Posts

Posted on

no sweat

OK, so, I’ve been wondering whether or not to post about this thing which has changed my life.  Because this thing?  It’s a deodorant, and how lame is that to blog about?  But the thing is, every time I discover something life-changingly awesome, it tends to get discontinued.  SO.  I’m going to tell you, the Interwebz, about it in hopes that if more people buy this amazing thing, the company won’t stop making it.

This amazing, life-changing deodorant is Adidas Cotton-Tech.  Now, about a year ago, I went on a major hunt for an aluminum free deodorant.  I know the aluminum-breast cancer/Alzheimer’s link is unproven, but my thought was, if I can ditch the aluminum and not suffer a loss of quality of life, then it’s worth the peace of mind.  Well, about a week into my experiment with Alba Organics and Tom’s of Maine deodorants, my loving husband informed me that I smelled like a dirty hippie.  So.  That experiment ended abruptly.  After all, I don’t want to smell repellant to the one person I want to snuggle close (this was also the reason a lovely “orange blossom” fragrance did not work out).

On a recent trip to the grocery store (Harris Teeter), I noticed the Adidas Cotton-Tech and thought I’d give it a try.  I was fed up with the Secret I was using, because it was making white marks on all my clothes.  Adidas Cotton-Tech is aluminum free and apparently somehow absorbs the sweat like cotton, while killing bacteria that cause smells.  Dear readers, I had low expectations, but I can now report that the AC has been out in my office all day, and my underarms are not sweating.  Meanwhile my legs, which I habitually cross, keep sticking together.  The Adidas deodorant is also more of a clear-gel type, so it’s not going to make white marks on your clothes.  And I rather like the “green floral” smell.  It’s not baby powdery (though you can get a baby powder variety), which I enjoy, but also not overwhelmingly flowery.  It just smells clean, but not in some sort of Old Spice way, and doesn’t conflict with my other fragrances be they lotion or perfume.  So, please, help me make sure they don’t discontinue this product.  It’s only $3.99 at my local grocery store!

(P.S. If you ever need to guarnatee that you won’t sweat, say, wearing a silk top or something, CertainDri WORKS.)

Posted on

celebrate independence

So, tomorrow is Independence Day, and I figured, what better way to support independence than to support an independent artist?  Especially in this economy, supporting small business owners is downright patriotic.  So…. I indulged my Etsy browsing hobby and came up with a few things that seem apt for the 4th of July holiday weekend.  Check ’em out!

I almost wish I had a kid so I could make him wear that onesie on Saturday. How cute is that?  Like a lil baby politician! $11 by rocknrags.

I live in dresses in the summertime.  I’m really wishing I had this one to wear on Saturday.  $60 by wingandwendy.

Even more than the sundress though, I wish I had this suit for hanging out on the beach (or on a lake!) on the Fourth of July.  SO cute. By FablesbyBarrie.

I have a thing for old barns, so I love this photo.  $35 by buckscountyframes.

I sorta want this letterpress print for my kitchen RIGHT NOW.  $12 by cindytomczykart.

Sailor Tote! By banyanhippo, whom I’ve bought from– quality bags, and quick shipping all the way from Turkey! $27.

If you’re more of a small purse gal, this one is adorable.  $28 by nonsuch.

Letterpress print, $10 from letterpress.

I’m not cool enough to know who Minus the Bear is, but this is a great poster. $30 by SleepOp.

Print by YeeHawIndustries, $25.

OMG OBAMA BIDEN FINGER PUPPETS.  Is it weird to like these SO MUCH?  The seller, mullishmuse, has lots of other awesome finger puppets as well. $16.

I’ll take this vintage pitcher full of lemonade, plz. $14 from CsRetroChicBoutique.

States United poster.  Wish I could afford it.  $75 by beauchamping.

Cute necklace, $18 by BRadleyBB.

Posted on

the sanfords, spiritual leadership, and submission

Image via the Washington Post
Image via the Washington Post

I’m with PunditMom: I LIKE Jenny Sanford. Reading this Washington Post piece on Jenny, after her eloquent and, I believe, genuine press statement about her husband’s oh-so-public failing, I get the feeling that she is smart, strong, and looking out for herself and her family. I also get the feeling she’s a genuine Christian, and her example stands in stark contrast to the hypocrisies of men like her husband, particularly this, from The American Prospect’s Tapped blog:

Sanford advised spending more time with one’s family (ahem) and praying together. “I don’t want to be old-fashioned here,” he added, “but I think the father has the responsibility of being the spiritual leader of the house, and there are some lessons on a daily, nightly, morning basis that need to go from the father to the little ones in talking about how shall we then live. And I think that particular responsibility is on the backs of fathers.”

Seems to me that Jenny Sanford is the true spiritual leader in that household.  And that her husband abdicated this role when he disappeared to be with another woman ON FATHER’S DAY.

