The Shame Squad

In high school, I had a teacher who would say that someone or something "just made it to the top of [her] Unimportant List."  I thought it was a great phrase, and my best friend Debbie and I actually started an Unimportant List. Adding a thing or situation to The List  was a way of recognizing that it wasn't worth our time, energy, or disappointment.  It was cathartic to recognize it and move on.  Debbie recently gave me a copy of The List , and over the past fifteen years, we've added an astounding 252 things. It's interesting to see the chronology.  In 1998, we were in high school, and it was mostly schoolwork and the frustrations of the cafeteria.  There are a few things high school classmates did on there and neither of us even remember who they are.   Life really DOES exist after high school.  For example: 7. Essays and Hamlet and Heart of Darkness and St. Joan and Beowulf and summer reading and understanding poetry and analyzing it to death  (N

Well actually, this is the closet in the bathroom.  But linen closet  sounds so much classier, don't you think?  There is another linen closet in the hall for sheets and blankets and blah, blah, blah, you don't care.  The point is that after some Extreme Couponing at CVS and Harris Teeter this week (and previous weeks), it had turned in to a disaster zone. Exhibit A: The Towels. My Williams-Sonoma Inc. friends are silently shaming me right now (or in the case of John and Tricia, probably not-so-silently drunkenly shaming me right now) because folding and arranging towels is A Major Activity at Pottery Barns everywhere.  Anyway, the towels were fixed in short order. Ahhhh, much better.  I'd like to point out that we have a ridiculous amount of beach towels for two people, but we also have guest passes to our nice, quiet HoA pool.  So you can come over and hang poolside with us, but you have to tell me I look nice and not at all pasty white in a bathing suit.

It's always a little dangerous when major companies use social media, and ask for input like this. Why?  Well, you might want to ask Mountain Dew.  They had a contest to 'Dub the Dew' (i.e. name the newest flavor of Mountain Dew), and in the end, the top ten results were all, um, not a good name for a soda.  In fact, the most 'appropriate' of all the suggestions was Diabeetus. Rapper Pitbull could also explain it to you, when as part of a promotion, he said he'd go to whatever Wal-Mart store had the most likes on Facebook.  Aaaaaaaaaaand, he ended up being sent to the Wal-Mart in Kodiak, Alaska . Pitbull might want to give some advice to Justin Bieber, who asked "fans" where he should go on his International Tour.  The winner?  North Korea. And my personal favorite is when the city of Austin, Texas, asked for suggestions to rename the Solid Waste Services Department.  Although they didn't use it, the top vote earner was The

Since yesterday was National Siblings Day, I thought I'd give a shout out to my fabulous sister Amy.  Here are some of the fun things we've done over the years: Remember that one time we went to Wimbledon and you were really confused, and I kept putting on lip gloss? But then we just drank a lot of champagne and it turned out to be really awesome?  Good times. One of my favorite games we used to play is "run away from the paparazzi."  You were always so much better than I was.  By the way, did you like that book I gave you? Sorry I made you carry my giant train around at my wedding.  That's what you get for showing me up with your fabulous butt. And I'm also sorry about that time that I "borrowed" your red dress without telling you, and then dyed it blue.  I just really admired your style and wanted to be like you. Just don't tell Mom that we both lost a bet and had to wear her ugly fur hat in public. Thanks f