Allow Me to be Cynical for a Moment

OK.  I know what you are thinking.  For just a moment?  Really?  I hear you.  Let's just move on.

I was sitting in a restaurant for lunch today.  The tables were quite tight, so I was thisclose to the two people sitting at the table next to me.  Our close proximity combined with the fact that I was dining alone made it particularly easy for me to hear my neighbor's conversation.  Mind you, I wasn't trying to listen.  Really, I would have preferred not to hear their discussion because it was like one long therapy session.

I think that therapy is generally a good thing, but there comes a time when some people get a little too steeped in analysis and start speaking in therapy talk.  These two people--Bob and Fran, just to give them some names--kept saying things like "and how did that make you feel". As an example: Fran was talking to Bob about a time in the past year when she apparently did not follow through on some commitment she made to him, and he had called her on it.

Fran: You know, it was right of you to tell me that I was neglecting my responsibility to you, and I appreciated it.  I thank you for giving me the gift of your candor.

Bob: You're welcome.

Fran: I am serious.  I am trying to be more conscious of my actions.  There are some relationships, you know, where friends don't follow through all of the time, and within the comfortable boundaries of those friendships, that is OK.  You let me know that it was not within your comfort boundaries, though.  You honored yourself and our friendship in doing that.  I am grateful.  How does that make you feel?

Bob: Well, I am glad.  I feel that it is important to set the right boundaries and honor them.

OMG.  Every facet of their conversation was like that.  It was exhausting.  I couldn't wait for them to get their check.  I am all for being conscious and honoring our feelings and setting boundaries and all of that, but not every second of the day!  I also think that there is a time to sit down with a friend, order a good dessert and gossip about Tomkat.  That is the gift that I consciously give to me and my friends; it is both comfortable and within our established boundaries.

While we are on the subject of things that I find annoying--and why not?--am I the only one who thinks it is irritating the Scarlett Johansen keeps popping up in more and more movies?  I liked her before she became all 40's-style blond and ubiquitious.  I feel like she is in everything lately, and she always seems to be playing the wise-beyond-her-years or searching-for-enlightenment blond bombshell.  (See The Black Dahlia, Vicky Christina Barcelona and the upcoming He's Just Not That Into You, to name a few, if you don't believe me.)

Speaking of things that keep popping up, what is the deal with Jessica Simpson's breasts?  Am I the only one who noticed--not that I was specifically looking for this, either, mind you--that this woman does not seem to own a crew neck?  I have seen her in a number of magazines lately in both posed and "candid" photos.  It is all cleavage.  There are breasts everywhere.  My thought is that her breasts are her "bright and shiny objects" to distract the person interviewing her from how--um--let me be sensitive and feminist here--intellectually-challenged she is.  I know people say the you have to be smart to play dumb and that the whole Chicken of the Sea incident of a few years ago was all a joke.  Yeah.  I don't think so.

Finally, (my final "moment" if you will--for this blog post, at least) what is up with all of these pirate incidents lately?  There is a news story on CNN.com today about 30 sailors being rescued from pirates.  Is this a delayed post-Pirates of the Caribbean thing?  Have pirates actually been around and we have just not been hearing about them up until the past few months?  It all seems rather suspect to me.  I think that Disney is behind it.

OK.  I am done.  For now.