i'm not the only one

This girl has noticed the kissy face phenomenon as well. She calls them "K.F. makers." She seems to have strong feelings about it. But she's very clear that she's not hating on the actual girls in the pictures, just their durned KFs.

Maybe we'll reflect back on this time and the place that kissy face holds in society will be like the stoic face that people were forced to hold when they were getting their daguerreotype taken. Even as photograpic technology advanced and the exposure time decreased, people still made the "Being alive is very serious business," face, almost like it was the proper thing to do when you were getting your picture taken. Seriously, go here and click on the "Comedians" link and see all the serious faces on these guys and gals. Comedians. And, although you'll find some are standing there in RIDICULOUS costumes, they've got a look on their face like they're about to address the Senate. Which, is actually, quite funny. So... bully for them.

Anyhoo. Point is, it took a little while for people to catch on to the thought that, "Hey! I can show people that I'm actually having a good time in this photo!"

Which, in the end, is exactly what all the Facebook and MySpace photos are showing. Evidence of a good time. The KF is, for this generation, the proper thing to do when you know your face could end up on someone else's internet portal. It means, "I was having a great time. And no one can come back later and fault me or make fun of me for a face EVERYONE was making at the time." They're even doing it in Ireland.

kissy face

So, as usual, we're wrapping up a trip and I'm looking at our photos and thinking, seriously? That's all I've taken? Quel disappointment.

But that's okay. I lived it.

On the night before our friends' wedding, we all went to this great Tiki bar in Portland called the Alibi. There's no website for it (!), but you can google it and get plenty of references to it. Here's a tiki connoisseur's take on the place, complete with a great picture of the sign outside (AWESOME.) It was karaoke night and it was warm and humid inside and we were getting saucy. Our friends Kathleen and Ryan on the eve of their nuptuals, sang, of all pukey-cute things, "Sweet Caroline."

They were adorable. Illegal cute. Having been friends with Kathleen since we were 16, I can honestly say that I've never seen her happier. I think this photo bodes well for their marriage

Anyhoo. While the entire bar is having a blast indulging in such guilty pleasures as "Copa Cabana," and "What a Fool Believes" (thanks, Jefe!), Angela and I could NOT stop obsessing about something I like to call "kissy face."

Now, I don't know if you have a 14-to-22-year-old girl in your family or social circle, but "kissy face" happens when this digital savvy lot take pictures of themselves -- either solo or with a friend wherever they go, on any occasion, day or night, for their MySpace and Facebook pages. They purse their lips. It's sort of like an 80's Cosmo covergirl meets Britney Spears. I don't know why it is the way it is, but this face is EVERYWHERE. My sister (22) does it. All her friends do it. And when she was visiting me in August, she was doing it in pictures with me, but I could not imitate it to save my life.

I mentioned this phenomenon to Angela and she said, "Yes! I've totally noticed my kids do that in their pictures, too!" (She's a junior high school speech teacher.) So, Ang and I decided to try it ourselves.

Over.

And over.

And over again.

(And yes, that's a lei on top of my head.)

We COULD NOT do it.

Is it our age?? We became desperate. We tried psyching ourselves out, giving each other motivation like, "Okay. Don't think about making a kissy face. Just think, 'Oh yeah. I'm 21 and I'm totally sexy.'" We broke out on our own, thinking maybe we could muster the face if we weren't always about to laugh trying to do it next to each other:

Nope...

...aaaaaand... nope:

I mean, you can laugh at how hopelessly Angela's lips seem to be pressing together like they've been melted in a hot sandwich press as seen on TV. But it wasn't just her inability to perform, it was clearly mine, too. In the end, this is the closest I got and it's still just not it:

This is NOT kissy face. This is sweaty 31-year-old face.

Basically, it all boils down to this: We are 30-somethings and we have no business making faces that don't come naturally to us. You can't imitate kissy face. You must be kissy face. And to do that, you need to have been born after 1983. It's that simple.

This is who we are: