Why aren’t any other cancers treated like this? Where is the pin the colonoscopy on the butt game? Isn’t that a cancer that affects a somewhat sexual organ (that otherwise serves a completely non-sexual function?)

Please join me this year by posting this link: http://ww5.komen.org/Donate/Donate.html as your status or in the comments of statuses about going somewhere for whatever many months or whatever the game is this year. Let’s spread awareness directly. Not through pink packaging, not through topless women, but just like any other cancer. Because we’re people and our cancer is just that, cancer.

My new loves, two rats named Finn and Jake, were adopted on Friday. I made them a hammock today. They are small and curious and scared but excited (most of these facts are anthropomorphisms, but I feel no shame in doing so.)

Pictures soon, when I finally take them all off of my phone since I don’t have a camera that functions anymore.

Boyfriend can attest to the number of “ohmygooood this is so cute look at what they are doooing!!!” and similar things have been overheard in our house these last 4 days. But seriously, they are way too cute.

On that note, I am remembering very quickly what I don’t like about pants. Shopping for them was a nightmare, and wearing them makes me just more aware of how I am not shaped the way people are supposed to be shaped. I know this is fundamentally untrue, but it is difficult when the pants that would exactly fit my dimensions are not made anywhere because no one thought my dimensions might ever exist.

I can tell now that giving up hair cuts will not be nearly as hard as giving up dying my hair regularly. One by one the vanities must be stripped away and replaced with healthy hair and skin that ought to be prettier anyways. Cheaper, for sure.

In other news, I made the greatest fucking soup in the world last night, and have felt refreshed in my desire to be the worlds best undiscovered chef.

NO HAIRCUT 2012.

Exceptions:

- I may cut my own bangs, trim up the back, etc

- So basically no one else will take scissors to my head this whole year.

Man, this seems like it will be a lot harder. But part of living simply is going to be getting rid of vanities like this. And in a few months I’ll have ponytail times.

The first is to become as chemical free as possible. Ideally, I would love to live in a house where nothing could kill me if I accidentally drank some of it. I know that is a long way off, but I figure I can start now. My dependency on a lot of these products is pure vanity (lotions, makeup, shampoo, hair dye) and overcoming that will be the hardest part.

I have started by deciding to make a month to month plan to ween off of these things. This is beneficial also to not being wasteful, giving myself time to use the last of things before giving them up. This month? Shampoo and conditioner. I have switched to baking soda and apple cider vinegar (as per this websites suggestion) and so far it’s been… a little weird. My hair is getting longer and I am having to figure out how to wash it with these watery concoctions, so used to creamy gels as I am.

Next will be soaps and face cleaners, implementing the change once this round is over. I also wish to be mindful of changes that also affect Boyfriend. While I hope to eventually bring us both to a fairly frugal and chemical free lifestyle, I think it’s crap to push it on someone else.

On the plus side, I tandoori tofu curry the other day. So that was delicious. I will concur tofu cooking this year. I will!

-Strange Mercy- St. Vincent

-Angles- The Strokes

-Yuck- Yuck

-Thank You, Happy Birthday- Cage the Elephant

-Velociraptor- Kasabian

-Helplessness Blues- Fleet Foxes

-Wounded Rhymes- Lykke Li

I think that about covers it as far as new releases. In terms of new to me for 2011:

-Marry Me- St. Vincent

-Danse Macabre- The Faint

-Teen Dream- Beach House

-Merriweather Post Pavilion- Animal Collective

And that about rounds it out. Happy New Year folks.

I got a job, was originally seasonal but I got hired on permanently because of how excellent I am at selling records. With my first paycheck I am going pants shopping.

The year has done a lot to cement how I feel about clothing, what I like to wear, and how I feel about being feminine. I love it. But I have also learned/discovered/kind of already knew but now know for sure that being feminine has less to do with what you wear than how you behave. At the beginning of the year I acted decidedly more ladylike. Now I’ve settled in to what I believe is a happy medium between brash and gentle. Who knows how much of that came from dresses and how much from experiences, but it’s a nice way to round out the year if we call it a no-pants revelation.

Lately I have felt discouraged about feminism. Not that I don’t believe in it anymore, but that I don’t know how to get the movement going enough to fight through what I feel is this last level. But becoming aware is like learning to walk with your head up instead of on the ground. You keep going in the right direction, but you can see all the good and bad around you. And even if you try to look back down again and keep walking, knowing it’s all still there keeps it in the corner of your eye. The movement simultaneously leaves me empowered and despondent. But I can’t go back to being unaware so I continue to help people be aware.

I am proud to say I have committed to an arbitrary thing for a year. It’s nice thinking I have that in me. I have a week now to decide what next year is going to be. I like knowing that I can make that kind of commitment.

And as for pants? I honestly don’t know how often I will wear them next year. They’re awfully boring.