The ABCs of Me.

To keep things fresh, I stole this from a friend and her amazing blog.

(A) Age: 28

(B) Bed Size: Full

(C) Chore You Hate: When I live with other people it's the bathroom. I just can't stop thinking of all the germs!

(D) Dogs? I haven't had a dog in a long time. Living in apartments with (too) busy of work schedules has made me a cat lady. But I do love pups.

(E) Essential Start Your Day Item: My phone. If I didn't have it I would sleep in way too late.

(F) Favorite Color: I don't really have a favorite color. I prefer earth/jewel tones over pastels....cool vs warm....I guess I have favorite color combinations. Pink/Black, Black/White, Blue/Brown....

(G) Gold or Silver? Silver. Or white gold.

(H) Height:5'1"...5'2"...somewhere in there.

(I) Instruments You Play: None.

(J) Job Title: Student Activities & Events Coordinator

(K) Kids: Do the cats count? No... then no, no children.

(L) Live: Portland, OR

(M) Mom's Name: Claudette

(N) Nicknames: Oh my. So many. Mo (and variations of), Mogan, Wife, Wifey, Vida, and Teapot (only my sister Kat can call me this and get away with it though).

(O) Overnight Hospital Stays? Yep. For my tonsils and lymph node surgeries.

(P) Pet Peeve: Oh dear....so many...the more bizarre ones though: Not hitting cancel on the microwave, not being on time, and leaving a voicemail that just says "Call me".

(Q) Quote from a Movie: "And the goddess said, "Feed the people and send them out happy into the night." - Home at the end of the World

(R) Right or Left Handed? Right

(S) Siblings: 1 sister, 1 adopted sister, 1 step sister.

(T) Time You Wake Up? 6:40...then I hit snooze for 5 minutes

(U) Underwear: Yes.

(V) Vegetable You Dislike: Overcooked spinach.

(W) What Makes You Run Late: Having to share 1 bathroom with 3 other people and not liking what I picked out to wear that day.

(X) X-Rays You've Had Done: I think only once when I was in elementary school - I jammed my finger playing handball and had to have it x-rayed. But I've had a CAT scan.

(Y) Yummy Food You Make: Give me a recipe and I'll make it happen. :) Lately I've been a cupcake making machine.

(Z) Zoo, Favorite Animal: Large Apes - gorillas, orangutans, and chimps

Big Beautiful Bombshells.

After this weekends trip into the muumuu and elastic store - I've been feeling more determined to prove that you can be Plus Size and fashionable. I try to avoid frumpy/shapeless clothes, I try to find pieces that accentuate or flatter and mostly I try to have my personality shine through. 

On my lunch break, and browsing various plus-size clothing websites, I came across this page called "Hottest Women in the World: Plus-Sized Edition". 


I couldn't agree more that these women show you can be a big beautiful bombshell (even if some, in my opinion, aren't necessarily "plus-size" or have conformed to the pressure of hollywood and shrunk their size). 

1. Christina Hendricks

2. Mia Tyler

3. Kate Dillon

4. Toccara Jones

5. Charlotte Coyle

6. Maggie Brown

7. Whitney Thompson

8. Barbara Brickner

9. Fluvia Lacerda

10. Justine Legault

11. Crystal Renn

12. America Ferrera

13. Jennifer Coolidge

14. Sarah Ramirez

15. Lizzie Miller

Women who are fashionable (you'll notice not a single muumuu in the batch), who embrace their curves, who don't mind showing you their thighs, stomachs and love handles. My favorite of these 15 is either Mia Tyler or Charlotte Coyle. They just radiate sex appeal and are in no hurry to change their dress size just to please (or appease) the media.


Who are your favorites? (They don't have to be listed above)

No More Muumuus!

Why does the clothing industry think if you're plus size you only wear muumuus and pants with elastic waist bands? Really?!

How did I get here?

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the difference between a career and a job. Somewhere along the line what I thought were jobs have seemed to develop into a career. I never expected (or even dreamed) about having a career in Higher Education. Not in the Student Services/Affairs arena at least. But here I am 28 years old at my fourth college/university with no end in sight.

I remember growing up and the various “careers” I dreamed about.

When I was in elementary school I remember I either wanted to be a Marine Biologist (grew up in San Diego going to the beach, Sea World and the Zoo) or join the Navy (my godfather/cousin was a Navy Seal). I had no idea what either of those would really mean – the schooling, the physical requirements, etc. Then as the years went by those “dreams” just fizzled away and I wanted to become a teacher. A teacher of what changed constantly – a kindergarten/preschool teacher, a history teacher, a theatre teacher, etc.

Biologist

Navy

Teacher

Museum Coordinator

Counselor

Ideas came and went. Then, my senior year in undergraduate I was hired as a Community Assistant (RA-job) for my dorm/program – a job doing what I had been doing the previous three years, helping out my community members. The last few months of my senior year, on top of preparing to teach a class, I was asked to step into the Community Coordinator position; when our Resident Director left to climb the Appalachian Trail. *BAM* Instant promotion.

After graduation I returned home, doing odds and ends for a temporary placement agency. I started having the post-graduation “What am I doing with my life?” crisis. Then a friend of mine suggested looking into continuing with Residential Life and Housing. I was good at my job and might excel. Why the hell not? I needed to take that next step of growing up and move out of my family’s house. So six-seven months after graduation I found myself moving to San Diego to become a Residential Life Coordinator for an art college. The process was so fast (between applying and moving into my San Diego apartment) I hardly had time to breathe let alone process what was happening.

