Sunday, June 21, 2015

Mani-pedi in Manila.

Bosom friends!

I am very sad to announce that my posts are going to be far fewer than you got accustomed to.

As I wrote two weeks ago I am now a working girl.
I have joined the rest of the world and I am now earning a salary. Well I was no virgin to the concept of making a living for myself but I have been off the job carousel for quite sometimes.

My first week at the office has been quite balls to the wall.

I have been flown to LA for three days to have a crash course in executive assisting.
Let me tell you assisting is no piece of cake. I am already kind of reluctant to take care of my own daily necessities, you can only imagine how comfortable I am when it comes to sorting out others. And I am not taking care of desperate housewives whom the most important thing is to fit their hair and mani-pedi appointments into one afternoon.
No.
I am making sure that corporate executives have their schedule in place and that they are not flying to Manila instead of Miami.
Pressure.

I am well aware I am not performing open heart surgery but when something is new it can still unnerve you no matter the degree of difficulty you are faced with.

An added challenge at the moment is to create a whole new living schedule for hubby and I.
It's like going from having a 24 hours housekeeper on your payroll to having a sad box of "swiffer" supplies delivered to your doorstep.
Boom!
House work is never done by definition and let me tell you at this rate it will never be done in perpetuity. Let the dust settle and let's send the vacuum cleaner on vacation. It has worked hard for quite sometimes, it deserves to live a little.

It's amazing how much I have to manage to do in a considerably smaller amount of time.
I am planning to stuck a broom up my butt, at least while I trot around the house getting the laundry done and cooking easy to warm up meals I am also making sure the floors are kept in order too.
I am now wiping the sink and bathroom mirror right after I am done with my beauty routine. Knowing that the limestone is forming on my ceramics while I sleep would put me right over the edge. Please don't judge, I am already giving myself a roll of eyes every time I wash my face and floss my teeth.

In any case it is nice to be out of the house and  amongst new faces and such.
It's all new and I can't yet tell how much I am going to like this whole new arrangement but somebody told me that even if it's not my dream job it will be up to me to make it into it.

For now I can only hope I won't fuck it up and that I won't be asked to "sashay away".

Tomorrow is Monday and off I go ready for a new week. I assure you that the word "Monday" has now a whole new meaning. Bittersweet symphony.
Expense reports, booking of flights, calendar organizing and very little time left for a mani-pedi.

Ciao for now.

Friday, June 12, 2015

Bitter Betty? No, now it's Working Betty.

Bosom friends!

Boy do I have news.

I don't know if you ever had to go through a career change.
Allow me to sugar coat it: it's rather displeasing.

Doing a career 180 can take quite a toll on our self esteem and can potentially transform us in Bitter Betty. Since I am not that mysterious or complicated I had the pleasure of experiencing both instances on my search for a new career path. I became "lacking self esteem Bitter Betty".
For a retired performer finding a new job is like setting your goal on finding the Holy Grail. Better yet is like trying to find Neverland together with Peter and Tinkerbell. You better be clapping your own hands otherwise you will peg out as soon as your self worth hits rock bottom.

As I discussed previously in one of my posts I have been to numerous job interviews and sent out a plethora of resumes. But it turned out I was qualified to do nothing. Apparently I do not possess the required skills to even fold T-shirts at Zara.

Anyway...

I have been in the Cruise Line industry for the past 10 years and I have loved every minute of it.
Naturally I did apply for whatever job offering there was out there for various cruise lines but as I suspected, transitioning form such a defined field as "entertainment" was not an easy task.

Long story short.

I eventually got a job interview for Crystal cruise line. To be precise this is the "Rolls Royce" of cruise lines and amongst "ship peeps" it is regarded as the best of the best. The company is opening a new office here in Miami and there was an opening for an Executive Assistant.
So I put on a lovely office friendly (yet stylish) ensemble, grabbed my Louis Vuitton and headed to the interview feeling just like Melanie Griffith in "Working Girl": empowered and savvy but without the silly hair cut. (if you are too young for this movie reference google it, worst case scenario you will get a lovely education over the 80's fashion sense...).


