This is my world, and I'm taking it back

2010 has sucked so far, you guys. First of all, I was having the best New Years Eve ever... until my boyfriend and I got food poisoning. I rang in 2010 with vomit (Too much information? Whatever, this isn't even the bad part.)

Then, the owners of the store I work at showed up and closed the store down without giving us any notice. My manager got a call ten p.m. on Sunday night telling her she didn't have to come into work the next day. We also don't know if they're even paying us for the last two weeks (a.k.a. the busiest two weeks of the year, which include two holiday pay days, time-and-a-half for boxing day, and in which I worked approximately seventy hours). Luckily, because I had management experience I was able to get a new job quickly, but I'm not gaurenteed the amount of hours I need at this new job. Lame.

Plus I had to buy a seventy-five dollar PAPERBACK (like, 150 pages max) textbook. 2010. sucks.

End rant. For now.

Good things that have happened recently:
(I'm trying to be more positive, you see. However, this is not me "looking on the bright side" or any of that crap, this is more like a "reasons to not sit around and eat ice cream & sulk all day" list)

1. My neighbors had a baby!
2. My classes this semester should be really interesting
3. I scored Cake hand lotion at Winners for super cheap
4. I scored many, many other things on boxing day sales for super cheap
5. I have this weekend off since my new job doesn't start for a little while, which will quite literally be my first weekend off since I was sixteen.
6. Jeggings were one of the things I got on boxing day sale for super cheap:



This is me trying to show how comfortable/stretchy they are. I freaking love these things. No one can tell they are jeggings because they look and feel just like real jeans unless
a) you are the one wearing their awesome-ness, or
b) you lift up your shirt to show people the elastic waist when they don't believe you are wearing jeggings.

[Jeggings and drape-y cardi arefrom Garage, shirt from a consignment store]

Love Always,
Amy

Cowboy take me away

My mom grew up on a farm. This is the only explanation I can think of for her love of cowboy boots. She's got four or five pairs and cherishes them like you wouldn't believe. The only reason i got to wear these was because I stole them for the afternoon while she wasn't home...


Brown shirt: Gap
Cardigan: Suzy Shier
Skirt: Club Monaco
Tights: Accessorize
High-heeled cowboy boots: Vintage from Mom's closet
Earings: Vintage from great-grandmother



I wore this outfit to campus to see my boy perform with his choir in a Holiday concert a few days back. Obviously these photos were not taken today because IT EFFING SNOWED. Ugh. Everyone is all "omg finally snow! :D :D" while I'm preparing to enter full-on bitchy winter mode until it melts and building my metaphoric nest of despair, complete with unflatering sweaters and too much candy.

I had my last class today of the first semester of second year university. Exams should be easy compared to enduring the antics of my Methodology prof twice a week...

Love Always,
Amy

You gotta think

As I've mentioned before, I'm in university for an honours BA in History and Women's Studies. If you'd like to know more about Women's Studies, feel free to email me!

My field of study teaches me to critically analyze the world and it's social structures, structures which are often extremely oppressie to women and other marginalized groups, such as people of colour, gays/lesbians/bisexuals/transgendered people, the economically disadvantaged, disabled people, and the list goes on.

Something that's really been upsetting me lately that I wanted to talk about is the whole controversy surrounding Adam Lambert's performance at the AMAs, during which he simulated oral sex with a male dancer, and kissed a male musician on stage. I'm of the opinion that Lambert's performance was absolutely amazing and I believe the sexually-suggestive acts committed were really awesome and liberating. Whether or not you share my opinion about the performance is irrelevent. What I want to stress here is the aftermath of the performance and the double standards and discrimination at play.

Lambert was scheduled to perform on a CBS morning program a few days ago, but the performance was cancelled and the network cited the controversy surrounding Adam's AMA performance as the reason. They also blurred the image of Lambert kissing his male musician when reporting on the story. I'm sure you all recall the infamous Britney Spears-Madonna-Christina Aguilera kiss from an awards ahow several years back. The image of these women kissing was never blurred for public television, so why was the image of Adam Lambert kissing another male deemed inappropraite for public view? Patriarchy, my friends, patriarchy.

Women kissing one another feeds into straight male fantasies as is thus deemed socially acceptable and even encouraged in many situations (ever played truth or dare? Yeah.). This is why Katy Perry can sell a bajillion records singing about kissing girls, but Adam Lambert gets performances cancelled and his face blurred on TV. Girls kissing is "hot", yet a gay kiss is "gross", "inappropraite", "too controversial". On another note, while Adam Lambert was not allowed to perform on CBS, apparently it's okay to have Chris Brown go on-air to talk about how he beat his girlfriend in February. The message this sends? Being gay is not okay and not allowed on television, but if you beat up a woman, we'll TOTALLY give you even more airtime!

I encourage you to read this article from Feministing.com for more information, and think critically about the media.

Love Always,
Amy

Let all fall away that's not crucial now

Mixture of awesome and annoying things going on in my life right now.

The awesome: I won Winona's book, Closet Confidential, from Ambika over at (Into) The Fray. I NEVER win things. The last thing i won was probably my sixth-grade leadership award. I'm so excited to get it in the mail, Daddy Likey is by far one of my favourite blogs and Winona is hilarious. Thank you so much for holding that awesome contest, Ambika!

I also got a new phone, the Samsung Link. It's basically a Blackberry knockoff since i would never use any of the functions on a blackberry and as such, refuse to pay $400 for one. So far, so good. Samsung phones have always served me well. Until i drop them into toilets like i did in highschool, but that's another story.

The annoying: So. Much. School. Work. Must. Get. Scholarship. Or. Father. Will. Cry.

Anyway.


Sweater: Jacob, $20
Skirt: Gap, $6
Pumps: Madden Girl, Mom's
Jewelery: All great-grandmother's

I love the square neck of this sweater. You don't find square necklines around a lot, so i HAD to buy this sweater... after considering the $20 price tag for a number of weeks, 'cause that's how us cheap ladies roll.


I dunno about you guys, but i kind of love my "omg the sunlight is eating me" pictures. They're etheral, in an "i really don't know how to take pictures so i just stand directly in front of the sun and see what happens" kind of way.

In this picture you can kind of see my new nailpolish which i love love LOVE. It's called "Black Cherry Chutney" by OPI, and it's a really dark purple. I sure know how to pick 'em when it comes to those silly OPI names...

Love Always,
Amy