Fun Bobby Gets a Little Southern Charm

I'm from Texas, so I appreciate all things Southern. Although we are our own breed in the Lone Star State, it's important to pay homage to the ancient cities of the South where the legacy began. I think even chivalry still exists there!! You can imagine my thrill when I recently found myself booking a flight to Savannah, Georgia in order to go on a beach vacation to Hilton Head, South Carolina with my two friends Kristin and Ashley. SAVANNAH, GEORGIA!! You can't say that name without using a Southern drawl!

Well Savannah turned out to be quite the lazy Southern town you would imagine, and the beach at Hilton Head turned out to be the perfect getaway for a busy corporate cube dweller like myself. But, we found the real fun in the most unexpected series of events at the unsurprisingly most empty bars in town. On Thursday night of our trip, in the middle of the island's off season, we decided to have a night on the town! We didn't expect it to be a night to write home about, but we thought it would be prudent to check out the local watering holes just to keep with our youth.

The first stop was Hot Mama's. I will admit, being the proper refined lady that I am (I am ignoring the fact that I will challenge any of my guy friends to see who can drink the most in a given night.), that I was a bit afraid of the name Hot Mamas. All I could picture were tattoos and motorcycles! I was even more convinced that this night would be a total floozy when I saw that there were hardly any cars in the parking lot. Oh boy.

We walk into Hot Mamas, and the first 8 min were quite routine and mundane. Step up to the bar, show id, order drinks. However, after those 8 minutes....history was made. A young Southern gentleman walked over to introduce himself. He worked in the liquor business, and he was there to offer us some free tasting of a shot. Score! We down the shot in a group, and he then proceeded to tell us why he loves his brand- because of the vanilla aftertaste. This shot goes down smooth because of the vanilla aftertaste. In case we were endangered of forgetting why this liquor was so special, he reminded us about the vanilla aftertaste.

It took about 5 minutes to realize that he took his job very seriously. Therefore, he was plastered.

I have a lot of respect for a man like that. Hard workers make hard drinkers. I should know myself. However, when you are much much more sober than another person, you can't help to ridicule them. We continued the night with the standard conversation of the who, what, where, when, how, and why of our lives. Literally, that was our entire night with this man. Due to his intoxication, we discussed the whos, whats, wheres, whens, hows, and whys over and over again. I can still tell you that he is from Kentucky and has a roommate from Texas Tech University who is a professor who got his doctorate in the food and beverage business. He repeated these facts about 4-5 times; and I, being the good student that I always have been, easily memorized these facts. Is there a pop quiz? We, on the other hand, were not so nice. Every time it was our turn to discuss the 5 w's, we changed our story. I was a spin instructor at one point. I can't remember what the other girls were. I'm sorry, but they never repeated once!!

The night did take an uninvited turn. Apparently the guy liked to bike, and I was a spin instructor. Oh, and apparently my name is Elizabeth? Not only that, but he said he was also going to be sampling some tequila soon. He asked me, "when can I sample you?" I had to ask him to repeat, out of genuine concern, I wanted to make sure I heard this one right :) "When can I sample you?" ...Excuse me? "When can I sample you?"

Interesting pick up line, sir. Poor chump, he meant well. It was just the vanilla aftertaste that ended up getting the best of him. The vanilla aftertaste. It gets you every time!

Me and my accomplices after a long night of poking fun at a Southern drunky.

You Are the Music In Me

Sorry I've been on hiatus, life has been pretty crazy, but that is no excuse. Life is always crazy, and only with life can I write this blog.

As I sit in my lonely cube at 9pm, dreaming of the days of Fun Bobby debauchery... I find myself doing very mundane work. Naturally, this is the perfect opportunity to listen to my entire collection of music (on shuffle, of course) and reminisce. Why is my brain wired to reminisce when it hears music? I think it's remarkable that I do this unconsciously every time. As the songs shuffle through, I realize I have a specific memory attached to every single song. Not only that, but each song will evoke the exact same personalized memory every time I hear it. If I want to think about that specific memory, I only need play the song. This comes as both a blessing and a curse depending on the memory and emotion attached with it.

Every boy that has meant anything to me has a set of songs attached to my memory of him. The playlists cycle through every stage of the relationship: crush, new beginnings, love, trouble, and heartbreak. How can music be so intertwined with our emotions? It has so much more power over us than we think.

I could tell my life story from my collection of songs on my ipod. There is a song for everything from the important events like graduations and traveling experiences to unimportant events like late nights studying and dances at the bars to dreams like long term ambitions and fond memories of favorite places. Who tells your story? Colbie Caillat? John Mayer? Taylor Swift?

makeup comes with no directions and I LOVE IT!

Have you ever noticed how makeup is one of the few chemical products in the U.S. that doesn't come with any directions on the bottle? It seems like in a no brainer, I mean why would they put instructions on makeup? It's a weird question for me to ask because we've never really had instructions on most makeup so we are used to it. But I took a step back and thought about how in a country where so much is regulated, I'm shocked that there isn't someone from the FDA telling me where (or maybe more importantly where not) to put my lip/cheek tint or how to apply my blackest black mascara. So, I just wanted to thank America for having faith that all women have an innate sense of how to be female. And, thank you America for giving me to freedom to be creative with my makeup and sometimes use my eyeshadow as a matte lip color or my blush as an eye shadow.

