It IS the 21st century, right?

I mean, it was the last time I checked.

And didn't our mothers and grandmothers and their mothers before them fight for women to be considered individuals and not just something to be attached to a man?

I mean, that was the case the last time I checked. Right?

Ok. In my office there is a girl (yes, a girl, not a woman as you will soon see) in the cubicle next to mine. She is getting married in three weeks. I listen to her plan her wedding all day long. It's ridiculous. I'm so sick of it. And she's a whiner, too. She speaks like a little girl, and when she talks to her fiancee she whines. I could have a pretty good drinking game going if I took a drink every time I heard her say "Are you kidding me?" I can't stand it. We used to be friends, but I think when it became apparent to her that I wasn't going to have an endless string of boyfriends, and it didn't matter much to me, she couldn't handle me anymore.

Today she was asking about her bridesmaid's gifts. She's thinking about getting jewelry boxes and having them engraved with their initials. A lovely gift, I would think. But she was concerned about engraving the initials of girls who weren't married yet. Like it was some foregone conclusion that they all would eventually (which, I suppose is statistically the case, but not necessarily) and they wouldn't want anything engraved until they had their "real" names. Now, I can see if they were engaged or something, but that's not the case. Is that stupid or what? My name is my name, and even if I get married and take a different last name, it'll still be my maiden name, and will have been my name for a huge part of my life. It's not like you don't exist until you get married.

This is the same girl who thinks a woman's life cannot be fulfilling unless she has a husband and children.

So, as I asked before...This is the 21st century, right?