What I miss about 2001

7th grade was such a weird time for me and I am pretty sure it was  pretty weird time for others as well. I just started feeling like a little bit nostalgic today so I am gonna list all the stuff I miss about 2001.

STARTING WITH THESE BAD BOYS!

Ok so let's get a count of hands of the people that have owned these at some point in their life. Jnco JEANS! I really do not know why everyone thought these bad you some kind of sk8ter or goth bad ass but anyways.. I think most of us that wore them ended up looking like circus clowns. I know at my school we actually used to call these "circus pants". I owned QUITE a few of them and just recently (if you can call 2006 recently) donated the last pair of what I had to the salvation army. I think the only reason I even still had them in my closet when i was living in San Diego was because I was keeping them as a momento from my middle school years. The fondest memory I have of these is how they used to rip up at the bottom due to repetitively being stepped on. The way to prove that you were a fuckin bad ass in my school was that you continued to wear them even after they started to get all ripped up and split all the way to the middle of your leg. I can't even begin to imagine how idiotic me and my friends used to look walking around with these things. I do miss them though to some degree because they were comfortable as hell and I was a BIT of a tomboy back then. I used to wear them mainly to rebel against all the girls that were shopping at wet seal and like.. making out with boys and stuff. 

THE 80's NOVELTY T-SHIRT

Once Upon a time Hot Topic actually used to sell somewhat cool shit. The first hot topic that opened here in Richmond was actually the one that is still in operation to this day inside of Chesterfield Town Center (yeah the one in Short Pump Closed due to a lack of mall goths in the west end of town). I had just gotten into the whole "goth/raver/alt." scene when i was in 6th grade, anyways Hot Topic opened up in the summer of 2000 I think and I was ecstatic! I made my parents buy me all my school clothes for the next year at this damn store. I specifically remember  buying my first pair of bondage pants. they were so tacky! 

WOAH I ACTUALLY FOUND THEM IN GOOGLE IMAGES!

I remember these pants actually were banned from my school at one point because of the straps. Our principles reason? BECAUSE KIDS WERE GOING TO TRIP OVER THE STRAPS AND BUST THEIR ASSES. I never saw how that was very likely seeing how the straps usually only came down to your knees but whatever. You would have had to be a pretty high stepper to make that happen. I was so mad when one of my teachers made me take them off (the straps that is). It's like ok.. these are bondage pants.. the WHOLE fucking point of wearing them is because of the straps! 

Just incase ya don't know what I am talking about.

THIS FRICKIN WATCH!!

Dude I remember having this and I felt like i was the coolest person in school. You could drop his pants to see the time. Sponge Bob was HUGE in 7th grade and I remember making my parents buy me all this frickin sponge bob merch. I even had a Sponge Bob hoodie. 

VOLATILE SHOES

I had about 5 pair of these. I honestly do not even know how my parents used to buy me all of these clothes .. oh wait.. yeah that was before the economy crisis.. kay now I remember why. I even had mary janes that were made by this company. I think it is pretty sad that I still had a pair of these chunky shoes up until last year. they had rainbows on the sides of them. I ended up selling them on ebay for 8 bucks to someone in Italy. The chunkier your shoes were the more goth points ya got!

Handmade Cartoon rave pants

Ok So I never actually owned a pair of these but I remember I used to look through all the listings on Ebay and drool over them. I wanted a pair of superman pants sooo badly. Basically people prolly used to make these and sell them on ebay for e money I think. 

TOONAMI!!!

The last year it ran was in 2008 but like.. all the bad ass anime shows were pretty much aired in 7th grade. It was the LAST year sailor moon was aired on cartoon network If I am not mistaken. I REALLY miss gundam wing! I remember I used to buy the models that they sold at walmart. I never actually completed making any of them and I ALWAYS ended up breaking one of the smaller parts.

THE OSBOURNES 

I was obsessed with this show! I wanted to be a part of their family SOO bad it hurt. I even bought the cheesy t-shirt that they were selling at Hot Topic at the time. Actually wore that thing until 10th grade. sad I know. I wonder what happened to that tank top.. prolly could have sold it on ebay today for a good price. 

Kittie

Alright my music taste back then was not the best.. I remember seeing this video and thinking it was the most kick ass thing ever. I used to listen to Nirvana and alice in chains but I also used to listen to new bands as well. So before ya judge me just keep that in mind. here is another tune I dug.. 

and I am actually embarrassed about the one below.

I actually thought the lead singer was cute. good lord what was I thinking? I bet he is prolly working at a 7/11 by now and the rest of his band mates are prolly all in alien ant farm cover bands..

