The Celebrity in Me

I do it too.

We were talking about tabloids and celebrities in the office and it seems that I get a kick out of the “Celebrities do it too” pieces. I mean of course they do “it” too. They are people too (gasp!) and they have stuff that needs doing. So I thought it would be fun to be narcissistic honest about the things that I do… sometimes beyond my better judgement.

I take my kids to the park… okay that’s a lie. I don’t really. Not very often anymore, anyway. My husband is the ‘fun’ parent. He takes the kids to the park while I watch TV make dinner. So I guess that Jennifer Garner is a better parent than I am. Jen 1, Sandy 0.

I gas up my own car. Mostly because my husband doesn’t ever do it. The truth is that sometimes I don’t take our car out of the garage for a week and it never fails, when I have an appointment and I’m running late, I run to the car only to discover that it is indeed on empty. This is almost guaranteed to happen every time and this is why you will often see me at a gas pump shaking my head and complaining.

I shop at WalMart. More often than I’d like to admit. It’s convenient, they sell everything, it’s cheap and it’s convenient. (That’s not an error – There is a WalMart just a 10 minute walk from my house so it is indeed very convenient.)

I sometimes indulge in fast food. I am a big fan of the Big Mac. I know that it’s not good for me and I know it’s not real food, which is why I try to have only eat one about once a month… sometimes two months. But that’s usually my husband’s fault because while he refuses to eat whole wheat bread, he is a blocker of all things fast food.

I take public transport. We are a one-car family and we live in the heart of a fab city so yes, I take public transport. I actually enjoy it. I like people watching and germs (outside of bathrooms) don’t bother me too much.  ‘Nuff said.

Just like celebrities, I go to Starbucks. That’s almost a lie… I don’t go there very often even though there is one two blocks from me. I much prefer local community coffee shops and I am very lucky to live within walking distance of many. I like my fair trade, organic coffee locally roasted and served with frothy milk.

I let my kids watch Pitch Perfect. A lot. There are many inappropriate scenes for my little ones. But we all love the music and we want to start an acapella group except none of us actually knows how to carry a tune, except my son… but it’s too soon to tell. So we’ll take some sexual content in exchange for my kids knowing all the words to the songs on the soundtrack. I watched The Texas Chainsaw Massacre  when I was about 8… so aca-scuse me, I’ll take Pitch Perfect any day. Also: hearing my five year old sing: “I’ve got the magic in me” is adorable.

Here’s something I don’t do: Ironing. I don’t iron my own clothes. I try to own clothing that does not need ironing… also I’m pretty good at hanging them up and folding them nicely so they don’t actually need ironing. The truth here is that my husband is PERFECT at ironing and if he’s so good at it, why should anyone else do it?

So I’ll leave you with a quote:

“Why settle for mediocrity when somebody you live with does it perfectly?”

- Sandy Pedrogao, editor of Oh Baby! Magazine