Happy Be a Dork Day!

Nerd.    Geek.    Dork.

Before diving into this story, it is necessary to define these labels. Here we go.

Nerd:

Someone who is really, really passionate about learning and being smart. Usually an intellectual rock star or badass. You want the guy who fixes your computer to be a tech nerd.

Geek:

Someone who is really, really passionate about some well-defined particular area of a subject that is usually obscure or difficult. You want the guy who performs surgery on your head to be a brain geek.

Dork:

Someone who has difficulty with social interactions who is often odd or quirky. Dorks naturally (not accidentally) do silly things, which often make people laugh. You never want to be on a blind date with a dork.

I am, and pretty much have always been, [gulp] all three.

In school, thank goodness, my best friend Susan, was just like me. Even though our passions eventually branched into very different areas, we both were “adorkable,” dorky to be point of being cute and charming. In our eyes, we thought we were cute…at least our moms told us we were.

Taking Dork to a New Level

Do you watch Sandra Bullock movies? I so respect her talent and skill for playing all sorts of “adorkable” characters. In All About Steve, Bullock plays a dweeby, crossword puzzle creator, who falls (literally) for Bradley Cooper’s character named Steve. The clip below is dork at its finest.

How To Celebrate Be a Dork Today

I’ve got three ideas for you.

Dress Dorky.

Unleash your Steve Urkel by wearing mismatched clothing. Plaids with florals, fuchsia with lime green, stuff like that. If you want to go over the edge, add a pocket protector and some athletic tape for the nose piece of your nerdy thick glasses.

Once your outfit is outrageously complete,  invite over a few friends and have a dork fest party.

 Eat Dorky.

Are there any weird food combinations that you think are good, but that gross out everyone else? Mine is a peanut butter and dill pickle sandwich. Elvis loved them, and I do too. You can serve them at your dork party. Voila!

Watch Dorky.

How about doing a dork movie marathon at your dork fest party? Here are a few of my favorite dork movies.

All About Steve
If you’ve never seen this movie, watch it. When you are feeling like the biggest, most awkward dork on the planet, this movie will make you feel pretty much normal in comparison.

Big Bang Theory.
Capt’n Clean and I always tune into this when we need a good laugh. There are 12 seasons of the original show, and you can usually find episodes on several cable channels at any given time. The cool thing about Big Bang is that it doesn’t matter which episode you watch chronologically, you will thoroughly entertained.

The Goonies
This is an older movie about a pack of misfit kids who take on a family of super bad meanies in a search of a treasure ship. If you’ve never seen or heard of this movie, stop reading right now and watch it. You’ll understand why I think it’s great after you do.

Grease
“Look at me, I’m Sandra Dee…STUD!” Re-experience the lives of dorks in the 50s. Poodle skirts and bobby socks required.

Revenge of the Nerds
This is the movie that made being a dork cool.

Weird Science
Two teenage tech nerds make the perfect woman with their computer, but she’s anything but dorky!

The Big Lebowski
From the creative genius of the Coen brothers. Lebowski’s outfits are as dorky as they come in this classic. And don’t forget his rug that “pulls the room together.”

Ghostbusters
Who ya gonna call?

Dumb and Dumber
Or should I say, “Dork and Dorkier?” Yes, this movie is dumb and dorky, but it’s fun.

So, when you are finished celebrating everything dorky, remember that the world would be an awfully dull place without the quirkiness of us dorks.

One thing that this day teaches us is that we all should commemorate our own uniqueness, regardless of what society tells us we should be.

Embrace your inner dork and flaunt it Wimpy Girl.