I'm in LA this weekend. Why?

Ask Professor Foxy: Was I Assaulted?, by Professor Foxy, Feministing. Emphases mine.

. . . A few months ago me and a few friends went on a road trip. it was supposed to be a fun weekend at the beach etc etc, but something happened between me and a (now former) male friend that ruined it.

I never drink (can't control myself when i do), but this "friend" _always_ harassed me about it. He made me feel like i was no fun, or whatever, and just would not shut up about my not drinking. we ended up at a party and he badgered me all night about not drinking, so, i did. a lot.

i thought i was safe around my friends and that nothing could happen. big mistake . . .

Some things just aren't my bag, man. I hope everyone else stays safe. Because in a male-dominated, testosterone-fueled atmosphere, where the true name of the game is "fitting in at almost any cost", the story above is horrifically commonplace and underreported.

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Girls on Film

How come guys talk so much when they have nothing to say, and girls have plenty to say, but no-one will listen?

Where's Our Stand By Me?, by hortense, Jezebel.

I have always loved My Girl 2. It was set in LA, the city I was obsessed with as a teenager. It starred Austin O'Brien, who was no Macaulay Culkin, but still carried his own in the movie. And it had a self-possessed young female protagonist who made enlightened statements like this:

I don't think anybody should change their names [when they get married]. That way you can always find them when you need them.

Yet now, the supposedly clever, edgy girls we get in movies think that embryos have fingernails and when sparkly vampires tell you to stay away from them, they really like you.

So disappointing and sad. And by "sad", I mean horribly distasteful considering the exponential growth of the number of poverty-stricken people in the United States and across the world.

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Musings from an Angeleno: The Christmas Eve Edition

(Imagine a Christmas picture of the Psych boys and their families here.)

1. If you'll remember my musings from this same time last year, I apparently wasn't so impressive. Well someone was impressed by me this year, and rightfully so, and that is all I will say about that.

2. At the annual Christmas Eve candlelight service, one of the teenage ushers was sporting some Zac Efron-type floppy hair. In my head I was all, "Dude, get a haircut." Then I was like, "at least you don't have the Ef's orange skin." Finally I thought, "Thank goodness Stephanie is at another church over 3000 miles away, because we all know how she likes them young."

3. After the service, I was in the bathroom about to take a shower when I started to have a think. I had encountered some of my old classmates over the past two days, which triggered a frown on my face. Why were most of the people I was friends with in elementary school and middle school and high school still friends with each other, but they weren't friends with me? I hadn't really thought about it before. I just figured they had made other friends in college like I had. And they did, but they are still friends with each other too. I started remembering times during college breaks on St. Thomas when they'd all be hanging out together wherever, but I wasn't really in the group anymore. Then I felt bad retroactively for being left out.
Somehow, when I was scrubbing myself under the shower head that needs better water pressure, I realized that they are all still friends because they all live on the East Coast. They went to the name brand schools in New England and New York and the Washington, D.C. area and Florida, while I went to my top-choice, lesser-known school in California. They have all been visiting each other and hanging out regularly in their new homes since they graduated, because they all live in easy traveling distance from each other. As if the West Coast is a foreign country that requires a Visa and an overnight flight.

I have never regretted going to college in and remaining in Los Angeles. I love my new(ish) friends and being in my industry. There are things that I cannot stand about LA--the required driving and the high cost of living--but that is where I want to be. I just never considered that my old friends would continue to be friends sans moi. I thought I had done something wrong, like, "Thank goodness we got rid of Bianca. She was always such a Debbie Downer. Now we can finally have fun without her loser personality harshing our mellow. w00t!"

Yes, I know I have issues.

Happy Christmahanukwanzaakah to you!