the last day of the year...

i got back from miami day before yesterday and it was just a wonderful, relaxing trip all in all. the weather was gorgeous (70's all week long) and i partied with my cousin every single night until the wee hours, slept in well after noon everyday and ate like a damn pig. just what i needed. one night we actually went to a, ahem, gentleman's club and despite my feminist tendencies not to patronize such establishments, the alternative would have been to stay in by myself. my initial feelings upon entering the bar was that there was a general atmosphere of sleaze and you couldn't pay me to make eye contact with any of those guys. they all looked horny and nasty and, well, sleazy. i couldn't help but wonder what the atmosphere would've been like if there were more women patrons. but despite all that, i must add that i had a fabulous time. i briefly mentioned to my cousin that one of the dancers was cute, and he proceeded to call her over and ask her to give me a lap dance since it was my first time at a strip bar. after the lap dance i chatted with her for a bit and found out she was from the dominican republic. she was a very, very beautiful girl. and her stage name was "peaches". hahaha..

anyway guys and gals... i don't have a lot of time to write today, but i wanted to make sure to wish you all a happy new year!!! i've only made a mental list of resolutions so far and as usual, it's long and somewhat repetitive but i'm hoping i can stick to them this time around. i hope you all have an astonishingly good time tonite! be safe, drink plenty of water, and make it a great year!!

girls and dolls...

c and i were out shopping this past weekend so she could buy christmas presents for her family and we ended up at sears at one point. so we're just walking around, browsing, and all of a sudden she says "oh my god, you have to come look at this!" so i go over to where she is and to my utmost surprise i find a whole shelf full of pregnant barbie dolls!! i couldn't believe it and just stood there, shocked, for about 5 minutes trying to understand my own feelings about the issue. i mean, i already have issues with the whole doll thing, not that i think they're evil or anything, but in a way i think that certain dolls promote domestication among little girls.

i should add, as a disclaimer, that i've had many discussions with women i know who've played with dolls during their childhood and have grown up to be well adjusted, undomesticated, independent women, and that's a wonderful phenomenon. but i still think that there are undoubtedly some girls (obviously i'm referring only to girls here because you know, boys play with "action figures", not dolls!) who grow up thinking that they have to look a certain way and have long straight hair and a perfect waistline and blah blah blah all because they grew up thinking barbie was the shit! so, you know, i've had several debates over the whole doll thing, and of course no two children are the same, and my own sister grew up playing with dolls and is now quite the independent, strong woman of the millenium. but when i look at all the products out these days, such as barbie at the grocery store and barbie in the kitchen baking cookies and barbie in the shopping mall, i can't help but feel like there's a male domination/female domestication message that is undoubtedly being sent and thereby subtly developing in the minds of some of these children!

of course not all dolls promote domestication. the ones that bug me are the ones mentioned above. and now a pregnant barbie? so later i find out that it's actually barbie's friend midge and not barbie, because you know, midge is married and barbie isn't, god forbid they promote premarital sex! at any rate, it's horrendous in my opinion and i still can't get over why they would even go there. as if the women's movement hasn't struggled enough to defy stereotypes that all women are good for is shopping, cooking, cleaning and making babies! i don't know, i mean, am i blowing this out of proportion? is it not a step back for those of us women who keep trying to resist the male dominated views that are impressed upon every single woman in every single society on the face of this earth? sure, it's a natural fact that only women can give birth to children, but do we really need to have dolls that send a message to kids that because you are a woman you are expected by society to get married and have children? it's disgusting and i'm totally appalled...

i just have to add here, in all fairness, that i have nothing against women who choose to be domesticated and want nothing more than to get married and have children. as long as it's a choice/desire and not the result of an expectation, it's all good as far as i'm concerned.

apparently these dolls have been out for a little while and, having caused quite the stir (and rightly so), have since been discontinued. but they're still available at sears and probably a few online retailers. thankfully someone had the sense to put an end to it.

in other feminist news, i so thoroughly enjoyed listening to a speech on c-span by hillary clinton! it's so amazing to hear her speak. she was speaking at a dnc fundraiser in florida and talked about the need for unity within the dnc and not to bicker within the party. she also talked about a million different other issues including the idea of allowing the working class to move up and not have to struggle day in and day out just to make ends meet. she mentioned how some people were fortunate enough to be born into wealth, and others fortunate enough to become wealthy by being at the right place at the right time. but she insisted that it would be ridiculous to just sit there and not acknowledge the fact that there are millions of working families out there who for some reason or another just can't get ahead, and it's their obligation not to turn a deaf ear to their struggles. man, i'm probably not doing her speech justice by trying to summarize it here, but i'll just say that she spoke so eloquently and logically and sensibly that i found myself in a trance, getting excited at the mere prospect of her running for presidency in 2004 2008. i really, really like her. really.

brighter days...

things are looking good despite the frigid temps in chicago today.. i just booked a trip to miami for the holidays so i can spend it with my cousins while c is visiting her family in virginia. i half thought about taking a side trip to the bahamas or something, but i really don't need to be spending a lot of money right now.

other minor notes of the week:

* i choked at the all-star game. i won the first round and then played against the league's top girl and ran the table until i missed the 8-ball after which she proceeded to run the table and win. i hate her.

