first guest post!

..can be found over at Pink Robots Need Love Too!

Amanda is a fellow blogger who I met through my boyfriend, an adventurous soul who loves trying new things and seeing new places. She loves traveling and is my inspiration for many reasons, largely because she is currently planning a wedding in Canada (where her boyfriend is) while living in Korea and teaching English for a year.

Pre-Korea. Aren't they adorable??
P.S. Yes Amanda, I stole this from your Facebook site..

From her "About" section:

"This is a blog about fashion, pop culture(by which I mean the same junk that we all read on Perez Hilton), art, writing, food, wine, do-it-yourself projects, thrifting, and delicious food."

Thanks Amanda!!

j & a

Okay. I love TLC. And I love the Duggars.

Now that we have that out of the way, I was curious about the timeline of Josh and Anna Duggars relationship, so I did a little research from their website (which is sickeningly sweet, fyi):

Early 2006 - Josh and Anna meet for the first time
June 2008 - Josh proposes
September 2008 - Josh and Anna get married
October 2009 - Josh and Anna have their first baby, Mackynzie Renée Duggar (yeah I said first.. you know they will have like 67 of them)

Can we just focus on these dates for a second?!

They only knew each other for a year and a half.. before he proposed. PROPOSED. As in, MARRIAGE. FOREVER. Guaranteed they did not spend any time alone together before that.. and even after they were engaged, they only hung out alone with a chaperone (a family member over the age of 15). No wonder they had such a short engagement.. if all I did was hold hands, I would not want to wait more than three months either!

And then, 5 months after they get married, they get pregnant. WHAT THIS IS CRAZY TALK

They are just getting used to being in a room alone and now they have to share it with another crying, pooping, helpless human being.. when all poor Josh wants to do is get laid. Might cause you to rethink the birth control situation hey there JD?

Photo obviously taken after the wedding night, because more than their palms are touching.

I really do not see the difference between this and an Indian arranged marriage. You base your decision on the family this person was raised in, the trust instilled in you from your religion, you do not spend much (if any) time alone with them prior to the wedding, get the sex talk a few weeks (or days) before the wedding, and trust your parents to make most of the decisions for you. And then, you promise your ENTIRE LIFE to someone you barely know.

The whitest, most Christian kids on the block are the same as two brown Hindus. Really, the world is smaller than we give it credit for.

P.S. Anna is the cutest girl ever. EVER. She is so innocent you can not help but love her.
P.P.S. I have not used a single apostrophe in this post because my keyboard is French today and my apostrophes look like this: è

I take back my comments about the LC being boring freak shows

AWWWWWW. I just watched this video

http://tlc.discovery.com/videos/the-little-couple-before-the-show-the-wedding.html

and I like Bill and Jen more when they're real and not so scripted...

sticky topic.

This might be a little controversial, but I've never been one to shy away from issues because they might ruffle a few feathers.. so here goes.

I used to be staunchly pro-life.

Now that I'm out of my teens I'm more aware that life is not black and white.

I'd love to believe that every embryo has a soul and is a person upon conception. But with statistics like this:

"Between twenty and fifty percent of pregnancies end in miscarriage. The vast majority of spontaneous abortion cases occur during the early weeks of the pregnancy. In most cases, signs of miscarriage during the initial stages of pregnancy are undetectable, and the woman may not even be aware she was pregnant, or that she had a miscarriage."

..how is it possible to mourn the loss of a human you didn't even know existed?

Which bring me to this question.. how do right-wing conservative Christians view vanishing twin syndrome, if every embryo is a person? Cannibalism?

I'm stumped.

freak shows.

Today is better. I found my wine at a different liquor store on Friday night! Woohoo!

I love weekends because I don't have to be anywhere. I love not waking up to an alarm (who doesn't?!), and savoring the feeling of a nice cozy bed, with the sun streaming through the blinds.

When the phrase, "reality tv" first came out, it was introduced right around the time "Survivor" debuted, which, believe it or not, I have never watched a full episode of.

There are shows about shopping. About budgeting. About cooking, acting, organizing, clothing, rich people, poor people, millionaires, people in debt, everything!

