Archive for June, 2006

>Only in New York, Mermaid Parade Edition

June 25th, 2006 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

>Despite yesterday’s rain in other parts of the city and metro area, the Mermaid Parade was a success. It drizzled a bit once or twice, but for the most part, the bark of the sky was much worse than its bite. Craberet was a bit diminished, as four out of nine of its “acts,” dropped out due to weather or family issues, but as can be seen above, the remaining troop still had fun. I was pleasantly surprised by how many marchers and watchers came despite the threat of thunderstorms and torrential downpours. (The only disappointment was that several of the crab legs fell off my costume before we even arrived at the parade.) Next year, my friend H. will not miss it due to attending her brother’s shotgun wedding in Chicago, and hopefully the weather will be more agreeable as well.

Since we had a lot of stuff with us as well as recorded music, Husband and I purchased a red Radio Flyer wagon to drag our stuff on during the parade. We were not sure where we would store it when we got home, as it was rather bulky and we have limited storage space. When we arrived at our stop on the subway, we decided to take the elevator up due to the wagon. An older couple and their daughter, who was about our age, joined us. The daughter turned to us suddenly and asked where we had bought the wagon, as she was looking for one for her friends’ kids. I told her that we got it at Toys R Us. After a moment of hesitation, I then blurted out, “Do you want it? It was 40 bucks, but we’ll give it to you for 20.” She was eager to buy it off us and insisted we take the full $40.

Only in New York would a random stranger buy a slightly used red wagon from a woman with a crab costume in the elevator of the subway.

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>Evil Twins

June 24th, 2006 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

>Everyone has an evil twin. When it comes to men, you always know the evil twin because he has a mustache or a scar on his face. When it comes to women, you can confidently identify the evil twin because she is chubbier than the good woman.I am Mia Farrow’s evil twin from her Rosemary’s Baby era.

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>Contest Time!

June 23rd, 2006 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

>The Memoirists Collective on MySpace.com is having a memoir contest. Contestants are to submit up to 800 words in the first round. Prize: editors at three publishing houses read your manuscript. Here’s my submission:

The problem with naturally enormous boobs is the tendency of gravity to suck them down to earth. Believe me, the sag can get rather ugly. At one point in my life, I was busting out of a DD bra. Letting the sisters hang free always posed a danger to my kneecaps. I exaggerate slightly, but when I sat down while braless, the girls were pretty much in my lap. If the Navy ran out of torpedoes, I could have donated my boobs to save the country.

Another challenge large breasts pose is heaviness. Even when holstered into place with a bra that had cups made out of Kevlar and straps as wide as an eight lane highway, my shoulder boulders really lived up to their name in that they weighed a ton. Thus one of the best decisions I ever made was my decision to have breast reduction surgery, or as I like to say, have most of my tits chopped off. I am only about five feet tall, and at least half my body appeared to be my boobs. It was very hard for me to carry around my chest and anything else, like a backpack or purse. My shoulders and neck hurt like hell and my bra straps were starting to dig canals into me. I was increasingly worried about finding a gondolier guiding tourists down my back some day.

While I was glad to be getting rid of my burden, I found plastic surgery a rather farcical experience. I was met at my initial appointment by the surgeon, a short, thin man who looked me up and down with beady brown eyes. Four long hairs were combed over his bald spot. His creepy human ferret look seemed like it would be more at home stalking a used car lot for prey, and yet he spent a fair amount of time telling me that I looked awful. I then posed for diagnostic photos topless while wearing pantyhose, not only highlighting that my breasts were stretched like taffy, but that my stomach exploded over the top of pantyhose like a mushroom cloud. To say the least, it was not the most body-affirmative experience I have ever had.

The Polaroids were sent to my insurance company as proof that I had the ugliest tits in America and that they needed to pay to fix them, lest I destroy the patriotic spirit of all red-blooded American males. While I was not pleased to have pictures of my naked torso and fat gut being shared with god knows how many people, I also did not worry that the pictures would wind up in the wrong hands. (Playboy was not going to be contacting me any time soon unless they wanted to blow a year of their airbrushing budget on one picture.) The insurance people agreed that I endangered my own health and the nation’s love of perky breasts, and they quickly approved the procedure.

I arrived at the hospital before dawn on the day of my surgery. The doctor came into the room to prep me. While he bent over and cheerfully drew purple lines all over my breasts, I stared at the whispy hairs across the center of his head and wondered what he would do if I got a brown marker and drew in more hair on his scalp. As he finished, a plastically attractive female anesthesiologist hooked me up to an IV. They grinned wolfishly and said I would be a new person when I awoke. As I drifted off, I hoped for the best.

The end result was amazing. At my follow up appointment, the surgeon stepped back to soak in the view as if I was a block of marble and he was Michelangelo sculpting “The Pieta,” then praised himself for his “work.” While I did not appreciate his ego, he did do a very good job transforming my droopy saddlebag old lady breasts into adorable and lovable little handfuls. It was literally a load off my shoulders, although for weeks afterward I had no feeling in my chest, which pretty much meant that anyone could cop a feel without me noticing. This made me a little paranoid when riding on a crowded subway, and anyone who inched a bit too close to me was the recipient of a nasty glare.

