Charlie’s Blog

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.