Wednesday, April 12, 2006

I'VE MOVED! You should be re-directed in a sec

Please come visit my blog at my new home, Izzymom.com

PLEASE change my address in your blogroll and if I'm not on your blogroll, why the hell not???

Love,
Izzy

Monday, April 10, 2006

Hot Blasts

Me: God, why is it so hot in here?

Hubz: It's not hot. I think it's just you

5 y/o Daughter: You're having a hot blast, Mommy

My five year old is telling me I'm having a damn hot flash??? For the record, I think I was just hot but still...how does she know about that stuff?
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Thanks all you wise and kind people out there who commented on the Suckage post. Saturday and Sunday blew majorly for a wide variety of reasons that I won't bore you with but today is okay so far. I have a call to make and depending on the outcome, I may retract that last statement. I don't mean to be cryptic. I just don't want to report anything incorrectly.

In other news, I'm leaving Blogger for a new home and my own domain. I was on the fence between Movable Type and Wordpress and after much waffling, I decided on Wordpress. In the next day or so, I'll have my new address posted here and hopefully anyone who comes here will go there.

Laters :)

Sunday, April 09, 2006

Suckage

You know those kind of days where nothing goes right and it seems like the whole world is against you and you feel like you're running uphill the whole time and you kind of hate your life and you wish you could just run away and if you didn't have two really cute kids, you totally would?

I'm having one of those days.

PS: Go see Rhonda, my new renter from Self-Proclaimed Supermom. She doesn't suck.

Friday, April 07, 2006

I'm Bad, I'm Bad, Come on, You Know It...

Oh geez...someone slap me. I just typed Michael Jackson lyrics. I never was a fan but as you may know, it's some kind of universal law that the words to songs you don't like will become forever embedded in your brain and that's my excuse. So there.

Let's backtrack to about 1976 for a minute...

When I was about 9, I had this burnout, stoner, Dazed & Confused styley babysitter named Cathy. (She wasn't stoned when she babysat me every night from 6 to 11pm. Well, I don't think she was. How would I have known?) She would bring over Led Zeppelin and Fleetwood Mac albums and we would listen to music all the time. I swear I don't think I watched TV at night for an entire year. She wore Levi's corduroys and cool 70's iron-on shirts and occasionally, a black rock T-shirt (you know, like the retro ones that are so trendy now). I thought Cathy was the muffuggin' BOMB. The coolest. Girl. Ever.

We would sometimes walk to the park where kids played soccer, baseball and softball at night and find her stoner friends hanging out on their picnic table and I thought the boys were way cute. They had layered, feathered haircuts like every guy in every band has now and they all smoked. Even Cathy would smoke cigarettes on my back porch all evening and dump the ashtray over the fence when she heard the buzz of my mom's VW Rabbit coming down the boulevard. Since my mom was a smoker, she never even noticed the smell and I was more than willing to keep Cathy's secret.

Since Cathy wore them, I begged my mom to buy me some Levi's cords. She relented and I got a dark green pair, a light blue pair and a rust pair (divorce guilt and working mom guilt = coveted Levi's). Every night before Cathy came over, I would wet my cords and put them in the dryer so they would be nice and snug instead of all baggy & loose from wearing them during the day (Yes, five nights in a week, three pair of pants). Cathy had a macrame purse so I wanted a macrame purse. Cathy wore Earth shoes so I wanted Earth shoes. I was smitten. Cathy was my idol. My role model. My very own bad influence.

Oddly enough, I came across a web site the other day of a movie that influenced my pre-teen youth and reminded me of my formative years with Cathy. You may have seen it but more likely you haven't. It was callled Over the Edge and it starred a teenage Matt Dillon as a sort of ringleader of juvenile delinquents in a suburban "master planned" community. This movie was my Rebel Without a Cause. Though Cathy was no longer my babysitter by the time I saw this movie in 7th grade (on cable) the kids in the movie reminded me of her and her friends a lot. My best friend and I wanted to live this movie. Rebellion never looked so fun! Check out this site if you feel like it. Or better yet, rent the movie. The soundtrack is awesome and Matt Dillon is pretty dang cute as a juvie bad boy.

And that reminds me of Little Darlings. God, I loved that movie. Forget Tatum O' Neil's prissy character. Uh-uh. I wanted to be badass Kristy McNichol and do it with Matt Dillon. *sigh* I never did end up being particularly bad so much as secretly rebellious (as in my parents didn't even know what the hell I was up to most of the time). And even that came kind of late...lol I did a lot of things I'd never want my daughter to do but damn, I did have fun!