Eventually I was going to an interview for an industry I love and that I know very well. I felt as if I eventually solved the "right place at the right time" conundrum.
I was going to be interviewed by the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Sales and (I have to be honest) I thought I was gonna feel a bit out of place. A fish out of water, better yet a ship out of water...
I couldn't have been more wrong about it.
The energy I got from this wonderful VP lady was so positive I felt like my batteries got fully charged on the spot. I was asked many questions and I was very grateful I had the opportunity to represent myself face to face rather than via the usual cold typed resume.

I am very happy to say that the interview went very well and that I will be starting as the new Executive Assistant for Crystal's Miami office next Monday!!!
The company is flying me to Los Angeles (where they have their current head quarters) for all the necessary hands on training with the LA team and I couldn't be more excited.
Yes, I am embarking on a brand new working experience but I will be working in an industry that I love and comprehend.
It is all new but familiar.

So here I go.
Full steam ahead.
From bitter Betty to working Betty.

Ciao for now.

Thursday, June 11, 2015

Memories and stuff.

Bosom friends!

Yesterday a lovely lady who used to work for the same company as my hubby posted this of her Face Book page:

Lose the price tag and explore the world around you - according to the Millennials ..
The Next Web reports there are 79 million Millennials in the United States, three million more than the notorious Baby Boomer generation that is responsible for many of the jobs, industries and government programs at our disposal.
But industries are going to have to re-evaluate Gen-Y if they want to target us in their advertising. Most of us are starting to realize the priceless advantages of spending our hard-earned money on things like travel, education and creative activities.
Researchers say companies will need to adapt to this shift in mentality in order to compete and survive in this generation’s new world.
Ultimately, these are longer-term investments in our own individual happiness.
By spending more of our money on things that enhance our life — filling us with golden memories and unforgettable adventures — we aren’t just changing the industries that surround us, we’re shedding some much-needed positivity and light on the world.
Each day we’re convinced to buy things we don’t need, spend money we don’t have and purchase garbage that loses its value within a matter of weeks.
Generation-Y is one of the largest, most influential groups of society, and we have the unique ability to control the fate of our wallets and investments in life.
Why buy the latest phone when you can put that $400 toward a plane ticket to a country you’ve never been before?
People who constantly live with their future goals, investments and happiness at the forefront of their minds tend to live much happier lives than the rest of consumers swamped in products and rubbish.
It’s time to stop swiping the cards every time we get paid and start thinking about the memories we could be making with just a little bit of extra savings and a road.

How do we feel about it?

I admit I have mixed feelings. Well shaken and blended together.

Modern day life is a bitch. That is a fact.
Instant gratification is wildly available both in the form of social media egocentricity and materialistic acquisitions (AKA retail therapy).

Does the Millenials generation (my generation) even know what it wants? Most of us don't even need to want anything. We have it already. Most of the time we only want the newer version of whatever we already posses. Most of the time we don't know how to choose or what to choose simply because we don't know any worse. We have had it so easy we ended up finding difficult to spot what is actually going to enhance our life simply because our lives don't need much enhancement to begin with. Third world children's lives do need some improvement, ours mostly need more substance.

"Most of us are starting to realize the priceless advantages of spending our hard-earned money on things like travel, education and creative activities".
Is that so?
I didn't think that my generation was so proactive. I may be wrong.
I still see plenty of Millenials very much into what they drive, what they wear and how much they can blow (up their noses or out of their wallets) during a week end.
How many of us have spent a silly amount of money on a designer bag or on the latest "designed in  California, made in China" gadget? Personally I gave in on both fronts. I have failed the "How shallow are you" test.
I feel we were never programmed to choose what we wanted most and instead we were given the opportunity to grab it all. I am not going to blame it entirely on modern society because those decisions were ours but we were certainly enabled to a degree. I myself find difficult to think of one single thing I really want with the passion. At 34 years of age I feel I have accomplished plenty considering all the variables. I have been to places I didn't even know existed.
Dare I say I am tired...?
Nevertheless I am about to start it all over again. New city, new job, new career, new everything yet I am still the "good old me".
I want to travel some more but I have done plenty of that before and also packing is a bitch.
I learned and educated my self on what I felt passionate about once upon a time. Been there, done that.
I do enjoy creative activities and I am damn good at those but it's only worth creating something is there is someone else on the other end making use of it. Creating something per se might not feel as fulfilling.
Perhaps I am not tired. Probably I just got lazy.