It has been over seven years since the surgery, and sometimes I search the internet to see if my pre-surgery pics appear on any saggy boobs fetish sites. Fortunately, the pictures seem to remain safely locked away in a bureaucratic storage facility somewhere, hopefully never to see the light of day again. I am free to run down the street without worrying about slapping myself in the face. I could not be happier.
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Hopefully, I can stand out in what promises to be a huge crowd. Any suggestions are welcome. (And yes, I wrote this in a slightly different form back in November or so.)

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>The Scarlet Letter

June 22nd, 2006 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

>Back in my high school career, I took AP American History. I highly enjoyed my class, although I refused to do the weekly mundane chapter outlines our teacher assigned. He claimed it would help us study for our exams and ultimately the AP test, but I found that I actually absorbed less of the material when I was constantly interrupting my reading to write crap down. It was babysitting, pure and simple. Despite all of my excellent test scores, I nearly got a C or D in the class since I had no points for doing my homework. In the end, I caved and did about 20 outlines at once, which sucked, and of course I never used them to study for my AP exam because I had other notes that were actually useful.

At any rate, one of the questions on the AP test asked about three ways that the Puritans still influence our country today (today being 1994). I wrote about the Puritan work ethic and capitalism and manifest destiny and all that “God smiles on hard (white) workers, so if you are rich, you must be good” shit. Then I hesitated. I really wanted to say that because the Puritans instituted a conservative religious fundamentalism in this nation, today we suffer from high rates of teen pregnancy, STD transmissions, and other ailments because quality sex education is not available in the majority of schools. It would be risky to take that path. I went ahead and blamed lack of sex ed on the Puritans. At the end of the exam, I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Fortunately, I received a 5 out of 5.

As I was sitting in a conference session about poverty yesterday, one of the presenters mentioned that this country would rather piss away gazillions of dollars to lock people up than to spend pennies on the dollar to prevent certain social ills in the first place or to help people avoid repeating mistakes. Immediately I remembered my AP essay. Yes, another bad influence of the Puritans: poor (non-white) people are born evil, so it is only appropriate to punish them, regardless of the multitude of costs. Fucking Puritans.

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>I’ve Got Questions

June 22nd, 2006 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

>Have you ever been in the middle of a haircut and all of a sudden you are certain that the guy cutting your hair, who is wearing a crop top and cut off jean shorts and has legs that are 50 times better shaved than yours,* is very likely not wearing underwear?

Have you ever feared that the guy cutting your hair might have an acid flashback and stab you in the neck with scissors?

Unless you are my friend V., I am guessing that the answer to both of these questions is a resounding no. I am also guessing that you would probably never go back to such a person if you did answer yes to either question. On the other hand, you might consider going every 5 or so weeks if you are a woman who has short hair and you think he gives good enough hair cuts that risking your life is worth it. If the quality of the cut does not convince you, how about this: he does it for a total of $40 (until this last visit, it was only $35!!!), which is freaking amazingly cheap for the City.

Is it wrong that I am not unslightly fearful that he will somehow come across this blog and refuse to cut my hair in the future or worse, give me a horrid cut as retribution?

*For the record, it is possible that his legs are shaved as bare as a baby’s ass so that his tattoo can be more clearly seen. On the other hand, he does not shave his very hairy arms so that those tattoos are more visible. Not that I object to guys shaving their legs, but it was definitely unexpected.

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>Yeeee Haaaaw

June 21st, 2006 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

>The one rule that almost all New Yorkers live by is to avoid Times Square at all costs. Times Square is the bane of existence for a fast-paced New Yorker. There are people everywhere and 92% move along at a snails pace, staring up at the big buildings and overwhelmed by the sea of humanity that surrounds them. It can drive a harried person up a wall. This afternoon I ignored the #1 rule of life and cut through Times Square on my way home from a conference. As I was cursing my stupidity and the gawking tourists around me, I came face to face with the Naked Singing Cowboy. (Actually, he might just be the Naked Cowboy. I’m not so sure that he sings.)

The Naked [Singing] Cowboy is infamous as a living tourist trap. Basically, he walks around Times Square in tighty-whities, cowboy boots, and a cowboy hat. He also carries a guitar. New Yorkers completely ignore him, as if everyone walks around in their underwear and there is nothing unusual going on. Female tourists, however, go nuts over him. They point and giggle and eventually approach him. They love taking pictures with him. This is where the tourist trap part comes in, as he charges them $5 to be photographed with him. I heard he can make quite a lot of money in one day. Pretty damn clever. I’m sure the ladies at home go ga-ga when they see the pictures. In the end, everyone is happy.

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>Got Germs?

