I found this ‘Heart in Oregon’ sticker today while packing. I bought it weeks after moving here with the intention of putting it on the rear window of my car just to show everyone how not insecure I was about being an outsider. Since I still had Florida plates, it sat unpeeled in my nightstand for months because I didn’t want to illicit any ‘wait a minute’ epiphanies from cops who could pull me over for not registering the car 30 days after relocating.
Eventually, I registered with the state of Oregon. The plates came in the mail a few days ago, nearly hours after making the decision to leave.
I’m still debating whether I should use the sticker or put it in my ‘what could’ve been’ box along with my unsent letters to Tucker Carlson and a VHS tape in which I perform the voices of a googly eyed banana and a unibrowed jar of Pace Picante Sauce in order to explain the dangers of drunk driving. It seems hypocritical to claim that my heart is in a place where I lived for less time than the duration of Freaks and Geeks, but in a lot of ways, it’s accurate. Oregon represents the first time I drove across the U.S. as an adult, the first time I irresponsibly blew a significant amount of money to go overseas, and the first time I realized that people will put venison in anything.
I hope we can be together sometime in the future, Oregon. Just know that I’ll always remember you for your fondness of seasoned tater tots, more breweries than I’ve had orgasms, and the abundance of unkempt but practical facial hair.
The other day, I googled myself. Yeah I do that.
Since someone like me only really has a chance of being indexed through high school accomplishments, I usually come up with nothing. Mostly because my high school was the kind that felt it was acceptable to appropriate the Anheuser-Busch logo and somehow make it about ‘meeting new challenges every day’ instead of…beer. Which, oddly enough, the only challenge my high school faced was teenage alcoholism so I guess in retrospect, they were pulling off one fucking poignant piece of performance art.
Failed public education aside, my query is usually fruitless. But yesterday, when I searched for myself hoping to ensure that I can’t be contacted in any way by family members who should’ve been committed years ago, I found a public profile claiming I live in Nigeria. After confirming that my credit cards hadn’t been used to buy twelve XBox 360s, I noticed a link on the page, relevant of course because it was one of the few that included my name. I cringed when I saw it, but was sadistically delighted to know that it still existed. It was something my boyfriend at the time had written about me – proof that someone, somewhere loved me long enough to manufacture a few thoughts into functioning sentences:
I am with a woman so smart that she makes Annie Dillard seem like a fruit tart, so beautiful she grounds Poe’s Helen into dust, and so wonderful she makes grown men weep in her presence and women take their own lives in a fit of pure jealousy. I’m talking about CHEETOS*, the one who has single handedly has made my life more meaningful than the past 20 years combined. She’s trilingual, has amazing taste in music, and seems to be able to make me laugh no matter what. Even in an emergency room for 9 hours where we had fun playing “I Spy” and laughing at a guy with a c-cup. She’s wonderful and I just want to let you know that.
*name has been changed
A few things come to mind here – most glaring of which is that I can’t believe my pussy has put me in so much peril as to require a nine-hour emergency room visit for a urinary tract infection. Also, yes I’m an asshole for making fun of the guy with moobs. Sorry. I’m (kind of) different now. Oh, and the trilingual thing? My German and French language skills would land me in an assisted living facility for the developmentally disabled because my vocabulary boils down to, ‘Bathroom please and then we’ll see about ham.’ But, if I may brag for a moment, my grasp of English could definitely land me a position cleaning bed pans. While I’m at it, I’ll debunk the music thing too because well, come on.
I can’t vouch for the rest because it was based solely on an opinion that wasn’t mine and has since expired. But, for the sake of the authenticity of the twelve minutes taken to write it, I’ll assume that these feelings weren’t devised under false pretenses. Years ago, I would’ve tried to find a way to salt the earth and bury the page in order to dispel the idea that I am incompetent because I demolished the relationship in which these feelings existed. Because, after all, it is better to be loved without dilution than admit to everyone that you fucked it all up by not realizing that you were even loved in the first place.
Now I celebrate it. Not because the message has changed – the subtext of failure is still very present. But now, the failure is no longer the swelling tide that buries me beneath a carpet of sand and is instead the 7-11 from which I can safely eat my Funyuns while I carefully map out every ripple and finally realize what went wrong. I misdiagnosed the failure. My inability to adequately love this person was merely a symptom of the reality that I knew there was no good reason to, other than the fact that we both escaped from Budweiser High.
I still fail, and have no doubt that I always will. But I am learning how to be better at it – starting with skipping the Funyuns because they’re…just really gross.
A few years ago, I went to Las Vegas with my ex one month after breaking up. Yeah, I know it sounds weird, but it’s not like I would’ve even considered it if we hadn’t still been living together and sharing the same bed. Come on, guys. I’m not an idiot.
Seriously though, we (I) had already paid for the trip before deciding to make the whole loveless no sex thing official and no amount of “I just don’t have feelings for you anymore…now please stop touching me” was going to keep me away from those buffets. There were also plenty of opportunities to get plastered and since I had it on good authority that my life was falling apart, I knew I could capitalize. Sadly, the closest I ever got was half a strawberry daiquiri at this raunchy little acrobatic show where all of the men let their cock and balls hang out while they juggle over-sized root vegetables. This is primarily because Cirque du Soleil grossly overcharges for their drinks and also because I didn’t want to be hungover for the next day because I had plans to go to an exhibit of Picasso’s ceramics at the Bellagio. Yeah.
