<p>In addition to meeting the lovely, smart, talented Ariesathena, I have had the privilege of meeting SA Diva, Jamzmom. And someday I hope to meet Zaphod.</p>
<p>That was before I dyed my hair red and look like Anne of Green Gables. :)</p>
<p>Be still my heart!!!</p>
<p>We’ll have to do a DC College Confidential ruckus when I’m back to the East Coast. I think we could get LateToSchool to join us. :)</p>
<p>Momoffour and I went to college together, but we have not seen each other since 1979! Maybe one day we will reunite. Oh, how I wish at least one of each of our kids would chose our alma mater; it really is a fantastic university.</p>
<p>So, Ariesathena, you dyed your hair to match my conception of you! Gadzooks!</p>
<p>haha Alum. I have done, believe me. Only it was bloody XO, not soju. </p>
<p>For the records of early feminism, in the early 80’s, I was in a meeting with 20 Korean engineers trying to convince them to rip out $250K worth of HVAC their mega-contracting firm had just installed. They were not happy but I was not letting them out of the room until they agreed to do it. </p>
<p>After much consternated Korean silence, the 20 men suddenly began to pound the 12 foot conference table in unison, chanting at the top of their voices: “Miss Cheers! Mr Cheers needs a son! Mr Cheers needs a son! Mr Cheers needs a son”</p>
<p>Which is how I ended up with two sons and no daughters, I’m sure. ;)</p>
<p>DoddsMom, it would have been okay for you and 'Mudge to acknowledge each other. Far easier to explain than the “Wait…how does your Dad know my younger sister?” conversation my D’s “little sister” asked her one night at a birthday dinner. Just the common garden variety “Oh, my Mom talks to your Dad on College Confidential” comment with synchronized eye-rolling.</p>
<p>The one thing you need to be prepared for when meeting Aries is that she has very impaired vision. The waitress recognized my resemblance to Johnny Depp, Aries did not. Ipso dixit per ardua ad astra rikki tikki tavi.</p>
<p>TheDad,</p>
<p>The waitress agreed you looked like Johnny Depp because she works for tips!!!</p>
<p>Had I been there, she would have found it hard to miss my striking resemblance to George Clooney.</p>
<p>Would love to meet Slugg, JMMom (on the streets of Baltimore), mootmom, alumother and all the other denizens of Sinner Alley.</p>
<p>And to get together with Garland, audiophile, allmusic and driver to talk music (but NOT politics).</p>
<p>OMG Cheers, ROFLMAO. I can just see it!</p>
<p>jmmom, Sluggbugg, mstee, calmom, and I met for dinner last Hallowe’en in a restaurant that was otherwise closed. (SluggyH endured us quite well, I thought.) I’d do it again in a heartbeat, with anyone coming to or residing in the Bay Area, so… give me some warning when you’re coming this way!</p>
<p>(PS: m&s, next time I’m in Baltimore for some good lax and crabcakes, I’ll let you know!)</p>
<p>Mootmom,</p>
<p>Ah LaCross! I was wondering why you were talking about crabcakes and laxative…</p>
<p>M&S, the waitress didn’t <em>agree</em> that I looked like Johnny Depp. She stopped in mid serve and said something like, “Wow…you look like Johnny Depp.” So there.</p>
<p>okay, I see a laxative and crabcake future for us Baltimore-related folk. Just means mootmom has to make a plan. I am waiting for the spring lax schedule to come out, but it appears to be classified top secret info until January. Go figure.</p>
<p>Berurah–Binx and family were delightful. We enjoyed our visit. </p>
<p>TheDad–DS was at Centre for an overnight visit and waiting in the admissions office for his student host to show up. He was alone as he made the trip without parents (he was gone for a week-overnight at Centre and Merit Scholarship Comp. at Hanover. Grandparents taxied him around). Mudge and DD were also in the admissions office at Centre and Mudge heard our son’s name called and recognized it. Curmudgeon emailed us later to verify that it was our kid. And yep, it was our kid. Our kid wouldn’t have been freaked out by a hello or conversation about, “Hey, I know your parents from online.” Our kids have gotten used to us running into people we know where ever we travel. It’s a small world. (Now I won’t be able to get that stupid song out of my head 
)</p>
<p>
