Silly Bands and the Coolness Factor

I'm wearing two silly bands as I type this.
Now if you know any kids of elementary school age then you know that these are all the rage!! Now I am hip. I am uber-cool to have my OWN silly bands. One is in the shape of a frog and the other a dog. These were given to me by two very "cool" students who wanted to share their "coolness" with me. (All students who don't keep them on their arms at all times "get" to share their "coolness" with me....but, I'm losing my focus... these two were freely given, lest you think poorly about the behaviors in MY class!! :))

Now to my point. I think I am pretty 'with-it'. I am not totally in the stone-age. I keep up with a lot of the trends. I am aware of new candy bars, that Reese's peanut butter cups won the Candy-smackdown. I try to be at least aware of some of what is slightly in fashion - so I don't make the Don't s list somewhere!! Heck, I even have a DroidX phone (Name dropper - name dropper!) This makes me super-super cool-Hey, I realize that my kids have to help me and give me pointers all the time, but it's the fact that I OWN it that is so cool, right?!?!?

Ooops, I got off track again.

Well, the other night while we were trunk-or-treating, a sweet little spider (who shall remain nameless) sat down beside me and said, "YOU have silly bands? YOU know what they are?" Ack! I was crushed. What did this spider think? That I'm old or something? That I'm out-of-it? Gosh, my silly bands even glow in the dark (which I discovered last night in the middle of the night ! I had to hide my arm from myself so I could go back to sleep!)

All this has started me thinking. I'm pretty comfortable marching to the beat of my own drummer, I thought. I do follow some trends like ... well....at least I am aware of what's the coolest color in house decor!! And I do try to keep up with the book world. Or at least I thought I did. (I mean I read Mockingjay - only a month after it was released. ) I guess more than anything was that I was comfortable in my own skin until I saw myself through the eyes of another. That was just weird.

But the more I thought about things the more I decided I still like myself. I like most of the choices I make. I am still becoming who I want to be but I am not finished yet. Maybe I'm still experimenting, courtesy of my Maker. So, in the meantime I may surprise some by wearing cool silly bands, by decorating in urban chic, and I may read something totally off the wall - for me! It keeps people wondering about my coolness factor.

PS. Tatiana de Rosnay's book Sarah's Key is totally cool.
PPS. One Amazing Thing by Chitra Divakaruni is also totally cool.