Flattery.

Last night as I was getting my jacket and bag out of my locker at work, one of my coworkers said "Can I tell you something without you getting offended?"  I replied, in an effort to stall time, "Well, that could be a dangerous and/or embarrassing path..." to which he replied "F*#% it, I'm an artist and pride myself in saying what I think, and we're off the clock now anyway!" As he was finishing that statement, my mind was racing, wondering "What's he going to say?!  Is he going to be rude?  Will he hurt my feelings?!"

So he states "You have one of the best white asses I've ever seen."

Wow.  It's not every day you get told your ass is one of the finest specimens of your ENTIRE RACE.

I hope this doesn't go to my head.

The City

"You have to put your best foot forward, because if you don't, the other one doesn't get to follow."

The television show might be (is) stupid, but Kelly Cutrone sure has some fantastic one-liners.

Come now!

Yesterday I went to the Detroit Thanksgiving Day parade with my dad.  Once there we met my cousin, her husband, and their four year old son.  We met at a great place (also a great bar!) for breakfast and then walked to Woodward to set up for the parade.  While it was a little crowded, it wasn't horrible and better than we expected.  We situated the four year old at the street level and stood behind him.

As the starting time of the parade got closer, more and more people started gathering around us.  This is, of course, expected, as parades are in general well-attended events.  The weather was chilly, but not raining or snowing and not as bad as it has been in years past.

What I found completely appalling and annoying was when people would roll in during the parade and would honestly stand right in front of everyone who's been there, camped out, since who knows when.  This teenager, probably 15/16 was literally standing directly in front of my four year old cousin.  I kept asking my cousin's husband "Do you want me to talk to her?  Do you want me to move her?"  One woman who was there before we got there was fulfilling the roll of master regulator and was clearing out the riff-raff/rude people, but still...it was unfortunately too big of a job for any one person.

Since when did manners become so unfashionable?  I see it happen ALL THE TIME, but unfortunately I'm still consistently appalled.  Do you witness the same things?!

Loyalty and dogs.

While I've been visiting my parents, we've had my brother's dog at the house.  My brother doesn't live far, but I love my niece-pup, and he's been at work all day, every day, so everyone wins.  I've taken her to the park with my mom and with my dad.  As my dad and I are driving away from the park after a nice long walk, where Bailey (dog) chased lots of squirrels up trees, she's got her head out the window and is just loving up on life.  My dad, who is a total softie in some aspects but a total curmudgeon in others, states "Look at her...she could be in the car with SERIAL KILLERS and she wouldn't care, as long as they just took her to the park and gave her treats."

What do you think?  Do you think dogs are loyal (have you read The Odyssey?) or do you think they are fickle, quick to love anyone who feeds them and treats them right?

Hours of fun.

I have only looked through one or two categories, but whoa...what fun.  I love cake, and I love faux pas's, so this is perfect.

Oh SNL.

Sometimes you make me laugh. 

Below the belt.

I firmly believe that one of the worst things you can ever call a man is "bitch".  I know bitch is a loaded word, like "Bitch in charge" = powerful, "Evil bitch" = cruel, "psycho bitch" = most really hot girls, "crazy bitch" = Buckcherry, "bitch" = lover/child/mother/sinner/saint, or "Bitch" = a really great magazine.

Something about hearing someone call a grown man a "bitch" just makes me so uncomfortable.  I personally am not horribly insulted if someone calls ME a bitch, because I know I am not a bitch, but I know I can act like a bitch, so I'll totally own that one.  I used the term "bitched up" interchangeably with "sassed up"/"dolled up", and fondly refer to my closest female friends as "my bitches".  I'm not fearful of the word in general, but hate when it's directed at men.

Does this make you feel uncomfortable?  Is there any swear word/slang word that you find horribly offensive?  I don't mean words that are racially-charged (I like to pretend like those don't exist), those are a given, but words that can really sting.  Keep the comments clean, ya'll. ;)

Heartwarming!

Sorry if I scared you with the creepy carp posting yesterday, but it was all over the Detroit newspapers so it was on my mind.  Shudder.

Last night I went with my mom and dad to see The Blind Side, an a-DOR-A-BLE movie that you absolutely must see, maybe just before or after you see New Moon?  Speaking of, we saw my cousin's wife as we were heading into the theater, and she was there to see New Moon for the THIRD TIME.  Third.  The movie hadn't even been out for 48 hours when we saw her.  Is it just me or is that excessive?

I might have nightmares.

How creepy is this?  Carp that can reach 60 - 100 lbs? GRODY!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-asian-carp-22-nov22,0,1309617.story

Personality flaw.

A downside of my otherwise epically wonderful personality is my tendency to get overly excited about things.  While this doesn't sound like a totally horrible thing, it often contributes to another one of my weaknesses, procrastination.

