but nice. Nice is not who I am. I can be a mean, spiteful person. I can be caring, compassionate and loving. I can be off beat, kooky and fun. I can be a whole lot of things, but the one thing that I do not like to be is nice.
Yeah, I’ve been called nice too. We know where nice guys finish.
There was a funny moment in my schooling where I was labeled both a brain and a jock (and perhaps a dweeb behind my back). How’s a person supposed to act to stay in character?
And then there’s that whole Generation X stereotype/label thing. As you know, I hope to have a book published that elaborates that whole thing much better.
Labeled? Oh yes! Lynn’s the “nice” one. “Oh, she’s so nice.” Sometimes this works to my detriment, as when I want to be taken seriously. But I’ve learned ways to be persistent and still “nice.”
But someone called me “perky” once and that drove me quite insane. Perky, Yich!
Lynn
I’m “quiet.” People aren’t quite sure what to do with me, label-wise. Some people thought I was snotty in high school when I was just really shy.
Among my friends I’m labeled the “logical” one. In high school (it’s been a while) I was always called “sweet” and “nice” or “innocent”. I had a teacher many years ago that used to say you called people nice when you couldn’t think of anything better to say, so it became a sort of inside joke.
Thanks for commenting. It’s always nice to find people with somewhat similar experiences. I dig your site too. It’s cool you got to see the Giant Sequoias (Sequoiadendron giganteum, at least I’m assuming you meant Giant Sequoias) for the first time. I don’t think I’ve seen them since I was kid on one of our camping trips, but I live in Coast Redwood heaven (Sequoia sempervirens) and grew up where they are abundant.