And that's what I think is the Millenials worst enemy: being lazy.

It's way easier to prove you have a enviable life style by buying status symbol items rather than spending a month traveling through the remote parts of Asia.

It's way easier to swipe our cards as soon as we get paid to make us feel accomplished. But unfortunately that fulfilling retail therapy high will loose its value as quickly as the stuff we bought.
And then we are out there again looking for the next quick fix.

It's sort of a vicious cycle and I am a willing participant as much as the next of you.

People who constantly live with their future goals, investments and happiness at the forefront of their minds tend to live much happier lives than the rest of consumers swamped in products and rubbish.

I do agree with this last statement.
But we can't have it all even if we have been convinced that we can.
Choosing between possessions and experiences (or memories) is not as an easy task as the above article suggests.

I personally think I need a bit of reprogramming on that front but do I really want it?

Ciao for now.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Christian lobby and high school sweethearts.

Bosom friends!

Please find below your daily dose of bull-shit.

Compliments of all the bigots from around the world Inc.

This article is by Adrian Garcia (he writes for the Gaily Grind) who reports as follow (my comments are in bold).

A Christian couple is threatening to divorce if the evil gays are allowed to get married in Australia.
High school sweethearts Nick and Sarah Jensen, announced their threat to divorce in an opinion piece published by Canberra CityNews under the headline, “Gay law change may force us to divorce”.
“My wife and I just celebrated our 10-year anniversary. But later this year, we may be getting a divorce,” he writes.
First of all "high school sweethearts" already raises a very big red flag. Never trust one of those couples. You need to experience way more before you decide to share your life with just that one individual. I call those high school lazy-asses. Meet a reproductively sound partner, get married, breed and pay your mortgage while going to church on Sundays and judging anyone who does not live by the fictional book called "The Bible".
“The decision to divorce is not one we’ve taken lightly. And certainly, it’s not one that many will readily understand. And that’s because it’s not a traditional divorce.”
Mr Jensen explains that if they are forced to divorce,  they plan to continue living together, have more kids, and will continue to refer to each other as husband and wife, but will legally end their marriage because they believe “marriage is not a human invention”.
What the holy fuck?!? The only thing that is not a human invention is mother nature. Everything else we made up. So this lovely couple can be married under the common law and keep breeding like rabbits to fulfill their life purpose. I couldn't give a smaller fuck about how they live their bigoted, narrow minded and poorly accessorized life.
“Our view is that marriage is a fundamental order of creation. Part of God’s human history. Marriage is the union of a man and a woman before a community in the sight of God. And marriage of any couple is important to God regardless of whether that couple recognises God’s involvement or authority in it,” he writes.
Where do this people get their insights? From Snow White and Cinderella? Actually even those two gals were more modern than those two Jesus fans. God does not give a shit about who gets married or divorced or runs off with a goat. God perhaps is way more preoccupied about how badly we have already fucked up his ultimate creation: the Earth. Let's hope God (or whatever there is out there) only cares about "love" and not "who we love".

