Profound Dowd (Archive from March 29, 2006)

I think I should get highlights. And some new pants. And those shoes that look like Mary Janes but have a heel.

This is the Maureen Dowd quote that is currently printed on the sides of Starbucks cups. "The minute you settle for less than you deserve, you get even less than you settled for." How profound! Granted I'm pretty sure she was talking about her chai latte. But I still like it. Let me see if I can apply it to my life. Wait, give me a minute. I'll get it.

Let me break it down into smaller steps. First clause "The minute you settle for less than you deserve..." This implies that I should know what I deserve. Which I don't. I mean, for example, do I deserve to make $10,000 less than everyone I know who does the same job that I do? But by the same token, do I believe that I deserve to make more money than I currently do just because other people do? See how tricky this can get?

Deserving is one of those things I've never really fully comprehended. Because I find myself repeatedly and completely annoyed by people who think they deserve shit. You know who I'm talking about. The "life's not fair" people. I don't know what memo they got that said that life was supposed to be fair but it's not. So deserving... I don't really get it.

Second clause: "... you get even less than you settled for." I get the circular nature of this statement. She's trying to say that you are what you eat, you get what you give, if you accept shit you deserve shit. Whatever. I get it. I think she is trying to shake people of their low self-esteem. The problem with most people, I think, is that they think they are owed an easy way out of their self-esteem issues. That takes work.

I probably have self-esteem issues. Someone once passed out this quiz and one of the questions was "If you met yourself at a party, would you want to hang out with you?" My answer? A resounding no! My friend told me this is due to my low self-esteem. I think it means that I like to diversify my experiences. Who would want to hang out with themselves? Wouldn't you rather hang out with people not like you? If I met myself at a party, I might go to the other side of the room and seek out completely different.

Speaking of self-esteem issues -- how do you think Anne Heche feels about the fact that she only gets cast in made for TV movies these days? She had much more potential to get cast in cool parts when she was a lesbian.

Tomorrow night my friends and I are going to the PAPER Magazine Beautiful People Party. It's at the Maritime Hotel. You know, the hotel where all the gay boys sip cocktails on the terrace. I have room for 1 person on my invite. Let me know if you want to be my plus 1.