In NY my friends were basically all in finance. Maybe I had a couple in marketing or law, but the bulk were financial analysts. Granted they ranged from mutual funds to investment banking to stocks to more esoteric products. I think it was a product of the financial market being the main driving force behind the economy of Manhattan, but I think it's also a result of the particular industry I was in and the type of personalities we all had. To some degree we were all somewhat OCD, very rigid in how we did things to how we dressed and socialized. It was comforting knowing that a lot of your peers were in the same socio-economic niche. We would tell defeasance jokes and all laugh, which I'm sure the people at the next table thought was total nonsense. But it was a very comfortable yet intellectually stimulating niche. We would discuss the markets and the products being securitized and how things were changing with new regulations and leadership. I actually miss my little group of finance friends on many different levels.
Coming out to the Satellite Village I've tried to make friends. It's hard starting from scratch making new friends without any real reason. Especially coming out here where there are a lot of locals who grew up here and never left. It's an insular and incestuous environment. There are a couple of women I've met who are nice and receptive. But I've discovered that the few I really click with are all from the NY area, which is not really surprising since we are all snarky and honest in our feelings. There's a lot of sugar coating going on here, and not in a very good way.
But in our little bit of middle class America there is definitely a range of women/moms I've come across. There are the Trophy Moms (who really don't look like your NY Trophy Wife - and I mean it's a real stretch comparing the two) who are all injected and lipo'ed and blonde. Seriously, natural blondes supposedly make up less than 5% of the population, yet here they are about 50%. And some are way too brassy and yellow to be termed blonde, it's obviously a very loose term out here. They like to flash their Coach bags and (OMG!) Louis bags, wear Lululemon head to toe, or toss a scarf around their neck in 90 degree weather. Daisy Dukes are worn with pride, along with spider veins and cowboy boots. Oh, did I mention we aren't on a cattle ranch and all our roads are paved??
Than there are the Average Moms (who could be from any town in the US, she's nothing really special). She's seems normal, nothing really crazy about her. No plastic body parts, no aspirations to be the reincarnation of Barbie, no crazy wardrobe getups. There are, of course, the ones that are bizarre in their own special ways, like the affinity for wearing Ugg slippers as regular shoes. One walks like a duck, one likes to wear matching shoes and bags (not color, but print which is just oh so unforgivable). I'm not saying there aren't weirdos in this group, but they seem "normal" enough on the surface that you tend to focus more on the former group as well as the latter.
Finally there's the WTF Moms. They are the ones who like to drive pick up trucks with personalized plates like "SASSY" or "PERKY". Ummm, you're not sassy/perky with that fat ass and the too tight Juicy velour pants. They like to sluttify adult Disney Princess Halloween costumes and wear them to the preschool Halloween parade. Obviously she's so insecure she feels the need to upstage her own child at his school's parade. On a side note, her child was dressed as a robot and was completely covered in cardboard. It was a very interesting contrast to his Mom's choice of attire. Anyway, these moms like to wear tight workout clothes, and that tight racerback athletic top needs to be hiked up and a knot tied to show even more flabby wrinkly belly skin. I don't need to know that you have freckles/age spots all over your body. That's just too much information/visual for me, and I'm sure everyone else around me. But they all congregate together and talk about the other moms at the school. I've heard them during pickup at the school, and honestly, women like that really shouldn't throw stones at the others. It's kind of insulting and really hypocritical.
The real kicker here is that after coming from NY where my circle of friends was like the famed Rainbow Coalition, everyone here is white. Sure there are a couple of Asians, but no other minorities. Everyone is white. When we first moved out here and we went to the local mall, I felt perturbed and couldn't quite put my finger on what was bothering me. Until I saw a black man walk by, than it hit me. Everyone in the mall was white, there aren't any minorities here at all. I miss having diversity in all aspects of my life. Though my friends were all in finance, we were all different races and ethnicities. But everyone is white out here, and it seems most of them are small town white. When Chinese New Year rolled around the class moms decided to give each child a fortune cookie and a coupon for a free meal at Panda Express. Umm, they has nothing to do with Chinese New Year. A quick Google search brings up 15 days of festivities and all sorts of different foods for each day of celebration. And I'm pretty sure fortune cookies are not a Chinese import.
I guess the whole point of this is that my new version of the famed Rainbow Coalition is not on true diversity, but more on the degrees of class now. Since everyone is white, the differences I see in my little slice of Satellite Village is the way these moms carry and conduct themselves. How they dress/bare themselves on a daily basis, what they drive, how they talk, what they talk about, how they treat others and how they treat themselves. Some of these woman have no qualms about interrupting someone else's conversation. It's a very selfish personality to think that their lives are more important than anyone else's, and if they have a question they should just blurt it out instead of waiting for a break in the conversation or apologizing for the intrusion. Some of them don't even have the courtesy to thank a 5 year old child for holding the door open for them. Seriously woman, you can't thank a child for doing something nice for you? What kind of bitchy witch are you? Obviously your children must be learning some great manners from you, and you're showing them how to be a conscientious and well mannered person but sashaying your fat ass right by a 5 year old and not even acknowledging their unselfish behavior toward you. I know even though you upset my child by not thanking him, I'm still going to raise him (and his sister) to be well mannered and courteous to all lowlifes out there whom they'll come across. Because it will only make them a better person and a more successful person. Because we all know, at least those of us who have held real jobs in the real world, that how you conduct yourself in a business environment makes an impression on your manager and your clients. And I am going to make sure my kids will be successful and experience a true Rainbow Coalition of life, instead of this pseudo diversity we have in Satellite Village.
It seems like I bitch and moan all the time. But next time I want to talk about the real and honest women I've met out here. The few who have made my transition to Satellite Village more palatable. I think there are two women (sad commentary on the cross section of women out here) who are truly normal, in my opinion. Gee, that's really depressing.
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