So last Friday, you know the shopping one, my friend Jeanette and I decided to hang out. I was feeling funky, fresh, dope and fly and so I put together an outfit I’d never worn before. Not only that, the top I didn’t even pick out. Someone at Cupcakes and Muffintops insisted it is too cute for me not to get and so I bought it without even trying it on. It was that cute! But it took me months before I attempted to wear it and until this particular Friday, I hadn’t found a way to work it. The cardigan has a similar story. I’d purchased it for a steal at Target on clearance, but it’s ivory and what am I doing with an ivory cardigan? I get things dirty without even trying! It has this lovely deco-esque square latticework on the front…just fabulous, which is why I bought it of course. Never in my dreams had I thought of these two cherished but unworn pieces together…but they do, perfectly:

And I started rocking my “pomp” again. Which I am quite enjoying. I am sick of my shortie hair in the back, but I am hopeful and patient that they will get to growin’ soon here. I wasn’t sure what color glasses to wear, so I went with my usual/casual/go-to pair of dark purple. You can hardly see, but I’m wearing the earrings and necklace set my then fiance bought me 6 months before our wedding. I hadn’t worn the necklace in ages and I love it’s simple elegance. And of course my usual Avenue denim lite straight leg jeans. I am loathe to even imagine the day I need to buy new jeans. I have five pair of these and wear them constantly. They are thin and have stretch. I buy them a size bigger than I should, but I never have to unbutton them and they are the perfect length this way. They are discontinued though, so yeah, they better last forever. Ha-ha!

The Puggyman doesn’t like his picture taken. Always a suspicious eye when the camera is out:

I had never gone black Friday shopping, truly. I’d always worked on such days for my many years of retail. Jeanette and I only went to Avenue, but it was fun! No crowds, no rude clerks, it was fabulous. For a grand total of twenty-six dollars, I made out like a bandit: Two free tote bags*, one pair of leg warmers, one printed henley, one black henly, one pair of glam earrings and one pair of sock-slippers. And the tote bags are nice, too! It was not only the best black Friday experience I’d ever had, but it was the best Avenue experience, too! I will say that I am super disappointed and a bit angry that they no longer carry EE tights…not even on their website, except for the plainest of plain ones. I did order a pair of the sweater tights in an E, but they haven’t come yet, so fingers crossed that they fit. This shopping trip was a hoot and a half, too. Jeanette and I tried on shoes and played with accessories and she got so many cute things, too! Then it was decided that these were the sexiest and most glam shoes ever! But I insist that we find the exact same style, or similar, in a flat. I refuse to suffer for such beauty. We tried them on and made up stories of our would-be glamorous lives, had we these magical shoes and finally put them away with a catch in our throats…if you know of a similar shoe in a flat? DO EMAIL ME! Ha-ha! *I made two separate purchases, thus earning two free with purchase tote bags.

This TMI Tuesday post is a review of a Sex Toy! If this doesn’t interest you, you’d rather not know about my sex life or toy preference, or you’re at work and don’t wanna get in trouble, do come back tomorrow for your regularly scheduled random fatty talk right here on my blog-a-ma-thing. Thanks! <3

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Every time I go to Good Vibrations in San Francisco, I try to buy something. To support them, to support my sexual well being and well, it’s an awesome place to shop. I find it hard not to look around and grab a little something before I leave. There are a bunch of reasons to go to and support Good Vibrations, but you can find those at the linky there. Today I wanted to talk about the latest toy I purchased.

Meet “C-Spot”: The C-Spot has a very special job indeed — its main function is as a clit stimulator, and wow, is it good at its job! Long and thin, the head is angled for the perfect fit on your clit. Slim enough to fit in between bodies during partnered sex, this little vibe also provides an extended reach for folks with disabilities. Not limited to external fun, this vibe also makes a great internal G-spot stimulator. Oh, and it’s waterproof too!

Yesterday Jeanette and I headed up to San Francisco to catch Virgie Tovar‘s lecture on Intersextions of Fat Positivity & Sex Positivity at Good Vibrations. Well, we were very late. You see, parking in the city is a pain in the ass and well, we spent a good twenty minutes trying to find parking and by the time we did we’d probably missed a good chunk of Virgie’s talk. Bummer. But we went in and the fabulous ladies at Good Vibrations were so kind and helpful and welcoming and even escorted us back to the lecture so we wouldn’t feel weird being so very late.

