This Blog is directed to every girl out there that hates getting her period. I mean honestly you just start a diet and your about two or three weeks into it and it crashes. Your unbearable cravings tell you to just eat that brownie, that soft chewy chocolate deliciousness. So after fighting the craving for hours on end you give in, you gobble that brownie with 25 grams of fat and 520 calories so fast you can barely taste the chocolatey sensation. However, once you flip that wrapper around and see the nutrition label you about want to shoot yourself. Your hour and a half work out can't save you now. I seriously go through this endless cycle every month! My cravings get the best of me and I give into food like its a million dollars on my plate. When I am about four days away from getting my period I eat food like it is my job, sweets and junk food are like a thousand dollar bonus on my pay check. However, after everytime I give into the sweetness of those sugary treats I always regret it and wish that I would have just eaten an apple or a piece of celery or something. It is as if someone is holding a gun to my head saying, "EAT THE BOWL OF ICE CREAM OR DIE!" So of course I dont want to get shot so I eat that damn bowl of ice cream and I enjoy it!
But seriously, the only good thing about having this monthly visitor from hell, is the fact that you can always use the line, "Gosh I have just been eating terribly lately... but I have my period" and then every girl around you will sympathize and say "OOOH I hate that!" It really makes me laugh too because once you open the subject about having your period every girl will break out their stories about how they act during their period. For example during my period about the second day into it I am an emotional wreck! A normal conversation with my boyfriend of him teasing me and joking around telling me I have a smelly butt will make me break down in tears! I will get so worked up about it that I wont talk to him for the rest of the day and I will cry myself to sleep. Granted it is not ALWAYS that bad, but it really did happen one time. Another time I watched the movie Tristin and Isolde during my period and I cried so hard that I had to find a different pillow to sleep on that night because I had cried so hard that my pillow was soaking wet.
But basically the purpose of this story is to complain. I am complaining about the fact that the last two days I have been eating like a lineman from a professional football team and I feel like I might be able to outweigh him with all the crap I ate today. It is very depressing when you work so hard to try to lose weight and all your period will let you do is gain it make at the end of each month. IT SUCKS!
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Cultural Critic on Little Miss Sunshine
Ali Burkhardt
Cultural Critic #5
Courtney Wika
March 29, 2007
Little Miss Sunshine
Stereotypes are an idea that people hold of someone else based mainly on their association with a particular group. Gender is a stereotype that everyone falls into in one way or another. The movie Little Miss Sunshine has many prime examples of how easy it is to assume stereotypes for people. Although it is not a movie about gender or prejudice it is relevant all throughout the movie when stereotypes are being used when you look closely. The stereotypes used throughout the movie show how this twisted family gets through a trip that they will never forget.
Cheryl is the first character in the movie that has a stereotypical role. She is a wife, mother and sister, and on top of these three roles she is also the primary bread winner of the family. As a wife and mother it is her duty to make sure dinner is on the table for the rest of her family, which she does by having store bought fried chicken and salad. Throughout the movie Cheryl acts as a mediator as well, she is constantly trying to reason between everyone. For instance, at dinner when Richard is being blatantly rude to Frank she is the one trying to calm him down, as well as the restaurant when Olive wants to order ice cream and Richard does not want her to, she tries to get him to be quite. This is something that any wife or mother would do.
As females Cheryl and Olive carry a different stereotype, one that is based on their gender. In a scene with Olive and her grandfather, Olive asks him if she is pretty. This is something that every little girl goes through and never would a male ask this question, nor would he get all worked up about it like Olive did. Also while the family is sitting in the waiting room of the hospital after they had just found out their grandfather had died, only Olive and Cheryl were crying, none of the males were. However, on the flip side Cheryl is breaking the stereotype of a woman by being the primary bread winner of her family, which is normally seen as being more of the man’s responsibility. Duane also points out how she is breaking a stereotype when he tells her not to let Olive perform at the end when he says, “You’re her mother, you are supposed to protect her!” This is also seen more of a fatherly role. Therefore it is both enhancing the stereotype as well as breaking them down as well.
