I'm not a Yuppy...Am I?!?

Several years ago my mother called me a Yuppy. I remember being offended thinking of the sterotypical Yuppy of the 80s, the young hot shots in their designer suits and serious faces in stark contrast to their day glow wearing or punk rocker counterparts. So what if some of my best friends own a sailboat?!?

Websters Dictionary defines a Yuppy as: noun. a young, ambitious, and well-educated city-dweller who has a professional career and an affluent lifestyle.

Uh oh friends...looks like we've become Yuppies, but I am not complaining one bit.

As a matter of fact I am quite pleased with my Yuppy lifestyle because I know that it has come with blood, sweat and tears. I've worked for it!

I enjoy sitting on the porch of my house in downtown Denver drinking local brews with my yuppy friends. And now when I go sailing with my friends, fly off somewhere for the weekend, sit in my season ticket holding friend's seats, I embrace the judgement that may befall me.

I laugh about it sometimes too. Just this weekend as I pulled up to a 5 star hotel that I was visiting for a work event and the valets and bell hops greeted me by name and carried my over packed suitcase and garment bags to my suite, I thought back to a few weeks ago when I was checking into a tiny mosquito infested bungalow with no a/c, no hot shower and lizards that ran in under the door. At that time, I was carrying everything I had needed for a 3 week trip in a small day pack. Was I a yuppy then?!?

Either way, I know people like to label and I love to shatter labels. I love the look of shock when people learn something new about me when they thought they had me pegged. So I will continue to embrace this lifestyle, my lifestyle, whatever you decide to label it.

I heart social networking

There are a lot of people out there that really have an issue with social networking websites like facebook, myspace and twitter. Now I have to admit, I have not gotten into "The Twitter" as Betty White calls it, but I loved myspace before it became completely weird and now I'm sure you are all aware of my FB addiction.

When I encounter people who are adverse to social networking I always ask, "Why?" and am usually answered with the standards "I like my privacy", "the people I want to talk to know how to get ahold of me", or "there are weird people out there and I don't want them to know all of my business."

While I do understand that reasoning, I also recognize the fact that I moved away from my hometown the day after I graduated high school and lost touch with a lot of people that were my world for so long. And while I do try to stay in touch with everyone, there are still times that you lose people and it is fun to catch up and see what has been going on in each others lives. I have my facebook set to private, so only my friends can see pictures and status updates, I don't respond to requests or messages from people I don't know, and I love catching up with friends, old & new!

I was reminded how great these sites can be when I recently reconnected with some long lost BFFs. Man, we used to do EVERYTHING together! I never could have imagined my life without them, but as happens in life, we lost touch, grew apart, and didn't have a way to reconnect. Now I get to see them on a daily basis, whenever I need a smile, or when I want to remember the good ol' days. I get to see pictures of their kids and see how they've changed (or not) over the years.

Instead of passing notes, we send each other a message, tag each other in photos, or write on each others walls. When one of us updates our status, the other's can chime in. It's like we're kids again, or still. Either way...I heart social networking.