Sassy Black Friend

Go Wanda!

In response to the pile of evil that is California’s Prop 8, the funniest woman on earth, Wanda Sykes came out this weekend. From the AP:

“You know, I don’t really talk about my sexual orientation. I didn’t feel like I had to. I was just living my life, not necessarily in the closet, but I was living my life,” Sykes told a crowd at a gay rights rally in Las Vegas on Saturday.

“Everybody that knows me personally they know I’m gay. But that’s the way people should be able to live their lives,” she said.

Sykes, who is known for her feisty and blunt style, said the passage of California’s Proposition 8 made her feel like she was “attacked.”

“Now, I gotta get in their face,” she said. “I’m proud to be a woman. I’m proud to be a black woman, and I’m proud to be gay.”

Go Wanda. i wonder if she’s single. Sorry, boyfriend.

It’s hard out there for a racist now

Listen, I can’t say I understand what it’s like to be white, and feel like Obama’s election is a threat to the power of my people. But, I can see how they feel that way. And it is no surprise that following election day, there are reports of what Huffington Post refers to as “the stubborn racism that remains in America.”

Grant Griffin, a 46-year-old white Georgia native, expressed similar sentiments: “I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.

“If you had real change it would involve all the members of (Obama’s) church being deported,” he said.

Yeah. So, here’s a message to all of you out there who feel similarly. Shut the fuck up and deal. You had 200+ years. I’m sorry you weren’t born when slavery was around, and that you’re afraid of all the uppity negroes running around acting like this country belongs to us as much as it does to you. Guess what? It does. And there is nothing you can do about it. Anger, comments, violence? Sorry. The old tricks aren’t going to work. Either figure out how to not be racist anymore, or prepare to spend the rest of your life miserable.

Diddy, wanna help me out here? Thanks.

Chickens are wrapped in clear plastic too!

My thoughts on this video, from 1962, about Supermarkets (12 minutes long, but worth it) are threefold:

1. Wow. If they made this video based on my shopping trip this morning, they’d have to include tips on how to avoid: the fighting family in produce, the hungover guy knocking cereal boxes over, and the bitch who stole my cart 3 times. 3 damn times!

2. I miss Mad Men already. Come back soon.

3. Fark says to watch out for falling out of your chair after seeing the prices. I say try not to cry. I mean, sure. Expensive groceries is a fair trade for a Black President and not getting lynched, but come on. Can’t I get a happy medium?

Reclaiming Sassy

Even my avatar is sassy

Up until 2 years ago, I hated the word sassy. I got called it a lot, and I always thought of it as condescending. Like attitude, but in a vapid teenage way. But now, staring down the barrel of 30 (tick tock, tick tock), I changed my mind. I’m all about the sass.

Which reminds me of a vaguely related thing that happened while I was in college. My work-study job was at the admissions office, so part of the job was giving tours to prospective students and their families. During downtime the small army of work-studies would sit around and read the comments from the feedback forms. A friend of mine was reading a review from a tour I gave the day before that said I gave “the wackiest tour ever.” Not to be confused with wackest tour ever. That would have sucked.

Anyway, I wasn’t sure how to feel about it. Basically my tour style was to give them the information they need, but keep it interesting. For them because most college tours are mind-numbing, and for me because I gave 3 a day for months. That shit got old. After looking at the rest of their comments I realized they meant it to be complimentary, so I went with it. Post-script, the kid who made the comment did end up going to my school, and ran over to thank me for the tour every time I saw him the next fall.

So, back to sassy. Fact is, that’s how I am. When the boyfriend asked what my blog was called, and I told him, he said, “Well, obviously. I might add crazy in there somewhere, but it works.” Plus, I spent most of my childhood and college life as one of the few black people around, and often the only black girl. So, when I say sassy black friend, I know what I’m talking about. I’ve lived it. A lot. And while I think the idea of reclaiming words that cause pain is a serious issue, I completely unseriously reclaim sassy for myself. So, suck it.

Shopping out of my comfort zone

I’m a big fan of shopping in general, but only when I know what I’m looking for, where to get it, and to be honest, if it’s for me. When it comes to buying things I don’t know a lot about for someone else, wandering through stores isn’t going to cut it, so I go online. For example, the new boyfriend has a birthday in a few weeks and wanted some specific sports team-related stuff I have no idea where to buy. Internet to the rescue!

On the rare occasion that just searching Amazon won’t do, a good place to start is ShopWiki. They provide an overview of the type of merchandise, buying guides, specific details about items, and listings of stores and prices. Easy as pie. Which is good. Because, if you want to talk about shoes, I’m your girl. But when it comes to researching and buying hockey skates or NFL regulation footballs, I got nothing. Or, I had nothing. After 10 minutes on the site, I can at least pretend to be an expert on sports equipment.

So, a certain someone is about to be the proud owner of some very cool Nike hockey skates, and I get to act like a smart ass about finding the perfect thing. Everyone wins. They don’t just have tons of sports products either. I might have noticed a few digital cameras and pairs of sunglasses I suddenly, desperately need. Hey, I’m just trying to help stimulate the economy. Or something.

Oh, just to be clear, the reason I don’t know about buying sports stuff isn’t that I’m a girl. I love sports, I just don’t play any that require equipment. Also, I think beer is a necessary part of sports, and that works better as a spectator.

TV Tuesday!

I realized that I posted about what shows I’m watching, but never said anything about them again. So, here are the shows from the list that have kept me interested.

Bones
Just started up again after World Series hiatus, but it doesn’t matter. I love this show. Television Without Pity calls Bones TV’s best procedural, and I completely agree . I’ve never been able to maintain interest in most of the investigation shows, CSI, Law & Order (except SVU) et al, but Bones I love because they balance the crazy murder of the week with a cast that I actually like watching, but not because I feel like they’re trying to convince me to.

Lipstick Jungle
This show is anti-me, but I really enjoy it. Plus, they finally added a black person, and he’s a mean, sexy bastard (my favorite kind). The funny thing is, the day after an episode, I couldn’t tell you what happened, but I find myself smiling through the whole thing, and that’s good enough. My neighbor (who comes over to watch TV because her cable goes out weekly) says I should be watching Dirty Sexy Money instead, but I’m not, because I like to be contrary. So there.

True Blood
Trashy, porny, crazy. Damn. After hating the first two episodes, I am completely hooked on this garbage. Abysmal accents aside, love love love. As usual, the main character bores me, but the zillions of side plots are fantastically silly. After hearing there are only two more episodes left in the season, I was crushed (you know… relatively speaking). I will miss it. If I smoked, I would definitely need a cigarette after watching this.

90210
This is the biggest pile of crap I’ve even seen. I think watching it actually made me dumber. So, I stopped watching. The end.