Saturday, August 22, 2009

Three Adjectives

My friend decided to join a dating site. One of the many irritating tasks to complete her profile involved filling in three adjectives to describe yourself.

"What do you think of whiny, judgmental, and anxious?" she asked me.

After I picked myself up from the floor of the Indian restaurant (I had fallen off my chair laughing - almost not an exaggeration), I told her that I thought it was brilliant. "It's honest - although I do not think you are whiny - and intriguing. It seems like only people who get it, and thus get you, would respond." (Incidentally, I initially suggested that she use generous, intelligent, vibrant. OK, I actually said zestful, but she pointed out that sounds like a soap commercial, and just thought of vibrant now. Lively could also work. I still sort of like zestful, even if it is sudsy.)

Then I thought about what three adjectives I would use to describe myself. I realized that I would have to steal two out of three of her words because they are so true for me - judgmental and anxious. My third would be petty. I could substitute spastic or stressed for anxious and mocking for judgmental if I was forced to, but anxious and judgmental are just so perfect. Obsessive could also be a good choice. (If also forced to choose three positive ones, I would opt for entertaining, wonky, chatty.)

I hate ending blog posts by posing a question, but what three adjectives would you choose?

9 comments:

  1. ha! is wonky positive? i guess i need a better definition than what it brings to mind.
    i'll have to think about my 3.
    (love my word verification: grecism)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good: optimistic, goofy, passionate.
    Bad: obsessive, stubborn, logy

    ReplyDelete
  3. I think wonky is positive - how can being involved in public policy not be positive? I love thinking about public policy. Anyway...

    I also think stubborn is a good one for me. I wish I could use nurturing or spontaneous, but alas, I am neither.

    This is fun.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Brilliant, sexy, perfect.

    What? Did I say too much?

    ReplyDelete
  5. For you, Suz: hilarious, adventurous, honest

    Of course you are spontaneous! I was thinking of using that one for you. Passionate is also perfect for you.

    What does wonky mean?

    ReplyDelete
  6. Funny, quirky, anxious

    I took out goofy, but really it could be in there instead of goofy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. persistent, adventurous, reflective

    ReplyDelete
  8. It makes me sad that women self-identify as "whiny" and "obnoxious" and "obsessive"- those are merely labels attributed to women meant to disempower them and subvert their strengths.

    ReplyDelete