Thursday, May 28, 2009

"If all the girls at Harvard were laid end to end..."

Yesterday night, I went to an Ivy League social mixer in spite of never having attended, or indeed ever visited an Ivy League campus. A friend of a friend invited the friend, who then invited... and so on. In a moment of "bored now," I was ten seconds from leaving with the cousin of the friend, when two gents stopped us on the way to the door. We ended up staying two more hours.

Like myself, and apparently like many of the others at the event, these two gents were gatecrashers. No, they didn't even know Ivy Leaguers in attendance, shame and horror! They knew the event organizer. And for all the prematurely-aged, presumably-intoxicated, and preternaturally-arrogant lawyers at the event, I was regularly singled out as someone who could drop puns, barbs, and banter among the best of us. One of the gents asked if I had a blog he could follow, and the group of listeners agreed that I should.

So here you are. A charming stranger who knew exactly how to flatter the target demographic of the evening (no wonder he was invited...) has convinced me of my worthy wit. I've abandoned blogging in the past as self-indulgent; I always seem to end up whining about my problems. I suppose if I change my focus (i.e. whining about what I see as absurd social problems), it might be less self-indulgent and more ...self-indulgent? Because, oh, I noticed these strange cultural foibles, and aren't you glad I did? But at least entertaining, and not so much about me.

An example: Blogger suggests labels for my post, "e.g. scooters, vacation, fall." The latter of the three suggests poetic musings; the median, perhaps the ecstatic ravings of the leisure class; the foremost, hipsters. A caveat: without intended ill will, with all due introspection that I also fall into the social pits worthy of satire. Agreed? Agreed.

5 comments:

  1. I'm enthralled. Keep it coming. :)

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  2. Well holy hell, I'm honored to make your inaugural blog roll! I'll tack your blog up to my moldy and dusty one as well. Good luck keeping it up, it get's a little tricky when life "get's in the way."

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  3. Thanks, all (uh, both..?). I know how it can get crazy. Maybe I'll write some canned musings in advance to toss up when I need to phone one in.

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  4. Soon you'll be singing for your supper in the most rarefied of spaces (this was, perhaps, a gateway).

    One question: Dry like wine, or sherry?

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  5. White wine. Pale, pale white girl. I mean, wine.

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