* my team choked in the finals and lost 8-3 even though every game could've gone either way. it was tight and stressful and in the end rather sad. but we collectively won $500 and 2nd place honors. not bad for a new team.

* meshell will be dj-ing with jahi sundance at a local non-profit organization's annual ball in february. i actually don't care much for the organization and have never attended their annual ball, but since we now know that meshell will be there i figure why not? side note: i can think of several other more worthy organizations that meshell could be gracing her presence with so i was a bit surprised that she agreed to do this. but that's ok. maybe she's just not aware.

* meshell is on the cover of curve magazine with a very interesting article that uncovers the rumors going on for a while now; she and rebecca have indeed broken up. sad news for someone like me who admires them both so greatly and always thought they were such an interesting couple.

* nappilesbyan and i will be joining esoteric soul for dinner monday night during her trip to chicago. it'll be nice to finally meet her and attach a face to the name! i'm looking forward to it.

* despite the name, i never really thought about it enough to expect the movie sex and lucia to be so, um, pornographic. it was rather amusing actually, the way it caught c and i off-guard ("ewww.. they showed penis!").

* i splurged on a christmas gift for c this year. i mean, really splurged. she'll be floored. it should take care of any and all gift-giving occasions for the next year or so cuz mama is seriously tapped.

* i learned to play "come to my window" and "free falling" on my guitar by ear. i heard "she talks to angels" by the black crowes on the radio last night and am currently obsessed with figuring out how to play it.

so yeah.. i'm so thankful that it's friday. all i can think of is copious amounts of sleep. have a wonderful weekend everyone.

peace out.

8 ball rally..

my, oh my.. we've come farther than i expected. our team will be playing the championship round next tuesday after a long, yet fruitful game against one of our leagues best teams last night! the week before we pretty much coasted through the first round of the playoffs, but last night's match was much harder, and downright stressful. but we managed to win 8-4 and now we're going to the championships next week! i'm so excited i'm downright giddy. i've played in this league before, on two different teams, and made it to the playoffs twice but our team lost in the first round both times. so, of course i got discouraged and felt like i was burning out and needed a break, so i took two years off and just stayed away from competitive pool. but then two bengali girlfriends of mine decided that they wanted to form a team around the three of us, and so i decided to come back. this is our first season playing together as a team and it feels like we've come a long way, baby! of course the championship game will be even harder and we're up against the top seeded team, so wish us luck! we're gonna need it!

by the way, i did in fact make it to the all-star team! in fact all three of us girls and one guy made it. i came in tied at 6th place, and as i've said before, the top 16 men and the top 16 women will play on dec 6th to battle it out for some cash prizes and of course a trophy!

in older news, turkey weekend was grand. but somehow you just can't get enough days off. coming back on monday after four days off was just gruelling. but it was a fun four days. c cooked an 8lb turkey, gravy, crab cakes (from scratch), an asian mandarin asparagus thingy (that was de-lish!) and i, um, made, um.. garlic/scallion mashed potatoes and threw some pillsbury flaky biscuits in the oven. he, he. top that off with a bottle of merlot for c and riesling for me as well as store-bought pumpkin pie and chocolate cake and we were in food heaven! by the way, in case you were wondering what i was doing all day while c was slaving over the stove.. well, i was busy watching tv and practicing guitar cleaning up the house and clearing off the dining table that was stacked with months worth of junk mail. it's funny how we only use our dining table once a year...

what was even funnier was bush's sly/stealthy little trip to iraq. i was thoroughly amused by the secrecy of it all. obviously it was well planned, well executed, but to me it was amusing as all get out.

c is visiting her family this xmas and since i won't be joining her, i'm just stumped about what i want to do with my days off. i thought about going to miami to hang with my cousin, but the tickets are well over $250-300 and i've never paid more than $180 for a trip to miami, so on principle alone i refuse to succumb to holiday travel non-bargains. but i may just give in later once it hits me that i'll be stuck in wintery weather when i could just as easily be chillin' on south beach, or even in my cousin's backyard for that matter under 80 degree weather and blue skies. decisions, decisons.. what to do?

by the way i apologize for not updating the audio pleasure section but i realized i really don't have time to update it every week. hence the title change. i'll try to keep up though.. for now, enjoy meshell from back in 1999 in l.a. and listen closely.