Let’s pause for an eye roll break:



Jensen says he and his wife refuse to recognize the government’s regulation of marriage if its definition includes same-sex couples.
“If our federal parliament votes to change the timeless and organic definition of marriage later on this year, it will have moved against the fundamental and foundational building block of Australian society and, indeed, human culture everywhere,” he writes.
“Indeed, it raises a red flag when a government decides it is not content only having sovereignty over land, taxes and the military — but ‘words’ themselves.
So ladies and gentlemen whatever law or regulation your country may have in place is up for personal interpretation.  To oblige to any of those rules will be optional. That is also known as anarchy.
“This is why we are willing to divorce. By changing the definition of marriage, ‘marriage’ will, in years to come, have an altogether different sense and purpose.”
Mr Jenses can go right ahead and coin a new word and concept all together to redefine marriage. He can make up a straight-people-only version so that all the bigots in the world can feel safe and protected from the evil homosexuals offspring of Satan.
Mr Jensen has previously been employed by the Australian Christian Lobby, according to News.com Australia.
Christian lobby and high school sweethearts. Picture perfect.
We fully support your decision to divorce, just as we would fully support anyone’s decision to marry the person they love.
So go right ahead.
Don’t let us stop you!

As we say in Italy "the mother of idiots is always pregnant".

Ciao for now.
 

Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Tony Awards and aligned gay planets.

Bosom friends!

How did I manage to completely miss the Tony awards?

The single most important awards night for a gay male.
Forget pride parades and the GLAAD awards.
Tony's night is the night when the homosexual planets align and we all get reconnected to what we love most: DRAMA.

I didn't manage to watch the whole thing yet, life is a bitch, but I have seen a couple of moments that I particularly loved.

To begin with the opening of the show by the two hosts Kristin Chenoweth and Alan Cumming was just charming. No bells and whistles, no big production. Only two very talented performers having a bit of fun with Broadway idiosyncrasies, stars and its most beloved shows.
Classy, funny, short enough and also slightly uncanny due to the overly botoxed Chenoweth's face and the short pants suit wore by Cumming.




Dame Helen Mirren shined during her acceptance speech for the best performance by an actress in a leading role in a play. The play is called The Audience and it takes theatregoers behind the walls of Buckingham Palace and into the private chambers of Queen Elizabeth II (played by Helen Mirren) as she meets with each of her Prime Ministers, from when she was a young mother to now, as a great grandmother. Through these private audiences, we see glimpses of the woman behind the crown and witness the moments that shaped a monarch.
Mirren is as usual just impeccable in the role. Very few things are perfect in life: Helem Mirren as Queen Elizabeth is one of them.


Nevertheless what really blew everybody away was the performance by an 11 years old girl.
The girl I am talking about is Sydney Lucas. Sydney didn't happen to win the Tony Award she was nominated for on Sunday night, but it took nothing away from the fact that she was the highlight of the entire broadcast. Lucas plays Small Alison in Fun Home, the musical adaptation of Alison Bechdel's graphic memoir about her coming of age that won the award for Best Musical. Lucas sang "Ring Of Keys," which tells the story of Alison seeing a woman who ... well, she'll tell you.

Just click on this link and enjoy!

Sydney is the proof that talent and dedication will make you shine when you are given the opportunity to.

On top of that the score and the lyrics of this particular song show us that fortunately there are good writers out there. Luckily there are artists with more in their heads than the usual trash we are served daily by megastars with huge entourages but very little left to say. They have to be found in the less lucrative theater scene but they are all alive and kicking! Thank God!

Till next year then, until the gay planets will align again.

Ciao for now!

Thursday, June 4, 2015

Dress to depress.

Bosom friends!

Today while working out I stumbled upon an article which content almost made me fall off of the elliptical I was riding in the effort to burn off my beloved whit wine spritzers.

The Science Of Simplicity: Why Successful People Wear The Same Thing Every Day
I never thought this headline could hide such horror.

This written piece basically states that successful people are as such also because they do not waste their time accessorizing and more generally they do not allow frivolous details to distract them from the bigger picture.

The writer says that this is precisely why individuals like President Obama, Steve Jobs (the late Apple magnate wore his signature black turtleneck with jeans and sneakers every single day), Mark Zuckerberg (the Face Book dude typically wears a gray t-shirt with a black hoody and jeans) and Albert Einstein decided to make life easier by adopting a monotonous wardrobe.

I call bullshit.

