Girly Fru Fru Stuff!

So, a while back I was wandering the internets and I happened upon a blogger who mentioned this thing called Birchbox.  It's a subscription thing where you get a box of various and sundry toiletry samples each month.  I've been exploring my girly side, so I decided to check it out.  It's $10 a month (less if you get a full year--I opted for the monthly so if I decided to cancel I wouldn't be out as much).  It's also high end stuff, so it's a cheap way to try out products you might not be able to spend the money on.  There was a waiting list, so it was a month or two before I was able to sign up.

The reason I tell you all this, of course, is because my first one came in and I wanted to share/show off my loot.  Now, before you menfolk run away, I do want to point out that they do have a men's box.  Anywho, I'm super excited because a) I didn't expect it to get in until Friday and b) it's like a tiny Christmas!

This is what was in my mailbox.

Apparently, they theme each box, which is pretty neat.  This month is a back to school theme.  Inside the mailer was the packaging you see on  the website--a brown box with their logo.  And inside that....

So cute!

And because that photo is way blurrier than it was on my phone (yes, I know I have a spiffy camera, but the battery was dead) let's do some closeups, shall we?

 The small jar turned out to be pomegranate scented shaving cream.  It smells really good.

 Also included was a razor, with coupons for blade refills.  Convenient, yes?

 And then there was a cute little tissue wrapped package.  I love packages inside packages!

And inside that was a gel lip stain, perfume, and a hair tie.  

The perfume actually doesn't smell half bad, which was a pleasant surprise.  I'm usually not overly keen on most perfumes.  The little booklet that came with it all also had the full name of each item, and the price (the whole idea is that if you like the stuff you can order a full size version).  I'd just like to point out that the full size perfume is like 70 bucks for a small bottle, so that's probably why it's tolerable (it's also like the third most expensive thing they sent out samples of).

Overall, I'm pretty pleased with my first box.  I'm actually looking forward to the next time I shave my legs (did I mention the shaving cream smells really good?)  and I can't wait to see if my husband likes the perfume (he's at Gencon right now--I'm not going up until Friday, so I'll have to wait).  And, of course, I'm looking forward to next month's box now, too.  I love getting packages, and it's extra fun when it's a surprise!

I may make this a regular thing for ye old blog, mostly because it's fun for me.  And who knows, maybe some of you guys are also still discovering how this whole girl thing works (I'm a late bloomer, I know).  I will say you don't have a whole lot of choice for your samples (the surprise is what makes it fun), so if you have allergies you may want to give it a pass, or share your bounty with your friends.

Don't worry, I'll try to keep up with some of the zany fun you've come to expect, although I'll admit, it's been a bit tough lately.  Things have been kinda boring/stressy, and I hate to go into rant mode too often.  But it'll all be good, so you kids have fun till next time!

Girls With Glasses

Before we get started, I just want to let you know that this was almost a post about how not to pick up girls (hint: you should get out of your car, unless she's a hooker) or a rant about how people are always needlessly invading my space.

I think you got lucky.

Because today's subject is girls wearing glasses.  Which, based on the search results also appears to be some sort of fetish--somewhere around half the results are galleries filled with pictures of hot girls wearing glasses.  It's both scary and reassuring.  At the same time, I'm pretty sure none of those girls wear glasses on a regular basis (there's this thing you get in the area around the nose pieces).

I also learned of a quote that apparently still gets bandied about, even though the supposed originator  has been dead for over forty years:  "Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glass," Dorothy Parker.

Knowing that I wear glasses, I think you can guess how I feel about that.  I mean, I've worn glasses since the third grade.  I've worn glasses for so long, that sometimes I go looking for them and freak out, only to realize that they're on my face.  I feel like I should have heard about this whole glasses are unattractive movement a long time ago.  I mean, I remember trying to go without them at one point in grade school because they weren't cool, but cool and attractive were two very different things to me as a child (and still are, to be honest).  Of course, I did grow up with a mother who wore glasses, and none of my friends ever really picked on me about them.  But men not liking women who wear glasses?  There's just so much wrong with that statement.  Firstly, a woman's life is about more than just finding a man.  While that statement might have been relevant in a time when a woman's place was to find a man, settle down, and pop out babies, we have a lot more options these days.  Let's leave outdated concepts of the role of women in the past, shall we?  Secondly, it's just plain wrong.  There are apparently lots of guys who find girls with glasses sexy, otherwise the following wouldn't exist (I apologize for the list of links instead of pics.  For the guys who stumbled upon this looking for pics, congrats, you now have a list of sites to check out):

girls with glasses
girls with glasses
sexy girls in glasses
The 20 Hottest Girls In Glasses
Hot Girls With Glasses
30 reasons girls with glasses are hot
curves and glasses
20 Hot Girls In Glasses
girls with glasses on reddit  (link is SFW, links from it are not)
Asian girls with glasses
Hot nerdy girls with glasses (excessive autoplay ads, be warned)
Pretty Black Girls In Glasses

And I'm tired of looking at all these pictures, so we'll leave it there.  Trust me, there are a lot more.  Either way, I think we can pretty well say that while not all guys dig a chick with specs, enough of them do.  So suck it, Dorothy Parker.  

I feel like I may have gotten sidetracked there.  I also feel like I've been looking at porn after finding those links for you, so I hope you appreciate it.  Ugh.  I don't even want to see what the most popular search terms on my traffic are going to be after this one.

Still, even though we have a surprisingly large group of supporters out there, popular culture still holds to the Dorothy Parker school of thought.  Seriously, how many ugly duckling movies have you seen where they take the nerdy "ugly" girl and transform her into a beautiful princess.  What's the first thing they do?  Get her contacts.  We see this over and over in movies, and not just your teen feel good crap.  How many romance movies portray the heroine as a frumpy woman in glasses (because nothing says frump like spectacles), then take those glasses off to reveal the sexy girl beneath?  I'm pretty sure I've seen this gimmick in almost every genre.  While we may not outright say it, our culture is permeated with the message that glasses are not attractive.  Models don't wear glasses, unless they're modeling them, or going for the naughty intellectual look.  People in movies and TV only wear glasses to look smart and nerdy. 

But I've known stupid people who wear glasses.  And I've know beautiful, sexy girls who wear glasses--and are beautiful and sexy in them.

So what do we do?  Do we accept the standard our culture has given us?  Do we rock the naughty librarian look for the fetishists? Or do we look for a third option?  How about we show society that just because a girl wears glasses, it doesn't mean she's a nerdy ugly duckling.  You wouldn't ask an amputee to take off her leg to increase her sex appeal.  And for many of us who wear glasses, those lenses are just as necessary for getting around as that leg (just a whole lot cheaper).  If you want to take off your glasses or wear contacts so you can get a certain look, that's fine.  But you shouldn't feel pressured to do so because of society's crazy standards (they're not always right--remember lead based makeup?).


Let's focus on accepting ourselves and our flaws, and making changes because we want to, not because society says we have to.