I’m in a deep-thinking mode this week. Nothing I really want to write about yet, so instead I’ll leave you with some images from our recent Cali trip that I love.
I hope you all are having a great week!
Category Archives: Daily Musings
My Dream Home
From the Chicago Tribune:
Holy chlorination, Batman!
Hinsdale home’s swimming pool a hot topic online
October 18, 2010|By Steve Schmadeke, Tribune reporter
A Hinsdale couple was surprised and a little weirded out to learn Monday that their Batman-themed backyard swimming pool was suddenly drawing a lot of online attention.
The 30-foot-wide logo they had painted at the bottom of their swimming pool two decades ago was widely discussed after a Google Maps satellite image of it showed up on a mainstream technology blog.
Titled ” Wayne Manor, Illinois,” the post was the second-most-viewed Sunday on Gizmodo. The blog apparently reposted an image highlighted on virtualglobetrotting.com, a site whose users compile interesting or unusual images captured by Google Maps.
“I can’t believe it — our son sent (the link) to us,” said one of the homeowners, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, not unlike the Caped Crusader himself. “It is so strange.”
The couple decided to have the logo painted in their pool about 1990, when their son, then in kindergarten, was obsessed with Batman and wore a cape as often as he could. A painter re-created the logo using a design from a beach towel, the homeowner said. The logo is easily seen in the satellite photo because the pool was being filled when it was taken and the water hadn’t yet covered it.
It has since been touched up about three times. The 15-foot-deep pool has become a neighborhood landmark and was often the site of class picnics and football team dinners.
The homeowner said it felt odd having strangers from across the country commenting on the property, some of them wondering whose car was parked in their driveway.
“That’s our cleaning lady’s car,” the homeowner said.
The Paradox of Choice
I despise buying jeans.
Going into a jean store is stressful…there are way too many styles- boy cut, relaxed, faded, torn, embellished, skinny, jeggings….and within those options, 20 different colors!
Typically I end up trying on 15-20 pairs, asking the sales girl a million questions “Will they stretch? Will they shrink? Will the color fade?” before deciding on one overpriced pair that I’m not all that satisfied with.
It’s really annoying!
My jean-buying experience is typical of our society where choices are abundant and anxiety over making the right decision is overbearing….or so says Barry Schwartz, author of the book Paradox of Choice- Why More is Less.
I picked up his book awhile ago and recently found the time to sit down and read it. In the book, Schwartz argues that having too many options often leads to depression and feelings of loneliness. He says:
“People can’t ignore options – they have to pay attention to them. If they make a choice, is there another choice would have been better? There’s more effort put into making decisions, and less in enjoying them. What’s nagging is the possibility that, if they had chosen differently, they could have gotten something better.”
Living in a big city, I find this logic hits close to home. Getting dinner on a Friday night often turns into a whirlwind of decisions that need to be made – where to eat, how to make the reservation, how to get there, what to order…at times it can take the joy out of the experience!
And when it comes to major decisions like who to marry, where to live, what job to take? Well that’s even more difficult. Schwartz says:
“I find that people have an incredibly hard time making important life decisions and the more talented they are the worse it is. Because if you’re very talented and have cultivated many of those talents you are both interested in a lot of things and good at a lot of things.
I think it’s totally debilitating, and people graduate from college and start what they think is going to be a year but often extends into the indefinite future trying to figure out what to do. “What kind of person am I going to be, where am I going to live, anything is possible. This is one of the benefits of freedom and affluence, I should take advantage of all that.” But then the time comes to choose and people don’t know how to choose.”
I hear ya Schwartz!
The book discusses so many more facets to this issue- so if you’re interested, check it out. I want to hear from you though.
Do you struggle with making everyday decisions? How often do you second-guess a decision you’ve made? Do you strive for the perfect choice or are you satisfied with an OK one?
The Return of Man’s Man (2.0)
A couple weeks ago Luke went on an all-boys trip to Colorado to climb Challenger and Kit Carson peaks. When he got home, he was like a kid on Christmas telling me about everything they did.
They camped outside under the starts, hung food up in trees to keep it from attracting bears, drank lake water, carried 50 pound packs on their backs for miles at a time, ate wild raspberries and even dug toilet “holes.”
I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you the activities on this trip are probably my worst nightmare, but there’s something oddly attractive knowing that my man is rugged, adventurous and well, MANLY.
All around me I’ve been noticing a shift away from the effeminate “metrosexual” male who gos tanning, has a “stylist” and can’t use a power tool. The new man, seems to be heading towards a more traditional guy’s guy.
Just look at who GQ named their International Man of the Year and who Esquire dubbed the “Last Alpha Male”…
John Hamm, aka every man’s idol, the uber-masculine Don Draper in Mad Men.
While I am certainly NOT a woman who thinks her man needs to”take care” of her, it’s still appealing to see Luke do things like insist on carrying my 50 lbs luggage or chop wood outside (true story).
I like this shift….with some caveats.
When describing an attractive man’s man, I certainly don’t mean to give kudos to the guys who don’t shower regularly, belch and fart in public or use the words “dude,” “brah,” or “This one time at the frat house…” on a regular basis.
The guy I’m advocating is the one who knows how to dress sharply, treat his lady well, live in a nice place AND talk sports, complete 20 push ups and maybe even summit a mountain.
What about you ladies? What “manly” thing do you love most about your guy?