Those individuals have adopted a monotonous (I call it depressing) wardrobe not to achieve their goals. They moved to sad-outfits-land only after they became powerhouses.
Once they became a brand they had to keep that brand up by attending public gatherings always looking like the image that made them globally recognizable. An image I find rather shitty but nonetheless a lasting one.

The crazy "people of Wall-Mart" are perpetually wearing the same wacko outfits but I don't see any of them leading a country or inventing the next electronic gadget that is going to change our lives. They just grab the same damn acid wash t-shirt and stripper Plexiglas heels and go out into the world to get rid of the last bit of dignity they have left.

Exhibit one.

Exhibit two.

This writer also related the time we spend planning an outfit to the concept of decision fatigue. Allegedly this is a real psychological condition in which a person’s productivity suffers as a result of becoming mentally exhausted from making so many irrelevant decisions.

I call bullshit again.

It's an outfit we are putting together not a plan to solve third world hunger.
Many jobs can be a little monotone, thank god most of us do have the liberty of wearing something that expresses who we are. A make-me-feel-good outfit can definitely cheer up an otherwise irritating Monday morning at the office. A decently cut suit can make you look more like Richard Gere in American Gigolo rather than Bozo the Clown.
We still need to make decisions in order to look demure or simple.
Still decisions, just different ones.
If you have to wear an uniform to work fair enough. I will still give you my most heartfelt condolences. I had to wear an uniform while working on cruise ships during extra duties hours and I always felt as if I was wearing a full burka. I may be exaggerating but I hope I got the message across.

But wait because the fashion slaughter-house is not over.

This deranged author also adds:
Indeed, having a diverse collection of clothing is overrated. We waste so much time worrying about things that have no substantial consequences, and don’t even realize how easily we could change this.
This is exactly why President José Mujica of Uruguay rejects conformity and refuses to wear a tie, stating:
The tie is a useless rag that constrains your neck.
I’m an enemy of consumerism. Because of this hyperconsumerism, we’re forgetting about fundamental things and wasting human strength on frivolities that have little to do with human happiness.
I am sure for the next fall/winter collections all of the major fashion houses will hire the president of Uruguay as a consultant.
Have you ever been to Uruguay? I have. Let's just say they have bigger fishes to fry. They are not against consumerism, they just cannot afford it.

The article's last pearl of wisdom is:
True fulfillment is acquired by going out into the world and fostering palpable and benevolent changes.

Now everything is clearer: this dude was probably following one of those self-empowering online courses.. His daily consumption self-affirmations fuel his need to go out into the world and foster palpable and benevolent changes.

If we really want to say that life is complicated enough to allow the little things to dictate our happiness and all we need to do is to simplify, fair enough.
But let's not expect the same results that Steve Jobs, Mark Zuckerberg or Albert Einstein managed to achieve.
Whatever form of laziness we indulge is not going to bring us any kind of success.
The only way to not let our appearance interfere with the perception others have of us is to make sure that we present ourselves at our best ALWAYS. Best doesn't mean fancy but it doesn't mean wearing a self imposed pseudo uniform either.

In the end it does come to looking the part.

If you are an iconic business groundbreaking entrepreneur you must look like one. You can either go simple or you can go fancy.
Just don't go with depressing.

And don't forget to foster palpable and benevolent changes...of clothes.

Ciao for now.

Tuesday, June 2, 2015

#caitlynjenner: are we more open minded or just eye-pleased?

Bosom friends!

I am sure you have all seen Caitlyn Jenner pictures by now. She looks very good and Jessica Lange has now some tough competition to deal with.




To be said that most of us are zeroing in on the way Caitlyn looks.
After her 10 hours surgery, after hair and make up, after Annie Leibovitz professionally draped her to capture her transformation results and after the good old airbrushing what we are left to contemplate is a very charming mature woman. A charming mature wealthy woman who could afford to look the part.
Nothing wrong with that at all.
Caitlyn finally is doing her own thing and no amount of K or C (or whatever the trending letter is) will tarnish her undeniably brave leap into freedom, honesty and self acceptance.

