I'm done teaching for the summer. Finally. I still have a week full of meetings and end-of-the-year events, but mostly, I'm almost free. I know this in my bones because I'm starting to feel that slightly overwhelmed feeling of unstructured days ahead, and work mornings slept-through, and the sinking feeling that I just didn't get done what I needed to get done this summer.
One of the things that has gotten me through the end of the quarter, and made office hours my way favorite part of the day, has been my renewed appreciation for the quite possibly dangerous, but every bit as good as I remember it being, Tab. How can you not love a soda that comes in a pink can?
Remember how the sacchrine stays on your lips, so that a half hour after you finish the soda you lick them without thinking and there it is, that sweet, peppery flavor?
A couple of friends from college, one of whom was my roommate for a long time, are in town tomorrow and I'll be spending the day with them and their three daughters. Now, I'm not in touch with any of my undergraduate friends--we might have drifted apart over the years anyway, but my leaving the church and coming out definitely expidited the process. And that's about me as much as them--I ran to the other side of the country and immersed myself in grad school and tried to get as far away from my former self as possible. The closest to Utah I've been in over a decade was a campus visit at UN-Reno, and just the sight of the Wasatch Mts. filling up the horizon, all dusty and brown, and looming and huge, made my heart feel clutchy and pangy and panicked.
I'm kind of scared. But I really loved these two people. They weren't a *they* when I knew them; they married long after college, in their late twenties, which is kind of rare in Mormon culture, and seem to live a really low-key, joyful, tumbley kind of life. So we'll see. They tell me that their daughters are impossibly girly-girls, which amuses and exasperates them, as neither of them cares about stuff like that; they think I'll get along with them famously. I hope so. I think so.
posted by Margo, darling at 10:58 PM
6 Comments:
Tab is most definitely a girl's best friend, especially in a writing crunch. A 12-pack of the pink stuff, a carton of cigs, and several ashtrays, and you are good to go!
GayProf had a post I think in February on Tab, which ironically enough is the first post I read on his blog, and led me to comment on it. So, Tab Wimmin of the World UNITE!
TaB is the best. I stay away from the abomination that is the "energy drink." No, no. Only cancer-causing TaB for me. In fact, I have one open in front of me at this moment.
Oso also reminded me of the TaB cinch-waist glasses. I have looked for them on e-bay, but they always cost more than I am willing to pay. One day, though, I will claim some for my own.
Good luck with your friends -- I am sure they have changed quite a bit in that time as well. Utah is so amazing for its natural beauty, I am sad that there is so much oppression that occurs there.
Never mind gayprof, Tab Energy is just fine. As is regular Tab.
I've been trying to find the thread that connects the top and bottom of your post, and I think it has something to do with a lingering of something that may be a little bit dangerous, but really isn't at all.
i love m(mmm)'s attempt to tie the tab and the (jack?)mormons together. but even more i love the fact of new margo to read.
when i first moved into my office i bought a 6pack of tab -- god knows why, i just saw it at the deli -- and put it on my shelf. i drank it slowly. i kept it there mostly for decoration. it seemed dangerous and sexy.
Relatedly, I've become obssessed with Tab Energy. It is just as overbearingly sugared as other energy drinks, but the flavor is superior (like a liqueified carbonated watermellon jolly rancher) and it doesn't have the vomitous aftertaste... there's something in it that makes you want more more more...
I also love that the can is pink and girly... and I like the association with the modern woman of the 70's.. or 80's... or whenever regular Tab was originally marketed toward women. I drink it, and I'm all like, "look at me be second wave." Then there's the modern-day trixieness of it. So I like to pretend I'm Jill Clayburgh in an Unmarried Woman or Melanie Griffith in Working Girl (pending clarification about whether Tab was first marketed in 70's or 80's) merged with Nicole Ritchie. It's fabulous.
also... my friend Sara says that "Tab" was big in Salt Lake City. Is there some Mormon predilection toward Tab???
tim
Tab was first marketed in the early 1970s. I remember my favorite babysitter would order it when she took us to the Dairy Queen. She admitted that it tasted terrible, but it kept you from getting fat. I didn't think she was fat, so I didn't see the point.
I'm a big fan of Diet Coke with Splenda, a slice of fresh lime and lots of ice, but I think I'm going to have to look for Tab next time I go to the grocery store....
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