To piggyback off Tara and Tiffany, here’s to the meeting point of girliness, feminism, and literature!

Like Tara, I’m an English major, so I’m a sucker for this kind of nerdy bookworming. Instead of sharing characters though I’ll share my favorite literary gals. I’m extra fond of these writers because they aren’t afraid to let their femininity influence their styles and stories, but they don’t let that be an excuse to pansy out and write stuff without substance.

I’m also tossing in a favorite piece for each one just in case you haven’t read anything by them yet. Good fodder for pretentious cocktail party talk/sucking up to your English teacher lol ;P
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Tags: english, feminism, jane austen, jhumpa lahiri, literature, sylvia plath, virginia woolf, women, writer

I think it’s pretty clear by now that I adore shopping when it involves great deals, so you’d think that I’d be one of the crazies in the crowd on Black Friday. In reality though, I hate trying to fight the crowds (like Tiffany bravely did) and I usually plan my shopping trips to avoid them.

This year I finally gave up my longstanding conviction that online shopping is evil and Black Friday doubly so. I think I’ve dumped something like $75 at New York & Company, $40 at Ann Taylor, and $40 at American Eagle in the last 48 hours to take advantage of Thanksgiving/Black Friday sales and free shipping. All without leaving my desk. If I didn’t freak out at my disappearing bank balance and swear off looking at all other sites, I probably would have spent more at Victoria’s Secret and Express. In my defense a lot of the spending was on suit separates for interview season, so it’s more like an investment than an indulgence, but it’s still shocking how easily and quickly money can just disappear like that o_O
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Tags: american eagle, ann taylor, black friday, express, free, holiday, new york & co., online, sale, shipping, shopping, suit, victoria's secret

In my last post I mourned the death of my purple Nokia 5300. But now I’m eagerly awaiting my white Google G1 Phone! It took a while to decide on but now that I have I’m really happy =)

I have to admit it’s costing me a fortune - $215 with a two-year extension of my T-mobile contract ($179 plus upgrade fee and taxes), and it’s an extra $25 a month to operate the thing - but we’re talking about a touch screen, slide-out QWERTY keyboard, internet on the go, all my favorite google gadgets, GPS, music player, video, camera, and of course a deliciously cute and sleek design.

There are a bunch of other features but one I’m particularly interested in trying out is this application that allows you to scan barcodes and do price comparison shopping on your phone so that you don’t have to buy stuff full-price in the store. Budget Shopping Tip #7? It’s up for review as soon as I get my hands on it ;)
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Tags: budget, g1, google, nokia, phone, price, shopping, t-mobile, white

My lovely loyal cell phone of the last year has officially been put to rest. Some of the buttons stopped working, so I switched to my backup phone and now I’m depressed because the Samsung Beat is definitely inferior to the Nokia 5300 Xpress. And it was a PURPLE Nokia for that matter - slider, music player, crystal clear screen, and cute rounded edges combined with a fun loveable shape. I’m never going to have a phone quite as girly and adorable ever again =(

So with that depressing thought in mind, I’m looking for a new girly phone to serve as a Christmas/Birthday gift (my birthday is December 15th!). I originally was going to splurge on the Vivienne Tam laptop until it occured to me that for much less than $700 I could either get a Blackberry Curve, an iPhone, or a G1. I’m going to go do some homework on them before I make up my mind, but does anyone have any girlier suggestions?

Tags: blackberry, cell phone, g1, iphone, laptop, nokia, purple, samsung, vivienne tam

For some reason I was sitting around talking about Pokemon with a bunch of my friends and commenting that Mew is a girl.

This point was contested, so I went home to check and sure enough, according to Bulbapedia, Mew is “genderless.”

There is definitely something wrong with that. Mew is an adorable PINK CAT. I cannot think of a more gendered way of signifying GIRL. It bounces around on a pink ball that’s supposed to be synonymous with a womb (her tail being an umbilical cord and her body being somewhat fetus-like). It’s also a very childish Pokemon who’s attracted to lullabies and wants to play and laugh all the time.

Seriously, if that description doesn’t have girliness written all over it I don’t know what does. How can Mew not be girl?!?!

Tags: cat, girl, mew, pink, pokemon

Is it just me or are knee-high socks a new trend? I still remember rejecting anything higher than ankle socks in junior high, so I’m not sure when it became cool to have socks go as high up your leg as possible and come in as many funky patterns and colors as possible…

Then again I’m basing this off of a trip to J Crew where they had all these knee-highs on sale. It also got crazy cold in the last couple of days and the excuse to tromp around in long warm fuzzy socks + tall winter boots is my one consolation.

