THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON - 5 Mos & 19 Days!

Like, the Twilight Saga: New Moon MTV awards clip was like, sooooo YouTube-ular.... like ferr sherrr....

Alright, I'll stop my bad impression of 80's Valley Girl talk. LoL. If anyone missed last night's MTV Movie Award's New Moon preview, here it is for your viewing pleasure. I've not been this EXCITED about a movie countdown release since Sex And the City The Movie debut. Come November 20th, I'm prepared to wrestle a gaggle of pimply Tweens and their Twoms to get a coveted seat at the New Moon premiere! You-better-you-better-you bet!

I Twuly, Twuly am a Twerd.

Asian Pacific Islander Celebration

May is my favorite month of the year. Not only does it celebrate my birth month, but it also highlights other celebrations such as May Day, Cinco de Mayo, Mother's Day, Memorial Day .... and last but not least, Asian Pacific Islander Month! At work the Heritage Committee which I chair, coordinated the Asian Pacific Islander Celebration which was a blast! Ambassador Oscar Valenzuela from the Philippines Embassy in Cairo came over and spoke as our guest speaker.

Yours truly did poetry readings on ancient poets from Japan and China, and taught the assembly the structure of a Haiku, a seventeen syllable Japanese Poem, that contains 3-lines with a 5-7-5 syllable pattern. In an interactive exercise, I had the assembly create a Haiku based on our celebration:

Asian Pacific, (5 syllables)

We are here to celebrate, (7 syllables)
Together we learn! (5 syllables)

Our Commanding Officer taught everyone the intricasies of Japanese writing and symbolic meaning. There are over 52,000 Japanese characters, known pristinely at the scholar-level. However, the average person fluent in Japanese only needs to know 800 characters to read a Japanese newspaper. Japanese is read top to bottom, then left to right. Sheeesh. I better stick to English.

Afterwards, we had dancers from the Philippines Embassy demonstrate the "Tinikling Dance". This is a Filipino folk dance that has 2 dancers hop and sway within 2 clapping bamboo poles. The dancers move in and out of the poles effortlessly, as Filipino folk music is played. The celebration was wonderfully concluded with a bounty of API cuisine and festive eclectic music. It was a great way to learn all the different cultures of my Asian peeps, and was a fantastic way to end a fave and fabulous month!

Summer Sistas Pledge

Preface: Last night gentle breezes and sounds of summer urged me to dress in light fabrics and summery colors for a dinner outing I knew would look great in cute strappy sandals I got in Italy several summers back... what changed my mind on said Italian strappies was the deplorable state of my toes and feet that needed a major Sally Hansen pumice stone overhaul. I've had a hard time finding a decent pedicurist in Egypt, where the culture finds viewing the bottom of one's feet extremely offensive. Sigh, so I've inexpertly have had to do my own, and in typical Gina-procrastination-fashion, failed to give myself a much needed pedicure. This has therefore prompted me to steal this cute excerpt from my sister Pamela's blog (that, btw, she got from another).... and hope that all the "Sistas of the World" unite on this very important summer pledge:

The Open-Toed Shoe Pledge

As a member of the Cute Girl Sisterhood, I pledge to follow the rules when wearing sandals and other open-toed shoes:

1. 
   I promise to always wear sandals that fit. My toes will not hang over and touch the ground, nor will my heels spill over the backs. And the sides and tops of my feet will not pudge out between the straps.
2. 
   I will go polish-free or vow to keep the polish fresh, intact and chip-free.
3. 
   I will not cheat and just touch up my big toe.
4. 
   I will sand down any mounds of skin before they turn hard and yellow.
5. 
   I will shave the hairs off my big toe.
6. 
   I won't wear pantyhose even if my misinformed BFF, co-worker, mother, sister tells me the toe seam really will stay under my toes if I tuck it there.
7. 
   If a strap breaks, I won't duct-tape, pin, glue or tuck it back into place hoping it will stay put. I will get my shoe fixed or toss it.
8. 
   I will not live in corn denial, rather I will lean on my good friend Dr. Scholl's if my feet need him.
9. 
   I will resist the urge to buy jelly shoes at Payless for the low, low price of $4.99 even if my feet are small enough to fit into the kids' sizes. This is out of concern for my safety, and the safety of others. No one can walk properly when standing in a pool of sweat and I would hate to take someone down with me as I fall and break my ankle.
10. 
    I will take my toe ring off toward the end of the day if my toes swell and begin to look like Vienna sausages.
11. 
    I will be brutally honest with my BFF, sister, mother, co-worker when she asks me if her feet are too ugly to wear sandals. Someone has to tell her that her toes are as long as my fingers and no sandal makes creepy feet look good!
12. 
    I will promise that if I wear flip flops, I will ensure they actually make correct "flip-flop" sounds while walking, and I will swear NOT to slide or drag my feet while wearing them.
13. 
    I will promise to go to my local nail salon at least once per season and have a real pedicure (they are about $25 and worth EVERY penny).
14. 
    I will promise to throw away any white/off-white sandals that show signs of wear... nothing is tackier than dirty white sandals.
15. 
    I will promise (I added this myself) that I will abide to all of the rules above, or else my fashion license gets revoked for the summer. A Happy Sole is a Happy Summer!

Happy Summer, my Sistas!!!

Stone-Cold Aggression!

Could've knocked me over with a feather....

Jon & Kate Plus Hate

Is there anyone out there NOT aware of Jon & Kate's marital woes? My heart goes out to the children. And while I'm sure TLC also feels for this poor-choices-made and very misdirected couple, I'm sure they're lovin' the increased ratings as the world (yes, Jon and Kate Plus 8, is popular in Egypt too) speculates on the couple's future. Unfortunately, I did not see season five's premiere on May 25th, since Egypt only gets the syndicated re-runs, but I saw the 2-minute clip that TLC released. The first notable thing I saw was that Jon and Kate were no longer doing their interviews together, and at the end of the clip Jon alluded to problems that he and Kate were having. The tabloids have had a field day with this once heralded couple known for their extraordinary parenting of 8 children: a pair of fraternal twins and set of sextuplets. Talks of infidelity on both sides have prompted the proverbial office water cooler discussions, which alludes to allegations of Jon's affair with a 23 year old third grade teacher, and Kate's side amusement with the family's bodyguard. According to this week's People magazine cover article, Kate hopes her marriage can be saved, especially since she and Jon have quit their jobs to devote to their reality tv show full time. This, combined with the mortgage of their new $1.2 million home, leaves both of them "without a plan". In the same article, Jon admits that he made poor choices of partying late nights while Kate was away promoting her book due to his marrying and having kids too early (had 8 kids by age 27). What has further fanned the flames is the crass interview of Kate's brother and sister-n-law, who aired dirty family laundry by revealing Kate's alleged open-marriage contract she offered Jon when the couple privately began having problems 6 months earlier. What I took out of this interview is their thinly disguised anger at Kate for her alleged vehemence in not having TLC pay them for their sporadic appearances on the show. Regardless if their allegations were true, I thought it was in extremely poor taste that they would expose their family's problems, especially at a time when Jon and Kate were most vulnerable. Sheesh... want some more salt on that festering wound? I find it ironic that this couple can say that Jon and Kate are exploiting their children, while in the same breath say they were doing this interview for the children. What?!? Let's face it. Cultivating a relationship is hard work. All couples undergo problems. However, combine this with 8 children under the age of 10 and the global scrutiny of said lives on a hit reality show, and the factor for a successful relationship becomes skewed. I pray that Jon and Kate can work out their problems, and that their children can remain unfazed by the media circus that has followed them. 'Course I admit that my discussion of their parents' problems doesn't help either, as I've become one of "those people" publicly speculating, but I truly am a fan of the show. I just hope Jon and Kate can rekindle the love that was apparent in the show's earlier seasons.