Charlie’s Blog

OK, the time has come. My blog is moving up and out of Friendster.

The new address is http://hotchachie.blogspot.com

That’s http://hotchachie.blogspot.com

The first post is up NOW! Go there and bookmark it (Ctrl-D). Better yet, send me a message that you want to be alerted of updates, and I’ll put you on the list!

My new blog will have more pictures and will load more quickly. Also, you can leave COMMENTS without logging in. The downside is that unless you give me permission, you won’t receive alerts of updates.

So come visit the new digs, and feel free to comment and comment and comment some more. Also, my friendster blog will remain in cyberspace for archival purposes.

Adios!

Let me back this thing up! Last Sunday, Brian and I went to Blacks Beach where I had a blast on my boogie board. I decided I wanted to get a surfboard and finally learn how to surf. The next day, I borrowed his car while he was at work to drive to Imperial Beach to pick up an extra-wide shortboard from some guy on craigslist. Well, my schedule has been hectic this week, and I didn’t have a chance to get back to the beach until today. I drove to Solana Beach up north, strapped my board’s leash to my ankle, and headed into the water to assess my skills.

After an hour and a half, it became clear that while I was getting the hang of catching waves, I have a long way to go in learning to surf, and I decided to go in. I rolled off of my board, put my foot down and ZAP!!! One of my greatest fears realized…I got stung by a sting ray!! I shimmied back onto the board and tried to paddle myself or catch an oncoming wave back to the sand. For a second, I wondered if the blood that was surely pouring out of my foot would attract hungry sharks.
Anyway, I wasn’t making any progress towards shore, so I had to put my feet down again and run out of the water as the ray’s venom began to burn through the new hole in my foot.

An old man sitting on the beach got up and asked if it was a ray. I said yeah. He said to run up to the marine safety station by the parking lot and that they would soak my foot in hot water for an hour. The first thing I thought was "I don’t have an hour!" but as the pain grew, my schedule freed up real quick. I grabbed my towel and bag and hobbled up the hill to marine safety. The lifeguards were really friendly and helpful. They immediately set me up with a bucket of hot water and told me all I never wanted to know about stingrays. It took about an hour and a half of soaking in scalding hot water before I felt okay to leave. Even then there was the slightest bit of pain, but I really couldn’t soak any longer. I had a group presentation tonight, and it was my job to print out and bring everything to class. See, that’s why I hate group projects.

There was a couple with boogie boards walking down towards the beach as I was hobbling, but I was hurting too much to warn them about the rays. On the bright side, I had a great view of the ocean as I was soaking, and there was an awesome surfer. I was watching him carefully to learn how to pick a wave and how to stand up quickly. I just don’t know when I’m going back to the beach. Maybe Sunday. Apparently there are very few surfers around here who haven’t been stung so I guess I feel initiated to some extent. I also feel like I stepped on a knife that was coated with poison.

In other news, I’m bf-less this weekend. Brian went to Arkansas. All I have to remember him by is his car. I rented "Bring it On: All or Nothing" tonight. It’s pretty good. Not as good as the first, but better than the second. Solange gets props for being a better actress than Beyonce while my favorite in the film is my GIRL Hayden Panetierre. You might know her from Neutrogena commercials, "Raising Helen," "Ice Princess," "Malcom in the Middle," "Lies My Mother Told Me," and she was the little girl on "Ally McBeal." She used to be friends with Paris Hilton.

School sucks, and I have job interviews next week. BLAH!

If you haven’t yet seen the new Beyonce video CLICK HERE NOW!! This song and video are my life right now. Beyonce is crazy in this! So much angst! I wish she could learn to put some of this emotion into her movies. My sister says that this song is about Rhianna because Jay-Z was cheating on B with her. I think so, too. Although you’d think Beyonce could afford her own Maybach and VVS stones.

I wish she didn’t sing about chinchilla coats, though, because they are so wrong. My friend Emily had the sweetest chinchilla as a pet when we were kids. It was so pretty and soft. Raven actually did an episode recently that dealt with a sweater with a chinchilla collar. Her vegetarian friend, Chelsea, convinced Raven not to let her clothing designer boss manufacture the cruel sweater. On the subject of fur, though, I don’t fully understand people who are against fur but then buy leather and eat chicken. Every bit counts, but if you want to be compassionate, it’s really not much of a sacrifice to go the whole nine yards.

In other news, my school started this week. I think this semester will be hard, but I won’t have the burden of my restaurant job so I’ll be able to handle it. I will be working 10 hours a week as an assistant to a professor. My duties include holding office hours to help undergrads with their homework, grading tests, and performing research. I also plan on joining the accounting frat! Yep, I wanna go Greek. UPA!