True. I do suspect that this is only about half of the story, and I’ll try to get the rest of the story from TheDaughter, who did a fantastic eye-roll at that point in time. I’m unaware of any pre-dinner shenanigans on TheDad’s part, as I had been watching Pirates of the Carribbean immediately prior to said dinner. Having seen Mr. Depp in action, only moments before walking across the street to dinner, I can assure you that TheDad bears little physical resemblance to the swashbuckling movie star.</p>
<p>
Oh, heavens, yes. If you recall all of the Legally Blonde jokes back on Twinkle’s thread, it is because both Twinkle and I are blonde by birth. Elle Woods aside, I have my limits, and a quarter-century of dumb blonde jokes was the limit. People expect blondes to either be bimbos or gentle little Victorian creatures, much like Alice in Wonderland; either way, they are quite put out when blondes have actual opinions. The red hair, IMO, acts much like brightly-coloured markings on poisonous animals: it gives notice. </p>
<p>ROTFLMAO, Cheers! At least they were honest about how they felt! :)</p>
<p>Ariesathena, isn’t that just the truth. By accident of birth I happen to have thick, very blond hair, which I wear long and straight. Every now and then in business I run into someone, always a man it seems, who makes the assumption that I’m either stupid, or uninformed, and it always MUST be based on my appearance, because it always comes from someone who doesn’t know me. Doesn’t matter how many very expensive suits I wear, or how well groomed, being blonde PLUS being attractive seems to make this particular ilk make unfortunate assumptions when they’re working off appearance only. </p>
<p>Anyway, we have a large client, and a strategic technology partner in the mix, and the client had a massive, urgent problem last week, and, for two days, we were in back and forth discussions with the strategic partner’s CIO, who does not know me, who kept saying "LTS shouldn’t go to the cite because she’s ‘not technical’ ". </p>
<p>Now, when this sort of thing happens, I like to sit back calmly and quietly, let people dig their own graves. Very, very deep, wide, moist graves, complete with worms. Then, at just the perfect strategic moment, I’ll hurl about 160 IQ points at 'em, sharpened like weapons. But after he’d said this for the seventh time in two days, I’d had enough. “Please support your statement” I began, and of course he could not do so; he could only bumble around with something like “I didn’t think you knew anything about technology…” - “Based on what information, exactly?” I asked, but of course this little ****wit had no answers. </p>
<p>So I threw my CISSP certs on the table, announced I was going to the client cite, discussion over, and I called up a plane and did exactly that. He surely was still trying to lift his jaw off the ground even while the nice people at the Harrington that Driver sent me to were checking me in. </p>
<p>I went to the client site, spent the entire day there, fixed the problem that six total IT experts could not fix (which was NOT my organization’s problem), and hopped on the last plane home. </p>
<p>The email thank-you’s are still rolling in, and this pitifully cretinous little fool is copied on every single one. </p>
<p>If I meet many more like him, I wouldn’t have to artificially color my hair red, it’ll just start growing that color on its own.</p>
<p>
LMAO!!! How very very true! Or the eyes will turn green. </p>
<p>I used to have very long blonde hair. Now I have very long red hair. There is a difference in how people treat me, and it’s sad. I do kind of wonder what it would have been like to grow up a brunette… not to have to wonder why people think that, by chance of some alchemy, my hair colour makes me an idiot.</p>
<p>Antiquated would-be sages like me (see the archetypes thread for more info) know better than to jduge someone by their appearance. That’s because we’ve learned about typecasting the hard way, or been fooled too many times by that (or we’ve used that to our advantage to fool someone else, sometimes - or all of the above). Anyway, I know a couple of smart blonde jokes.</p>
<p>So, come on blondes, former blondes or potential blondes. We old guys are ready for you.*</p>
<p>*Probably deluding myself</p>
<p>But you’re in the minority!</p>