While I was waiting for my flight to depart Monday evening, to take me out of that godforsaken place known as Indiana, I wandered over to the bookstore and purchased a copy of Tina Fey’s BossyPants. I had originally wanted to get this book from the library (Seriously people, the library is free. Why don’t more people use it?), but seeing how the wait list for the book was 137 people long, I decided I would wait to read it until 2019. Fortunately, it’s availability at the bookstore and my lack of anything to do on a four hour flight, meant that I was able to read the whole book in its delightful entirety.
I haven’t seen more than 30 minutes of 30 Rock, and I’m only a casual viewer of Saturday Night Live, but any dodo knows that Tina Fey is one funny woman; and I’m happy to report that BossyPants delivers in the funny department. It’s a great read. But what I was surprised with after finishing the book, is that Tina Fey’s hilarious honesty also makes her sound like a bitch. Perhaps I had this idea that Tina was a sweet, comedic, supermom that only made jokes because it was her job, but was more of an introvert in her normal life. But if this book is her memoir, it appears Tina’s blatant honesty and no regrets, take charge attitude permeates through her whole life. And I like it.
Not everybody is going to like you, and only a special few will love you, and what’s so bad about that? Why try to mold your actions and opinions so they jive with the rest of the world? They should only have to jive with you. That’s it. And if it means you come off sounding like a bitch, then se la vie. Amy Poehler certainly did when she told Jimmy Fallon "I don't give a fuck if you like it!" at a SNL writer’s meeting late one night, and Tina quotes this as a turning point in her view of life and work. Ultimately, you have to do what’s best for you and not be afraid to stick up for yourself.
Besides being pleasantly surprised by the book’s takeaways (namely: work hard, don’t take yourself too seriously, experience life, don’t think in terms of this-is-the-end-of-the-world… and LAUGH) I have been feeling a symbiotic relationship with Tina’s sense of humor. During my entire run yesterday, I was telling myself jokes and pretending I was a standup comedian. I thought I was genius (in hindsight it seems really sad). I even came up with a bit about gold bars: how the government should bring back precious metals as a form of currency, if only for the fact that dudes could slam a gold bar on the bar and double impress a lady when buying her a drink. Ya, doesn’t seem so funny now. I'll relegate that one to my "shit nugget" pile (as Tina calls them), and keep mining for a "golden nugget".
But I will tell you that me and Ms. Fey have something in common! She displays an un-photoshoped image of herself in the book where she looks like an old lady, and check out what I've been looking like these days:
(Background: I used that image in my 26th birthday email invite, and not to say my comedic genius outranks Ms. Fey's, but her book didn't come out till April 5th. My birthday is April 2nd. She totally stole my grandma joke.)
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