What else is new?? Skinny jeans!! I’m going right now to the cleaners to see if they can tailor my jeans to be tighter and skinnier. My mom said it should cost eight bucks, so that would be worth it. Wish me luck!

Since I’ve become a Disney addict in recent times, I’m super-excited about the latest DC movie, The Cheetah Girls 2. It’s going to be so good. Brian and I started watching the first Cheetah Girls movie last night, and it is pretty good so far. For your FYI, the Cheetah Girls are a singing group composed of Raven, the two light-skinned girls from 3LW, and a black-talking white girl named Sabrina. Raven and the 3LW chicks are my GIRLS, but Sabrina, I learned, can tumble. She does the most beautiful aerials! She’s also very likable so she made the top of my Cheetah list. Don’t miss the new movie this Friday night on Disney!

Anyway, this event has led me to rediscover 3LW. They are so awesome, and they have a new album coming out this fall! Brian didn’t really know about them so I had to school him. They had a very Dreamgirls-esque feud between the two light-skinned ones and the dark-skinned one that erupted in the form of a fried chicken food fight. She has since been replaced with a girl who looks exactly like her.

Three more days of indentured servitude! I quit my job, and Thursday is my last day. Why oh why can’t it be today…or better yet, yesterday??? Life is so not fair. Last night, I closed the restaurant at 7, and these two bitches who had already been there for an hour and a half decided to stay for another hour and a half. What fucking whores!! Hopefully I’ll never have to wait tables ever again! It is such hell.

We’re your Dreamgirls. Boys, we’ll make you happy!

Guess what!?! Last night, I saw "Dreamgirls - The Movie" with Beyonce and Jennifer Hudson. I know, it’s not coming out until Christmas, but it was a test screening in downtown San Diego. And it was pretty awesome! The story is powerful and loosely based on the true story of the Supremes and Motown Records. I got home and felt compelled to research what really happened with Diana and the gang, and let me tell you, the truth is much more tragic than the fiction. It’s weird, but I liked the movie a lot more today than I did immediately after watching it. That might be because a survey was shoved in my hand right after, and I was trying to think of negative things to point out. Or because I had to pee like a mofo during the second hour. Anyway, the biggest flaw was that it was just too long, but they are probably going to edit some stuff out before it hits theaters. Another problem was that Beyonce is supposed to be like Diana Ross in that she’s pretty, but not all that much of a singer compared to Jennifer Hudson. Well, they wrote a new song for her which displays her incredible vocal talents which are as good or better than Jennifer. In any case, I can’t wait to see it again in a few months!

Hey, what’s up, can I buy you a drink?

Last night, I got back from five beautiful, action-packed days in Chicago! I used a travel voucher I received from being bumped from my flight when I went home in June making this my third of four free trips of the summer. Yeah, that’s how I roll. In truth, two of those trips were to my parents’ house and the other was my fabulous Birthright. Anyhoo, Brian and I each earned a hefty travel voucher for volunteering to stay last Thursday night at the luxurious Kansas City Airport Hilton!

We arrived at Chicago Midway Friday afternoon energized and ready to tackle the city. The first thing we did was shop. No Mag Mile for us…I took Brian to the holy grail of second-hand finds: Unique Thrift Store at 35th and Archer, off of the Orange Line. He was apprehensive about going to a big store with all of our luggage, but I assured him it would be worth it…and it WAS! We both got a ton of great stuff, including black jeans, pale blue pleated shorts, and a Lacoste and Polo in different shades of my favorite color, turquoise. We stayed at Jeff’s place on Weed Street. So fun! After showing him my old Andersonville stomping grounds, I took Brian northwest to the (East) Indian section of Devon Street where Phil met us for some eyebrow grooming. Anyone who has had their eyebrows threaded knows that there’s always that one threader who brings on the pain, and unfortunately for Brian, that’s the one he got. She did a good job, though…no Diva brows.

That night, we went to my favorite straight nightclub, Zentra, where all the camels came out for a public affair! I looked uber-punk in my new skinny jeans and matching black t-shirt. Melissa, Phil, and I witnessed a girl losing her lunch AND dinner on the patio. The poor thing didn’t have anyone to hold her shoulder-length hair back.

Other highlights of the trip include lesbian karaoke with Alison, Jean, and company, a river cruise with rude passengers who got what they deserved, and the discovery of an insanely funny video.

Now, Jeff has been studying Capouera for a few years now, and he showed my his awesome aerial cartwheel from a standing position! After many many years of gymnastics, mine is much less than awesome. In fact, I can only do an aerial with a running start, and even then it looks jacked. So I begged Jeff to teach me his secret, and he did! I haven’t gotten the hang of it, just yet, but I’m practicing. I tried to film myself doing it, but I lost my camera’s big memory card…I only have a really small one. Instead, I used the self-timer to take still photos of me in mid-air to see how it looks. It’s not great, but I think I’m making progress. See for yourself!