Coming up soon....Fun Bobby takes to the sandy beaches and accounts her crazy adventures on Hilton Head Island! It will be a lesson that quirkiness and fun can be found anywhere in life. You won't be disappointed. ;)

call me old fashioned, but to me tweet sounds like a dirty word

What's up with Twitter and all of these people who don't even have college degrees creating new English words like tweets, tweeting, and frenemy? I refuse to get on the Twitter bandwagon; mainly because I can't understand why it would be a necessity in my life and I have little room for any more distractions. (Same reason why I won't try out any new tv shows). Maybe it's just a sign of my age, that I am slowly losing touch with the latest technology trends. I do find the Twitter craze quite fascinating. The media has fully embraced it using it to reach out to viewers in real time on broadcasts such as the VMAs and celebrity interviews. Even print media has been using Twitter to quote celebrities and speculate about celebrity moods. But, is the media going too far with their use of Twitter? It seems to me that they are setting themselves up for their own obsoleteness.

The New America

Why is it that women who take the time and effort out of their daily lives to look beautiful each day are viewed as shallow? Fashion is an art of which those who practice must follow much stricter regiments. They are living and breathing in their art at all times and NEVER abandon it.

Does anyone find it ironic that we live in a country that is a pioneer in this industry.....

as well as this industry.....

????

This has been hot topic for me for several months. I love fashion and I love talking about healthy living. Yet I live in a country where these polar opposites are playing tug and war at me. The imbalance of living in a country where advertising makes eating high fat foods socially acceptable coupled with the pressure to be model thin, adds unnecessary stress for women here. Plus, let's not mention the fact that I'm Fun Bobby and it's really hard to fit in my 750ml glasses of wine in the daily calorie budget.

I will get to my hatred of the American food industry during another blog post. (Just to warn, sometimes I have the mind of a cranky 85 year old man....I'm just very opinionated, and have literal tolerance for stupidity...) But, let's talk fashion. Afterall, it's New York Fashion Week. And I would MUCH rather be there than stuck in my dreadful office surrounded by a bunch of accountants who wouldn't ever dream of spending $2500 on a fabulous Chanel bag. Not to mention one of my coworkers who asked me why I was into horseshoes....it's COCO CHANEL people!! Okay so back to the fashion. I'm not going to talk about designers or the hottest trends out there. I mean I myself find that hard to keep track of. But, I am going to talk about being a good woman. You might think, with a name like Fun Bobby that I don't know what it means to be a good woman. Well, I do, yes I do. Okay, so let's talk about the female roll. I once had a guy say to me that he valued a girl who would look great in a tshirt and jeans over a girl who needed to get dressed up to look good. This statement has bothered me for months. There are so many things wrong with it, and perhaps it has a lot to do with men not understanding what women want. Why is it that women who take the time and effort out of their daily lives to look beautiful each day are viewed as shallow while other women who do not groom themselves in this regimen but enjoy an art show about once or twice a week/month are viewed as more respected and intellectual? People do not realize that both types of women are often quite similar. Fashion is an art of which those who practice must follow much stricter regiments. They are living and breathing in their art at all times and NEVER abandon it. This comment upset me because I wanted the guy to realize that maybe I'm not dressing up for men. Maybe I'm dressing up for ME. I enjoy the way I feel in my dresses and make up, and quite frankly it is one of the few creative outlets I have in my life. I have visions of certain looks and styles, and in a world where daily life can be mundane for an adult, it's nice to have my wardrobe to look forward to. I don't think that you should EVER judge someone for trying to make the world a little bit more beautiful. I think I'm valid in saying that I'm a smart woman, and the fact that I can carry on the demanding life I have, continuously grow my career, all while taking that extra time in my day to actually LOOK NICE says a lot about my hard work ethic.

Here is a quote I love from the movie The Devil Wears Prada:

"I see, you think this has nothing to do with you. You go to your closet and you select out, oh I don't know, that lumpy blue sweater, for instance, because you're trying to tell the world that you take yourself too seriously to care about what you put on your back. But what you don't know is that that sweater is not just blue, it's not turquoise, it's not lapis, it's actually cerulean. You're also blithely unaware of the fact that in 2002, Oscar De La Renta did a collection of cerulean gowns. And then I think it was Yves St Laurent, wasn't it, who showed cerulean military jackets? I think we need a jacket here. And then cerulean quickly showed up in the collections of 8 different designers. Then it filtered down through the department stores and then trickled on down into some tragic casual corner where you, no doubt, fished it out of some clearance bin. However, that blue represents millions of dollars and countless jobs and so it's sort of comical how you think that you've made a choice that exempts you from the fashion industry when, in fact, you're wearing the sweater that was selected for you by the people in this room."