CHAIN WALLETS!

I had two of them. One was actually really cool. It had felix the cat on it and it was made out of this shiny pleather material. I actually think I still have it somewhere. I will post a pic sometime. I dont have the chain that went with it anymore. I used to have a pink and black checkerboard one as well that had skulls on the pink squares. NOT UNLIKE my bondage pants, these got banned from school as well. Reason being? KIDS COULD BEAT THE HELL OUT OF EACH OTHER WITH THESE THINGS! Ya know.. I am starting to think our principal just did not like alt. kids. Why were mini skirts from american eagle not banned?! 

MAMON! (that would be a binkie for all you white folk)

I used to have two of these and I wore them around my neck. My mom had a package of mamons that were left over from her baby shower and she never opened them. I found them in my sisters room and turned both of them into necklaces. No wonder I got picked on in school. -_- Maybe I thought english class would turn into a rave or something? I had the beads too. 

Ok so these are just a few things I remember about 2001. Do you guys remember any of this stuff? do you remember when we actually had to listen to music on cd's and with a walkman because there was no such thing as an ipod? Do you remember when there was no such thing as youtube and you had to actually go on Ebay and buy cd's of obscure bands because it was the only way you were going to hear music from them? Of course there was Napster but erm.. It got shut down thanks to ....

Anyways I WANT FEEDBACK PEOPLE! What do you miss about 2001? 

Favorite Christmas Show EVER

Ok so Maybe I have been coming off as a bit of a humbug online because I have not really been talking much about Christmas like everyone else has. Everyone on FB keeps posting endless status messages about all the awesome things they have bought for their significant others/ family members/ Best Friends and well.. I find myself doing is bitching about things and erm.. posting up tool videos? Well I decided that maybe I should just talk about nothing but Christmas stuff This week On here to make up for it.

So yeah I think all of us have that ONE christmas show that is aired on cbs or fox family channel that we ALL have to watch around this time of year. Like in my house it is mandatory that every year we watch the christmas story marathon. I actually do not like watching movies that much because I am super flickin add and I can't pay attention to anything (except for the internet of course).  I guess if I had to pick one favorite christmas movie it would be The Santa Clause (staring Tim Allen, who by the way I actually can't stand but for some reason I loved this movie when I was a kid). Instead of listing a bunch of Christmas movies on here and talking about them I decided to just talk about my one of my favorite christmas programs of all time. RUDOLPH THE RED NOSE REINDEER! OF COURSE

I think we have all seen this one right? Cute liddo clay animation cartoon about a adorable oddball reindeer that teaches kids to have high self esteem and believe in them selves no matter what.. yeah we have all seen it. If you have not then you prolly had a miserable child hood and I feel sorry for you. ok ok all sarcasm aside,  I loved this special because I myself as a child had the same self esteem issue (er herm my close friends KNOWS what I am talking about (hardy har pun). Yeah when I was a kid I got picked on heavily because of my nose and I totally related to Rudolph because he too was ostracized by all his little reindeer friends and.. YIKES even santa and his gym teacher! His parents desperately tried to hide the fact that their son was "handicapped" by sticking a piece of coal or w.e the heck that black thing was that they stuck in his nose in order to hid his "problem" No one could just accept the fact that he was as Lady Gaga says "born this way"/. Anyways we all know the rest of the story, he runs away, meets an elf with a lisp that wants to be a dentist, the stick together because the do not fit in (they even wrote a song about it), then they meet some frickin psycho drunk prospector with a red beard and join up with him, they find themselves on an island full of defected toys.. yada yada yada they meet the abdominal snow man and then kill him .. and then yeah.. at the end everyone loves rudolph and he is the lead deer that lights the way in the fog for the other deers while they haul Santa's fat ass across the globe in 24 hours.  Anyways, yeah this is my favorite Christmas show of all time because I totally related to Rudolph when I was a kid and erm.. we did not have cable in the 90's in my house when i was growing up so I used to look forward to any kind of cartoon that I knew was for sure going to be aired on "regular" television. I actually recorded it on VHS and would watch it year round.. that and the other clay animations that they used to air (like the one with santa clause's story erm.. I forget the name of it)

some yeti huh? 

