My $700 shower curtain

some people cut their hair, some people buy new clothes, others join a gym, or frequent the bar. I finally cut my hair-figuratively. i bought a kitten, and that was like buying a shower curtain only he cuddles with me. oh, the little dear!

ps it is impossible to find a chic magazine holder in victoria, tx

"my friend and yours, BRIAN FRIEDMAN"

"Tell me about a time that you showed initiative."
... For a year and a half i have owned the brian friedman instructional dance video, "freestyle," and for a year and a half when we watch the beginning and the announcer mentions all of the artists that brian has worked with, including brittney spears, n'sync, hillary duff, mya, ashanti, we launch a five minute discussion about the mention of jewel and how an artist like jewel could possibly need a choreographer. well, of course my trip to utah this last week included reminiscing about 'the good old times' (ie andrea and spending 3 hrs trying to learn overprotected and only getting 3 counts into it-um, it is booty hard) and of course wondering what on earth brian choreographed for jewel. i pledged to my dear friends that i would find out, once and for all. this is what i have discovered:
"Friedman has also appeared on shows such as VH1 Divas Live 2003 with Beyoncé, Jewel, Ashanti, and Queen Latifah" This launched my search and i found the following video of beyonce and jewel. please note that even brian friedman can't teach jewel to dance and beyonce is in fact who i aspire to be in my secret life-



also, i found this video of a rehearsal for the event (you can hear brian giving cues in the background) although i couldn't find the performance:




...and to think, i failed a personality test because i only showed as much initiative as my classmates.
ps this won't be the last brian friedman post. as i become myself again, i am coming to love him again-it is part of me

Big Cat Diary #1

how many times did andrea and i hold each other on the couch and cry our faces off watching some documentary about baby white tigers or jaguars? approx. 1 million. here is the best one of all. I could get into the true meaning of friendship and love and that sort of stuff, because i have a lot of thoughts on that, but just watch this- andrea and melanie, you will cry. allison, i already know what you will say, "tender."




*there is a longer version (over an hour long) if you want to watch that too:) just search for christian the lion

control freak

i have done a lot of self reflection lately and one of the things that i have been thinking about is fear, and more specifically the thing that ties all of my fears together. guess what it is...i said guess. this may come as no surprise to those of you that know me well, but admitting it is the first step right? losing control. yes, as in missy elliott's smash hit of 2004 (coincidence? probably) let's look at my most irrational fear, for example. it is extremely unlikely that i will get attacked by a killer whale or fall into a humpback whale tank, but the fear is real. it is real because in this situation i would have absolutely no control over the outcome. so, i mitigate it by staying out of kayaks on the ocean and away from the front row of the orca show at marine world africa USA.

all this self reflection (the 2hr drive to austin, tx) made me think about all of the things that i would control if i could. these things wouldn't necessarily make the world a better place, in fact i know they wouldn't, but they would remove the spikes on the walls that seem to be closing in around me (that, i am afraid of): if i had it my way What not to Wear would only have one host for a while, on XM radio the classical station would only play russian composers and the 80's station would only play songs that concerned politics, all mid-size sedans would be of the toyota variety, it would be the end of august already, i would have never read the national geographic as a child, no body would wear white, not in cotton, silk, satin, rayon, eyelet lace and certainly not tulle, seismologists predictions for the last 50 years would actually be right-it might be easier that way, shower curtains would be something that came standard in every apartment along with a little kitty, and derek shepard's hair would be a lovely shade of blonde. if i could control these things i might not be afraid.