And here’s the part that I’m really thinking about, pondering, and questioning: doesn’t this traditional gender role, male-as-spiritual-leader system really set a marriage up for failure?

Here’s where I’m going with this.  So the Sanfords believe that, despite having an equal education and career experience, despite an equal role in running her husband’s campaigns and PR strategies, despite keeping the home fires burning in such a way that Mark was even able to sustain his political ambitions, Jenny is spiritually inferior to her husband, in need of his leadership, headship, and “covering.”  She is the one expected (I’m fine if it’s just her freely-made choice, as someone who hopes to be a SAHM someday) to give up her Wall Street VP job to raise kids and bake oatmeal chocolate chip cookies for staffers and reporters.  She’s the one who disappears into home life, to the extent that I’m willing to bet that she wasn’t even the same person Mark Sanford fell in love with in the first place.  And then we act surprised when Mark Sanford, bored with this rigid assignment of roles, perhaps even with his no-longer high-powered wife, decides that a fling with an Argentinian is more exciting?  The entire system is unfair to both Mark AND Jenny.

I’m not excusing Mark Sanford’s actions.  I believe that there is no excuse for cheating on a spouse, and at the VERY least, he should have gotten a divorce before pursuing another woman, preferably not one who is also married (his mistress was apparently “separated” at the time that they met).  However, what I am saying is, this religiously-motivated gender-based spiritual hierarchy that its adherents believe protects marriage and ensures spiritual order actually creates a system in which both spouses are doomed to failure. The woman is left at home with the kids, deferring to her husband constantly, trying not to question him and his spiritual “headship,” and is expected all the same to remain attractive and attracted to her husband.  It’s like asking her to fight with one hand behind her back– how can she still be interesting and challenging and compelling to her husband if, after getting married and having kids, she’s no longer allowed to be the hard-working, high-powered, highly-intelligent person who first attracted him?

And the man is put on a spiritual pedestal, where, instead of answering to his wife, conversing with his wife, being challenged spiritually “as iron sharpens iron” by his wife, he meets with groups of men like C-Street or this Cubby character Mark Sanford seemed to be more broken up about disappointing than he was about disappointing his wife and kids.  And these men, I believe, often feed the very beast they are supposedly trying to tame.

This is why I don’t go in for this “headship” stuff.  I wasn’t looking for a leader, I was looking for a partner.  I wanted someone who can call me on my BS, and who I can call on his.  I wanted someone who would be just as devastated as I would be if I had kids and suddenly lost myself, my biggest fear about parenthood.  And that’s what I have in my marriage.  We see it as “iron sharpening iron,” not one of us inferior to the other.  When I talk about my desire to stay home with our children, my husband asks me if I would really be happy in such a role.  He knows me well enough to know I need challenges and mental stimulation, that I need to feel like I’m being productive and contributing to the world in a meaningful way, using my mind and my talents.  We will raise our children the same way we currently go through life– holding hands and picking up each other’s slack and doing the best we can.  But we’re certainly not going to handicap ourselves with outdated ideas of patriarchal leadership and one-sided submission that set us both up for failure and disappointment.

Posted on

programming note

I’ve decided to stop doing posts on the weekend, as no one reads them anyway, and I should really be trying to interact with humans instead of screwing around on the interwebz on my days off.  So.  Check out some of the fun stuff you may have missed this week, like the post about my pet-chauvenism, my take on Jon & Kate + Hate, and a lot of special Mark Sanford news including the Crying In Argentina Playlist.  And now, just for funzies, I will leave you with two videos.  The thing they have in common?  Both are local TV specials, made in the South.

First up is Turtleman.  I love this guy.  As my husband says, “You can just tell that he loves life.”  I’m sure anyone from the South could tell a story of an encounter with someone just like him.  As my boss says: “America.  People are doing crazy shit all over it.”

Next up is Skidboot the Dog.  He’s amazing.  Now my dogs commonly hear the phrase “WHY CAN’T YOU BE MORE LIKE SKIDBOOT??”

Y’all have a great weekend!

Posted on

crying in argentina: the playlist

After much joking about Mark Sanford’s country song, “Crying in Argentina,” it occurred to me, I should make ol Mark a special playlist for this special time– I guess it’s a playlist to listen to while hiking the Appalachian Trail all the way to Argentina.

First up, Weezer’s “Island in the Sun“.  Included for the line “We’ll run away together, we’ll spend some time forever, we’ll never feel bad anymore.” (It wouldn’t let me embed the video, but it’s directed by Spike Jonze and pretty cool)

Then:

Next, another one I can’t embed: Justin Timberlake’s Senorita. “Senorita, I feel for you, you deal with things that you don’t have to.” That one could practically BE one of Sanford’s emails.

And speaking of the emails, since Sanford says “there is something wonderful about listening to country music playing in the cab, air conditioner running, the hum of a huge diesel engine in the background”, I give you “She Thinks My Tractor’s Sexy”:

Then Janet’s “Escapade.”  Think by ditching the governor’s office for a week he was trying to save his troubles for another day?

