Mad Men show description:

Set in 1960s New York, the sexy, stylized and provocative AMC drama Mad Men follows the lives of the ruthlessly competitive men and women of Madison Avenue advertising, an ego-driven world where key players make an art of the sell.

I work in advertising. It is an incredibly thrilling, corrupt, perverse, twistedly beautiful industry to work in. At times I love it, other times – not so much. I have a very “old school” boss. Actually “old school” does not accurately describe him, but if I have learned anything from Dooce, it’s to keep your blogging description to a minimum when it comes to bosses and companies. So for the purpose of this post he is “old school”.

Anyway, my “old school” boss has been encouraging all of us to watch the AMC series Mad Men. I have been meaning to get around to it for over 6 months and then I found out that Comcast was making it entirely too easy and offering it “On Demand”. So sense I was still recovering from my birthday celebrations I decided to have a quite stay home weekend with my TV.

I watched the first episode and at the end of it I was in a foul mood. The way the men treated the women! The way the women allowed themselves to be treated! The arrogance! The Good Old Boys clubs! The cheating bastards! Calm yourself, I thought. You can’t judge the show off of just one episode. So I continued to watch. I watched 12 episodes this weekend. I had made myself a “to do” list for the weekend, luckily Watch Mad Men was on it, otherwise I wouldn’t have accomplished a thing! I think it was after about the 3rd episode I decided that I was officially hooked. I stopped being mad at the show and instead reflective and greatful. I started thinking about my Grandma (“Hi Grandma”) and what it must have been like to be a young woman in the late 50′s early 60′s. I guess if it is all you have known, you wouldn’t really know to be offended. Now days womens rights are pretty much established. Sure there are still some “old school” people out there who haven’t fully embraced them, but for the most part we are treated as equals and better yet, we are finally aware of our own worth! We know that anything a man can do, we can do, and a lot of the times we do it (gasp!) better. I wonder if I would have survived back then. I am such a stubborn independent free thinking woman now…would I have been capable of being a passive-aggressive “whatever you think is best dear” type of woman? The thought sends chills down my spine and makes me so greatful to the women who fought the system and helped form the world into the place it is today! Thank you strong independent women! Thank you Grandma! Thank you Mom! My hat is off to you indeed!

Just me, Lessons Learned

Another year older.
My wonderful friend Heidi asked me at the beginning of last week what my plans for my birthday were. To which I replied – no plans whatsoever. To Heidi this was unacceptable so she organized a birthday get together with all of the girls. Here are some pictures from the festivities.

Out and About

This picture is me at age 17. Don’t I look innocent?
Well I let my curiosity get the best of me. I caved! I went to my 10 year High School reunion and let me tell you, it wasn’t that bad. OK it was a little bad and I was looking for an excuse to leave almost as soon as I got there, but I managed to stay for most of it. As I mentioned in my previous post it was held at our high school, which is a little lame, but the school has been remodeled so it was cool to see inside of it. They served the grown up but still oh so Mormon equivalent of cookies and punch, had a slide show of high school days complete with the sound track of late 90′s music, and even played a game of “who has the most kids?”. I had the same conversation about a dozen times of what I have been up to for the past 10 years. People still resorted to their old clicks of friends and it was truly like old times where they kept to themselves and I kept to myself which was alright because if we never talked in high school, what could we possibly have to say now?

I did have the chance to reconnect with a few friends that I am quite happy about. In fact, I invited my old friend Trisha to go out with me that night to a birthday party. It was crazy how much we had in common. We are both divorced with no kids and very career oriented. As the night went on we found out more and more we have in common. In Utah women like us are a rare breed, and rarer still because Trisha lives in Vegas!

Ms. Trish, Me and my friend Andy. It’s not very often you get 3 brunettes in a picture in the land of milk and honey!

So now it’s time for a (hopefully) short rant…
WARNING: Men are not to be trusted!
That same night we went out, much to my surprise, Mr. Larsen was there. I hadn’t spoken to him in 4 or 5 days but he knew that I would be at this party. I wasn’t really upset or excited to see him because I had been thinking about calling things off but wasn’t sure exactly how to because he was never my boyfriend – just the guy I was dating. Anyway, he decided to do me a HUGE favor. Early on in the night I excused myself to find some of our friends and left Andy (who was dressed to kill) sitting next to him. Since Mr. Larsen has a thing for younger women, especially ones in short skirts, he proceeded to hit on her and ask her out but said not to tell me or our friend Karina! The nerve! So of course Andy comes right out and finds me and tells me what happened. Yuck! What a slime bag! Honestly, who do you think you are? Did you think she wouldn’t tell me? I surround myself with friends who are incredibly good people.
So, to all my single gals out there, always remember that trust is earned. If you see a red flag in the beginning – do not ignore it!
Sorry, just needed to get that off my chest.

Lessons Learned, Out and About

My 10 year high school reunion is tomorrow night and I still have not decided if I should go. I can make a good argument either way, and I have been over and over in my head and out loud every time someone is dumb enough to ask me what I am doing this weekend. I am sure they are expecting a simple answer but instead I ramble on and on about the pros and cons as they are inching their way towards the door saying “OK Summer…sounds good…I’ve gotta get back to doing nothing in particular now”.

I keep thinking (with a big sign) “I’ll make up my mind later” and I still have not. So now I am wondering how many of you have gone to yours, and was it a good or bad experience?

Here is my rationalization for not going:

1. If I wanted to stay in contact with these people I would have.

2. I don’t want to answer the question “so what have you been up to the last 10 years” (or ask that question to anyone else!).

3. Most of the people that I know will be there are married with 2.5 kids and then we are back to the whole Utah mentality of poor Summer, don’t worry one day it will happen for you too because your life can’t possibly be complete the way it is now! Actually, thank you very much, I am fine with the way things are.

4. I don’t have a date. Not that I would be so mean as to put another person through this kind of an awkward night should they not be legally obligated to. Karina did offer to be my date and said we could tell everyone we are a lesbian couple just to get a reaction, but that would put this on the positive list now wouldn’t it?

5. It is being held at the high school.

6. There will be no cash bar.

Here is my rationalization for going:

1. I don’t want to look back and wish I would have gone.

2. I am still hot and thin (oh so humble too!). What can I say? Time has been good to me.

3. I have a nice life and even if it is different from what 90% of my graduating classes lifes are like, I am rather fond of it…perhaps even proud of it.

I’ll keep you posted as to what I decide to do and I look forward to hearing your feedback and stories about your reunions.

Just me, Out and About