I guess if there is a lesson to this story, it would be to get really square babysitters for your kids and don't let them watch movies on cable when you're not home.

(Like many of you, I graduated to John Hughes movies in the 80's and forgot all about Cathy. As Marcie said in her comment, I wonder where she is now...)

What movies or people influenced your youth? Who did you want to be like?

PS: When you're done here, be sure to visit my new renter, Rhonda, of Self-Proclaimed Supermom. She has fabulous taste in music and her blog is always a great read. If you don't visit her blog, you're missing out!

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Addendum to the Real Housewives...

ADDENDUM: Judging by my Sitemeter, a lot of people have been through here today and a lot of you I recognize as women I "know". Is this a touchy subject? Or a hot button issue? It doesn't seem like it to me. I'm honestly surprised that more people don't have an opinion or a thought to share on the subject. As women, this is a topic that affects all of us. I'm not asking for you to agree with me. I guess I'd be interested to know where you stand on what I call "hyper-feminine ideals". Do you think they are harmless? Do you think they do, indeed, affect society negatively? Please share.

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Yes, I'm being extremely judgemental in the post below this one. I admit it. It started off as kind of amusing but the more I think about it, the more it all bugs me.

The reason I hate that level of superficiality so much is not because I want to deny someone the experience of having the rack they've always dreamed of. It's because it raises the bar for everyone, even those of us who would never get implants (because it's kind of weird and gross if you look at it for what it actually is...stuffing your chest with plastic bags of water or silicone). Don't get me wrong. If there was a way to improve what nature gave me (and then took away via breastfeeding) that didn't involve invasive implants, maybe I'd do it, too.

My real issue is with hyper-feminine ideals that don't exist in nature. You can't just firm up your breasts or go a tad larger. No...you have to get these melon halves that make you look like a comic book character and this is embraced as something preferable to a real, honest-to-God breast by almost everyone, it seems. Fake is better. Does that not seem f-ed up to a certain degree? It's not the individuals with the implants that bother me so much. I mean we all want to be attractive, right? It's the effect it has on society as a whole that I find problematic.

As noted in the original post below this one, young men these days may be disappointed to see a real boob. It doesn't look anything like what they are presented with on TV, in movies, video games, or in porn. I think it's kind of sad.

I shudder to think what the world will be like when my daughter is grown up. Will being a mere flesh and blood human being even be acceptable? Will "good" DNA trump "bad" DNA? Will plastic surgery be done on children so they never have to suffer a moment with having an imperfect feature?

It sounds outlandish and unimaginable, I agree. But there was a time when not wearing a corset was unthinkable. And women voting? Ludicrous. It'll never happen, they said.

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Edited to add: I'd like to reiterate...my gripe is with a society/media machine that has promoted a totally unnatural image of a woman as an ideal. This current ideal is one that is rarely bestowed up any woman naturally, thus necessitating a surgical procedure to attain it. The idea that something fake is better than something real is IMO, twisted. I'm not opposed to improvements. I'm opposed to something real being replaced by something totally unreal and having that be the standard women are supposed to aspire to. It sets all of us up for failure.

REAL Housewives of the OC???

Have you had an opportunity to watch Real Housewives of Orange County? I only watched it because it came on right after hairdresser drama Blow Out, which is some truly fine reality TV entertainment. RHOC, on the other hand, is...I don't even know but any show that opens by telling you that 80% of the women in Orange County have breast implants is gonna be compelling in a guilty pleasures, these-people-are-friggin'-wack, Anna Nicole Smith show kind of way.

Basically, all these "housewives" look exactly the same, save for the occasional daring, boat-rocking, live-on-the-edge-by-being-different brunette. Everyone else has that kind of ashy, silvery blonde kind of hair, long, with sideswept bangs, a tan that screams "future fruit leather face", Botox (they actually showed this woman getting a Botox housecall) and these big honeydew melon halves sitting on their bony chests underneath their cami tops. There's not much that's real about any of them. Guess that's what you call irony...

Hubz made a good point not too long ago. We were talking about how everyone and their dog has fake boobage now and he said there are teenage boys growing up right now without ever having even seen real hooters. Leave it to a man to come to that realization. My question is why do they make them to look so unreal? Because in real life, big breasts aren't really bigger around in a perfect circle. They just uh, protrude more. But I'm digressing. The implant thing always gets me going...

