A lesson in seat saving.
Last night, I went to a photographer’s meeting to hear some famous dude speak. I always feel a little like a poser at these things, like I’m not QUITE cool enough to be there. So when I found the meeting room at the hotel where it was held, I took a deep breath, activated Ginger, and strode confidently into the room. I glanced about for any open seats and found one in the middle of the 4th row. Other seats nearby had coats and notebooks or humans guarding them, but not this one. I sat down, got comfortable, then heard my name called from behind me. Oh! A friend from a Me Ra Koh workshop! Hooray! I began chit chatting, starting to feel a little more comfortable, when I heard all of a sudden, in a snippy tone I might add, “That seat’s taken.”
Here’s where the lesson in seat saving begins. When I am queen of the universe, the rules will be like so: You cannot save a seat with air. A coat will do, even a pen. If you’re at a bar, you must leave something on the seat, or put your coaster over your beer. You must leave SOME INDICATION that you plan to return. Alternatively, a person may save as many seats as she likes, if she’s there guarding them, and she tells you BEFORE YOU SIT DOWN that the seat is saved. Those are the rules.
If, for some reason, one has followed all the above rules and still someone has sat in one of the “saved” seats, it is on the saver to phrase their request in a way that allows the sitter to be the nice one. For instance, “Excuse me? My friend was sitting there. He just got up for a second…” This, or something similar, should be said while making apologetic facial expressions or hand gestures. This will allow the sitter to smile and say, “Oh, okay, no problem,” and feel good about what a nice person they are as they search for another seat.
But when someone declares, IN A SNIPPY TONE I might add, that your seat is somehow taken by proprietary air molecules, all I wanna do is say, That’s right, bitch! BY ME.
Seriously. This is something that has always bugged me that I find it impossible to be zen about. Line cutters? I’m fine with it. Bad driving related lameness? No problem. But this, “that seat is saved” business is more than I can breathe through.
Posted by Jenny @
2:47 pm |
Flotsam pt.3
Today I shall answer dear Leah’s questions. Leah was my boss at the hostel where I worked when we lived in England. I was super lonely there, and Leah was one of the bright spots. We would spend hours planning vacations. She’s been everywhere. They even rented an RV once and drove all over the Western US. Isn’t that brave and awesome? Operating an RV in a foreign country, when you usually drive a teen Euro car, on the other side of the road? Are you kidding me? I’m so happy that we’re still in touch! Would you PLEASE start a blog already?
Where do you look forward traveling to with Clark, near and distant future?
Oh my gosh, just everywhere. I hope that we can take him all over the world! In the near future, I’m hoping we have a Thailand trip coming up in the fall. Distant? I’m looking forward to a time when he’s interested in museums and taking him to the UK. Not so much art, but history, ruins, castles, stuff like that. I’m so hoping for a nerdy child.
How much of your freezer has been taken over by baby food purees?
Ha! Not much of it, actually. I don’t seem to have the proper storage containers for freezing baby food. (Can anyone recommend any?) I’ve been making a batch of whatever and putting it in individual serving sized bowls with lids in the fridge. At one time, I had a MASSIVE supply of frozen breastmilk, my “Freezer of Feedom” as we called it, but now, he eats so much I can’t seem to get too far ahead.
Have you quietly sneakily worried about where he will go to school yet, or is that thought completely off the radar?
That’s a problem for another day, but I’m hoping we can send him to a Waldorf School. I happen to know several Waldorf educated children and they’re all delightful, inquisitive, artistic sorts. It can be expensive, though, so who knows. It would be super cool if he could go to Waldorf all the way through, but I imagine at some point I would let him choose if he wanted to switch to public school.
How proud are you that your baby is so cute and how capable you have been of capturing every moment? Is there anything about him you wish you could capture on film but cant quite get?
I’m SO proud that he’s so cute! It’s such a crap shoot, right? I know if he wasn’t cute, I would still think he was, but judging by the attention he gets in public, I think he actually *is* cute. I don’t actually capture every moment, though. It’s hard to pay attention to him and photograph him at the same time. I also think that since I’ve been doing more professional sittings, I’m taking fewer pictures of my own kid. I need to take tons more, because if there’s something I’m not getting, it’s his range of expressions. I usually get a smile or the ‘wide open mouth curious face’ or the ‘wide open mouth excited’ face. He also does the most ADORABLE things with his lips, which I can never seem to capture. This reminds me, I need to get on his 7 month post!
Thanks, Leah! XOXO
Posted by Jenny @
11:40 pm |
