wanderlust

wan·der·lust (wndr-lst) n. A very strong or irresistible impulse to travel.

for as long as i can remember, i have wanted to travel the world. unfortunately, i am very broke lol. so whenever a travel opportunity at little to no cost pops up, i jump at it.

my friends parents have their own travel agency, and every year they do trips with rotary exchange students. last december i chaperoned the disney trip, and i just got back from chaperoning the eastern trip. we went to washington dc, manhattan, boston, hershey, and gettysburg. it was an amazing trip. it makes me wish i had known about the rotary exchange program in high school; seeing how much fun the kids have and the friendships they form makes me so jealous. yes i get to go on the trips, but being a chaperon is different than experiencing these trips as an exchange student. i would have loved to be an exchange student in high school. if my kids ever have the opportunity to do so, i will do everything in my power to ensure they can go. anyway.

so now ive been bitten by the travel bug and im restless just sitting at home. luckily, i have at least 3 more trips planned for this year :) my parents are thinking of taking a family vacation and going to weeki wachee river in florida this summer. its on the gulf coast of florida. there are manatees that swim in the river, and from looking at pictures of the area it seems like it will be such a relaxing vacation. plus my aunt lives in orlando, so i think wed take our grandparents on vacation with us and all go visit her :) she has MS and its very hard for her to travel because of it, and my grandparents are getting older so its harder for them to travel too, so this would be a really good thing.

my mom and grandma take a girls trip every year up to massachusetts/new hampshire to visit with family (my mom was born in MA) and this year i have been invited to go with them. i am SO EXCITED!! ive wanted to do this trip with them for years :)

i am also chaperoning the disney trip again this december, and im so excited about it :)

we are also talking about going up to vermont in may to visit our friend at grad school. for as often as ive been to new england, ive never been to vermont, so im excited about that :)

also - and this is the most exciting thing - i will probably be going to france and england sometime in the next couple years! lizs dad wants to take her and her friends (which would be me, christine and jackie) on a trip because he did the same for her sister a few years ago. im not sure when its going to happen, but he is saying that it WILL happen. i seriously cried when he brought it up; paris is a dream of mine. and to be there with three of my bestest friends? amazing ♥

well...

mitch and i have decided to go ahead and get a divorce. well, dissolution really, if that makes any difference. weve decided its for the best; hes unhappy and im unhappy and he acknowledges that i deserve better, i deserve to be happy. and honestly, i think my parents were right (*cringes*) and that we got married too fast. i mean i really havent been single since i was 17; i was in a 2-yr relationship then a month after that ended i went into another 2.5-yr relationship and then a couple months after that ended i started dating mitch. so i honestly dont know who i am on my own, without the identity of being a married woman. so this is whats best for us. and its going to be amicable, neither of us has any animosity towards the other. we actually just sat down and talked about it and decided who would keep what furniture-wise and we decided what to do about finances. as for the cats, im going to keep them but theyre going to stay with him until i can find a place of my own; ill be moving in with my parents for awhile to be able to save up money and they already have 2 cats so i wouldnt be able to bring mine there. overall im feeling as good about this as i can, and i honestly think ill be okay. i mean yea it sucks balls, i still love him, but theres no point in fighting for something that only one person wants. and my friends aunt is an attorney and has offered to help me out at a deeply discounted rate so that helps. so...yea. thats the situation.

rape culture and eminem

please tell me why anyone thinks eminem has any redeeming qualities anymore? there is nothing good about his music/message. he is a woman-hating mysoginist pig, and no that opinion does not mean i am a feminazi - it means i do NOT buy into the victim-blaming, slut-shaming rape culture we are living in. i mean really, look at these lyrics from "stay wide awake" and tell me how they are even a little bit okay

Fe Fi Fo Fum!
I think I smell the scent of a placenta
I enter Central Park it's dark, it's winter in December
I see my target, whip my car in Park and approach her tender
Young girl by the name of Brenda and I pretend to befriend her
Sit down beside her like a spider, Hi there girl you mighta
Heard of me before see whore you're the kinda girl that I'd a-
-ssault and rape and figure why not try to make your pussy widea
Fuck you with an umbrella and then open it up while the shits inside ya
I'm the kinda guy that's mild but I might flip and get a little bit wilda
Impregnate a lesbian, yea now let's see ya have triplets and I'll di-
-sintegrate them babies, as soon as they out hoe, with formalde-
-hyde in cyanide girl, you can try and hide, you can try to scream louda

...seriously? how is that is any way shape or form acceptable?!
not to mention at least for me, that shit is triggering as hell having my name in there. thank god i was never raped, but i WAS sexually abused. can you imagine how triggering this would be for someone who WAS raped? this is NOT OKAY. there is NOTHING okay with rape, rape jokes, rape culture, etc. but unfortunately thats what were living in - rape culture. a culture that makes rape jokes funny, that tell women its their fault for getting raped (you shouldntve been drinking so much, wearing such revealing clothing, etc) NO. victim-blaming is WRONG and there is no one to blame but the RAPIST. but unfortunately we live in a society that favors the rapist over the victim. it disgusts me.

