amyneff

OMG this is incredible. Piano and strings mashup of Love Story and Viva La Vida, two songs I absolutely love on a combination of instruments that pushes me to tears.

Am I the only one who thinks watching that pianist play incredibly sexy?

That would be me.  I have 9 toenails.  At long last, the nail on my left big toe completely detached a couple days ago.  At the bitter end it was hanging on by just the crease on the left where it curls below skin level, so I messed with it until it came off.  The last few nights I was sleeping with a sock on that foot so the nail wouldn't get caught on my sheets, which felt super weird and could be painful, and was wrapping it with a bandaid during the day for the same reasons.

I gotta say, it feels much better now.  On Saturday I found myself surrounded by a swarm of small children and was suprised how much of a relief it was to know that none of them could accidentally step on my foot and rip the nail off, which tends to be incredibly painful.  There's a weird arc across my toe that's indented a bit, and I wonder if it's a new, thin nail starting to grow back, but maybe it stopped short and got dug in where the front of the old nail was still attached.

Here's hoping it works itself out.  I'll be watching it with great curiosity.  This will also not stop me from painting the other 9 some pretty shade of red this summer.

Saturday morning I ran the Hanover Township Women's 5K, which was the graduation race for my women's beginning running class. Allow me to share.

( Details )

The high after that race was epic. I was grinning from ear to ear all morning, and would just start laughing at anything. After taking myself out to lunch I stopped by my friendly local running store for a badly needed new pair of running shoes. And the afternoon nap on my living room floor was also pretty epic.

http://www.furrrrocious.com/

But WHAT COLORWAY?

I was just thinking about the year at school when they replaced our mini milk cartons with plastic milk pouches.  It happened somewhere between 3rd and 5th grade.  Two students came around a week or two before they made the switch, and demonstrated in the middle of math class on a pouch of water the proper way to stab it with the straw.  I remember wondering how they picked which kids got to skip class and give the demonstrations, because I was a little jealous.  If you didn't put your thumb over the end of the straw, milk would squirt everywhere.  The pouches looked like the one in the picture, except there were no pretty images printed on them.  There may have been some generic black print indicating the skim and 2% milk, but the chocolate you just figured was chocolate because it was brown.  I remember people drinking all their milk and then blowing the bags up like pinwheels, and spinning them on them with the straw poked all the way through.

/reminiscing.

"As the bruised skin underneath the nail starts to heal, separation of the toenail from the nail bed may occur causing the toenail to fall off."

Soooo, yeah.  Totally losing a nail.  I bruised it, get this, because I was wearing snug shoes and my toenail was too long.  The first what-to-do article I read about bruised toenails starts off, "If you're a runner, chances are you'll deal with a bruised toenail or two at some point in your running career."  [here.]

Sad thing is, this isn't even from running!  I'm sure the running doesn't help, but still.  Does that count as irony?  Alanis?

So, the back half of the nail on my left big toe has officially pulled completely away from the cuticle, and now hovers over the skin.  The front half is perfectly fine, attached and normal looking.  The back half is a tannish color and gets soggy when I shower.  I am resisting the urge to mess around with it because I'd be ok with it staying attached for a while.

It takes between 4-6 months for a toenail to regrow.  Expect updates.

I was kicking into the first push of my running routine yesterday when this older guy messing around with a ladder in his yard called out, "Hurry up, there's a sale down there!"

Now, on principle I ignore just about anyone who calls out to me when I'm out on foot, because it's rarely a friendly greeting, so I didn't react to this man.  But I did hear what he said, and I did think about it.

I've seen plenty of yard sales in that particular neighborhood so my first thought was, What, is there a yard sale down the block somewhere?  And do I, in my sneakers and exercise clothes, look like I'm headed to a yard sale?

At 6pm on a Monday, it also would be a really stupid time to have a yard sale.  The inhabitants of the houses I was passing must have realised this too, because there were no yard sales to be seen.

Soooo, guy sees young woman running down the sidewalk, and the only reason this could possibly be happening is...OMGSHOPPINGLOLZROFLSTFU.  Asshole.

Seriously, why did he feel the need to comment?  It wasn't even a dig at what I was wearing or a cat call, it was just a blatant stereotype that was completely unrelated to the situation aside from my being female.  I really, really don't get it.

Help us save funding for the arts! 
 
The Pennsylvania Senate approved their version of the budget for FY 09-10 (SB850).

SB 850, includes zero funding for Pennsylvania Council on the Arts arts grants.  
 
If the Senate version prevails, beginning July 1, 2009 there will be no arts grants in Pennsylvania.   This will directly impact the Lehigh Valley and all its great art and cultural programs. 
Below is just a short list of some of the organizations that will be deeply impacted by this budget cut:
-Arts Community of Easton
-ArtsQuest
-Bach Choir
-Bethlehem Fine Arts Commission
-Godfrey Dainels
-Illicks Mill Partnership
-Lehigh University
-Lafayette College
-DeSales University
-Moravian College Music Institute
-Allentown Art Museum
-Allentown Symphony
-Banana Factory
-Baum School of Art
-Civic Theatre of Allentown
-Liberty Bell Shrine
-Mock Turtle Marionette Theatre
-PA Shakespeare Festival
-Musikfest
-Celtic Classic
-SouthSide Film Festival
-PA Youth Theatre
-PA Youth Ballet
-MayFair
-Lehigh Valley Arts Council
...and so many more
 
Cultural arts really enhance the quality of life in the Lehigh Valley.  It is so important that we let the Senate know that arts funding is important to us and to the economic vitality of the state. 