Think the ladies in Argentina are like the ladies in Spain?  “Can’t refuse it.”

And what’s acting like an idiot teenager in love rather than a governor with a wife and kids without a lil Tiffany?

And finally, Madonna, “Holiday.”  “It would be so nice” if you could just get away with disappearing from your elected office for a week, wouldn’t it?

Got any additions to make to the list?

Posted on

artistic immortality

The whole world is talking about Michael Jackson’s death.  Twitter and Facebook and YouTube are full of fans who are mourning, and even people who were not fans, just musing on mortality and celebrity and legacy.  A friend of mine posted a status update on Facebook, wondering if artists ever face their mortality, or if they just think they will live forever, like their work.  I think she was reacting to what Madonna said about Michael Jackson’s death:

I have always admired Michael Jackson. The world has lost one of the greats, but his music will live on forever!

My friend, I know, is a Christian, and to her, I think, it’s a problem that people would not realize their own mortality. However, though I am a Christian, thinking on this statement and its implications, I suddenly realized I was seeing the statement through the eyes of an English major. Didn’t Shakespeare say something similar? Some quick Googling and I found the sonnet I was looking for. Though I’m sure Shakespeare addressed similar themes in other sonnets, the one I was thinking of was Sonnet XVIII, one of his most famous, though it is generally the first half that gets quoted:

Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date:
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimmed,
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance, or nature’s changing course untrimmed:
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st,
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st,
So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

Perhaps I’m reaching a bit to pull Shakespeare and Michael Jackson into the same post, but the idea of work living on long after its creator is gone is a longstanding theme in literature and art. And though I believe in an afterlife, and I don’t believe anyone is ever really gone, I also understand that in many ways, legends like Shakespeare and Michael Jackson never really die in the sense that their work, what we loved and knew of them, is always with us. You just have to pop over to YouTube today to see this on display– they have a collection of Michael’s videos on the front page, ready to be clicked by the millions who are mourning the King of Pop. So long as men can breathe and eyes can see, so long live the videos, and they give life to thee.

Posted on

looking for mcdreamy?

Last night I was looking over my blog stats on the Lapple, sitting next to Jon on the couch.

“At least five people every day find my blog by searching McDreamy because of that post I wrote about you.”

“How disappointing for them to be looking for McDreamy and finding me instead!”

“Well, they at least get a picture of the real McDreamy.  I’m keeping you all to myself!”

So, here’s another pic for all you searchers somehow winding up here!

Posted on

jon and kate disintegrate

I’m about to write something that may seem a little radical to many I know.   So consider yourself warned.

On the one hand, the whole world has Jon & Kate + 8 fever, and it seems that their big announcement tonight is that they’re getting divorced, as People Magazine reports that papers have already been filed in Pennsylvania.  I firmly believe that being on TV is not a good thing for families, but I don’t think it’s just the quest for the spotlight that doomed this family.  Even from early episodes, it was apparent from the way they spoke to each other that Jon and Kate did not respect each other.  And though Kate often goes on church speaking tours, I did not see a lot of Christian love and grace between them.  Of course I’m just an armchair quarterback, but I calls ’em like I sees ’em.

And so, I’m faced with a sort of bipolar response to this, as a committed, happily married woman, and also as a child of divorce.  You see, I believe that divorce is sad and tragic and to be avoided whenever possible.  MY Jon and I both  agree that it is simply not on the table for us.  Based on the experiences of family and friends, I do believe that any marriage can be healed with love and grace by the power of God.

But. Continue reading “jon and kate disintegrate”

Posted on

cats rule, dogs drool, & i’m fine with that

happee puppee trofee wife
happee puppee trofee wife

Generally, people fall into one of two categories: cat people and dog people.  Sometimes the two categories overlap, but most of the time, they don’t.  And there can be as much animosity between the two camps as there are between Democrats and Republicans, jocks and nerds, Razorback fans and LSU fans.  Cat people pride themselves on their emotional superiority.  They don’t need an animal to worship and adore them, they say, they can handle an animal who isn’t always happy to see them, who doesn’t always welcome their affections, who doesn’t require constant stimulation and attention.  Dog people enjoy having an animal who can be trained, who responds to commands, who can be taught tricks, and who can be taken to parks and out on other fun outings.  Some people even try to genderize cats and dogs, suggesting that cats are more like females, and dogs are more like males.

I think I take a different tack.  I am firmly in the dog-person camp, though I think cats are adorable and sometimes wish I had one to sit in my lap, purring while I read or watch TV– though I am convinced that the mere fact of this desire means that any cat I ever had would absolutely refuse to participate in such activities.  No, to me, a dog person, there is division even among dog people.  Dogs are, you see, like different types of girlfriends, and I fear that in this respect, I’m like the dog-owning equivalent of a male chauvenist pig. Continue reading “cats rule, dogs drool, & i’m fine with that”