musings from the pink chair

you may have noticed i haven’t posted here lately. it’s not because i’m off blogging — it’s because i’m cheating on wordpress with tumblr.

i love the community over there (and the lack of spam…knock on wood), so that’s where i’ve been spending most of my time. here i am. and here is the tumblr i manage with a few of the other cool kids at work.

so i don’t know if it’s because atlanta is not a particularly walkable city, if i’m just used to DC, NYC, and boston, or if people here are just really behind the times, but…this town has zero sidewalk etiquette.

seriously guys. if you’re a group of four people, you CANNOT just powerwalk down the pavement shoulder to shoulder, knocking anyone coming the other way off into the bushes. you CANNOT stop with your stroller in the middle of the sidewalk and prevent anyone in front of you or behind you from moving. oh, and btw, this is america. walk on the right.

it’s a good thing not enough people ride marta to make the whole escalator stand-on-the-right-walk-on-the-left thing an issue. because that would justify a rant of its own, let me tell you.

i’m trying a new kind of new year’s post for 2011. instead of reflections on the past year, i’m putting my predictions for the year ahead out there. and really, who cares if i’m right or not? the only person who notices will be me. so, without further ado:

2011

OVER: Blue shoes, macaroons, colorful suede, platforms, boys with dogs, 30 Rock (sadly), gray, minimalism, busy floral dresses

STICKING AROUND: Leggings, colorful/patterned tights, cupcakes, owls

UP AND COMING: Neo-rococo, boys with cats, hot pants, Parks & Rec, pink & purple, sequins, tarts, lions & other big cats, wedges

PERPETUALLY AWESOME: Barcelona chairs, blazers, black tights

i received this email from duke the other day:

Dear Rachel,

Greetings from the Alumni Association. As you may know, each year the Alumni Association partners with the Career Center to bring alumni back to campus in January for a day of career focused programming. You are one of the 60 alumni we have selected to invite back for the 2011 Fannie Mitchell Career Conference.

they only invited 60 alumni and i’m one of them? yeah, feeling relatively badass at the moment. i do hope they realize my career is only 2.5 years long, though.

and then there’s the conversation i had about this with jake:

me: guess what? i’m one of 60 alumni duke invited back for the career conference in january. so basically i’m awesome.

jake: um, that’s pretty damn badass.

jake: i was going to be angry before i realized i don’t have a career.

HAHAHAHA.

things i’m so over:

• glee. i know, i know, sacrilege. the music is still good, but the show has become way too much of a soap opera. in every episode, there is either a) no plot, or b) a plot that is so unbelievably convoluted that it’s impossible to watch without groaning and/or throwing things at the tv.
• the american justice system. okay, so hear me out. i had jury duty last week for the first time, and i was actually picked to be on a jury. and being in that room deciding the verdict…was kind of awful. the other people there had zero understanding of the law. and why should they? they’ve never taken a law class. all they had to go on was the five-minute speech the judge gave them. they wanted to decide the case based on what they thought was okay, not what the law said. i had to constantly remind them that it didn’t really matter what they thought was good or bad, or okay or not okay, or moral or immoral. the only thing that mattered was IF THE PERSON BROKE THE LAW. yeah, they probably all hated me. and i definitely did not like them. so now i’m all jaded and disappointed at the way our legal system works. i think maybe a judge should guide jury proceedings just to give them a little direction. and answer questions. and define terms. etc. [however, i am COMPLETELY aware that this is a total first-world gripe and that our system works better than probably any other. i just think it could be improved.]
• halloween. there is way too much pressure to come up with a clever costume that’s also flattering and not over-the-top. to quote kathy griffin, i don’t want to stress out and WORK to go to a party. i just want some chips and dip. (actually, minus the dip, because apparently a lot of people haven’t gotten the message that double-dipping is totally disgusting and makes everyone think you’re gross.)
• atlanta. ATL, i don’t dislike you as much as i thought i would. i’ll give you that. and you don’t have a massive bedbug outbreak. but still. all my friends have moved to new york. all the artsy stuff that i like is in new york. all the good events are in new york. and atlanta, i’m sorry, but your public transit is crap. i really did not want to buy a car, but you made me. and even though my car is totally cute, i can’t forgive you for that.
• flag banners in living spaces. i know this is oddly specific, but it’s seriously the stupidest decor fad ever. i don’t care how cute or kitsch they are. flag banners belong at car dealerships and nowhere else, especially not in your living room.
• iPads. i never liked them and i still don’t. i haven’t heard one good argument for owning one, nor have i seen anyone use them in a novel and/or useful way. i have a laptop and an iPod touch. what exactly would i do with an iPad, now? it couldn’t replace either of those, and there’s nothing it can do that i can’t do on one of those.
• DVDs. netflix streaming = win.

up next, a list of things i’m so NOT over. because i’m not ENTIRELY cynical, you know.

so earlier this month i turned 24. which means i’m officially in my mid-twenties.

this is COMPLETELY unacceptable.

i haven’t had enough life experiences to be 24. not even close. i haven’t lived in new york, or been to africa, or fallen in love, or gone to graduate school. i haven’t even painted my apartment.

i mean, i have done some things. graduated college. moved to atlanta. bought a car, adopted a cat. went on a cruise. wrote articles that thousands of people read and did live segments on national television. began saving for retirement, for god’s sake.

but still. i feel like it doesn’t all quite add up to 24. i guess maybe it’s because i’m at the same place in my life that i was at 21? same job, same apartment, same city. and i like those things, but it’s not the ever-changing atmosphere of high school and college, so it feels weird. is the plateau a good or a bad thing???

watch out, world, for my fall style is going to include LEGWARMERS. and oxfords without socks.

i get back from a week at the beach and WOW it’s fall.

when i left, it was still 90 and sunny every day. now, the high is 70 and there’s a distinctive wintry breeze in the air. today i busted out my corduroy jacket, which i’m not even going to pretend to not be excited about. whole foods has piles of pumpkins. people are wearing boots to work. and i’m tucked cozily under my down comforter, having strange cravings for pumpkin scones and hot chocolate.

I LOVE AUTUMN.

“From what I can see of the people like me, we get better but we never get well.”

–Paul Simon, “Allergies”

guys, i am so ahead of the curve. check this out:

i haven’t seen the sex and the city 2 film. but today on a design blog i came across this shot of carrie’s bedroom:

so, SATC (and especially carrie) is supposed to be completely up-to-the-minute, style-wise, right? like, nobody is more fashionable than these women.

except ME. because look what i did to the wall behind my bed a good six months before this film came out:

HA! i win, SATC, i win.

(you can ignore the unmade bed and cluttered side tables. those were next on the list. oh, and the fact that one of the pictures is missing a frame. all that has long since been remedied.)