Three years later I had reached burn out. A number of things factored into this. My not wanting to get my MA in Higher Education (therefore being told I would never be able to climb ResLife career ladder), having three bosses in a matter of three years, and the fact that (typically) most people don’t stay in that type of position (live-in Residential Life) for so long. So I quit. I had looked into and applied at other jobs before turning in my notice but when nothing came along, and after long/multiple conversations with my mother, I just handed in my notice – packed my bags – and moved away.

Four months after returning home I was so stir crazy, moving from a large beautiful beach city back to my small desert home town. Thankfully I have amazing friends and two of them offered to let me move into their apartment, crash on their couch and try living in the Bay Area. So off I went and eventually landed a job as a Director of Housing. (Take that everyone who said I had to have a MA in Higher Education to be a Director).

The reasons I left that job aren’t important to this blog. Life happens and things change and I turned in my notice to move to Portland, OR – again determined I was done with Higher Education. So here I sit, once again working at a college, helping students, attempting to deal with office politics and defining of job duties.

Somewhere I went from having a job in ResLife to my career being in Higher Education.

Don’t get me wrong I enjoy working with my students. I’ve always said the reason I continue to come back (time and time again) is because I want to help make a difference in students’ lives. I remember so many people, fondly, during my college years that made a difference – big and small. I want to have the opportunity to share in that experience for other people. It has nothing to do with not being able to let go of the past. It has nothing to do with retaining my “youth” (if anything I sometimes feel younger now than when I did in college).

Yet, here I am – again - frustrated with other people’s lack of delegation and ability to let me do my job. I’m here wondering how much longer I can survive before I start pulling out my hair or start stabbing people with pencils.

I thought a career was something you planned. Something you went to school for and intentionally went for. A career wasn’t something you fell into. It wasn’t something you wondered “How the hell did I get here? And how the hell do I leave?”

Am I just disillusioned with 1950s ideas and philosophies?

Am I the only one who feels this way?

Am I the only one who has found them in a career they didn’t plan on?

I'm a "Slut"

I have breasts. 

I have hips.

I have thighs and a stomach. 

I have curves I [try to] embrace. 

I like to show off my curves with skirts and tank tops. 

I like to bundle up in baggy yoga pants and sweat shirts. 

He was my boyfriend. 

It was not violent. 

It was over quicker than it started. 

I still don't identify as a rape "victim"

I'm tired of labels. 

I'm tired of hearing the term "asking for it"

I didn't ask for it and I've only been with 2 men. 

Yet, according to some [police officer below] I'm a slut and I was asking for it.

*     *     *

‘Sluts’ march against sexual assault stereotypes
by Nicki Thomas

In fishnets and stilettos, t-shirts and jeans, a three-piece suit and a birthday suit, hundreds of self-proclaimed “sluts” marched through downtown Toronto Sunday afternoon, protesting a police officer’s suggestion that women could avoid sexual assault by not dressing provocatively.

Polly Esther walked off the subway in a plunging neckline and knee-high platform boots to join the noisy, spirited march from Queen’s Park to police headquarters on College St. She raised a hand-lettered sign, its simple but stark message definitive of that of the protest: “Xmas 1985. 14 years old. Bundled in layers. How did I deserve it?”

“It has nothing to do with what you’re wearing,” said Esther, 39. “And I’m living proof of that.”

SlutWalk, as organizers coined the march, was a response to comments made by a Toronto police officer during a safety forum at York University’s Osgoode Hall Law School in late January. Const. Michael Sanguinetti is said to have told the room that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in order not to be victimized.”

Sanguinetti has since apologized to the university and been investigated by the professional standards unit. He was disciplined internally, the details of which have not been made public, and is still on the job in 31 Division, though not working Sunday.

Police were quick to publicly condemn Sanguinetti’s comment, saying it is counter to what officers are taught about sexual assault. In a statement sent to the SlutWalk organizers and the media last Friday, Chief Bill Blair said the remarks “place the blame upon victims, and that’s not where the blame should ever be placed.”

“If that type of, frankly, archaic thinking still exists among any of my officers, it highlights for me the need to continue to train my officers and sensitize them to the reality of victimization,” he said.

But SlutWalk organizers made it clear Sunday that they are not satisfied with the response. 

Co-founder Heather Jarvis said the group made three requests from police: to restructure training and education, implement existing third-party recommendations on that training and education and improve public outreach programs, with an emphasis on consent and “rape myths.”

“They didn’t actually respond to a single one of our requests,” Jarvis said.

The group also invited police to address Sunday’s crowd alongside speakers like Jane Doe, the activist who successfully sued the police after she was assaulted by a serial rapist and is still highly critical of procedures around sexual assault training and investigation.

“It’s not about one bad apple cop,” Doe told the cheering crowd. “It’s about an institution that is permeated with these kinds of notions and beliefs.”

Spokeswoman Const. Wendy Drummond said police did provide SlutWalk organizers with an outline of changes made to training and investigations in the wake of a 2010 review, the second since the Auditor General’s 1999 report on police procedures around sexual assault.

“We have reached out to them,” Drummond said. “But wanting to put us up there and not be heard, is just not something that we’re going to do.”

Future SlutWalks are planned in other cities, including Vancouver, Ottawa and Boston.

http://www.thestar.com/News/GTA/article/968466