The only thing that could’ve made my trip a little more Lance Bass would’ve been well…another Cirque du Soleil show, probably. But after two hours of low lighting, creaky floors and unnaturally rendered breasts, I couldn’t convince myself that I was plunging into a stripper’s fjord of glittery flesh instead of quietly assessing the influence of African art on Picasso’s work. Mostly because I wasn’t wearing my boner concealing sweat pants. But also because I was distracted by a nagging sharp pain above my rib cage.
There was no mistaking what this was, even though I had never technically encountered it before. The underwire in the bra that I bought for $11.99 and wore every day for at least one year had escaped from its garish weave of faded maroon lace. At that time, I didn’t wear bras based on how sexy they were (clearly), I wore them so that my nipples wouldn’t get caught in the waistband of my pants. After numerous futile attempts to reunite the wire with the fabric, I decided it was time for a new bra. Luckily, there was a Victoria’s Secret nearby and while the only thing I’d ever bought from them was a pink polka-dot pajama set for my first year of college (you can imagine how popular I was), I was determined to figure out how to house my boobs. I avoided their pushy and intrusive staff at all costs, not wanting to potentially come to terms with the fact that I would be better suited attaching two bowling ball shammies to a seat belt, and headed straight for their line of wireless bras.
Now without what used to be my boyfriend and what used to be my bra, I was left to weigh my options alone. It was a small step, sure, but it ended up being the first one in what eventually blossomed into an appreciation for my body and its potential to be sexy instead of simply utilitarian. It was also what turned me into a loyal Victoria’s Secret customer.
Even though I don’t believe in the first (and only) tenet of Victoria’s Secret that BIGGER BOOBS = BIGGER DOWRY, I can’t argue with their ability to make a bra that combines fit, longevity and boner appeal. Other things I can’t argue with? The fact that they have testicles so large that they make a Level 5 padded bra in 36DD. The only thing more illogical and useless would be a Broadway production of Kindergarten Cop. So of course I bought one.
This is my first padded bra and although it’s not something I plan on wearing everyday, I’m amazed at its comfort level and how dramatic the effect is. The bra claims to add up to two cup sizes, and from my experience, it delivers on that promise. Oh, and if you want to wear this with a freakum dress or something, the straps can be worn as halter or racer-back.
Left: Clown tits in VS Miraculous push-up, Right: Regular tits in VS Angels Ipex demi bra
The VS Miraculous push-up truly surpassed my expectations. I actually had a lot of fun turning my breasts into something comically large enough to appear in Cirque du Soleil, but still realistic enough to suggest that I just got it like that. With any luck, the next time I go to Vegas, I can be the stripper instead of making a halfhearted attempt to pretend that I touched one.
Remember when Mariah Carey went on TRL a few years ago and confirmed everyone’s suspicions that she was, in fact, completely insane? Well, she’s doing it again, but since TRL was canceled (go figure the one time I pray, I actually get results), she has to resort to using her new perfume ad as a conduit.
If I were still a fan I might let it slide that her wig is crooked and that the left side of her face could compete in the Special Olympics, but Mariah officially stopped caring once the 90s ended and for that, she will always be my Y2K.
I remember having her Butterfly album, playing it on my Sony CD Boom Box and then trying to figure out how to play “My All” on repeat so I could pretend that Ricky Martin would come in to my room, compliment my beanie baby collection and proceed to please me in all of the ways I never knew I needed. But, as Glitter taught us, dreams only really come true when they are based on the very loosest perception of reality and in this case, the idea of a non-gay Ricky Martin is fairly grounded by comparison.
This is inspired from We Have Lasers, a site dedicated to the overall failure of the 90s. They wouldn’t post my own laser portrait because I submitted it under Vagina Drum, and there was fear that vagina would be too “R-rated for We Have Lasers.” I guess that’s what I get for daring to imply that the vagina even exists, but I’m optimistic that one day, we’ll all stop clutching our pearls over what sits or flaps between our legs. Whatever, it’s still a cool site and I encourage you to go there–but now I’m in the awkward position of being one of those people who thinks that their photos are really interesting and/or funny.
Sadly, this is probably the best school picture I have. All others involve braces, prison issue eyebrows and a general lack of concern for attempting to look like a human being. For whatever reason, I wanted my hair curled that day. So my mom and I got up really early and she did it for me as I stood there inhaling White Rain hairspray and wishing I had just dyked out like I always did and settled for one of those skull shredding plastic combs they give you at school.
Once I got dropped off, one of my classmates spotted me and made some sort of approving comment about my hair and I hissed at them, ate the skin of a nearby squirrel and hid behind the nearest wall. I’m just kidding about the first two things–but I did hide because I guess I was embarrassed that I had discarded my L.A. Gears to be a girl for the day, and someone noticed. Also, you can’t see it in the photo, but my denim shirt was somehow made better by a series of Looney Tunes characters cleverly peeking out from the pocket, and of course I had to fuck that up by crossing my arms like what now.
