I’m Amanda. I’ve got wide eyes, a smart mouth, and a MetroCard. And I’m not afraid to use them.
This week I read Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions by MIT behavioral economist Dan Ariely. The book covers everything from supply and demand to procrastination to the allure of freebies.
The conclusion: We’re irrational, but we rationalize it so we seem rational. Maybe we can try to work on that?
An analogy for this conclusion: Dearly departed Michael Jackson’s plastic surgery denial. “Of course, my face is shaped completely differently! I’m an adult now!”
1. Choose the milk (or really, any beverage) from the back of the refrigerated section.
2. Hold the door for someone else.
3. When you get home from work, change into your “play clothes.”
1. I’m going to blog about you.
2. I need personal space and time…
3. But not too much.
4. I determine what’s “too much.”
1. Requests for help (as much as I can)
2. Offerings of help (as much as it makes sense)
3. Free samples
A few months ago, I read Sasha Cagen’s To-Do List: From Buying Milk to Finding a Soul Mate, What Our Lists Reveal About Us. The book grabbed me like a great aunt at Thanksgiving. It hadn’t seen me since I was this big, my goodness!
Let me remind you I’m slightly fond of writing things down. My apartment currently includes the following lists:
1. Apartment projects (on the refrigerator)
2. 2009 New Year’s Resolutions (on the refrigerator)
3. Blog post ideas (on the desk)
4. Weekly to-do list (on the desk)
5. Balls in the Air, which are things that aren’t urgent but need to be done someday (on the calendar)
6. Wardrobe Schedule, which details everything I’ve worn to work in the last year and a half (on my computer)
7. Wardrobe Schedule from when I was a teacher (on my external hard drive)
8. Media lists of annual books and movies consumed from 2005 to the present (on my external hard drive and computer)
9. Wishlist of material items (on my computer)
10. Books to read (on my computer)
11. Bucket List (on my computer)
Don’t call me a freak, but there are more. And those are just the ones I’ve written down. My brain carries many.
I started this blog a few months after I turned 22. By the time I finish writing this post, I’ll be 26.
That’s a social media savvy way of saying I’m getting old.
Remember Big Sister? The pumpkin had been sitting in my kitchen window sill since November, watching the alley below fill with snow, freeze, fill with snow again, and today, get warm enough to comfort bare, winter-cracked feet.
It was time for her to go, but I didn’t want to brandish a knife or open the trash chute. Big Sister, I decided, would be a messenger.
Last week, I was going through the myriad blogs I read weekly, some of them Tumblr micro-blogs rife with pictures and reblogged quotes and lolspeak. Life Coach got me sucked into the platform last year, and no matter how hard I try, I just can’t really get into it myself. (My latest attempts are the oft-outdated Book Binge and House Hunt).
There’s something so fleeting about the not-really-a-blog blog. Call me old school, but Tumblr is the Forever 21 of blogs for me. It’s trendy and easy - so easy that when it falls apart in the wash two months later, no one really minds.
Me, I like blogs with multiple paragraphs on elaborate platforms that take months to figure out. Consider the fact that this blog was on clunky old Blogger for so long. I was scared to move everything over, because if I lost anything involuntarily, I’d feel like an amputee.
In 2008, I gained TBID, a one-bedroom apartment, professional writing experience, confidence, and hope for the future.
I lost touch, a boyfriend, a beloved pet, and my temper.
I stopped trying to change others.
I started trying more new foods.