Barbie Feminist

Ok so in high school i was this card carrying feminist.  Ya know, the kind that cut their hair short, listen to le tigre on their walkman that is covered in riot grrl pen graffiti and stickers, and have picture of kathleen hannah all over their school binders with bikini kill lyrics scrolled over every page of her text book.. yeah.. I was "one of those". But over the years I have matured into a fine young woman and my opinions have changed a lot. I think the biggest problem I have with most feminists is the fact that they are indeed, Misogynists.  When I was a kid me and my friends used to constantly put down other girls because they were "barbies"yet I don't think we realized that we were actually criticizing  people that we did not even take the time to know. We just assumed they were stupid bimbo's that only cared about boys and lipstick jut because they listened to brittany spears and were in show choir. We thought they were weak because they were "girly". Is that not the same attitude that misogynistic men have towards women?

 Back in the day I used to dress really tomboyish (still do sometimes haha) and did this not because I really liked wearing jnco jeans and band t-shirts. I did it because I thought it's what "feminists" were supposed to do. I thought we were supposed to distance ourselves as much as possible from any kind of girly image because that meant we were the weaker sex. Throwing on a pink dress with cute heels to me back then meant that I was giving into to mens needs and not my own, when in reality.. I really did want to dress girly but I was afraid to. For one I knew if I did my other feminist friends were going to make fun of me, and for two, in a way I was rebelling against my mom a bit. She always wanted me to dress girly and even though I wanted to deep down inside, I always denied it. I still remember the first day I cropped off all of my hair and gave myself a fashion mullet, my mom was not very pleased but over time she just began to accept the fact that I was a teenager expressing myself and she eventually stopped trying to force me to wear girly clothes.  One day though all this changed.

In my senior year of high school I had finally decided that I was going to quit denying myself of dressing the way I wanted to. We had just moved back to Virginia around this time and I decided to give myself a whole new look. I still had the short hair and all, but I started to dress in GASP* PINK CLOTHES! My clothing style still was based off of punk rock and goth fashion.. But I was not wearing 32 inch wide pants with Marilyn Manson t-shirts anymore. I was  wearing dresses. YES DRESSES that were similar in style to clothes from Betsey Johnson and Liz Lisa. The Urban Outfitters dress section became my new favorite spot!  When I enrolled back in Powhatan High I was feeling pretty confident. My old friends however, were not feeling my new look. One girl in particular stopped talking to me all together. I guess it is because she felt like I was betraying the "Riot GRRL Scene". Basically the only people i had left to hang out with were all guys (both and gay straight, the gay guys at my school LOVED me). I was so shocked that guys were accepting me but my girlfriends were not. I had a lot of guy friends senior year and I think that was due to the fact that they thought I was a bad ass chick because I liked to listen to Metallica and I did not look like a gross metal head guy (yeah the girls that liked metal at our school were all butch).

Since high school has ended I continue to dress that way I actually want to dress because I feel no obligation to play the roll that a scene wants me to play. I actually fucking hate riot grrl music now and i ended up deleting al my my albums I had except for hole albums and that's because courtney is a lot like myself, she does not give a fuck if feminists criticize her for not dressing like joan jett.

Now I am gonna bring up a short story that I think I bitched about the other day on facebook. Anyways, I was at target a few days ago searching for toys to buy for my ten year old sister for Christmas. As I was walking down the girl's isle and I noticed there was a very slender faced, dark, 30 something sinister looking goth woman complaining about all the Barbie Dolls. Her and her husband were shopping for toys as well and she was very displeased to know that there were no science toys at all. I just thought to myself, ok you are looking for science kits at Target, what did you expect. Everyone knows you have to buy stuff like that from http://www.smithsonianstore.com/toys/ .  This woman went on and on about how Barbie's were bad for little girls and how they pull down a girl's self esteem. I mean really? a piece of 9 inch plastic and synthetic hair ruins self image? How is that even possible. Everyone should know that little girls understand that Barbies are toys and that real women do not all look like Barbies. Ruth Handler did not make Barbies to intimidate girls, she made them because her daughter was growing up and during that time period in America the only dolls girls had to play with were baby dolls.  She wanted her little girl to have a doll that had more grown up features because her daughter was growing older and was growing bored with bottle feeding plastic babies. I noticed that he woman at the target has two babydolls sitting in her basket. I mean, if you ask me buying babydolls is about as un-feminist as you can get. Teach your little girls that they are only meant to serve the purpose of being a mother? really? Barbies has had 108 career changes, she has been a teacher, a doctor, a vet, a flight attended. You name it she has done it! most women go through life only having one carrier. Barbies teaches girls that you can be whatever you want and that there are no limits! I have no clue how Barbie makes girls have a negative self image. Yes she is very "fake" looking by most peoples standards of beauty but so what? Is there some kind of law book that states that you must be a frumpy woman that wears her hair in a bun and thick rimmed horn glasses in order to be considered smart and successful? In my opinion, Barbie is a  role model doll. She looks good and she is able to have a carrier! WOW! beauty and brains! I wanted to give this woman a lecture but I thought it would have been a waste of breath so I just let her be. I continued to shop for barbies and bylthe dolls will ms. negative nelly continued to search for her babydolls and crystal making kits. (by the way I had a smithsonian crystal making kit and it was AWSOME!)  That's another thing I forgot to mention. When I was a little girl I had both mountains of books about natural science subjects as well as a pile of barbies shoved into an oversized pink plastic house.

