This is why I chose Seattle University (and I'm not being sarcastic)

February 28, 2008

Dear Students:

Recently, it came to our attention that a theme party entitled; “C--t Hunt” took place off campus. This event is not in keeping with our values as an institution. We take great pride in striving to honor diversity, academic excellence, leadership, care, faith and justice. The theme of this party is incompatible with these values, and the event’s hosts are presently engaged in discussion with university administration about their role in this matter.

This kind of event creates a potentially dangerous space in which the most harmful outcomes of sexism, heterosexism, and racism can play out. As stewards of this institution we must communicate that this type of behavior is unacceptable. Some may view this event as a “harmless” party or a “one time” event aimed at having fun. Others may differentiate between an on-campus event and one off-campus. We do not. As students and leaders you are responsible for both your intentions and the impact they may have on others. And you are held accountable for your conduct whether it may be off-campus or on-campus.

Seattle University’s mission and values implore us to examine critically our responsibilities as citizens of this community. As such, this membership bestows upon us the opportunity to co-create a more just and humane world. In this case, we are asked to critically examine the ways we support institutional sexism, heterosexism, and gender stereotypes. This critical examination of unjust social structures flows directly out of our Jesuit Catholic heritage to “advance the human dignity of every individual, realized in community.”

As leaders we all bear the weighty responsibility of grappling with these issues. Furthermore, we have a duty to maintain a safe learning environment for everyone. There are many faculty, staff and students on campus who are willing to engage in dialogue about issues of oppression, injustice, activism, and advocacy. Please take advantage of these resources that are available to you. Choose to be an active citizen of this community. Ask questions and challenge yourself and others to embody the values of Seattle University.

Respectfully,

Stephen Sundborg, S.J., President

Tim Leary, Ph.D., Senior Vice President

John Eshelman, Ph.D., Provost

Rob Kelly, Ph.D., Vice President for Student Development

Pat Howell, S.J., Vice President for Mission and Ministry

Ron Smith, Ph.D., Vice President for Business and Finance

MaryKay McFadden, Vice President for University Advancement

Bob Dullea, Ph.D., Vice President for University Planning

Mary Petersen, J.D., Vice President and University Counsel

I think this is honorable of the university. Tristy, do you back me up? Do people think this letter is way out of proportion? Do people have a right to express themselves in this way?

I have a secret love affair...

and most girls do with this certain something. It's name is Sephora. It's the epitomy of everything that is good in life. I first found about this marvelous store in 2002 while living in London. One of my flatmates would sometimes do my makeup and I loved it and she was from America as well and so she introduced me to my favorite brand, bareMinerals, and thus, a love affair was born with Sephora.

Sephora, and I'm sure Mary, Laura, and Candace will attest, is a pleasant place. It's filled with all sorts of makeup brands and testing tubes to try out all the colours. I believe it will be in my heaven too. I have this secret wish (as I'm sure most women do) to stay after closing time and test everything at my own pace and of course take it all home FOR FREE. That it just a little dream I have.

So let's talk about bareMinerals now, it's this flawless makeup that is made out of ground up minerals (which now the cheaper brands are doing) and feels so good on the skin. Mary and I when vacationing at our summer home in Easton (it's on the Eastern Shore), would stay up for hours watching QVC and order bareMinerals and then some...my favourite eye shadow colour is cashmere. A lovely warm brown, and just recently after two years of wearing the shade, I had to finally replace it and get a new one. Two years it lasted! And now they have this fabulous lip gloss and bunny is my favorite colour which tingles the lips a little. Jim accidentally got some on his lips while kissing me last night and he said "it stings!" I laughed and told him that if he wanted plump lips then it's a sacrifice one must take.

Something about the crisp black and white interior and little shopping baskets that just give me a rush of excitement. It's a perfect pick me up if you're having a bad day!

PS-I have a paper due in four hours and haven't even started, curse this blog!

