The Drive Behind Women Drivers (and Cheaper Rates)
Today on the news, I heard a story about how the European Union had recently ruled that gender-based parameters for determining insurance premiums and benefits are illegal – meaning namely that women, who are typically viewed as good drivers and therefore get cheaper insurance rates, will feel the burn of higher premiums.
Is this fair?
Absolutely. I’m in complete support of gender equality, even if it means that women lose perks. After all, what have we been fighting for all this time if not complete equality? Equality means an even footing, and although some might argue that the landscape is already skewed so far in men’s favor that a little women’s favoritism won’t hurt anybody, I strongly believe that those types of perks aren’t doing us any favors in the long run.
One question I’d like to raise is about the basis that women are better drivers and were receiving lower insurance rates. I don’t know about you, but I’ve heard countless degrading remarks on the abilities of women as drivers, coming from all types of men — and women! How did this stereotype persist even when insurance companies (notoriously stingy with their money) were giving a financial break to women on the completely opposite basis?
Case in point: The first results when you google “women drivers” are videos and images making fun of women drivers, and the below image is the very first image result:
Absolutely baffling. Any theories?
Grammar Lesson of the Day: Buffalo buffalo buffalo
I learn something new every day. One of my favorite ways to do so is the “Random Article” feature on Wikipedia.
Today, it was: “Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo.” is a grammatically valid sentence in the American English language, used as an example of how homonyms and homophones can be used to create complicated linguistic constructs.
The sentence is unpunctuated and uses three different readings of the word “buffalo”. In order of their first use, these are
- a. the city of Buffalo, New York, which is used as a noun adjunct in the sentence and is followed by the animal;
- n. the noun buffalo, an animal, in the plural (equivalent to “buffaloes” or “buffalos”), in order to avoid articles;
- v. the verb “buffalo” meaning to bully, confuse, deceive, or intimidate.
Thanks, Wikipedia!
The finished save-the-date, and wedding invite
The day we’ve all (ok, mostly me) been waiting for!
and, the invitation:
and the rsvp card (fog color will be lighter to match the above cityscape, actually, but you get the idea):
The invite will be framed/matted on this awesome shimmery gunmetal gray paper. Woot!
invitation design: i have a deadline.
CRAP!
I have a deadline for finalizing the design of our invitations: December 31st.
I’m not sure I’m going to make it. The vast differences in the following designs may give you an idea of the span of my indecisiveness.
Here’s what I have so far:
Here’s what I had two weeks ago:
and my personal favorite part, the matching RSVP card:
MaryAnn (my maid of honor) classified the first one as “sort of like I’m going to a spa” – agree! Out.
The green one is a little too plain, so that’s pretty much out.
So now it’s between the movie-poster-looking one that will eat up all my computer’s ink,
or the first one I created (with matching RSVP card). The only real problem I have with the last one (the first one? ack, confusing) is that I can’t seem to match the color of the ink in Photoshop to the paper backing, so the printed versions always come out sort of weird, and I’d have to do a bunch more trial and error to figure it out. So frustrating!
Which one is your favorite?
The red wedding dress conundrum
I think the truest wedding planning advice I’ve heard so far is, “You’ll change your mind a hundred times so just get over that now.” It’s so true.
I’ve gone from black and white formal wedding (with me in a red dress making a grand entrance), to a very boring blue and green J. crew looking wedding, to a Spanish fiesta with lots of pinks and oranges, to an all-sunflowers-nothing-but-sunflowers wedding. I’ve bought a wedding dress, returned it, almost bought one again on the spot that wasn’t returnable (thanks Mom, for talking me out of that) and said “Hmm, this is veeeery pretty, this could be the one!” to at least 10 dresses.
You could say I’ve changed my mind a lot. Yeah, that definitely applies to me.
The red wedding dress is really the only thing from that list above that sticks in my mind. I’ve already found my wedding dress (for a cool $380, ladies do yourself a favor and shop the sale section at Trudy’s in Campbell if you know what’s good for ya) but I can’t help but think how adorable a poofy little red number would be on the dance floor.
I was pretty much obsessed with this photo for a while:
Gorgeous, isn’t it?
Still has me thinking about getting a brightly colored dress for the reception. At least I got to wear red for my Burning Man wedding 🙂
The other wedding that I’m in love with stylistically is Ketrin & Jonathan on FeatherLove’s blog. She has an adorable poofy lime green number.
I’m sure other brides out there have toyed with the idea of a colored wedding dress, am I right? A colored wedding dress automatically does so much to up your uniqueness factor that maybe you don’t have to spend time obsessing on whether or not you’ve seen that same exact font on hundreds of invitations before? Does that even matter? Not speaking from personal experience or anything.
