Thoughts on Barbie

Barbie has always fascinated me. As a young girl I loved playing with my Barbies. I would have different bodies dressed in different clothes and then just switch the heads around instead of going through the hassle of changing their clothes. As an adult I still love to peruse the Barbie aisle at toy stores just to see what crazy new things Barbie is up to.

About 10 years ago I made an observation that the makers of Barbie underestimate the intelligence of children. It was right after the release of Jurassic Park (ok, so maybe it was more than 10 years ago) and I was looking at the different 'job' Barbies. I came across "Pet Doctor Barbie". This seemed pretty typical of her careers up to that point. Then, right next to the pet doctor was "Paleontologist Barbie" complete with her pink canteen and hiking boots. Why does Matel think that kids would know what a Paleontologist was but not a veterinarian? That just struck me as funny.

More recently (as in last week) I was walking through the toy area in Target and discovered that Barbie is the crazy cat lady! She falls into that definition very easily since, A) she isn't married and B) she has more than two cats. I came to that 3+ cat conclusion since the Barbie bedroom set comes with a cat, the Barbie futon living room comes with a cat, and the Barbie fancy bathroom comes with another cat! It gave me hope that someone as successful and beautiful as Barbie still can't find a good man. Although that might be because her only choice is Ken, who always seemed to be a beach bum.

Really?

So, I've been dating Smokey for about 3 weeks and he's very nice but he also has some really big drawbacks. The main one is being a chain smoker. I've dated smokers in the past and it was alright and not too bad, but having to smoke one (or more) cigarette at least every hour is a bit excessive in my opinion. The fact that every time he kisses me I can smell the smoke on his breath is just terrible. I've hinted a couple of times (trying to be polite) that I've got a spare toothbrush he can have, but that seems to be too subtle. It is also too subtle a hint for the morning breath thing. I feel like such a bitch since I wouldn't kiss him this morning (his b-day) and finally just blurted out that it was "the whole morning breath thing". Real subtle on my part. But I did make a point of telling him last night about the spare toothbrush (pretty and still in it's wrapper). The thought of kissing someone with smoker breath on top of morning breath who didn't brush their teeth before going to bed is just yucky. Especially since I had been up, was dressed and had eaten and brushed my teeth already. I would have felt it all morning.