The shows that get me are programs that highlight specific disorders that people have. On one hand, it's good in that the world is getting smaller, and families who are coping with a loved one dealing with a genetic disorder or rare illness no longer feel so isolated. My concern arises because I find myself watching these shows for entertainment. I watch them like I would watch a freak show, a circus act, a movie... it makes me wonder if the good doesn't outweigh the fact that these people are being exploited so that tv networks can make money.

This came around because I'm watching "Hoarders". This show is such a freak show.. crushed rodents, 80 thousand cats, feces everywhere.. they're not all like that, but the ones that are .. like how do you deal with a disorder like this when it just looks like laziness? I don't blame these people's families for not staying in physical contact.

Another thing I'm wondering is .. what is it with TLC and midgets?! I'm sorry, I know that's not politically correct.. they love their little people.. Little People Big World, The Little Couple, The Little Chocolatiers, and I've seen several specials on primordial dwarfism. They are capitalizing on people's obsession with little people. I'm going to be straight up here: I don't watch these shows to identify with the troubles they face. I watch these shows because I am SO GLAD I am 5'7", and it's funny to watch them toddle around and climb in cars and on counters. I know that sounds harsh. I'm sorry. Karma is going to get me. I used to watch LPBW, but then was turned off when it looked like the Roloff's marriage was deteriorating (they should be on Til Debt Do Us Part.. I'd watch that!). I watched all the Jon&Kate shows and saw their marriage fall apart... and that's not something that should be viewed by millions. And The Little Couple is just a boring show. I don't find those two funny or interesting at all. NOW, on the other hand, if they adopted a kid with primordial dwarfism, ratings would fly through the roof, and I'd schedule it in for SURE.

TLC has shows on excessive obesity, families with multiples, families with a bajillion children. Freak shows are on every day at suppertime. And I watch them.

Thoughts?

ffaaacckk.

Warning: This post is filled with an excessive amount of capitals

My friend Josh came over for supper tonight, which was lovely. I made my version of cashew chicken (which I made up on the spot, but apparently came out alright.. or else Josh is up for an Oscar!), some veggies, and enough rice to feed Haiti.* That will teach me to "eyeball it". I like hanging out with him, we each get to vent and bounce ideas off each other - we always manage to have interesting conversations.

Once he left, it all went downhill. My batch of cookies bombed, right when I was craving chocolate (and didn't have eggs in the house, which means I tried a new recipe.. boo). I then braved the cold outside to hunt down some Jost white wine (specifically: L'Acadie Pinot Grigio), and the teeny tiny liquor store didn't have it. SO I was going to settle for a Riesling, until I remembered that my debit card was in my coat pocket from getting gas (a traumatic experience in this arctic environment**). I never carry cash, 1. because I'm lazy and 2. so I can honestly tell bums on the street I have no money when they ask (which is a whole different post in itself). I decided to use my credit card. WHICH I have only used once in a non-online transaction. One that did not involve the clever use of this new "chip" technology, that means you have to stick your credit card in a debit machine and enter a PIN. WHICH I DO NOT HAVE. Which means I went out into the cold, for NOTHING, and made the poor guy at the liquor store think I stole the credit card, or was a rather spry 93 year old woman ("Can't you just swipe it and check my ID? I've never used the PIN before, I don't know what it is.")

I promptly called said credit card company upon returning home and they apparently MAILED me the PIN when I first got the card, I don't know, back in the fall sometime. How the HECK was I supposed to know what that was for back then, for all I knew people swiped credit cards and signed the receipt. Forgive me, I'm a late bloomer in the credit department. The only way to get the PIN or change it is to get them to send it to me again (3-5 business days) or call them, and they flip a switch and give me 12 hours to get to a BMO bank machine. GAH. All I wanted was Grey's and some Pinot. That is all.

*Too soon?
**The cold is doing me in. I'm one step away from booking a vacation on my line of credit and "forgetting" to book a return flight.

nasty.

Nothing is grosser than finding a pube on a work toilet seat. Ewww..