Over the summer I bought a pair of bright pink knee high socks with white stripes for lyrical dancing and it’s pretty much as close to the sk8ter chick/Girlicious look I’ll ever get. They make me ridiculously happy even though they’re never visible beyond the dance studio or running around my dorm room.

Tags: girlicious, jcrew, knee-high, pink, sale, sk8ter, socks

I’ve recently been using some acronyms around my girl friends to gossip about boys and relationship issues that I have to stop and define because they’ve never heard it used before. Here are a few shorthands, some common knowledge and some not, that are in my vocabulary and have made talking about these things that much easier/funnier ;)

OTP - On the Prowl
Ex. My boyfriend and I just broke up so I’m back OTP.

DTR - Define the Relationship
Ex. I’ve been hooking up with this guy but I don’t know what he’s thinking. Is it time to DTR?

LDR - Long Distance Relationship
Ex. LDRs are tough but I believe they can work if both sides are fully committed and the LD will end in some foreseeable future.

SO - Significant Other
Ex. Boyfriends, husbands, fiancees, etc.

PDA - Public Display of Affection
Ex. He’s not big into PDA, but it’s not ridiculous of me to want to hold hands in public sometimes, right?

TLC - Tender Loving Care; ISO - In Search Of
Ex. I’m ISO TLC.
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Tags: acronym, affection, boys, care, girltalk, love, relationship

I used to religiously watch the Miss America pageant when I was a little girl, and even though I outgrew that phase pretty quickly I still profess a guilty curiosity about beauty pageants - especially the Miss World and Miss Universe pageants (to be fair, the intellectual in me is intrigued by questions of culturally-defined aesthetics. And chicks in swimsuits are hot, even from a straight girl’s perspective).

I definitely don’t care enough though to figure out when they’re airing and scout out a TV to watch these pageants, but their websites are totally useless so I’m usually just reduced to reading news clips and watching random online vids instead.

Apparently that’s not the case anymore: Miss World is finally getting its manicured nails on Web 2.0 and making an interactive, audience-friendly website in time for the 2008 competition (to be aired in December)! They’ve partnered with Amuso, a New York based media platform that specializes in contests, to create a social network centered around the Miss World competitors. Users can send them messages, view photos, read about their interests, and vote on their favorite candidate. These votes will be tallied to determine the winner of the People’s Choice, automatically placing the candidate in the final pool of 7 nominees for the top prize.
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Tags: amuso, Beauty, contest, miss america, miss universe, miss world, pageant, people's choice, social network, techcrunch, web 2.0

I actually thought of another budget shopping tip that I didn’t get to include with my tips series - budget shopping fashion sites. I’m not big on online shopping since I like to try things on, but I do peruse eBay and the sale/clearance section of any retail brand that offers online shopping. Here are some great alternatives/aggregators to check out as well:

1) Salestash.com - one of our users actually alerted me about this site when I was blogging about budget shopping tips. Salestash is a sales search engine that allows you to search sales on all your favorite brands from hundreds of popular stores. For example, this would be a search for items within $5-20 range (so cheap!).

2) Stylehop.com - I heard about this site via a girl who is also a student at Yale (we’re not all unfashionable bookworms!). It has both a shopping and gaming component centered around the idea that girls can rate fashion styles for themselves rather than just buying into what the “experts” say. Then it works like the Facebook app Bevy in the sense that you can click on styles you like and there’s a button to buy it.
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Tags: bevy, budget, clearance, cutesygirl, ebay, endless, Fashion, heels, online, sale, salestash, shopping, stylehop

For all the sexually active ladies out there, this is a discussion about birth control. If that isn’t your cup of tea just click away and come back later =)

Anyway, I may not have a boyfriend anymore at the moment but I did discover one really good thing while I was with him - Nuvaring.

When you have a steady, reliable, STD-free partner (or even if you don’t), sometimes condoms just don’t cut it because anything can happen to it. If you’re lucky you’ll realize it and be able to take plan B and suffer a full day of nausea. Let’s not talk about what happens if you’re NOT lucky.

I’ve tried the pill (specifically ortho tri-cyclen) but it makes me feel like I’m pmsing ALL the time - lethargy, depression, irritability, bitchiness, mood swings, etc. The peace of mind of not being pregnant is definitely not worth the lower quality of life. Plus I would freak out if I happened to forget to take the pill one morning and constantly check to make sure I was on the right day and it was just a hot mess.
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Tags: birth control, boyfriend, condoms, estrogen, nuvaring, ortho tri-cyclen, pill, plan b, pregnancy