This leads me into my next major point. Why don't more people groom themselves for their jobs???? It drives me insane at work. I believe that looking put together is a sign of respect. Maybe it's because I am half Japanese, but I have a clear sense of formal and nonformal and there are many more things in my formal category than most people I know. I know many people who show up to work much less than put together. I don't get it. This is your job....your professional job!! I once had a girl at work come up to me and tell me in an almost jealous tone that my hair always looks so nice and she just puts her hair up in a pony tail because it is so much work to do her hair. Um...do you think I just woke up like this, girl? No, I didn't. I just take the time out of my day to style and do my hair. Even if it means I get less sleep every night. It's not a hard equation: time + effort= well put together person. I bet you anything that if she actually put that time and effort into doing her hair, it would actually take her less time than it takes me (I have more hair than anyone I know I believe, it's a pain!).

Lastly, many of you may be thinking. Well, why do we even care about this materialistic crap? It's so shallow. Trust me, I hear ya. One thing I've learned though, is that we are all human and thus we are all visual. Whether or not you admit it, you will judge me on my appearance first. Let's take two scenarios. The girl dressed in mismatched/faded/out of style clothing vs. the girl dressed very sleek, feminine, and yet appropriate. Both women are very smart and both land a brilliant interview. Who would you pick to hire? The woman who seems out of touch with the world and others around her, or the woman who is just as smart, enjoyable to look at, and is definitely in tune with the ever changing world around her. I think the answer is pretty clear. Fashion is an accessory, you definitely need to work on your inner self and intellect, but fashion is still a very important package to being a well rounded, highly valued woman. Plus, if you can do all that AND hold your own liquor like Fun Bobby, then you are the PERFECT woman.

the things I do just to see a hot guy

Call it pathetic or call it appreciation of nature..... I definitely find myself doing some of the craziest things just for the opportunity to get a glimpse of a good looking man. Maybe it is because I am deprived. I mean I am in the accounting profession and if you picture your typical accountant....not as exciting as other professions like firefighting or heck, even engineering. Or, maybe it is because I live in a world that has dellusioned me into thinking that normal men look like Brad Pitt, James Marsden, Jude Law, Patrick Dempsey, etc. It's really cruel when you take your eyes off the tv screen, get off the couch, and see what is really out there.


The latest crazy thing I have done is scare myself shitless. For real. I have a current obsession with Jennifer Love Hewitt's husband on the show Ghost Whisperer and it has caused me to endure countless hours of creepy apparition sightings just for the momentary shots of this actor David Conrad. He even plays a nice guy on the show, so it's impossible for me to not subject myself to what might quite possibly be shaving off years of my life as the creepy scary music tunes in signalling my blood pressure to spike. What a deadly combination. I am the biggest wimp in the world- THAT is how much I really enjoy seeing this hot guy. I've included some pictures. Some of you may or may not have the same taste, but if you saw him on the show you wouldn't be disappointed. Who else wouldn't want a good looking man who is madly in love with you despite the fact that you probably belong in a psych ward?






Other notably crazy things I have done just to cross paths with a hot guy:

• spend hours driving around, on, or by certain guys' streets (ahem....um that would only be from high school, totally not right now...I mean I'm not a stalker....right Katie?)
• go to countless get togethers, parties, bars, social events just for the hope that maybe a good looking man will take one look at me and part with his player ways
• take many leisurely walks around my neighborhood in hopes of sharing the sidewalk with a hottie (nevermind that I live in the gay neighborhood, weirder things have happened)
• stand outside of Buckingham Palace (what? don't judge. it could happen)
• thrown an entire party (yep totally How I Met Your Mother style)
• joined a professional club

I know we have all been here. A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do. We get a little creative at times, but the chase sure is entertaining. And although it might seem a bit crazy at times, it's all worth it in the end when you end up with your very own Mr. Ghost Whisperer. Until then, I'm scared and yet interested to see what other situations I will get myself into.

what if anything were possible

home isn't always where you rest your head at night, it also involves matters of the heart like a memory, a significant place, an idea, or a person; of all places and things out there,

this feels most like home to me

I got to thinking....what if anything were possible? There is so much offered in this world and I currently spend most of my life staring at blank walls (just to clarify, I'm not in a psych ward or in prison, just in my cubicle at work, but metaphorically speaking you could argue they are all the same). I live in the same world where certain people once called this their backyard. If I could make anything happen in the world....this would be my backyard, minus all of the baggage and beheading that came with the previous owners. So, I think starting tomorrow I need to take charge of my life and make this happen. Don't take it literally though, I'm not going to invade France and take over Versailles, but as a young woman in my 20s going through a quarter life crisis, I have definitely had the feeling that a grander life, in whatever form, needs to begin. Although I'm currently going through very normal, respectable motions of life, it doesn't always feel like this is all that life is going to offer me. Watch out for Fun Bobby, because even I don't know what kind of trouble or awesomeness she's going to get herself into! Theme for the rest of this year and beyond- VIVE!!


On a side note, check out what Washington used to call his backyard below. I'm sensing that success and great scenery are critical to one another. So dear boss, if you want me to bring in the big bucks you should dish out some serious cash so I can make a down payment on some sweet real estate. Potomac River, Seine River, Thames River? It could be mine, and it's better than my cubicle walls. I could do some genious thinking here....