Oscar Update

So I don't mean to brag or anything, but I have always guessed the Original score and best Foreign language film correctly and tonight was no different! Seriously, I have never gotten it wrong once. And speaking of "Once" it won the best original song! I saw them (Glen Hansard, from the Frames and Marketa Irglova) in concert I was standing in the second row at the 9:30 club) and they blew me away. It was haunting and inspiring. Their voices go so well together. I highly recommend seeing this MOVIE and BUYING THE SOUNDTRACK! It has won an oscar (for the song "once") and it has won the audience award at the Sundance Film Festival among about 15 other awards, you can see here ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0907657/awards ). The film is inspiring and simple.

Tonight I did okay as far as the ballot went, I got 16 out of 24 correctly! Woo-hoo! And did anyone else notice that they brought Marketa back on stage so she could give her speech! I have never seen that before in my life! The Europeans definitely sweeped this year! 

The Oscars

Every year for the last probably 15 years I have watched the oscars (I might have missed one while in Romania). I have a friend, Jenn, who plans these amazing oscar parties with themed food, based on the oscar nominations for best picture. These aren't dress up parties where you have to try and outshine the red carpet, these are come in your sweats but eat better than the stars type of party. It also takes a special guest list, someone who is informed and has seen the movies, as well as interested enough to stay for the entire 3-4 hour event, as well as the whole NOT talking part while enjoying the awards show. These are the requirements and the fact that you have to take your space into consideration as one must be comfortable as well! She also prints out the sheets for everyone to follow along with a pen and mark the winners, but before that she has everyone pick winners for a chance to win a fantastic prize!

In fact, my first time attending one of these blessed events, I had the chance to participate. Her mom taught me how to make tuxedo dipped strawberries with dark, milk, and white chocolate. So every since that first one way back in 2001 I always get to make the strawberries for her event (if we are living in the same town). She has a few traditions as well, including homemade pizza (with dough from Trader Joes, just a little plug as I'm fascinated with this $1.00 dough and can be frozen for up to a month and comes in wheat, herb, or white and you can make a billion different things with it). Some examples of years past are as follows:

What dreams may come (assorted mushrooms, maybe with a dip)
The Cider Houser Rules (spiked or unspiked)
Lord of the onion rings
Seabiscuits (maybe biscuits with shrimp sauce?)
Lemony’s Triscits
Améliets (omelets)
Schindler’s Crisps (star-shaped rice crispy treats)
Babe(y) back ribs
Pride & prejudice (black & white cookies… I know… I know.)
Peter Jackson & jelly sandwiches
Forest Gumbo
The last samurai made our sushi
Let Them Eat This Cake" for Marie Antoinette (we can decorate a cake in pink and black)
Last Chicken ala King of Scotland (Or King Prawns or King Ranch Casserole)
Blood Diamond Oranges
The Deviled Egg Wears Prada
The Queen of Tarts
The Good Sheppard's Pie
Letters from Iwo Jima- those tiny letter shaped pasta in an egg drop (or some other Asian) soup
Dreamgirlcles- even better that we won't have to cook!
Half and Half Nelsons Black and white cookies
Venus De Phyllo Something in phyllo dough, sweet or savory
The Strawberry Danish Poet
"Red Volver Cake"
Little Miss Sunshine Cakes - Little Miss Cakes with frosting suns painted on top
Cars-amel Popcorn
The Dip-arted - a fabulous dip

So this year, since I have moved back to Seattle (oh, and i have for those who didn't know), and away from Jenn in D.C., and have no friends to celebrate with, and want to carry on this tradition in my life, I will be making pizza with my great aunt and watching the oscars in honor of Jenn whom I would have never known such bliss! So will you be watching the Oscar's tomorrow night?