June 21st, 2006 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

>If cleanliness is next to godliness, then the Mets occupy an inner circle of hell. Usually the women’s bathrooms in stadiums have long lines and waits to use the toilet. The Mets solved this problem. The bathroom I used on the upper deck level last night had about 25 toilets. I walked right in and an empty stall awaited me. After I did my business, I went to wash my hands. That is when I noticed that the entire bathroom had a whopping two sinks. There is also a trough, but I could not figure out what purpose it served. My friend suggested that it might be a vomitorium, which seems like a logical thing to have in the bathroom of a stadium.

I waited in line for one of the limited sinks which overall had the effect of discouraging people from washing their hands. Thus that I benefited from a brand new soap dispenser and ample paper towels. Still, it is pretty disturbing that the Mets organization just assumes that people don’t wash their hands after they go to the bathroom so it is OK to save money by not putting sinks in the rest rooms. Studies have found that only a very small amount of men wash their hands after toileting themselves, but encouraging this practice by putting only one sink in the men’s room (as my friend mentioned was the case; he waited in line for the single sink, and the only person in line in front or behind him was the guy actually using it…).

Think about that next time you shake hands with a guy – He may have recently shook himself off before he shook with you.

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>Andy, Me, and MTV

June 20th, 2006 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

>Every day I learn something new. Today while I was reading an Entertainment Weekly from weeks ago, I learned that Anderson Cooper and I have something in common. Generally, I find Anderson Cooper highly irritating and self-important. (No, this is not what we have in common.) However, the little article on him mentioned that his guilty pleasure is watching My Super Sweet 16 and Tiara Girls on MTV. I like watching these shows while I work out at the gym. (Mindless entertainment is very good for prolonging exercising.) We both even like them for the same reason. As Anderson said,

[It’s] jaw-dropping and mind-numbing… On the second season of My Super Sweet 16, all the really horrible girls has seen the first season and were trying to top them in horribleness. On Tiara Girls, there’s a fresh level of horror.

If you are not familiar with these shows, My Super Sweet 16 features disturbingly spoiled young bitches (little Paris Hiltons, really) as they plan their sweet 16 birthday parties and spend more money than the entire gross domestic product of small third world countries. Once in a blue moon, a young prince is featured as he plans his grand entrance into the world, but everyone knows that the show is better when it highlights the ugliest of female stereotypes. Tiara Girls is about teenage girls entering beauty pageants and the $100 per hour gay coaches who teach them to smile properly while giving sincere-sounding speeches. (Does learning about these types of high-paying jobs make you sad that you didn’t know about them when you went to college? Me too.)

These shows are the epitome of post-feminist entertainment. As Andy said, Jaw-dropping! A fresh level of horror! I love it. I really could not describe it better myself.

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>The Invisible Criminal Shopper

June 19th, 2006 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

>I took a break from the pressing business of updating my blog template to run some errands this afternoon. As I was walking around my sweltering neighborhood, I noticed that some fancy/trendy boutiques were having sales. My unholy love for Nanette Lapore clothes compelled me to enter the shops and poke around. The good news is that several Nanette items were indeed on sale. The bad news is that a skirt that I loved still cost $250. It’s criminal, I tell you.

Speaking of criminals, from the way the saleswomen stared at me as I browsed for a steal, you’d have thought that I might try to stuff something down my $17 Gap denim skirt and sneak out. Either I was tracked through the store by the evil eye or I was ignored completely. In the stores where I seemed to be invisible, I suspected that actually talking to someone who worked there or worse, another customer, would render them an Untouchable.

Is there something wrong with the fact that I was treated more politely and with more respect when I was browsing among fake vaginas in the local sex shop yesterday than when I was looking at fancy skirts at a few boutiques today? Our neighborhoods might be more livable if we had more sex shops and less bitchy boutiques.

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>Good Sales Help Like This is Hard to Find

June 19th, 2006 by Suzanne | No Comments | Filed in Uncategorized

>Yesterday I decided to stop by the local sex shop for red fishnet stockings to complete my costume for the Mermaid Parade on Saturday. (I have the crab shell and oven mitt claws in place from last year (and the year before), and I picked up a red sequin bowtie at a costume and card shop a few blocks away from my apartment.) I had a sneaking suspicion that they would have just what I was looking for.

As I walked in, I immediately spotted a disembodied mannequin leg sporting red fishnets. Excitedly, I scanned all the sex costumes hanging up on the wall. I had to move around a guy who was kneeling to browse through all the DVD on sale (50% off!), but eventually near the back I found black fishnets and orange fishnets. Hmmm…

Doubling back around the bargain shopper, I made my way to the counter. The cashier was chatting away in some foreign language, but hung up when he noticed me. “Can I help you miss?” (I love that the cashier in a sex shop politely called me “miss.”) I told him I was looking for red fishnets and he said to look in the back. I figured I might have missed them on my first pass, so I snuck by the bargain shopper again. There was nothing but fake vaginas and a pair of fake boobs that were marketed as “Heavenly Handfuls.”

After ringing up the DVD purchases from the other customer, the cashier also came to look, and noticed that they were out of stock. “Why don’t you get a pair in black?” he helpfully suggested. “Black goes with everything!” I thanked him for his fashion tip, but told him I really needed red ones for my crab costume. He nodded understandingly, and I was on my way.

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