Mad Girl's Love Song

I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I dreamed that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck, kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky, hell's fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan's men:
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.

I fancied you'd return the way you said,
But I grow old and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes they roar back again.
I shut my eyes and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)"

~Sylvia Plath

march cant come fast enough!

NYC baby!!

run devil run

i am LOVING this song right now!!

why i am boycotting Urban Active's Graceland location

it should not be a difficult thing to ensure your employees are properly informed. i called the gym the day after xmas to see if there was a bellydance class since its the holidays and was assured there was. well i got there and nope, no class. this is the second time this had happened to me and i was pissed. i sent this email:

To Whom It May Concern:

I am an Urban Active member and regularly attend the Sunday belly dance classes at 4:00 PM. It being the day after Christmas, I called this morning to ensure there would still be a class. I was assured there would be. Upon arriving, I noticed a sign on the door of the group fitness room stating that there would be no classes today. The same thing happened to me on Sunday 10/31, Halloween. I called in the morning to see if there would still be a belly dance class that day and was told there would be but, again upon arriving, I saw a sign stating that afternoon classes were cancelled. I am upset about this because on both occasions I was assured there would be a class, went and drove all the way out to the gym only to find out I had been misinformed. This is a waste of both my time and my gas money. It should not be so hard to make sure your employees have the correct information regarding classes on any given day, so that that information can be relayed correctly to members such as myself. The disorganization and inefficiency shown on these two occasions is very unprofessional and I am very displeased.

Sincerely,
Brenda G.

Also, to ensure this doesn't happen again, if possible I would like the email address of the belly dance instructor, Kxxxxx Mxxxxx, so that in the future I can contact her directly.

so, after almost two weeks without a response from them, i decided to call them. i just got off the phone with the manager and explained the situation and how i was very displeased and disappointed with the lack of organization and professionalism. first of all, he told me that he never received an email, which idk whether or not i believe him since i copy-pasted the email address from their website. although it is always possible that the email just randomly got lost in transit i guess. secondly, when i voiced my displeasure about how the employees did not have the correct information, he told me (in a rather snotty voice) that the holiday schedules were posted on the door to the group fitness room as well as the front door two weeks prior to xmas. now im calling bullshit on that, because i do NOT remember seeing anything like that UNTIL the day after xmas, when all this happened. general holiday hours maybe, but definitely not a class schedule. i told him that, and i also told him that if that really were the case and my memory was off, that there is even LESS of an excuse for the employees not to have the correct information. so then i asked him for the belly dance instructors email so i could contact her directly and he gave me the group fitness coordinators email, since she handles all that stuff. mind you i had to almost beg him for it; i asked if he had the email address and he said no the group fitness coordinator handles all the class instructors and would have the email address. i said well can i speak with her please and he said no she is not in today due to the weather (and mind you the "weather" is light snow with less than an inch of accumulation *rolls eyes*) so i said well okay is there any way i can leave her a message? and he finally gave me her email address. ugh. i said thank you and he said youre welcome very abruptly and hung up. no final apology, no "and again i am very sorry for your experience," nothing. i mean maybe im expecting too much, but if i were working and a customer called me with a reasonable complaint i would apologize profusely, do everything in my power to correct the mistake or make amends, and make sure that the last thing they heard before hanging up was another apology. but no. this guy, who is supposed to be a manager and a professional, sounded sarcastic and uninterested when apologizing and almost had an attitude of how dare i make a complaint and well it was my fault anyway for not seeing the supposed signs (which i swear to you were not there). again, i am highly disappointed and pissed off at this particular location and have no plans to ever visit again. thank god theres another location about the same distance from me lol. and luckily this problem location no longer offers bellydance, so i have no reason to go back. now i just REALLY hope the group fitness coordinator responds to my email!

i considered asking for the corporate number and making a complaint about this rude-ass manager, but im just done with the whole thing.apart from getting the instructors email, i am beyond caring about any of this.