i don't know if you're aware, but i'm madly in love with tina fey. i have been for some time. from SNL to "30 rock" and "baby mama" to bossypants, she's who i want to be when i grow up. last year, she gave this interview for google, promoting the release of her book. i just recently watched it and not only did i fall in love with her allover again, it solidified why every encounter i have with her, no matter the medium, leaves me wiping away tears of laughter and also filled with hope.
for all the multifaceted reasons that "30 rock" is pure genius and continues to be one of my favorite shows of all time, the part that tickles my heart the most is what tina brings to her character, liz lemon. on a regular basis she gives insight into both personal and general female insecurities. not only do we laugh at period jokes, having to wear spanks for special occasions, an obsession with cheese, an avoidance of working out, eating right, and other such healthy activities, and the ever elusive battle against unwanted hair, facial or otherwise-- we also identify with all these things. and tina's ability to make us laugh about them totally normalizes all the stuff we ladies are terrified men will find out about. the jig is up, y'all, men and women are equally disgusting and awkward. thanks, 30 rock!
bossypants gives us a little more of a personal take on some truly delightful insight into young girl/high school/college tina. she shares very candidly (and friggin' hilariously) about how hopelessly awkward and insecure she was. how all she really wanted was to be noticed by a boy. how much it sucked that she didn't look the way magazines and other girls were telling her she was supposed to look. but the thing that comes across the most clearly and sincerely, is that even as she recounts all this stuff, you get a real sense that having experienced all of this has made her genuinely okay with, and dare i say, happy with who she is now. one of my personal highlights of the book is the chapter she spends responding to some, shall we say, rather negative criticisms floating around the interwebs. it is paralyzed-with-laughter, tears-in-your-eyes, pee-your-pants funny. i tried to read it aloud to my brother once and could barely get any of the words out. tina feels comfortable enough with herself to put those things in print, and then make us laugh with her as she responds. ignorant internet dummies - 0, tina - 1!!
all of this to say, tina is at her prime in her early 40s. she hit her stride in her 30s (or, "dirty thirties," as i like to now call them, borrowed from season 4, episode 10 of "30 rock" in which liz watches a special that reports scientific findings that women peak sexually in their 30s) and she's only getting better and better. this is where the hope comes in for me. there seems to be this notion that as we get closer to 30, we are leaving the best years of our life behind us. or, that there is some window of time we're allotted in which we're supposed to do things like get married and have kids or determine some distinct career path and lock ourselves into it, and if we're not doing one or all of those things, the window is getting narrower and narrower as we get older and older, and we're somehow missing our chance at anything worthwhile. i would just like to take a moment and call bullsh*t on that. the best is yet to come, i say. we get better with age. we know ourselves better. we understand the world around us and its Creator better. and this makes. us. better. it's not easier. and it's not less painful or less scary. but i just believe age and wisdom go hand-in-hand, and so i say, bring on the birthdays! i welcome my dirty thirties and whatever crazy, hard, exciting, scary, sh*t comes with 'em.
i also listened to kristen wiig give an interview with alec baldwin (i know, right?!?! :D) on his WNYC radio show, "here's the thing." guys, she went to school for studio art. she held like, a thousand random jobs before she even gave acting, writing and improv a thought. AND LOOK AT HER NOW!!! i'm telling you, it's inspiring. these beautiful, smart, hilarious, talented women... who just keep getting better. alright, this post has gotten long enough. LEGATE: OUT.
ps- oh, and here's this little treat...! :)
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