30 Things Women Should Stop Doing By 30

I ran across this article a week or so ago and I found a few of the items interesting. Approaching 30 myself, I looked to see if I was guilty of still doing any of the things that made the list. There were many things on the list I would never do including making out with my friends at a bar simply because I never saw the appeal of kissing another girl. As for not having regular gyno exams, any grown woman who doesn't do that needs a reality check. By the time you are 30, you should know how important your health is, no excuses. As for living paycheck to paycheck, in this economy that is a definite reality even when you're 40. Most of the things on the list were things I didn't think a 25 year old should be doing let alone a 30 year old, but I'll let you be the judge. Here's the list:

1. Buying clothes from the junior section.
2. Forgetting her parents’ birthdays.
3. Making out with her BFFs at bars for attention.
4. Making out with her boyfriend at bars for attention.
5. Filling her bed with stuffed animals (really, even one is too many).
6. Carrying a torch for anyone she hasn’t seen in the last five years.
7. Rebelling against her parents for the sake of rebelling against her parents.
8. Declaring an entire gender “all jerks.”
9. Holding a grudge against anyone who wronged her in high school.
10. Skipping regular gyno exams.
11. Going to bed without washing and moisturizing her face.
12. Being “that person” who had a bit too much to drink at the office party.
13. Crushing on Justin Bieber.
14. Thinking she’s got it all figured out.
15. Calling her father “daddy.”
16. Engaging in sibling rivalry.
17. Trying to get by on her looks.
18. Living paycheck to paycheck.
19. Expecting a man/knight in shining armor to swoop in and save her.
20. Aimlessly jumping from job to job.
21. Using MySpace to pick up guys.
22. Expecting a man to do all the wooing.
23. Wishing she had someone else’s life.
24. Expecting everyone to drop everything because it’s her birthday ...
25. ... or because her “boyfriend” of two weeks dumped her.
26. Measuring her self-worth by a number on the scale.
27. Being cheap.
28. Quitting a job without having a new one lined up first (especially in this economy!).
29. Blaming her mother for all her issues.
30. Romanticizing her 20s.

Beauty Is In the Eye of the Beholder

I came across this article today about discrimination in the workplace based on looks and how there should be a federal law against discriminating on looks same as there is for sex and age and disability. In the news recently has been a story about a former Citibank employee suing her former employer for discriminating against her because of her looks. When I first read the story, I didn't think much of it; people get fired for worse reasons. Not many people get fired for being too sexy and hot. But that story coupled with this article makes me think; how much do hiring and firing decisions depend on your looks. We all know that they play a factor but not how big of a factor. Would NASA hire an astronaut with less skills but who happens to be beautiful rather than the balding, fat guy or slightly overweight acne prone extremely qualified female? Would you sacrifice quality of work just to have a pretty face around? Unlike race or age or disability, looks is something that most people can change to a certain degree to make themselves more aesthetically pleasing. Even if a company hired someone for their looks if that person failed to perform the job properly and costs the company money, he would surely be fired. Nothing comes before the bottom line. Would you hire someone based on looks or fire someone who became unsightly due to weight gain or any other causes or would you base your decision on who is the best person for the job?