About S.Y.S.
Maybe this is your first exposure to SacrilegeYouSay. Or maybe it's your tenth visit, and you’re still scratching your head thinking, What the ever-loving funk?!
Well, the answer to that question is rather complex. Below is a guide to better understanding my special kind of crazy.
Who am I?
1. I'm inane
In middle school, I wore Far Side t-shirts and grasped Dilbert and Dave Barry’s humor better than anyone my age ought to. In high school, I was “that kid” who always finished homework early, leaving way too much free time – so I doodled caricatures of my classmates. An excerpt is shown here:
In college, I kinked my hair and celebrated “fro Fridays” on more than one occasion. Here, another excerpt:
As a thirty-something adult, not much has changed. I still love dry, offbeat humor. I still love drawing caricatures, only now I have a BFA degree to exploit.
2. I’m non-Stepford
I am, in so many ways, not Stepford.
I don’t wear enough makeup to appear airbrushed. When I’m not wearing handmade clothes, I’m wearing thrift store threads. My monthly hairstyling budget doesn’t rival my weekly food budget. (For those curious, making a white girl fro requires no special products or heat settings. Just damp hair and a whole lotta ponytail bands.)
I imagine if I were ever in a Stepford community, the women would regard me with vague mistrust. As if afraid I might randomly blurt out, “PUBLIC BREASTFEEDING IS LEGAL IN ALL STATES EXCEPT IDAHO!”
Wait, that’s true. I might do that…
3. I’m irreverent
I wish I had a dime for every time my behavior was deemed not demure or a pistol. Pursuing boys I wanted to date, rather than passively waiting for them to make the first move? Not ladylike. Wearing pants to church? The devil made me do it. Saying the word period or pad within earshot of a male? It’s the end of civilization as we know it.
Really, the low point was at a school carnival in sixth grade, when my pageboy haircut and Far Side t-shirt got me mistaken for a boy. I was at the Fish Pond, and not too happy when I reeled in a goody bag full of rubber spiders.
But I digress. The point is, I have a long history of tossing arbitrary cultural norms out the window. And I do it all in Gary Larson-approved attire.
4. I’m in-between
Growing up in a fiercely conservative area, I was raised to see things through polarizing lenses: conservative or liberal. Domestic or foreign vehicles. Michigan or Michigan State.
Over the years, I found this approach lacking. Is there no 3rd option? No middle ground, no “best of both worlds?” People keep telling me there isn’t, but I refuse to roll over.
In its own small way, this blog is meant to offer people that elusive 3rd option… if they’re in the market for one. If not, it likely won’t make much sense.
And I get that. People become attached to their old Ford. They curse anyone who cheers for an opposing college football team.
As Americans, we like dichotomies. We like the us vs. them mentality.
But me, well, I generally don’t.
So there you have it.
My essence is best captured in the timeless words of Mama Cass:
