Suck it, 2012.

 In no particular order, 12 things from 2012.

 

The internet is a creepy place. Case in point, I was browsing some blogs, got lost down the rabbit hole, and only stopped when I was 12 pages deep in a blog, and found a picture of my college ex boyfriend with his girlfriend, and the blogger and her husband.

 

The internet is amazing. You can read over 1,000 reviews of a dog toy on amazon, complete with pictures. You can make awesome twitter friends who become your digital cheerleaders.

 

If you have to tell people you are classy, preppy, or classic, you are none of those things. Please, if you are over the age of 21, stop speaking in abbreviations. Arm party is not a thing. You made that up. Also, I knew how to pile a bunch of bracelets on my wrist when I was 7, so I don’t really need your patronizing tutorial.  Wearing JCrew does not give you style. You have style or you don’t, and you really don’t have style by wearing the same skinny pants or sweaters as all the other twentysomething lemmings.

 

Losing friends sucks.

 

But there are times when you just need to let go of certain friendships.

 

The world is a sad place. Tragedies happen every single day. Some are “more tragic” than others, as if we need to quantify loss, and rank your loss over mine. Any loss of life is tragic.

 

 

I have too many clothes. But I love all of them. Minus maybe a few shirts from college I just need to burn.

 

I will never be a great cook, or even a good cook, but I can bake my tits off.

 

I will never censor myself. I understand what is appropriate for a professional setting, or in public, but I will never censor my ideas.

 

The car is a great place to dance, scream, or cry.

 

I’m really smart. And I will never apologize for that. Or try to dumb myself down so others are more comfortable. If you are uncomfortable by my intelligence, I don’t want to know you.

 

 

Being healthy and skinny is awesome. But eating taco dip is awesome too.

 

 

 

Designate a driver before you go out- Be safe tonight.

The one where I don't preach.

Three years ago this month, I graduated with my M.S. in Crime and Justice Studies with extensive coursework in Mental Health Counseling (long story). One year ago this month I completed a second advanced degree, in Forensic Mental Health.

 

 

Basically I spend my work day researching and talking to colleagues about the very events that transpired on Friday. I can describe in detail a gruesome homicide or a horrible sexual assault and not even flinch. I've become detached, immune almost to the tragedy. A lot of what I do is focused on children involved in the legal system, whether as delinquents or as victims. Violence happens every single day; Chicago averages a little over 500 homicides a year, 80% involve guns, and more than half have victims under the age of 25 (University of Chicago Crime Lab).

 

 

I can rattle off statistics about violence at schools, but that makes the experience of grief so clinical. I can be angry at the journalists who reported false information just for the sake of having the breaking story, or the "journalists" who shoved cameras in the faces of seven year olds post trauma. I am very angry at them, but until we as a society decide not to stand for sensationalism, that is our media.

 

 

I can want to personally drive to every idiot on my twitter and facebook timelines residence and scream at them for their inaccurate, absurd, and dangerous presumptions about mental illness and criminal behavior. And I do want to. But instead I'll go on little rants on twitter, and try my best to educate my friends and family and coworkers about deinstitutionalization in the 1960s leading to prisons and jails becoming de facto mental health facilities. I can talk about the lack of mental health treatment in correctional facilities, the horrible continuity of care when an individual is released from institutional corrections, and the lack of access to mental health treatment that the general public faces.

 

 

I can be so angry my stomach hurts about the stigma of mental illness, the lack of understanding we show our mentally ill friends and family members, and the hurdles one has to jump through just to receive mental health care. But I'll eat some candy, feel a little better, and try even harder to improve access to mental health care for those in my community.

 

 

I can love the Constitution and those inalienable rights we are all given, but I also can understand that we live in a flawed society and those due process rights we are afforded do not mean we are all treated equal under the eyes of the law. I can also appreciate that the Constitution was written at a time where we didn't have a formal policing system in this country and it wasn't for another 50 years that we even saw what was going on in London and decided to adopt it as our own. I can respect the law and take the handgun safety course and apply for my handgun permit. But I cannot respect the need for automatic weapons to be manufactured, distributed, and permitted in some states. I cannot respect the need for certain states to permit traveling gun shows where anyone, seriously anyone, can purchase a weapon without a thorough background check and safety training. We don't have standing militias any longer, so we don't quite need immediate access to weaponry.

 

 

 

But I can be sad, I can talk, I can appreciate what I have, and I can hope to make a difference in some way.

Frandoms

A huge shout out to the Greatest Generation today, on December 7th, a date which will live in infamy. United States History in the twentieth century is a secret not so secret academic pursuit of mine. It is inspiring, and unfathomable today, that an entire country could be so actively and selflessly involved in the war effort.  See also: Molly McIntire .



It is Friday, party people.

Buzz's girlfriend, woof.

 

After a horrid start to the week, I had a great dinner (date?) with a friend on Wednesday night and I have a fun weekend away planned.

 

1. Wednesday night I met a friend for dinner and to catch up. I really wanted a grilled cheese and one of the best places around to get a grilled cheese, a huge, lots of cheese, looks like four pieces of bread, grilled cheese is our local bikini bar. So I enjoyed my grilled cheese at the bar while also looking at lower back tattoos, thongs, and painted nipples. I'm not sure if it was a date or not. He paid, but I insisted on getting the tip. I have my own theories on what constitutes a date and I don't think it met the criteria. My sister and mother were a little too giddy that I was getting dinner with him and insist it was a date.

 

 

2. I am done with my Christmas gift planning. I know who is getting what, how, and why. I'm almost done with my shopping as well. Now for the best part, the wrapping and the giving. I love to give gifts and pride myself on original, unique, personal gifts for my friends and family. I strongly dislike receiving gifts and opening presents in front of the gift giver makes me visibly uncomfortable.


 

 

3. I am off to CT and MA this weekend to see Dave Matthews Band for the first 2 shows of 3 this December. I'm really excited to see my junior year roommate, MOD, and to break 30 DMB shows. I'm also pretty pumped that seeing DMB three times in December gives me three chances to hear the Christmas Song. Even if you are not a DMB fan, there's no denying how beautiful a song it is.

 

 

 

Happy Weekend!

Struggles in Presentation.

It's science.

 

 

While that may be true, I do have bad hair. My hair is super fine, but not too thin, so I have a lot of hair. A lot of stringy, doesn't hold a curl, lays flat on my head type of hair. Layers are out, they don't work. It took me a full year to grow my bangs out between 8th and 9th grade so I'm not going back there. I donated eight inches of hair in October 2006. It is now December 2012 and my hair still is not back to the length it was before I cut it. I want to donate it again, but I don't want to have the chin length pageboy that I rocked back in 2006. So I am waiting for it to grow even longer, and then cut it off, and then enjoy a nice collarbone grazing style. Maybe by then I'll have exposed collarbones.

 

So the big question is, when I go in for highlights in two weeks, do I stick to blonde, or do I go back to brunette? My natural color has not been viewed in nature since the year 2000. I have been really blonde, really dark, and every combination in-between. My freshman year of college I cut and dyed my hair dark right before I left for orientation. Sophomore year I was blonde, junior year I was blonde first semester, brunette second, and I stayed blonde for senior year and grad school.

What do I do?
 

This is what I looked like in September.

 Blonde highlights with some brown undertones.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dear Blogger, why do you upload this file as a landscape when it is clearly saved as a portrait?

Summer 2010, not as blonde, but a nice blended color.

 

 

Summer 2007, more blonde, but still brown-ish.

 

 

 

 

Spring 2007, dark again.

 

 

 

 

Fall 2006, heavily highlighted.

 

 

 

 

Fall 2004, my first brunette experience.

 

 

Which do you prefer?

A favorite.

November challenge complete.

The little November challenge I had with myself is complete. I wore an original outfit each day and documented my spinster style with horrible bberry mirror pictures. Enjoy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                  

 

 

 

 

 

If you are still reading you deserve an award.

 

Happy Monday!

Frandoms

 

 

 

1. IT'S FRIDAYYYYYYYYYYY.

 

Kaitlin might be one of my spirit animals.

 

 

 

 

 

 

2. I need new boots. I have been fighting it for a year now but my riding boots from Italy are from 2006 and it is almost 2013. They don't smell like pretty leather anymore. They are brown, and I wear them with everything, brown, tan, black, navy. I've been casually looking for black boots for years but most of them look like military issue stripper boots. So now I am looking for black boots AND brown boots. So obviously my life is really hard and this is a major white girl problem. Help.

 

 

 

 

 

 

3. I started making Christmas presents this week. I have zero artistic talent so hopefully the gift recipients are fine with the spirit of the season and the thought that counts mentality. I am almost done with my shopping, have a few more things to make, and all that is left is to bake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

4. I succeeded in my November challenge. Kind of. I bought two items of clothing BUT I wore an original outfit each day. Grainy blackberry recap to come.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5. In all fairness, I bought a sweater and a pair of pants. From Target. And I got the pants on sale for $7.48. Soooo not too crazy.

 

The color is "Mango." Is the color too light for winter wear? My ass looks astounding in them.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Weekending!

 

 

This will be me at noon.