I wish I could tell you all about the lecture and what I learned or took away from it, but to be honest, and more likely because we’d missed nearly half of it, I have nothing to report. The other ladies that were in the lecture were new to Fat Liberation/Acceptance and I was a little surprised by this, but in a happy way since they were very interested and seemed to want to hear more about it. Always a good thing! And I am learning to be more comfortable telling people about this blog. So far so good.

After the lecture, Jeanette and I stuck around the back room to take in the, um, uh…sights? Ha-ha! Well, the room was covered in crocheted penises!!! It was quite distracting. As someone who in fact crochets I was quite interested on a detailed level, too…but it was funny to be surrounded by it all:

There were just so many…everywhere!!! Ha-ha! Some were frilly, some plain, some, um, firm and some soft and it was a delight to look closer and see the individual adornments of the…pieces! Ha-ha! I’m a twelve year old sometimes, sorry.

After snapping some pics and grabbing a business card of the artist, we shopped around the actual store and we both found some new fun things to try out. I may even do a sex toy review again, yay!

Then we high-tailed it out of the city and to a bakery for a bite to eat. It was just so nice to hand out and chat with Jeanette. Even if we missed the lecture, which was a bummer, I still had a great time. We chatted and carbed out and checked out a fancy goodwill store that I swear I will return to. Oh yeah, and I wore one of my new Eshakti dresses:

The one I’m wearing is here, but it looks like they took the blue color down. No worries, it’ll probably be back. Little tip, if you see something missing from one day to the next, try just typing in “dress” in the search box and everything will come up. Not to say that they still don’t discontinue things, but I think they reorganize and stuff often and some things get lost in the shuffle. I love this dress, I chose the custom option for 7 bucks as I always do, but it’s always worth it! The cardigan I got at a swap, the boots are from Avenue last year and the tights are actually teggings from Re/Dress.

I highly recommend Eshakti to anyone, anywhere. Invite a friend over, bust out the measuring tapes and take each other’s measurements. It’s fun! And having your measurements on-hand makes online clothing shopping sooooo much easier. I have another dress I haven’t worn yet and another on it’s way…so exciting! Remember, I was the gal who hadn’t worn a dress since high school. I at one point felt I didn’t deserve pretty things or shouldn’t wear dresses for a number of other reasons. Thanks to Lesley Kinzel and my fashion idol,  Nicole, not only do I wear dresses, I rock the hell out of them!

Remember, I stopped giving a damn and now do what makes me happy…don’t  you? Thanks for reading. <3

Saturday afternoon, my good friend Jeanette and I headed to Oakland for Raks Africa and Full Figured Entertainment’s first Belly Dance Class. We were both excited, and maybe a little nervous, maybe. It was such a great deal, we just couldn’t resist! I mean, for 25 bucks we got a two hours class with the amazing ladies of Raks Africa, a hip scarf, a bindi, a mix CD for more belly dancing and 5 bucks off our next FFE club night…since we were already planning on going to the club this Friday to celebrate both of our birthdays, well, this just worked out perfectly!

The class consisted of twelve “full figured” women, plus the two instructors and Tigress of FFE fame. The venue was at this cool restaurant called, “The Fat Lady” no less! Anyway, we were all getting our scarves and bindis and then began the stretching and warm up. The ladies of Raks Africa informed us of the history of Belly Dance, which I found particularly interesting. But I do love history, so go figure. Then we began learning some actual moves!

One thing I didn’t realize until we began actually dancing was that Belly Dance puts all of your weight, or most of it, on your knees. I’ve been struggling with a knee injury since July and keep re-injuring it due to living on the 2nd floor and dancing and other such life things. Boo! My knee was clicking during warm up so I had a feeling that this wasn’t going to go as smoothly as I’d hoped. Oh well. You begin with slightly bent knees, feet shoulder-width apart, and your pelvis tucked forward…I loved how they explained the tuck! It’s like zipping up a pair of tight jeans…THAT Tuck! Ha-ha!

We begin with the shimmy and some hip bumping and incorporate an “Egyptian walk” and the classic grapevine with a hip bump and kick in it, then some double hip bumps and shimmies and we start over from there. It was all set to a version of this song (but it had a rap break it in I loved):

SO MUCH FUN!!! The beat of the song if from Kool And The Gang’s “Let’s Go Dancing”…did I say that this was so much fun?

And now I am finding excuses to shimmy and bump! I’m doing it in the car, I’m doing it to Nikki Minaj’s “Super Bass” and I am doing it right now!!! Ha-ha! I’m hooked, what can I say?! Have jingly scarf, will go to where the music is!!!