The male gender also plays a huge role throughout the movie. After Olive had asked her grandfather if she was pretty, he answered with a stereotype that he apparently must have of all women. He told her he was madly in love with her because she was beautiful, not because of her personality of her brains, which would have been a more sensible reason. The part in the movie that shocked me was when Richard told Olive she should not eat ice cream because it will make her fat was very untypical for a male to say to a girl. Normally you would think that a mother would be more concerned about her daughters eating habits. However, at the end of the movie when Olive is performing her talent is the males in her family step up to the plate to protect her. When the announcer was trying to get Olive to stop dancing and get off the stage, Richard ran up and got him to leave her alone, therefore acting as a guardian of his daughter. He was then followed by the two other males in the family, Frank and Duane, and lastly Cheryl joined them on stage. Once again stereotypes are being both enhanced as well as broken down for the males also.
Therefore, although on the surface Little Miss Sunshine is just a hilarious comedy, it has many hidden meanings as well. It carries much more depth than you would think if you were just watching it for entertainment purposes. From personal experience I did not think twice about the gender roles or the stereotypes that were involved in the movie when I watched it the first time. Analyzing the movie gives a completely different perspective on an innocent family trip to California.
Cultural Critic #5
Courtney Wika
March 29, 2007
Little Miss Sunshine
Stereotypes are an idea that people hold of someone else based mainly on their association with a particular group. Gender is a stereotype that everyone falls into in one way or another. The movie Little Miss Sunshine has many prime examples of how easy it is to assume stereotypes for people. Although it is not a movie about gender or prejudice it is relevant all throughout the movie when stereotypes are being used when you look closely. The stereotypes used throughout the movie show how this twisted family gets through a trip that they will never forget.
Cheryl is the first character in the movie that has a stereotypical role. She is a wife, mother and sister, and on top of these three roles she is also the primary bread winner of the family. As a wife and mother it is her duty to make sure dinner is on the table for the rest of her family, which she does by having store bought fried chicken and salad. Throughout the movie Cheryl acts as a mediator as well, she is constantly trying to reason between everyone. For instance, at dinner when Richard is being blatantly rude to Frank she is the one trying to calm him down, as well as the restaurant when Olive wants to order ice cream and Richard does not want her to, she tries to get him to be quite. This is something that any wife or mother would do.
As females Cheryl and Olive carry a different stereotype, one that is based on their gender. In a scene with Olive and her grandfather, Olive asks him if she is pretty. This is something that every little girl goes through and never would a male ask this question, nor would he get all worked up about it like Olive did. Also while the family is sitting in the waiting room of the hospital after they had just found out their grandfather had died, only Olive and Cheryl were crying, none of the males were. However, on the flip side Cheryl is breaking the stereotype of a woman by being the primary bread winner of her family, which is normally seen as being more of the man’s responsibility. Duane also points out how she is breaking a stereotype when he tells her not to let Olive perform at the end when he says, “You’re her mother, you are supposed to protect her!” This is also seen more of a fatherly role. Therefore it is both enhancing the stereotype as well as breaking them down as well.
The male gender also plays a huge role throughout the movie. After Olive had asked her grandfather if she was pretty, he answered with a stereotype that he apparently must have of all women. He told her he was madly in love with her because she was beautiful, not because of her personality of her brains, which would have been a more sensible reason. The part in the movie that shocked me was when Richard told Olive she should not eat ice cream because it will make her fat was very untypical for a male to say to a girl. Normally you would think that a mother would be more concerned about her daughters eating habits. However, at the end of the movie when Olive is performing her talent is the males in her family step up to the plate to protect her. When the announcer was trying to get Olive to stop dancing and get off the stage, Richard ran up and got him to leave her alone, therefore acting as a guardian of his daughter. He was then followed by the two other males in the family, Frank and Duane, and lastly Cheryl joined them on stage. Once again stereotypes are being both enhanced as well as broken down for the males also.
Therefore, although on the surface Little Miss Sunshine is just a hilarious comedy, it has many hidden meanings as well. It carries much more depth than you would think if you were just watching it for entertainment purposes. From personal experience I did not think twice about the gender roles or the stereotypes that were involved in the movie when I watched it the first time. Analyzing the movie gives a completely different perspective on an innocent family trip to California.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Getting Ready to Leave...
