Yes. No!! Yes.
We’ve all experienced things that sound like great ideas at first, but on second thought seem awful. For instance, mink coats (all those poor minks!) or going to Cousin Markie’s wedding (he’s marrying that person and there’s no bar?).
But sometimes there’s a Phase 3 — we relax and realize it’s OK after all. What are some things like that for you?
Cats: Nice? Killer? Cuddly?
For instance, the header image is early aviator John Moisant with his cat (and flying companion) Mademoiselle Fifi. Cat ownership starts out as something so normal you don’t think about it. But at some point it dawns on you that you’re sharing your space with something that would feast on you if it was hungry after you fell down the stairs. You have a box full of its excrement in your home. It doesn’t care about anything but its own needs.
But then you decide that it’s cute, it’s funny, it’s endearing when it sleeps on your lap, and it’s fine. It’s totally fine.
The Ties That Bind
Or look at Moisant’s tie. Early on you probably just accepted ties. At some point you then realized that wearing a tie is a pain, and it’s not at clear what it’s for — covering up the buttons on your shirt?
But at some point you get a really sharp tie, you look in a mirror and think — this works! — and you decide even if you don’t want to wear one all the time, in the right circumstances they’re cool.
Flopping Back to Flip
What are some things where you’ve gone through the same dynamic? For instance, did you sit for an annual family holiday photo as a kid, then decide in your teens it was stupid, but now you look forward to it? Did you love peanut butter as a little kid, get sick of it as a young adult, but now feel nostalgia?
People often go through this process with music, first liking a band, then thinking they’re a cliche, then finally listening deeper and realizing they were good along. Maybe swimming was something you loved when it was casual, but grew to hate due to a hypercompetitive jerk of a coach, but now you’re fine with it. Or maybe there’s a historical figure like Lincoln who you swallowed the basic myth, then grew to loathe after reading about his racism, but now appreciate more as you’ve learned more about his era?
What are some things you’ve gone back and forth on, but now think are fine? And how did you get there?
KD aka Kraft Dinner aka Canadian Kraft Macaroni and Cheese
LOVED it as a kid. Ate so much of it as a lousy cooking university student that I hate it. I won’t touch it willingly. I like homemade, but no way to the stuff in the box. Haven’t eaten it for 20+ years.
Former housemate used to eat it all the damn time (now he doesn’t I hear because he actually lost weight-turns out he was quite upset that I was in decent shape the last time he saw me and rage dieted–sadly, I once joked that we are a bitter “divorced” hetero male couple… and it turned out to be true.)
Holy macaroni! Don’t diss the KD! You overdosing on it is clouding your judgement of the fantastic radiation orange delicacy.
When I was a kid (so under 18) I didn’t like olives and now they are part of my 78 Basic Food Groups.
Twice I got sick from eating. Once I over-indulged in Oreos and for a couple of years the mere smell of them made me nauseous. I came around.
Either my junior or senior year I got food food poisoning so bad at a Chinese (“Chinese”) restaurant that for years I couldn’t eat it. I went through my entire college career without once having a bite of Chinese food. Now when I go to a Chinese restaurant with a predominantly non-Asian clientele I pull the server aside and ask them to bring me something, anything, that they would eat themselves. “Oh no, you’d find it too spicy.” “Oh no I wouldn’t.” And they almost always do, and I’ve had the most fantastic meals, but since I was ordering off-menu I have no idea what the names are of what I was actually served.
I think it often has to do with the owners and cooks being from one region but most of what is on the menu is from a different region, so its almost like going to an Italian restaurant featuring Milanese food but it’s run by Sicilians. If you can get out of the format, you’re better off.
With the places I’m thinking of it’s more that the palate is Americanized. Toned down, not too spicy, syrups, meat-to-vegetable ratio is off. And these are somewhat well-regarded places in Manhattan (not that Manhattan lacks for shitty restaurants) not the China Palace in the strip mall down on Route 44.
Dammit. I suddenly really miss the mall Chinese place where you got a massive pile of fried rice, 2 or 3 mains (usually something drowning in sweet sauce and something else drowned in soy sauce gravy), an eggroll, and a giant soda for like, $7. Pretty sure Covid ruined that one. 😒
I never understood people acting shocked that a cat would eat their corpse. A dog would, too.
And as morbid as this is to say — at that point, I’m dead. I have no dog currently, but if I did and I died and it took a few days for people to realize I was dead? Graze away. It wasn’t like I wanted an open casket anyways.
Body hair. As a kid I didn’t care that I had it. Then preteen years kicked in and OMG can’t be sasquatch or no one will like me. Late 30s me? Eh, whatevs. I’m not taking that much time to shave anything.
Yeah, spending money on haircuts is wasted now. My hair is fine as long as it is out of my eyes.
I’ve flip flopped about flip flops.
I used to like them as a kid. Till I had to run in them and didn’t like them. And the former university housemates who used them to grow various kinds of foot fungus in them.
Now, I don’t mind them as long as I keep them clean.
They’re great for up to about 50 yards. I was bike riding for a few miles with friends recently and at one point I looked down and saw one of this couple was wearing flip flops. Not ideal.
I hate closed toe shoes so much that by default I like flip flops and slides because I wear them as slippers in winter.
I like flip flops but I see people wearing them at the dog park and I’m like WTF? 🤢
Cigarettes – I loved smoking, I never worried about negative health issues, didn’t try quitting. Until I got pregnant. It was supposed to be temporary. I looked forward to that first post natal cigarette, thought about it, dreamed about it. And when I took that first drag it was so awful. I kept smoking that cigarette but it tasted terrible. I almost cried. But haven’t had another one since then. Every once in awhile I’ll get a whiff of tobacco and feel a strong craving.
I give up; everything I have thought of feels sort of mean. It is one of those nights after one of those weeks?
@Elliecoo You are one of the best and kindest people I’ve ever known. It must have been a really tough week for you to be feeling mean. I hope it gets better. ❤️
I left out the part where John Moisant’s pilot career ended when he fell out of his plane 25 feet up and died in 1910, but I like to think that since his flying companion Mademoiselle Fifi was a cat, she may well have been OK.
Crash landing stories and narrow escapes from disaster are all OK too.