Wednesday, 21 February 2007

What superpower would you choose?

I am still here.

We are continuing our family visit marathon with my Mum. She arrived 4 days ago and will be around for another couple of weeks. Posts may be thin on the ground and for that I apologise. It is difficult to get the privacy or time to write at the moment. I don't do well with a lack of privacy or time so I am just focusing on being a reasonable human being at the present (and dreaming of the day I have a laptop to run away to a cafe with).


I was listening to This American life a few days ago and there was an essay on a woman who had decided against the normal desired superpowers of flying and invisibility and instead wanted to be able to experience all her firsts again. The first time she read a beloved book, the first time she tasted chocolate, that kind of thing. I was taken with the romantic notion of this and for a few days was completely sold on this idea.

And then I remembered.... most first time things suck and the good ones well they are generally just as good if not better the next time around.

Each time I taste high quality dark chocolate it rocks, as good as the first I swear.

The first sip of great beer on a hot day, does it get any better? (remember the first time with liquor, yuck, well actually I don't but then I was raised in NZ where they start kids young but I imagine I said yuck).

Okay we have the obvious first, the big one, that sucked, doesn't it always?. Let it be said that virginity on the wedding night is for suckers who want a bad wedding night, there is something to be said for practice there I tell ya.

The first time we got really drunk on creme de menthe, thank god it was the last.

The first time we knitted a garter stitch scarf, ugly and painful.

The first time we turned a heel and all we could think about was how the hell are we going to do it because those directions, they are hard and dumb, know what I mean.

Don't get me started on first husbands, lets just say the second ones, they are the keepers, the first one well he sucked but was a lesson learnt.

Those first yarn purchases, almost too painful to remember, when we thought that Joann's was where you bought yarn, that or the second hand store.

So what superpower would I choose? Would I be like a scary majority of woman who would rather lose 10 pounds over gaining a higher IQ? I don't think so. As my sister says "I don't want to be 35 and still worrying if my bum looks too big in a pair of jeans". Flying, maybe. The power of association; a friend chef here, a person high up in United with lots of extra frequent flyer points there, a hair stylist everywhere. I may have spent a little too much time thinking about this.

What superpower would you choose?

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