Sexy self medication

Part of me thinks that what I'm about to say is a little anti-feminist. The rest of me doesn't care.

Sometimes, it feels really nice to be sexy. I am currently semi-sick, fighting off what might be a cold, and am not feeling my best. I am fighting it with medicine and rest, but I am also fighting it with sexy! In one of my favorite comic strips, 9 Chickweed Lane, one of the characters is a professor who deals with difficult situations by wearing leopard-print underwear under her suits. When she has to face the board of trustees the secret knowledge of her sexy undies brings her ferocious (leopard-esque) confidence.

I don't own any leopard print undies; actually, I think animal prints are usually tacky. But I am wearing my favorite sexy librarian outfit (oh, yeah, this post also perpetrates librarian stereotypes), which isn't that sexy, but it is nice. And what I have on under is also pleasantly sexy. I did my hair and makeup this morning in nothing but the underthings because it made me feel like a Soviet spy in a movie (the haircut helps).

I know, I probably shouldn't be talking about my underthings on my blog. My point is not exactly the underthings (no pics, clearly, and no descriptions!). My point is that, even if it's probably not the best thing to use to make me feel better, the sexy helps. Whether this is a sign that my self-esteem is too tied to my looks, I don't know. I think it's partially the idea that if you want to feel a certain way, act like you already are feeling that way, like pretending you're awake can help wake you up. I might be sick and gross, but damn it, I'm going to be sexy today, and it's making me feel better.

Oh cologne...

I have a sample card with Armani Mania for men spritzed on it in my desk drawer. Now it smells like there is a man living in my desk. A sexy-smelling man.

Why do I have a cologne sample in my desk drawer? Well, I happen to be unhealthily obsessed with Armani Mania. The version for men, specifically, although I wear the women's version and it's quite nice. I love Armani fragrances, and I think Armani Mania is quite possibly the sexiest scent a man can wear. So, sometimes, if I'm shopping and go past a display in a department store, I spritz some on a card and stick it in my pocket. If that sounds creepy um...I don't have a good excuse, except that I have a very sensitive sense of smell, and I really enjoy good smells. It's like sticking a postcard of someplace beautiful on my cork board. Well, in this case it's probably more like sticking a picture of a hot actor on my cork board, but what I mean is, it's an appreciation of something that pleases the senses. So what if normal people use an air freshener or candles.

I had the card on my desk for a day before I could figure out why on earth my computer smelled like a man, and found the card under some books. I guess I had tossed it there and forgotten. Oops!

My "I might be going to Hell" moment for today

I just spent a little while cleaning up my desk. While doing that, I realized I should figure out where I put my birth control pills, since I need to start those this Sunday. The weren't where they left them when I was reading the package information, and they weren't in my basket-o-junk on my desk. They also weren't in my "inbox," aka basket-o-junk number two. They weren't in my purse, they weren't in my drawer. They hadn't fallen behind my desk, and they weren't under a book. Then I remembered.

They were in between the pages of my Bible, where I had been using them to mark my place last week while doing an assignment. Good thing I have a liberal theology, or I might think I was pretty much damned.

Who the heck is Rebeka?

Yesterday a friend and I had a librarian-conference adventure at NYLA. After driving nearly three hours to get there, our day can best be described with the word "surreal." This isn't an exhaustive list, but here are some of the things that we experienced yesterday:

• We got waylaid by an odd man at the trade show who pressed very bad poetry printed on flowery paper into our hands, along with Hershey's Special Dark chocolates.
• We tried to go to a conference presentation called "Intellectual Power to the Librarian" only to find it was canceled (the speaker said she had a "breakdown") and we got talked into watching its replacement - a one-woman theatrical performance about, well, the PATRIOT Act, intellectual freedom, libraries, stereotypes, and a dead body in a laundromat.
  
• After the above weirdness we got stuck on the shuttle bus between conference hotels for half an hour - when we could have walked back in ten minutes.
• Twice I got mistaken for someone named Rebeka. Not just a little mistaken either. The first woman excitedly exclaimed "Rebeka!" and was about to grab my arm when she realized I was looking at her with complete confusion. The second woman was actually convinced that she had met me that morning at breakfast, when this morning at breakfast I was in a car. Once she realized I was not Rebeka she told us that not only did I look just like this elusive woman, we were wearing practically the same thing. I wish I had seen her - I think she's my doppleganger.
  
• Saratoga is an adorable city. The parts we saw were charming, and there are tons of cute restaurants. We had lunch in a coffee shop called Uncommon Grounds, which I highly recommend. We had delicious bagel sandwiches and then gelato. My friend says the coffee was great, and whatever brand of chips I ate nicely suggested on the bag a few charities I might consider donating too. My kind of place.
  
• Swag was so-so. We both got kinda snazzy transformer pens, though I seem to have since lost mine, staple-less staplers, shirts from some database company, and several pens. Oh, and the poetry and chocolate.
  

Overall, I'm still not sure the conference wasn't a waste of time, but it was an interesting experience, and I had a lot of fun spending all day with my friend, who I don't get to see often enough. I got to end the day by hanging out with said hot boyfriend (see below), so the day was overall an excellent day.

Stalker ;-)

Don't think I don't know you're there. Now I need to find a new place to gossip about my hot boyfriend.

Big emotions

I am so happy that I almost can't be happy, there isn't space for it.

I just read a friend's blog that suggested this election was our generation's form of protest - we stood up and spoke out for what we believe in, for what we wanted to see changed - and we did it, ironically enough, through an established political process. The way the Obama campaign has been run, has gathered together people, has inspired young voters and first time voters and disenfranchised voters and people of all sorts of races, backgrounds, socioeconomic statuses, ages, and beliefs is inspiring. I know some of my friends can't understand it, but I will remember where I was last night when I heard the news for the rest of my life. All along I'm not sure I believed it would happen. It did. Maybe this country really is changing. The future looks interesting.

I am an election junkie

I keep hearing people say how much they're tired of the election, how much they can't wait for it to be over, how they can't stand to hear about the candidates anymore. Now. my mother in Ohio is getting a campaign call every half hour, and I can see how that's annoying. But, I must confess. I love this.

I really love the election, and the whole long awful process (although I do have some issues with the process itself - the jury's still out on whether the electoral college is a stupid idea or not). I have been following it since the early days of the primaries, probably because I was on a college campus in Ohio, and that's the type of thing you talk about on college campuses in swing states. I don't think my personal opinions are hard to see - I've supported Obama from the first. But, I've still loved the process, even when it had made me anxious and angry, and it's done that a lot.

I think Americans are more interesting during an election year. We show our true colors. Sometimes those true colors are really, really ugly, and incredibly stupid. There have been some very hateful things done and said in this election. Sometimes they're wonderful, like when we demand real results from our candidates, and when we provide real results in return, like the hundreds of thousands of people who have volunteered and campaigned and donated money because they really believe in something. Isn't that awesome? That people, including young people who haven't even cared about voting before, get so excited about this that they throw themselves into volunteering?

I've been stalking Facebook all morning, because it is covered in the election today. People's statuses reflect their voting, their concerns, their excitement. One status asks if we "considered the least of these" while voting. Another gripes about the long lines. A great many, mine included, are trying to "get out the vote" for Obama. A friend just IMed me to say she voted. I'm wearing my Obama/Biden shirt, and I already voted by absentee ballot (Ohio needs me!) I wish I could be voting in a booth today, even with the lines, because I think I'm just an election junkie. But how can you not be excited? Everywhere today, people are thinking about one thing - the future of our country. Maybe our country would be in a better place if people thought about its future more than just on election day. And gosh, VOTE if you can. It's really a thrill ;)