I leave for Daytona in less than a week; I have homework up the wazoo, and I am stressed to the max! I also recently found that I decided to develop allergies therefore throughing my whole day off making me drowsy with watery eyes... wait let me rephrase that, ONE watery eye causing me to walk around all day with eyeliner only on one of my eyes! I just had to get that off my chest.
Anyway, I am getting more and more excited to go to Daytona. Last year was so much fun and I am hoping this year will be even more fun. The part that sucks is that I am going all that way knowing that I will not be able to dance. It is very frustrating having to sit back and watch everyone else working hard for one goal, doing well at nationals. It has been three months now since I had surgery and I am still going to therapy everyday, waiting to be back to "normal". I still cannot run nor dance. I am so used to being able to do anything and everything and now I am restricted to walking and eliptical for exercise, which tends to get a little old! However, I am very happy that I still get to go on the trip. Sitting through three hours of practice four days a week is deserving of a nice break.
Going on this trip is both exciting and stressful. I cant keep my mind off packing the right things. Having enough sleep and who is going to drive us to Omaha on Wednesday morning at 4:30am. I am excited and nervous to watch them perform the dance that they have worked so hard on. I wish that I could just be a calm normal person who doesnt get all worked up about anything and everything. I am the type of person who loves to be busy because I dont know what to do with myself when I am not, but I stress out really easily. I guess I will just have to wait and see how next week goes and pray for the best!
Anyway, I am getting more and more excited to go to Daytona. Last year was so much fun and I am hoping this year will be even more fun. The part that sucks is that I am going all that way knowing that I will not be able to dance. It is very frustrating having to sit back and watch everyone else working hard for one goal, doing well at nationals. It has been three months now since I had surgery and I am still going to therapy everyday, waiting to be back to "normal". I still cannot run nor dance. I am so used to being able to do anything and everything and now I am restricted to walking and eliptical for exercise, which tends to get a little old! However, I am very happy that I still get to go on the trip. Sitting through three hours of practice four days a week is deserving of a nice break.
Going on this trip is both exciting and stressful. I cant keep my mind off packing the right things. Having enough sleep and who is going to drive us to Omaha on Wednesday morning at 4:30am. I am excited and nervous to watch them perform the dance that they have worked so hard on. I wish that I could just be a calm normal person who doesnt get all worked up about anything and everything. I am the type of person who loves to be busy because I dont know what to do with myself when I am not, but I stress out really easily. I guess I will just have to wait and see how next week goes and pray for the best!
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Today in English class we discussed various topics to for our next essay. We have the choice of doing an exploratory essay or an analysis essay. I think that neither one will be a simple task. I always tend to get anxious about writing essays. I feel it takes me a long time to discover a topic that I truly like. No matter what I set out with it never seems to be what I end up doind. If you know me I am a pretty inconsistent person. I am never always good at something and I never like the same thing for very long. My hair color changes constantly along with my favorite color. Even the topic of this blog. I started out thinking that I was just going to write about the english assignment and now I am talking about how often I like to change things. I guess this is just another great example. I often find that once I become comfortable with something it is time to change it, get a new scenery for awhile. Another example of this is where I have lived in the last two years, granted they are all within the same state and even the same city, I still had to pick up all my stuff and move. Last year I moved into the Mickelson dorms. At semster they decided to kick us out because they had to renovate it. So we packed up all our stuff and moved into the Olson dorms. Then about 4 months later I moved back home to Sioux Falls, SD. Then when the next school year came along I moved into the sorority house Pi Beta Phi. I decided sorority life was not for me and moved out of the house and in with some friends. I know live in a small bedroom inside a big yellow house and the stairs creek like crazy and the upstairs bathroom plubing does not always work. However, I am comfortable here... for now. In about two months from now I will be back living in Sioux Falls for the summer working four jobs and getting ready for another expensive school year to begin, and when it does I will be packing up and moving back to good old Vermillion, but into a differnt place. I will be living in a duplex off of Roosevelt street with new people and two fully working bathrooms as well as no creeking stairs. Life is an adventure... I guess I will take advantage of it!