I guess the message I want to get across here is that girls should never be made to feel like they have to fit the mold for being a feminist. You can be just as much as a strong women in a dress and stilettos as you can be in baggy pants and an oversized shirt.  There is nothing wrong with both ways of dressing, it is up to a girl to choose who she wants to be and she should feel pressured by men, feminists or anyone else to dress or act a certain way.

arpakasso please!

Alright everyone I REALLY need one of these. If you are not familiar with arpakasso then chances are you do not have a tumblr account and you are not obsessed with kawaii things such as myself. Anyways I am pretty bummed out because you can not get these little guys anywhere in the states. You can win them in ufo catcher in video arcades in Japan though.. but erm.. I do not live in Japan and I do not plan on going there anytime soon (but I WOULD love to if I could). Anyway if anyone is able to get one of these for me feel free to do so cuz if you did I would be your best friend in the whole entire world! I was scanning through ebay last night and they actually do have some listed but they are 60 dollars plus 20 dollars for shipping and all the ones that are listed are from China so they are probably rip offs and of poor quality.

Places to eat in Richmond

Ok so as everyone knows I am a pretty harsh critic when it comes to EVERYTHING. ESPECIALLY my music. I decided to make a blog post about my favorite places to eat in this city. Coming from a huge city like Houston, It's very hard for me to find places that I like to eat at and brag about to my friends because.. well.. there are just not that many places to eat here. Anyways take a look and see if you have been to any of these places before, if not, you might want to go to one of them next time you are looking for a place to grab some noms :D

El Vaqero: Ok most of you who have never ventured outside of the east coast might not know what actually authentic mexican food is. If you would like to eat something other than some mediocre and bland"mexican food" that has been cooked by a bunch of El Salvadorians then you probably want to try this place out. After years of searching for a place that makes Tortas I finally found this place! Now I am not going to lie, this eatery is not exactly very aesthetically pleasing. It's pretty much a hole in the wall restaurant. Don't turn around and leave out the door when you arrive just because you start to get the feeling that you might find a roach in your enchiladas. I can assure you that this restaurant is very clean. El Vaquero is located on Midlothian Turnpike at Turner Road in the same shopping center that Marshal's is located at. This restaurant is open 7 days a week and it's hours of operation are 8 am till 9 p.m and they serve breakfast, lunch, and diner. Trust me, you won't be disappointed.

Chicken Fiesta: This place is responsible for me putting on a few pounds while I worked at my parents business. It was about a 4 minute walk away from our dry cleaners so you can bet I pretty much went to this place almost every day for lunch. I am actually surprised to know that most people do not know about this place. Chicken Fiesta is a hispanic Restaurant located next door to Wendy's on Midlothian Turnpike. There is another location on west broad street as well. The midlo location recently renovated it;s building and now it's a more pleasant place to eat at because before hand it was really tiny inside. Most times people would just take their food to go. My favorite Dish would have to be the taco salad. Also the fried plantains are TO DIE for! If you want to take a look at the menu CLICK HERE .

Kitchen 64: Located on 3336 N Boulevard, this eclectic little diner is definitely not a disappointment to one's taste buds. This is probably one of the coolest little restaurants in the whole entire city. You can have your choice if breakfast, lunch, or diner at any time of the day and afterwards you can sink your teeth into one of the many delightful deserts that this place has to offer. I also must offer my opinion on the waitresses. If you find tattooed alt. girls to be incredibly easy on the eyes then you might want to go here because almost all of the waitresses have arm sleeves and at least one piercing somewhere on there face. Oh and here is a random little factoid. The same person that owns kuba kuba also owns this restaurant.

Texas de Brazil: Alright I think everyone who is reading this that lives in Richmond knows about this place. Yes it is a very pricey restaurant but the 50 dollars that you have to pay in order to participate in this all you can eat buffet is worth every dollar! Be prepared to be treated like a queen or king upon arriving at this wonderful restaurant because it is not your typical buffet. The waiters bring out all of your food to you on skewers! If you are a vegetarian or vegan you might want to steer clear of this place because the majority of all the food served here comes from an animal. If you are a carnivore then you have to try this place out because I assure that you will think you died and went to hog's heaven (erm no cheesy pun intended).  This is a perfect place to take a date or to have a celebratory dinner. Oh yeah by the way, they do have all you can eat sushi! :D Texas de Brazil is currently located inside of Regency Mall but it will be moving to a different location ( I actually do not know where it is moving to, if you want to find out call them).