Littering

So I was driving yesterday with my sister and we saw this billboard about littering. It had a picture of a person with huge eyes and a cell phone and it said simply, "Are you looking for litter?" So my sister and I discussed this further to catch the meaning. And I believe we came up with the fact that they wanted people to call the "Litter HelpLine" and turn people in. It was a bit like George Orwell's "1984" or even the late real life communist leader Ceasescu (pronounced: Chow-Shes-Coo) of Romania (or any communist leader for that matter) who would require that you turn traders in or risk death yourself. Now I realize that is a major leap, from communism to litterer, that what they are doing is illegal however, talking on your cell phone is also illegal so essentially I would be doing something illegal to turn someone else in for doing something illegal. This very much intrigues me.
Littering is another one of Washington state's favorite campaigns. In fact, if you are ever driving along a freeway you will see green signs stating "Litter and it will hurt." That's it. There is no fine attached to it on the sign, just "it will hurt." My sister and I find it hilarious. It's not even polite. But as of April 2007 Washington is on a major no littering kick as you can read here- http://www.ecy.wa.gov/news/2007news/2007-083.html This article talks about the two types of hazardous litter. The first being cigarette butts out the window, the second is when you are taking large loads to the dump, or wherever and they are not properly secured (apparently these are the most fatal as well). There are also links to check out your local regions "litter activity report by ecology region" and some stats and videos to watch. It will even tell you how many hours are spent cleaning up litter and how many pounds the crews collect. I find this all so fasicnating.

Now I'm all for not littering, but it is really my job to catch the litter bug? It should be my job to keep my litter in a recycling bin.

FYI-The campaign must be working as the Seattle area is beautiful!

Recycling

Here in Seattle everyone is conscious of recycling. It's on every billboard taunting you and every car has a bumper sticker with an ode to recycling. So I have succumbed to the inevitable. I've become border line obsessed really. In fact, most peoples' home here have two garbage cans under the sink, one labeled "recycling" the other "trash." It's funny because my recycle bin is actually an old trader joes plastic bag made out of recycled plastic. Not too shabby, if i do say so myself. Recycling is also FREE, which means that the large garbage bin doesn't cost and for them to take it away doesn't cost, as opposed to your regular trash. So here at my house, we have this little itty bitty garbage bin and this gigantic blue bin. The trash comes once a week and the recycling once every two weeks, at first I thought there is no way that that little trash can is even close to holding all our trash, well it has to be said it is! We never even fill it! And I'm not talking the aluminum bins like Oscar used to live in, I'm talking a little plastic one with a lid. It's amazing! And our blue bin is always bursting through and I have to climb in and jump on it to pack it down! Back to being obsessed for a minute-Did you know that on every plastic thing that is made there is a label (usually on the bottom, inside a circle or triangle) with a number, to let the consumer know what kind of plastic it is which means one can be more consciously aware of the type of plastics you are bringing into the world. Lower numbers are worse for recycling, which means it just takes more effort to break down apparently and uses more plastic. Okay, that's my two cents. Everyone recycle! Even you east coasters, and remember I know who you are and where you live! 

Am I a music snob?

So I've started creating a list of concerts I've attended. I'm not sure whether to just start from my very first one and work my way forward with my memory or just start writing down any and all I can think of and sort by years later. For this reason, I haven't actually written down anything on paper yet, it's all up in the head thus far. My friend Carren told me to attend the U2 3D concert at imax and so I took my father and two sisters last night. It was a sold out crowd and there were 6 people total (including us four) that actually clapped and acted like it was a real concert. I actually stuck out my hands a couple of times to touch "The Edge" and Bono but to no avail. I suddenly realized that no one else in the audience was treating this properly. I mean it demanded clapping and shouting and putting my hands in the air with the "rock" symbol and so I did. Are Seattleites such music snobs? After all, this is the land of (look to list at right). Or am I music snob and demand perfection from crowds. I know we all "feel" music differently, but not even a little clap at the end? Were they not feeling what I was feeling? Were they not U2 fans? It's like if someone I love dies and you walk into a grocery store and you expect everyone else to be sad, and you can't figure out why everyone is in a chipper mood. Were my expectations just too high?

I'm procrastinating

Here I sit, procrastinating a way. Yes, I have a 20 page paper due Tuesday but who cares. Right?