Recent Work – Holiday Card Contest!
This week, I’ve been running a contest on ArtBistro – $350 to the best holiday card design. Since we’re promoting and marketing it heavily but don’t have much in the way of design resources, I got to step in and flex my photoshop muscle 🙂 Here’s one of the cool things I got to design!
The tiniest BBQ of all
This is AMAZING for city living! Seriously, have you ever seen a tinier (or more adorable) BBQ?
You can buy it here: http://www.designdelicatessen.dk/produkter/128-diverse/545-altangrill-/
But buyer beware, the currency is in Danish Kroner (and the price is right around $85 U.S. dollars). A bargain for a BBQ that not only can move from tiny apartment to tiny apartment, but that appears large enough to do a hot dog cook-out for 10 people!
In other summer weather news… San Francisco remains foggy and cold. Cue the sad trombone noise.
What to Eat for Lunch? Downtown SF Edition
There’s a little game I like to play at lunch time. It’s called, “In this City of Endless Foods, What Shall I Nom Today?”
Today I was introduced to the tandoori scented halls of Bindi on 2nd and Market. It looks relatively new, but don’t let that fool you. I ordered a Chicken Wrap for $5.75 (a super-bargain!), which actually should have been called Heavenly Orange Tandoori Naan Burrito with Cucumber and Lettuce Raita Deliciousness.
Imagine this, plus raita and a variety of other sauces, wrapped in fresh baked naan.
My tastebuds rejoiced.
I may have a new favorite Indian place, but that’s not to discount the other fine establishments that I’ve patronized over the past 3 years I’ve worked in downtown San Francisco.
Places like Out the Door, where I get their (slightly overpriced) papaya salad at least once a week.
Or Cafe Dolci, when I’m willing to wait in a 20 person line for my scrumptious, $4.25 Vietnamese sandwich.
Or when I stand in line drooling over the display case at Delica.
Then there’s the Maui salad at Mixt Greens, which I’m almost physically incapable of not ordering.
Well, now I’ve done it. I’m hungry again.
Customer Service 101
Since getting engaged, I’ve been exposed to a whole new world in customer service what with ring maintenance, wedding dress shopping, and venue procuring.
I’m convinced that the only people who know good customer service are regular people. And Nordstrom, I guess (obliged to say that since I worked for them and yes, it really is their #1 priority, internally too).
When my fiancee first proposed, he surprised me with this sucker:
It’s gorgeous. I love it. Sadly, during the first two weeks of wear, two of the pave stones fell clean out. So, I went back to Macy’s with him, where he bought it, and asked them to return it. Macy’s salespeople aren’t tremendously helpful as a rule, but a glum looking salesperson exchanged it for the same thing, and I bought the service policy.
About two weeks later, I was driving down some bumpy roads and heard something jangling. Turns out it was the center stone of my ring, loose. More pissed than ever (especially since this ring is supposed to last me forever) I went back to the Macy’s counter but held my anger inside because I know firsthand that angry customers do not get quicker or better service. They just make everyone else angry, too.
When I got there, it was pretty much the same routine. I felt like an interviewer, asking how long they estimated it would take, where does the ring go, do they get status updates so is it worth calling and checking in? among other things. The salesman had the same glum expression the entire time, from the moment I walked in and asked if there was a specific service department person I needed to talk to. Just blank-faced and slightly irritated from the get-go.
Wedding dresses are another story. In those hellholes you have to practically tell whoever is helping you to please let you make up your own mind. I went to three separate bridal salons and got three equally fake cheery saleswomen telling me I HAD FOUND IT! THIS IS IT! when clearly the expression on my face said otherwise (also known as my “Bitch, Please” face). They must make a commission because no one is that cheery. And also, who does that serve? If you pressure someone into buying something, the chances are pretty high that it will get returned, and the person won’t return for fear of pushy salespeople. Trust, I know this.
The one woman that was actually enjoyable to shop with was a girl who only worked at the shop once a month, and was planning her own wedding as well. She knew the merchandise and could help suggest things, was easy to talk to, but left me the hell alone with my friends, which is exactly what I wanted.
So what does that say? The best customer service people have knowledge; they also have the tact and people skills to know when to back off. They don’t tell you what you need – they ask you what need, and they listen. Then, they find it for you on sale, or they find something you didn’t even know you wanted.
Now if I could just get my ring back in less than a week. 😦
A proper restoration
Yoinked from HeyOkay
KAYLA BAXTER 