Please contact your state senator today to let him/her know that $14 million for arts grants is important to you.  If you wrote to your senator last week, give them a call today to tell them:

-You don't support SB 850 with zero funding for arts grants and
-You would like arts grants funded at the $14 million level.

You can find out contact information for your senator by visiting our Legislative Action Center at http://capwiz.com/artsusa/pa/state/main/?state=PA  Type your zip code in the box at the top of the page and you will be taken to a page with information for all of your elected officials.  Please personalize any phone conversation or letter that you may write with anecdotes about how arts funding has enriched your community. 

Last of all, forward this e-mail to family, friends, co-workers, etc. and ask that they also contact their legislators in support of state arts funding.  I'm singing to the choir, I know, but what a dreary state we would live in without the arts.  If funding ceases to exist, that just may happen.

Thanks for all of your help with this important campaign.

If you have any questions, please contact Citizens for the Arts jlh@citizensfortheartsinpa.org or by phone at 717-234-0959.

Make your money multiply with us.

HA!

Total cop out: Jezebel says it better than I would at the mo.

But yeah, they're doing tests on Chinese men and have found monthly testosterone injections (and some other stuff) to be 99% effective as male birth control.  For all but 2 of the men the effects were reversible.

So, progress!  Go, science!  Gotta wonder what kind of physical and behavioural side effects extra testosterone is having on those guys, though.  Not that women don't deal with (sometimes major) side effects with hormonal birth control, but I would expect extra testosterone to make people more aggressive.

As always, I'm curious to see where this goes.

I learned somewhere in my early college career to be suspicious of any person, organization, force, or entity that pressures me to feel shame or guilt.  It's a powerful manipulation tactic, and not one people try to use on me when they're truly interested in my own good, or at least not when they respect or trust me enough to make my own decisions.  If I'm going to change my behaviour, I want to do so as part of an informed choice, not out of a sense of obligation.

I truly appreciate this article by John DeVore: We Men Don't Have 'Guilty' Pleasures.  He points out that when men enjoy doing/eating/watching/verbing something that is quote-unquote BAD for them (DeVore actually describes this as whatever they're obsessed with), they celebrate it.  They wave the Nerd banner, the Pizza and Beer banner, the Unquestionable Loyalty to Sports Team X banner, they slap on the war paint, and invite over the guys to play with them.  They hold competitions (in my experience) and brag about them for years to come.  (In my experience, they also welcome the women to play, too.)

Women, by comparison, will generally "indulge" in something like, say, a huge serving of delicious non-salad food, or a gossip magazine, or too much alcohol, and publicly apologise.  They'll express regret, guilt, shame, disbelief at their own bad decisions and poor behaviour.  They'll hide their secret pleasures from anyone who may judge them.

...Why?  Why the polar opposites?  Men have possibly unhealthy Obsessions that they share with their friends, but women have Guilty Pleasures.  We allow ourselves to enjoy unladylike things, but only if we swallow it with a big old serving of self-punishment.  We'll set ourselves up for public flogging and preemptively flinch.  That, my friends, is fucked up.  I agree completely with DeVore: "Feeling bad about feeling good, even if the good is short-term, is for puritan chumps."

DeVore also points out that men (and I would argue women as well) often apply their Public Reaction to Enjoying Something along the lines of what is traditionally accepted as gender-appropriate.  "I'll wager many ladies are the quiet guardians of their man's not-really-secret, but not-really-public, quirks."  (See?  Patriarchy hurts men, too!)  He then proceeds to proclaim his love for "frou-frou" bubble baths, reality TV, and delicious, flaky quiche.  Fuck gender stereotypes!

While this article closes with a message to men that it's ok to enjoy their softer side, I hope women will come away with a reminder that it's ok to enjoy what they enjoy without feeling guilty about it.  Ladies, when you feel bad about feeling good, the only one hurting is you.  And that doesn't do anybody any good.

This is some really awesome and fun video editing. This guy is neither a drummer nor a pianist.

Watch this, you're gonna love my nuts.

I LOVE that the Spin Doctors played Sesame Street. This made my night.

If I ever end up with a child, this will be me.

Well who wouldn't want to teabag John McCain, that's all I have to say.

The Republicans have submitted a budget...with no numbers in it. Plenty of diagrams. No numbers.

Ok, this is the fucking coolest thing ever.
I kind of feel bad for the sheepies...
But wow, dudes.

So, as it turns out, I'm going to be throwing a bridal shower in not too long.  I have zero clue what I'm doing, as I've never been to one of these shindigs before, let alone been in charge of planning one.  Being to Google queen I am I've been doing all kinds of internet searches for ideas, but a little live input from real people is really more my speed.

So.  Anyone who's been to or planned a bridal shower, what can you tell me?  What were the activities and themes that were fun and worked well?  We've got a mixed group of a wide age range, and we should probably keep things on the clean, light, non-lingerie side.  Is there a really super awesome website or book you used that you'd recommend?