Silver Diner: I really enjoy this place more than river city diner, same concept different food. And when I say different food I mean everything here is made out of organic and or locally grown ingredients. Unlike most 50's style diners, this place offers a healthy alternative to very common greasy hamburgers and thunder thigh producing milkshakes. My favorite dish here would have to be the chicken pot pie. It's a great family friendly restaurant so if you have kids you might want to round them up, pile up the minivan and take them with you. Silver Diner is located on 10890 W Broad St.

Cook Out: Alright if you want a cheap hamburger on the go you need to go here. This fast food chain is very affordable ( a medium sized burger will only cost you around 2 dollars.) Their is an extensive milkshake menu here, so many different flavors to choose from! Cook Out is across the street from Regency Mall so if you are ever shopping and want a quick bite to eat on the way home then you should stop by this burger joint! The address is 1415 East Ridge Rd. 

Back From My Week long Trip In Houston.

Last week me and my family drove to Houston, Texas (my hometown and the place I lived the first 11 year of my life at). We just got home last night. I did not take too many pictures of myself because well.. meh I really didn't go out much besides with my family. I didn't really want the whole world to know i was visiting because I didn't want anyones feelings to get hurt if I didn't have the time to visit with them. Anyways here are some pictures of some things that I saw.

Creepy ass cemetery in the middle of nowhere.

Creepy Huh? Yeah I took this in a cemetery obviously. My step dad's great aunt and uncle are buried here. Not far away from this place was there house. (see below picture). Anyways check out the orb action going on in this picture. It's crazy right? 

This was the house I was talking about. It's located on a large amount of farm land.. erm.. well... it USED to be farm land.

This is the house I grew up in. My mom and I lived here until I was 9 years of age. After my mother met my step dad we moved out of this house (which is located in downtown Houston) and moved to Pasadena which is town just outside of Houston. By the way this house was not yellow when I lived here. It was white. It was also a duplex when we lived there. I think it has been converted into a full house but I am not sure. I think it was built in the 30's. 

This brings back childhood memories. Ok so here is the story about this phone. It used to be located near the rail road tracks near my old house. Every time My mom would pass by it I used to tell her to look at it. She tried to make me think I was crazy by telling me "Giant phone?! WHAT GIANT PHONE ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT! THERE IS NO GIANT PHONE!" My 7 year old brain could not comprehend that she was just messing with me and that she actually did see it. Since then this phone statue has been moved to the top of a building. Which I find very odd. David Adickes is the name of the artist who sculpted this massive juggernaut of a phone. You can find out more about him here. CLICK THIS! You Virginia people might know about the Presidents Head Park that is located in Williamsburg.. Before those heads were placed there they were sitting in the parking lot David Adickes studio which was located about 3 minutes away from my old house. I used to see those things at night when my mom wold bring me home from my great grandmothers house. They scared the crap out of me! I think the president heads are gonna follow me for the rest of my life haha. 

This is a really cool house I saw for sale that was about 5 minutes walking distance from my old house. yeah um when i lived there this was not around. Nor were any of the other lofts and town houses that have since been built. Houston has grown a lot. Most of all the old houses have been torn down and lofts have been built in there places. This house was actually for sale. I wonder for how much?

This is just a random shot of the city that I took while we were riding on the pierce elevated.

And this is some creepy looking house that was near the blue looking house I posted up there ^.  This is one of the old houses that has not been torn down yet. I am sure it will be in the future and when it does get torn down I am sure some brand new loft apartments will be put in it's place. 

NEW EBAY LISTINGS

This bikini top is very cute and just SCREAMS kitsh. It looks retro but its not. Super cute heart buttons in the middle! I am asking 15 dollars for this on ebay and it is a buy it now auction.  Copy and paste the link below to be brought to the auction. 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/220838336858?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_500wt_1224

http://www.ebay.com/itm/220838360913?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649#ht_500wt_1224

SUPER KAWAII Pink Corset with tutu! This is so cute and I hate to get rid of it but i honestly thought i was going to do a photo shoot in it and it never happened. all measurements are listed on the auction. I hate to get rid of this but its just sitting in my closet and not being worn :/  tarnina tarantino necklace is NOT included in this auction!