Shopgirl

This time of year I am always reminded of a quote from You've Got Mail. Its when they are chatting online before they've ever met and Meg Ryan ask Tom Hanks " Don't you just love New York in the fall? and Tom Hanks replies " It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address." I love fall and this is my exact sentiment. I love to see all of the leaves falling and then having their little tornadoes in the street. Pumpkins and Mums and all the things that go with them just make me happy. I start planning Thanksgiving and thinking about making Christmas presents.

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I think of quotes from You've got Mail all the time actually. So much of me really reminds me of Meg Ryan's character Kathleen Kelly. I even had the Meg Ryan hair cut for years. Here are a few of my favorite quotes.

I think of this every time I go to Starbucks:
Joe Fox: The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the heck they're doing or who on earth they are can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall. Decaf. Cappuccino

The reason this is so funny to me is because it is so true. I always feel so good about knowing what I want and who I am when I ask for my Tall Vanilla Brewed Iced Coffee in a Grande cup.

This post proves the point of why I identify with this next one.

Kathleen Kelly: Sometimes I wonder about my life. I lead a small life. Well, not small, but valuable. And sometimes I wonder, do I do it because I like it, or because I haven't been brave? So much of what I see reminds me of something I read in a book, when shouldn't it be the other way around? I don't really want an answer. I just want to send this cosmic question out into the void. So good night, dear void.
The next one just suits me. Its something I would think. Except for that hats are not usually a mistake. The mistake lies in not wearing the hat. We let them hang in our houses getting covered up in dust when we should just grab them and wear them because who cares if anybody else thinks its a hat day, everyday is a hat day.

Kathleen Kelly: Once I read a story about a butterfly in the subway, and today, I saw one. It got on at 42nd, and off at 59th, where, I assume it was going to Bloomingdales to buy a hat that will turn out to be a mistake - as almost all hats are.

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Joe Fox: Well, let me ask you something. How can you forgive this guy for standing you up and not forgive me for this tiny little thing of... of putting you out of business?
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For a long time when somebody hurt me deeply I would think about the last few sentences of this next line.


Kathleen Kelly: Well... if he's not here, he has a reason, because there is not a cruel or careless bone in his body. But I wouldn't expect you to understand anybody like that. You with your theme park, multi-level, homogenize-the-world mochaccino land. You've deluded yourself into thinking that you're some sort of benefactor, bringing books to the masses. But no one will ever remember you, Joe Fox. And maybe no one will remember me, either, but plenty of people remember my mother, and they think she was fine, and they think her store was something special. You are nothing but a suit!

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I always think of this when someone says that something isn't personal. Because I really think this is true.

Joe Fox: It wasn't... personal. Kathleen Kelly: What is that supposed to mean? I am so sick of that. All that means is that it wasn't personal to you. But it was personal to me. It's *personal* to a lot of people. And what's so wrong with being personal, anyway? Whatever else anything is, it ought to begin by being personal.