Monday, March 12, 2007
Response to postsecret.com
This phenomenon with the postcards is very interesting. People are admitting their deepest darkest secrets to millions of people that they do not know. The key to their secrets is that no one knows who they are. It gives them a sense of security that no one will ever know that it is them, but at least they can get it off their chest. It makes them feel like they are more in control of their situations. Although their confessions are not to a specific person it brings awareness to the people around them about the daily activities going on in their lives. When hearing the word confession it almost brings a sense of guilt with it. To me the reason for confessing something is because I feel guilty that I did it and as soon as I tell someone I feel like it is not so bad. However, with these posted secrets it almost makes the confession seem in vain. It is really not accomplishing anything for that person because they are not telling the right people about their problems. I personally things that it negates the power of the act because I feel that if you want to confess something you need to tell the people who are involved to actually have something happen to make it better. If it makes the person with the secret feel better though then I guess it is what works best for them, it is their secret after all.
Monday, March 5, 2007
Extra Credit Blog "SPRING BREAK"
Have you ever had one of those days when everything annoys you and you pretty much hate life? Well I definitely had one of those days Saturday night. I thought that after being off of my crutches for five weeks that I would be ready to go back to working as a waitress. So knowing that spring break was coming up I called up my boss at Old Chicago to see if I could get a few shifts for the next week and a half. I told him that I would need to try and get the shorter shifts because I wasnt sure how my ankle would hold up throughout the night.
Just like I asked I got scheduled as an eight on Saturday night. For me that meant I was to be the first one to be cut for the night. As the night went on I began to feel the pain creeping up from my foot into my ankle and even up to my thigh. I figured I would be ok I only had at most fourty five minutes left. But boy was I wrong! What I thought would be a short in and out night ended up being the most dreadful night of work ever! As I sat with one table in my section I felt the anger boiling inside me. I could not believe Bill had not cut me yet! It was almost ten thirty and normally a section eight is done at the latest nine thirty. Then just as he went to go and start cutting people I got sat with a table of NINE! This wasnt just any table of nine though, it was a table of nine referees that decided to all filter in at separate times. So basically I had two guys there right away that ordered their drinks and food right away and then later one more guy came ordered a beer and waitied awhile to order his food and then four more people came. This is when it got really interesting, they ordered their drinks and when I got back with those I took their orders. But it wasnt over yet. Just as I went to go and ring up their orders I found out that we were out of the calzones that they had ALL wanted. So I grimly went back to tell them that they would need to find something else to order. They all decided to do the individual pizzas instead of the calzones and everything was fine.
When the food was finally done being cooked I brought it out to the anxious referees. They sat and ate and ordered a few more beers and talked away. When I went out to ask if anyone would be ordering anything else for the evening they all said no so I brought out all the tickets. As I handed all the tickets out one guy decided he was going to have another beer. So I went and got him his next beer and as I sat the icy cold miller lite down onto the table he told me to just wait awhile with his ticket because he was probably going to have a few more. As I felt the throbbing moving up from my ankle up into my stomach and feeling the tears build behind my eyes, knowing that all I wanted to do was get out of their I smiled a big smile and said, "oh ok that sounds good!"
When I got back to the register I was PISSED! All I wanted to do was go sit down and ice my entire body. It was starting to get rediculous at eleven fifteen and a section three was getting out before I was. At this time I was starting to lose it. So I went back into the party room and asked everyone if I could close out any of their tickets. Afew of them reached into their wallets right away and let me get going on my way. Then just as I had one guys card left to swipe one of the guys says, "well I will just hold on to mine, we are still waiting on a few more guys... we are going to keep you busy!" "NO WAY!" I said to myself, so I went to the bathroom, cried for a minute to myself and went back in and asked if they would mind if I closed them out because someone else would be taking over my section. Most of the guys were very cool with the idea and went right with me.
