You Save Me

If you've spent even 5 minutes of the work day with me, you know how much I love (LOVE!) Aaron Paul (Jesse Pinkman) from Breaking Bad. He's frustrating and simple, but loving, genuine, and troubled just like all of us. Also, he's super dreamy (both on and off the Breaking Bad screen) and he puts up with the evil Mr. White. So of course I watched attentively as he gave his acceptance speech for his second Emmy on Sunday night. He was so gracious, excited, and humbled. He also gave the most amazing mention to his fiance, and I quote, when he said: "You truly save me." Um, weepy eyes much?! God, talk about swoon.

But it got me thinking about what saves me. Granted, I don't have "a person" who necessarily saves me (at least not a significant other), there are a few other things that save me every single day from myself...

1. Cat Power. I don't listen to her daily. In fact, before her most recent new album came out, I hadn't listened to her music in YEARS. But Cat Power is one of those few musicians who I idolize and by whom I am comforted at the same time. I started listening to her Junior year of high school when I was so bored and confused with my own existence. The album You Are Free made me feel just that--that I wouldn't forever be bound by the shackles of 16-year-old-dom. It was also at this time that I started having a weekly cigarette (sorry parents if you're reading this). Cigarettes and Cat Power are what helped me subversively define myself at a time when I was feeling very run-of-the-muck. I think of this terrifying time with fondness every time I listen to her. I'm "stoked" to see her live (for the second time, oh yeah!) on October 28th at The Riv.

2. Skinny jeans, oversized tops, and Danskos. This is my uniform, or would be if both (a) I had enough to always wear clean ones and (b) I didn't like dresses so much either. There's just something about the way it looks--masculine and feminine, Art and Science, sloppy and modern. So I'm (definitely) probably reading too much into this, but it's just nice to have an outfit that gets you, that understands you, and that won't leave you when some other, better looking outfit comes along. Also, I like the way the skinny jean makes my butt look and the way the oversized top hides my stomach after I eat too much. And the Danskos are just comfortable, even though, as a girl in the bathroom at work once told me, they're "nerd shoes."

3. Potato chips. Not enough can be send about the beauty and crunchosity of such a food, a nugget of nutrition, health, and well-being. When I am sad, happy, hungry, full, on the go or forever planted to a couch, the potato chip swoops me up in its arms and tells me everything is going to be OK. Potato chip, you are great, even when you are bad (except for Pringles...I have a hard time even calling those potato chips...you are always bad). And, as if your tender loving wasn't enough, you often give me thirst, which makes me want either a soda or a beer, two other beautiful earthly things made in God's image. Potato chip, you complete me. You make me whole. You remind me that life is good, and in fact was never bad. 

Everyone needs a little salvation.