Meg Ryan-failing to live up to early expectations
I recently came to thinking about the notion of under promising and over delivering spurred on by a conversation with some girls from my office as we waited for the elevator. The girls were talking about a crazy friend of theirs who was actively stalking a guy she was dating . I had always thought dating and stalking to be mutually exclusive so I dared asked the girls to define both for me and they quickly obliged:
Stalking is:
-Drunk dialing: a universal institution that will never grow old
-Calling then hanging up-:when adults behave like tweens
-Apartment cruising: the convenient habit of randomly finding yourself in close proximity to his digs is not nearly as popular as it used to be pre Internet days but still alive in Manhattan
-Having your birthday at his local bar: "oh..what are the chances..."
-Friending his friends on Facebook: let's start referring to Facebook as what is really is- another channel for dating.
-The daily google search, now made easier by 'professional' social networks like Linked In: this is about bringing work home.
Dating is:
- when he pays.
"Ahhhh..his city makes people crazy" I said to the office girls.
"Especially women" , said one of the girls and at once, we united as one against all the Manhattan crazies and it was almost like a scene from Sex and the City 2 without the camels.
"I think I'm an excellent girlfriend" said my new friend and we all nodded, just as all the girls did in Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants. Some more bonding ensued " OMG ..reallllyyy?, "that's soooooo funny", " awesome", "so cute" etc etc.
And then one of the girls went on to share her wisdom of under promising and over delivering.
"I mean, I don't ask for much from my boyfriend" she said. " Like, all I really ask of him are to follow 3 basic rules:
1.Don't do heroin
2. Don't cheat
3. Don't die.
"How's it going?", I asked her, thinking that surely, her man could over deliver here.
" Well he's not dead yet" she said.
And then we all held hands and said a silent prayer that we would never become as pathetic as Meg Ryan.