The beginning.

Back in the USA! It’s good to be back, but I really had a great time on my trip. It was pretty hard at first to get used to the fast pace, time difference, and group of 40 Jews, but once I did, I started to enjoy myself a lot. We did so much, and I made some great friends! We kayaked, hiked through water, floated in the Dead Sea, rode camels, saw wild ibexes, climbed mountains, swam under waterfalls, slept in a Bedouin tent, and shopped til we dropped! I will be happy to never eat hummus again in my life or ride in a bus full of drunk frat boys, for that matter. My favorite parts of the trip include the Holocaust museum, Yad Vashem, in Jerusalem and exploring Tel Aviv. Unfortunately, there was a huge jellyfish problem in the sea in Tel Aviv, so I stayed out of the water while others in the group went in and got stung.

On the plane ride home, my friend showed me an article about a rabbi who blamed the gays for the current conflict with Israel, Lebanon, and Hezbollah. He says that the upcoming Jerusalem gay pride celebration incited Hezbollah to launch the initial attacks so it is our fault. I wish I could be in Jerusalem for its pride in a few weeks. The Christians, Muslims, and Ultra-Orthodox Jews of Israel have joined forces to stage a huge protest.  Last year, Jerusalem pride was attempted, but a gay man was stabbed by one of the protestors. Hopefully this year things won’t get violent.

Ben and I saw "Jesus Christ Superstar" last night at Starlight, an outdoor theater in Balboa Park. It was not so great, but it had a few things going for it. The effects were awesome. There was a weird hole in the stage into which they would pour water every so often. Also, after Jesus was crucified, the cross folded down behind him, but he remained floating in the air. I liked Mary because she sang with a twang like Britney. Judas was the worst, though. He has the biggest singing part in the show which was unfortunate. I wonder how he got that role! I wish I could see the production from "Saved" with Mandy Moore as Mary. Maybe one day. Wasn’t there a rumor that she was going to do Broadway??

Shalom from Tel AVIV! This keyboard works much better than the one at my Jerusalem hotel. Tel Aviv is the bomb. It’s very pretty, clean, and cool. There are awesome shops and white sand beaches on the Mediterranean.

We went to the Dead Sea the other day and floated. Let me tell you, that salty water BURNS!! It’s cool because not only do you float on your front and back, you can also float in a standing position like an astronaut. Yesterday we hiked up and down a huge-ass mountain. It looked like the grand canyon.

As for the war situation, everything is calm here. It was scary at first because we visited a bunch of cities in the north which were then bombed one or two days later. Luckily the rockets coming from the Lebanese border aren’t strong enough to reach this far south. It’s been really interesting to see how people here, even though they may be afraid, don’t stop living their lives. In the towns that are being bombed, you can be sure that they stay in their shelters, but here they go out and enjoy themselves.

In any event, I’m glad that I’m going home tomorrow. This trip has been fun and interesting, but exhausting. Group trips are hard, especialy with 40 Jews on a tiny bus with seats that don’t recline. I have made some new friends and learned a great deal about this country. Also, it sucks being away from my boyfriend!

This keyboard sucks. IT KEEPSERASNG WHAT I WRITE!

Having a great time here in spite of the war that hasbegun. It is not nearly as bad as CNN would have you believe.

I will see you all soOn!

Love,

Charlie

ps going to the dead sea tomorrow!!

That’s 25% of the Hebrew I know. I learned how to say bathroom.

Israel is pretty and not nearly as hot as I’d expected. This tour is way too much for me, though. They make us wake up at the buttcrack of dawn (practically) and then it’s go, go, go until the wee hours of the night. Last night, they didn’t get us home until 1:45.

We went on a water hike (which is like a regular hike except they make you walk through a dirty stream full of sharp rocks and scary looking fish), and our Israeli soldier guide who was walking in front of me slipped and fell onto his GUN. Later, they took us kayaking, and the soldier dropped his gun in the water. We got held up for a really long time while people searched the water for it. That was a good thing for me, though, because my slow-ass boat would have held everyone up if that hadn’t happened. Kayaking is fucking hard, especially when there are endless opportunities to get stuck.

I hope I make it through this trip without dying of exhaustion. I feel like Lindsay Lohan with this greuling schedule. Oh, and I haven’t had any time to listen to Carrie since I’ve been here.

The people on my trip are really nice for the most part. There are 40 of us, ranging from 22-26, although there is one who is 18. There are skinny stray cats all over Israel. It’s really sad. We were going to go to hot springs and a winery today, but they changed the itinerary so we’re instead going on another fucking water hike and listening to a lecture about shit. What a bore!!

Later!