I HIGHLY recommend checking out a belly dance class if you’re at all interested, even just for fun. But I STRONGLY recommend, if you’re in the bay area, to go to the next FFE and Raks Africa class! I am not sure when that will be, but it is worth the wait. These ladies understand how fat bodies move and what they need! We had lots of ice water available, restrooms right there, napkins for face dabbing, chairs for breaks, A/C and open windows for air flow…they just get it! I have never taken a belly dance class before, so I don’t know how different this one was, but I felt fabulous the entire time.

Having said that, my knees are very very angry with me. I have been icing them on and off ever since returning home from the class. Whew! Parts of my lower back and lower abdominal muscles are sore, but not unbearably so. Just my knees. My ankles hurt the first day, but are fine now. It’s a lot of work on your knees. And I haven’t sweated that much in years! I don’t knwo why, but I didn’t think it’d be the full workout that it was. I’m so glad that I did it though. You can go as slow or as fast as you like, you can certainly modify moves or transitions, but in the end, my knees are fucked, yo! I should have known this going in, it makes sense, but whatever. Totally worth it! I just hope my knees are feeling better by Friday!

Oh! Jeanette was kind enough to snap a pic of me in my hip scarf and bindi after class before we left:

*Yeah, this one’s about Rosie O’Donnell, too, so if you’re not interested, I do understand. I will be blogging about fat things more next week, promise.

Watching last night’s episode of the Rosie Show, with Lisa Kudrow as her guest, pissed me right the hell off. At the beginning of the show she brings on this wisp of a man model and insists he’s “not the bad kind of skinny.” Then coming back from a commercial break she makes a big friggin’ deal about some weight loss bullshit and now I’m just mad and annoyed. I am beginning to think that Rosie will get up and cheer for just about any old thing…I don’t know why this surprises me so.

“We are kicking off a brand spanking new weight loss program today called “______ ____ ___”. Listen to this, so the people of “______ ____ ___” have signed on a smokin’ hot celebrity who lost a lot of weight on this plan but I can’t tell you who it is, I’ve been sworn to secrecy. —-You’ll get the exclusive on November 8th. —We’ve enlisted 25 women to start the program, they’re right here in ____ shirts. They got free “______ ____ ___” meals today and for the next 28 days. Plus, one on one help from a “slimoglogist” –which I didn’t even know they had that–We’ve got all of these women coming back and on November 7th They’re going to walk through and they’re going to be…thinner. And then the celebrity is gonna walk through and they’re all gonna hug.—“

And then she goes right back to another commercial break and I’m like what the fucking hell?! She starts off with “not the bad kind of skinny” and ends with a new weight loss plan…mind you she did not refer to herself in any way shape or form when talking about this program/plan/bullshit. And then I jump online to write this post and a commenter mentions how Rosie has always been everyone’s cheerleader. That she will be SO EXCITED for basically whomever is in front of her or people like or in some way could help her show. UGH!

Well, if she is going to be SO EXCITED for everyone ever, then I suppose it’s not such a bad thing. She is human after all. Certainly there are corporate sponsors to worry about. Oprah’s approval, too, no doubt. I just felt like this was going to be the real Rosie show, ya know?

C’mon Rosie! You’re better than this! This is YOUR show now, right? I mean, I love what you said about being proud and standing up for yourself and not wearing spanx that first night…and now this? I’m glad you’re not shilling for some weight loss garbage. At least not directly, your show is, as a host you are, but you’re not on the diet so whatever. I just want you to know that this back and forth on the body hate stuff…it’s damaging to all of us. Remember the “It Gets Better” anti-bullying campaign? Well, you know then how kids can be affected by a stigma. A stigma so deeply rooted in our society that their lives are threatened. That they are denied health care! Based on a damned stigma!!! Not fact! That they are harassed and encouraged to do so by almost the entire fucking world!!!

So think about it, and maybe consider ending the body judging comments all together. You can love yourself, too…just as you are, right now! Celebrity or no, you can let go of the societal pressure and bullshit body hate that only one industry truly benefits from: the 64 billion dollar diet industry! The rest of us lay in ruins in its wake of cash and empty protein shake bottles. Our self esteem still smoking from the last “diet” we all tried. Those fake statistics we all bought as fact…it’s all bullshit and deep down you have to know it is. You have to know it isn’t right. There is a better way. Self acceptance, self love, ending the self hate, ending the judging all together…that is the way, man. I can tell you that for sure! Nothing bad has ever come from loving and accepting yourself. And what a fabulously positive message to give to your audience and the world?! You are a brave and proud woman, I know you can do this!

Thanks for reading. <3