Fashion.

Folks, can someone please explain this 'cause I just don't get it.

The Business of Life includes… Style

Or lack thereof.

My dear reader, today I find my fabby self at the salon. Since I don’t go in the sun, but love my Cali blond, I pay for it. Quelle Surprise! Code word “Kissed by the Sun” = 2 hours of foils and looking like an alien freakizoid. At the end of it, TheBetsy is fabulous.

But I digress.

So I’m at the salon, which for all those that don’t know, is the epicenter of what’s going on wherever you might be. Seriously. New in town? Need a tip on the best (insert word)? Go to the local hair salon. Those ladies there will set you straight and set you up for whatever you need. Tip well.

So back to the point of this story. And there is one.

Going and getting all dolled up means… magazines. Loads and loads of Vogues, Elles, Bazars, W’s, InStyles, and Marie Claire. In a word, H-E-A-V-E-N.

So laden with super-thick fall issues, I was shocked. SHOCKED… to find that I don’t get whatever the HELL is going on in today’s fashion. Sure, I’m not 20. But oh holy crap of St. CoCo Chanel what’s going on? Military? Chiffon floral dresses? Battered leather jackets. Super sexy booties. BUT ALL IN THE SAME LOOK? What? Throw in a few pearl and military spike necklaces and I’m just baffled.

Clear instructions were given how to put these looks together, which still left me lost, lonely and … old.

Should I be the coming to grips with the fact that I am … (how do they say it?).. too old to appreciate today’s fashion?

Or has fashion just lost it’s mind?

Right now I’m going with the latter.

‘Cause it’s totally true.

Liquid Retrospective- Thanks to J.K.

Sometimes The Business of Life is…. to do scary and to dream a little bigger.

The past few days, I’ve been thinking about this blog and writing.

I recently saw Oprah interview J.K. Rowling — a fascinating interview of the literal rags-to-riches story of the world’s first billionaire writer.

Jo (her name is Joanne but the “J.K.” was marketing ploy not to alienate the boys) wrote because she had to, nothing else.  The story of Harry Potter filled her head one train ride and flowed out onto the page.  Turned down by 12 publishers, the 13th sealed her fate by publishing the first “The Sorcerer’s Stone.”  But she just wrote the ideas that filled her head.

So of course I started thinking about my writing.  Not that I put myself in Ms. Rowling’s league…not in the slightest… but the story was inspiring.  I started writing because of all of the ideas I had in my brain.  My husband suggested that I do  a blog and well, the rest is TheLiquidBetsy.

But I was totally afraid at the beginning.

Writing wasn’t natural to me. In fact it was something I hated.  I could always talk a good game and I could always sell an idea, but pen to paper? Torture. “You wrote 6 papers in this one paper,” my exasperated high school AP English teacher sighed. I don’t blame him, as I exasperated myself.  I became a math major in college partly because of the limited papers required.

Writing TheLiquidBetsy has taught me you really have “nothing to fear but fear itself.” Because once I relaxed, the writing flowed.  This blog has proved to myself that I can write and get better. I am grateful I took the leap of faith.

So J.K. has inspired me to think of writing more.  Perhaps even go a little bigger.

Or at least toy with it.

How Deep is the Social of Social Media?

The Social Network - out in theaters now.

The Business of Life includes… questioning technology.

Social Media is everywhere and pretty much everyone is doing it. My nieces, my mother-in-law, my friends all Facebook. In fact Facebook is so prevalent that a movie about it’s creation debut #1 this past weekend. Add in Twitter and Foursquare and Social Media has woven itself into the fabric of our everyday life.

It’s fun. It’s commercial. It’s social. It’s chaotic. It’s sharing. It’s addicting. It’s dangerous. It’s all that and less, and so much more at the same time.

If that makes sense.

I’ve talked about online privacy and security before. The recent suicide of Rutgers University Tyler Clementi caused me to circle back to online “security” from a different angle.

“Jumping off the gw bridge sorry”

That’s it. Tyler’s last words.

On Facebook.

Personal connections. How deep are they –now that we include Facebook (et al.) as  one of the primary ways to foster, cultivate and keep these connections? We post our highs, our lows, pictures of our children, we announce our marriages, new jobs, new homes– the connections we’re building via social media are worth so very much, or so very little, depending how much emotional energy we’ve expended building them.

And not all “friends” are created equal. We know that. But in-person it is easier to gauge the depth of these connections. Online connections gives us the ability to have 500 friends or followers if we wanted, but also the distance to not really know any. This distance also gives us the false sense of security- we’re more apt to post something online than share it in-person. So at the same time we feel both safe but are more exposed. Closer to more people but not as close.

I just wonder, at what point, does one feel either so comfortable, so safe or so alone that Facebook seems the only place to post your departing words?

My sincerest condolences go to the family and friends of Tyler Clementi- while we’ve lost the potential of what he could have been –they’ve lost the son, brother and friend that he was.