What I wonder is if we would have been as accepting of such individual if the transformation wouldn't have been as successful or as tastefully portrayed by Vanity Fair.
What I am asking is, are we comfortable with Caitlyn because we truly embrace the concept of self-freedom and being true to what is in our souls or are we so enthusiastic and well-disposed because "she is who she used to be" and because her looks are eye pleasing?

I am not sure about the answer I would give.

Caitlyn gained 1 million followers on Twitter in 4 hours establishing yet another world record at the tender age of 65. But are we sure that million (now almost two) really comprehend all the ins and outs of such delicate life transition? Or are they just amused and fascinated by how fabulously Cailtyn's reveal was packaged and executed?

I have seen few transgender women since I have moved to the States (in Italy we only have two of them, not kidding. One and two.), but the man-in-a-frock kind of look I find difficult to treat as a standard one. 

There are many transgender individuals out there who have gone through the same process to become who they felt they were. Let me tell you that many of those brave people do not look or didn't have the means to look as good as Caitlyn or Laverne Cox for instance.
There are many transgender men that still do not pass for actual women and deal with that struggle on a daily basis. Female transitioning into male as well.
I am not saying that I am above this whole exterior appearance stuff. God forbid. I am only questioning if we are all becoming more open minded because of such examples like Caitlyn's or are we just fine with it because there is no trace of grotesque or unfinished exterior appearance?

Are we actually seeing what Caitlyn really represent in terms of social and human progress or are we just pleased with how comfortable her amazing looks makes us feel?

Sleep on that one.

Ciao for now.

Monday, June 1, 2015

Caitlyn is free.

Bosom friends!

JUNE?!?!
Seriously.
May I have May back? For a week at least?
I suppose not.

It's the usual shit. Times flies by and our last dose of Botox is already starting to wear off. Joy to the world we are not getting any younger. Or wiser for that matter.

This past weekend hubby and I didn't live the vida loca at all.
We gathered our thoughts and spent some quiet time on the couch with a crappy movie and one too many vodka tonics.

As per our calendar suggestion we are keeping calm and staying classy...

To start off the month properly or at least to get over the shock of having completely missed the previous one let's all rejoice about Kim Kardashian West second pregnancy. The amazingly talented Mrs West is expecting her second child from the "Genius" and since she is the only woman on the planet able to produce eggs and get them fertilized with sperm I think we should proclaim a world wide bank holiday on this remarkable day. I am sure the women of Malawi are not impressed by this news.
Procreation is way overrated. As children are. Go ahead and hate me.

What is remarkable is the fact that Bruce Jenner eventually is no more. Literally.



Meet Caitlyn Jenner, Vanity Fair’s July cover star. Pulitzer Prize–winning contributing editor and author of Friday Night Lights Buzz Bissinger, who was given unfettered access to Jenner and her family, chronicles the tensions, traumas, and courage that shaped Caitlyn into the woman you see today. Annie Leibovitz shoots the first portraits of Caitlyn, which were taken in her Malibu home.
Jenner speaks movingly about her journey, telling Bissinger, “If I was lying on my deathbed and I had kept this secret and never ever did anything about it, I would be lying there saying, ‘You just blew your entire life.’ ”

Go to the Vanity Fair web site and take a look at the behind the scene video.

Caitlyn looks very well put together and I find her already way more interesting than the rest of her family.
Of course being photographed by Annie Leibovitz and having access to great make-up peeps and stylists (on top of plastic surgery and all that jazz) greatly helped Bruce transforming into Cailtyn. Photoshop use was not spared either. But those are tricks used by all.

What I think is amazing is the way that this human being has turned the cheap exposure that the big K has given him into a formidable platform from where launch such enterprise.

Finally what's inside his mind matches what she sees reflected into the mirror.

Bruce may have won a gold medal but Caitlyn for sure has done something that took way more courage and guts.
Caitlyn has accomplished something that will hopefully change people's view over such a delicate and (unfortunately) uncomfortable matter.

She is embracing who she is completely and without restrains.
She lives in her truth.

She set herself free and that is the highest of the achievements.

Welcome to this world world Caitlyn.

Ciao for now.