So I finally got all the tickets closed and transfered the rest of the tickets over to another girl and had all my side work completed, or so I thought. As I went up to my manager Bill to ask him to come and check me out he asks me if I had folded any silverware, with all my heart I wanted to lie and say that I had but I didnt. This is when the flood gates opened and the tears came streaming down my face. I was done! My ankle was so sore and my body was shot. As I started to fold the stupid silverware, I continued to ball my. Erika and Emilee came to my rescue. As the two of them jumped right in to help fold silverware I began explaining to them why I was so upset. As they finished up the silverware for me I got all my check out money figured out and sat and waited for what seemed like forever for Bill to come back and get me out of there.
By the time I got out of the resturant it was midnight and I was not a happy camper! I couldnt wait to get home and cry to my mom, and I definitely did!
Needless to say I was not excited to go to work the next day, however I did make one hundred and fourteen bucks that night!
Just like I asked I got scheduled as an eight on Saturday night. For me that meant I was to be the first one to be cut for the night. As the night went on I began to feel the pain creeping up from my foot into my ankle and even up to my thigh. I figured I would be ok I only had at most fourty five minutes left. But boy was I wrong! What I thought would be a short in and out night ended up being the most dreadful night of work ever! As I sat with one table in my section I felt the anger boiling inside me. I could not believe Bill had not cut me yet! It was almost ten thirty and normally a section eight is done at the latest nine thirty. Then just as he went to go and start cutting people I got sat with a table of NINE! This wasnt just any table of nine though, it was a table of nine referees that decided to all filter in at separate times. So basically I had two guys there right away that ordered their drinks and food right away and then later one more guy came ordered a beer and waitied awhile to order his food and then four more people came. This is when it got really interesting, they ordered their drinks and when I got back with those I took their orders. But it wasnt over yet. Just as I went to go and ring up their orders I found out that we were out of the calzones that they had ALL wanted. So I grimly went back to tell them that they would need to find something else to order. They all decided to do the individual pizzas instead of the calzones and everything was fine.
When the food was finally done being cooked I brought it out to the anxious referees. They sat and ate and ordered a few more beers and talked away. When I went out to ask if anyone would be ordering anything else for the evening they all said no so I brought out all the tickets. As I handed all the tickets out one guy decided he was going to have another beer. So I went and got him his next beer and as I sat the icy cold miller lite down onto the table he told me to just wait awhile with his ticket because he was probably going to have a few more. As I felt the throbbing moving up from my ankle up into my stomach and feeling the tears build behind my eyes, knowing that all I wanted to do was get out of their I smiled a big smile and said, "oh ok that sounds good!"
When I got back to the register I was PISSED! All I wanted to do was go sit down and ice my entire body. It was starting to get rediculous at eleven fifteen and a section three was getting out before I was. At this time I was starting to lose it. So I went back into the party room and asked everyone if I could close out any of their tickets. Afew of them reached into their wallets right away and let me get going on my way. Then just as I had one guys card left to swipe one of the guys says, "well I will just hold on to mine, we are still waiting on a few more guys... we are going to keep you busy!" "NO WAY!" I said to myself, so I went to the bathroom, cried for a minute to myself and went back in and asked if they would mind if I closed them out because someone else would be taking over my section. Most of the guys were very cool with the idea and went right with me.
So I finally got all the tickets closed and transfered the rest of the tickets over to another girl and had all my side work completed, or so I thought. As I went up to my manager Bill to ask him to come and check me out he asks me if I had folded any silverware, with all my heart I wanted to lie and say that I had but I didnt. This is when the flood gates opened and the tears came streaming down my face. I was done! My ankle was so sore and my body was shot. As I started to fold the stupid silverware, I continued to ball my. Erika and Emilee came to my rescue. As the two of them jumped right in to help fold silverware I began explaining to them why I was so upset. As they finished up the silverware for me I got all my check out money figured out and sat and waited for what seemed like forever for Bill to come back and get me out of there.
By the time I got out of the resturant it was midnight and I was not a happy camper! I couldnt wait to get home and cry to my mom, and I definitely did!
Needless to say I was not excited to go to work the next day, however I did make one hundred and fourteen bucks that night!
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