Picture this:  Lollapalooza is one of my favorite weekends of the entire year.  The music festival is happy, huge, and chock-full of terrific artists.  Unfortunately, I can easily spend hours and hours and hours and hours listening to bands I'm not familiar with, designing my schedule, debating between conflicts, reading music blogs for recommendations of their "must see" acts, etc.  This obsession can often get in the way of other worthy tasks, like going to the gym, finding a high-paying full-time job, or socializing with real people.

I recently decided I MUST, HAVE TO, OMG I WON'T BE ABLE TO GO ON IF I DON'T GO, attend South by Southwest next year.  My mind is made up, I'm going to book a flight soon, I'M TOTALLY GOING.  Now I'm afraid I'm going to spend my entire winter listening to new bands and learning everything I can about this music festival.  Oh wait...that doesn't actually sound so bad, does it?  Except I'm also supposed to be working on research, studying for the GRE, going to the gym a lot, and finding a high-paying full time job (and of course, working my part-time jobs while doing all this).  *LE SIGH*

Now listening to...

This totally might appear like I'm phoning it in, but if you knew about my passionate love for music, you'd understand that there are few things I love more than giving and getting music recommendations.

Check out:


Reminds me of:
The Bird and the Bee
Florence + The Machine

Some things never change.

I recently joined a listserve/yahoo group for a professional organization, dedicated to the field of communication.

I've had some pretty hilarious experiences with listserve's, as I started one for my sorority when I was in college, and got to watch MANY, MANY people totally abuse it and use it for personal, petty attacks.  While this was, of course, totally destructive, it was also quite hilarious at times.  Unfortunately, people didn't understand when we told them to "stop abusing the email" and we had to resort to restricting who could post.

I've been reminded all this lately because of what's going on in this new group.  One member is leaving the realm of academia to run for public office, and sent out a lengthy email about his logic behind running for office, what he stands for, what's wrong with this country, etc.  Well, some people didn't like this (apparently it must have been too difficult for them to just press "delete") and fired back with "start a new group!", "we don't want to hear this on in an academic group!", etc.  Then other people who support what this guy is doing fire back with "FIRST AMENDMENT!", "He shouldn't leave, you should leave!", etc.

Thankfully all these emails go into my junk mail folder, so I can read if I want but they aren't cluttering up my inbox.  I really can't believe how many emails I've received about this.

This rant brings me to this question...is "acting like an adult" conditional?  

"Bowgate, Part Deux"

Why do so many people find it to be a problem that President Obama bowed to the Emperor of Japan?  Is our nation that ethnocentric that we don't think we should adapt to local cultural norms when in other countries?  Have they not heard the term "When in Rome..."?

I get so frustrated with the media and general public when they focus on such minute, insignificant issues.  Some people say he shouldn't have bowed at all, some say he was right to bow, but he bowed too deeply.  I think it is wise, not to mention kind, for him to adapt to the cultural norms of whatever country he is visiting.

What do you think?

Writing and not writing.

While on the phone with a friend today, we got to talking about writing.  In order for me to feel more prepared to apply for PhD programs, I need to become a better writer.  I know I am a good writer, but I need to learn how to be a great scholarly writer, using theoretical frameworks, critical lenses, etc.  I mentioned this to my friend who said "I hate writing" and elaborated to state that she finds it intimidating.

People (myself included) often look at writing as an "all or nothing", have-to-get-it-right-on-the-first-try endeavor.  This is not how actual writers look at writing.  Papers, books, short stories, etc., go through many, many revisions before they are "done", and even when they are "done", there's always room for improvement.  Most writers belong to writing groups, where the members show each other drafts for feedback and constructive criticism.

If you feel this way about writing, I strongly encourage you to read these two books: Bird by Bird by Anne Lamont, and Writing for Social Scientists by Howard Becker.  I read these two books in the academic writing class I took, and they were extremely helpful.  I probably need to read them again!

YESvember

A friend and I have decided we are going to come up with positive themes for each month, in an effort to try to steer our life in positive directions.  The theme for NOvember, which just sounds negative, is YESvember.  This isn't anything like "We have to say yes to all invitations/propositions" (I'm totally wishing I got propositioned), but more about reframing things to be positive, not negative.  It's so easy, especially when the weather gets a little chillier and the days get shorter (dark at 5 p.m.? SOB!), to be a negative Nancy.

In an effort to be more positive, I've decided that I'm going to try to trick myself into thinking that everyone I meet is going to be totally enamored with me.  This does not have to be in a romantic sense, but can be in a "you're so cool" or "you're so interesting" sense.  Obviously I wouldn't turn away from a romantic sense, but I wanted to be a bit more general.  People always say that confidence is sexy, so I'm going to try to put that to the test.

Positive results thus far = this is difficult to measure, since sometimes people can be fake (not very YESvember of me), but I think at least two.  One was a grad student at a school I'm looking into for a PhD program, the other was a group of guys when I was at work one night.
Days left in YESvember = 15.

Here's to hoping the end of YESvember is more fruitful than the beginning.  Any ideas for a December theme?