What I wanted to note about RHOC is that whenever someone discusses someone else, the first thing they refer to is their appearance. One of the older women (Botox housecall lady) talks about this other woman, the first thing she says is "Yeah, she's skinnier than me with bigger boobs..." And this other "housewife" is talking about some other woman that she met having a "bangin' bod". It was really weird. I don't know about you guys but most of my body fixations are reserved for myself. They sound a little like this:

"Yeah...I got a hell of an ass! Almost two of them! I luuuuurve the way my butt cheeks rest on the backs of my thighs now!"

"Yep, it's official, I now have those lumpy hip bumps above my bangin' jello-like booty! Woot!"

See? (you definitely will if you're going to Blogher) Sitting around talking about YOUR body doesn't interest me in the least. Well, unless you have freakishly large breast implants, which I really loathe, or a spare appendage of some kind. Then I might have to mention you.

One OC housewife said she'll be getting Botox forever so she won't ever look older than 32. Psssst... someone wrote that book already. It's called The Picture of Dorian Gray.

The only normal person on the whole show is this woman's husband. She's all bored being a housewife and claims there's nothing to do (because you know how boring it is...there's never anything that needs to be done, nothing to clean, no laundry to fold, kids to be chauffered around...WHEN YOU HAVE FREAKING HIRED HELP FOR EVERYTHING!!!!) The poor guy is at home feeding the kids dinner, trying to teach his son not to scratch his ass before touching food, getting them ready for bed and his wife is out partying and whining to him on the phone that she can't come home yet because her friends aren't ready to leave. I actually felt sorry for the guy even though he's one of those cheesy trophy-wife guys.

RHOC was oddly interesting to watch once but I think next time, I'll reserve my minimal TV allotment for Daddy's Spoiled Little Girl. I can't help it. I love watching crazy rich people. It's a lot like watching a show about aliens. You can't believe people like this actually exist.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

Blogher Headcount Pt II

Okay...quick questions for anyone going to Blogher...

When are you arriving? Day, time etc.

What days of the conference are you attending? Friday, Saturday, both? Or just cocktail parties?

I'm going and I already bought my plane ticket. My plane gets in around 4ish on Thursday.

I just want to see what everyone else is doing before I pay for my registration because, you know, God forbid I just do my own thing without consulting every person on the planet first ;-P

If for some reason you don't want to post your info here, feel free to email me.

Thanks ya'll!


PS: For anyone who is interested, two new designs have been added to my free banners blog.

Monday, April 03, 2006

It's All About You

When it comes to blogging, naturally, my most favorite topics are me, me, oh and me! But when I'm not busy perfecting my navel-gazing, I'm really most fascinated by other people. I love listening to you and learning about all the things that make you uniquely you. I like hearing your life stories and all the events that have shaped you into who you are today.

If you've ever read my Blogger profile, you may have noticed that I listed sociology, psychology, social psychology, trend-watching and studying pop culture as some of my interests. I majored in communications and my minor in psychology was just a few credits short of being a second major. So you get the picture... Now I want to know more about you.

I would like you to choose 4 adjectives that describe your personality/character and then elaborate a bit on each one. How much or how little is up to you. Try to avoid generic adjectives like nice or sweet. Go deep!

Here are mine:

1) Determined -- I am not what you'd call a hyper-motivated person but when I finally decide that I want something and set my sights on it, my determination knows no bounds. It's something most people don't know about me mainly because I am not often moved enough to tap into it. But when I do, make way!

2) Empathetic -- I cannot bear the idea of someone suffering needlessly or having their feelings hurt. Not wishing to overstep my bounds, I sometimes don't reach out to people like I want to, but I always feel what they are going through.

3) Restless -- I've been called a "restless soul" and I can't deny it. I'm always looking for the next thing to get excited about. For me, the term "follow your bliss" speaks volumes. Without something to look forward to, I sometimes feel very deflated and bored. Most of the time I love my life but I require a lot of stimulation and a lot of challenge in order to stay happy. The last time I had that restless feeling for too long, I sold our house.

4) Helpful -- I truly enjoy helping people. It's in my Virgo nature, I guess. The downside is that people think just because you are accommodating and helpful, that you must be a stupid sucker, which I'm not.

**Cameo's list reminded me of one that I should have included: Loyal. I am very loyal. A more loyal friend you will not find. Unless you screw me. Then all bets are off.

Now it's your turn. That includes you, lurkers! Do them here and then copy and paste on to your own blog if you want to. Instant content!

If you enjoyed this, check out Julie's Thursday Third Degree. It's similar.