[Seriously though, if your mom is in this picture...We want to high five her]

Yesterday at 2:53pm EST my phone rang.

“Hello?”

“Sweetie” (it was my mom), “There’s been an earthquake”

My heart stopped.

“Where was it centered?”

“I don’t know”

“How big?”

“They’re saying it was in the 6’s and…”

“Where are you?”

“Driving home from …”

“How are the dogs?”

By now I was shrieking, I barely heard her empty assurances that they must be okay and that she would try to get a hold of someone nearby.

I hung up and rushed to my computer, certain that the worst had happened. Another major Quake…

When I was 8 the ‘94 Northridge Quake destroyed most of my known world. My family was homeless for 9 months and all of our parks were turned into National Guard relocation facilities. For a while I slept with my tennis shoes on—in case I had to climb out of my room the next morning.

It is impossible to describe the relief that washed over me when I finally got through to the LA Times website and saw that it was only a 5.8 (later lowered to a 5.4) with horizontal motion and centered in Chino Hills about 55 miles from my home in the San Fernando Valley. Read More »

So, when an attractive stranger asks me if I want to grab some coffee, all common sense totally flies out the window, and what do I say?

“Sure!” (Insert a little drooling)

And then the worrying begins.

I know, I know, grabbing coffee is totally innocent. Yada yada. But, years of motherly concern, “What time are you going to be back?”, “Be careful when you drink”, have been totally ingrained into my thinking. I mean, I’ve been on the streets at two at night. Alone. In some of the roughest parts of London (yes, I’m a Brit), but those worries don’t stop flying around my head. No matter what. Read More »

Q: I’ve had boyfriend my entire life, but I can’t help feeling attracted to some of my straight girl friends. Am I bi?

A: My instinct is to answer your question with “Maybe. Who cares?” and leave it at that, but I’ll try to do my job and actually advise. That said, I can’t tell you whether or not you’re bi. I think it’s possible that you’re crushing on your female friends because it’s a safe way to explore same-sex attraction—since they’re your friends and they’re straight, the chance of a hookup happening is minute, meaning you can admire/lust from afar.

But I also don’t think a few same-sex crushes necessarily have to mean something, and I hope you don’t feel pressure to immediately define yourself as soon as you catch yourself staring at a chick with a great rack. In the interest of full disclosure, I should say that I did make a brief jaunt to the other side myself. It was fun, and that was that. When I told a few friends about my tryst, I got a range of responses: amused, disgusted, curious, and shocked. A lot of them asked the question I hadn’t even bothered to ask of myself: “Are you bi?”

The answer? No, not particularly. But who knows, maybe by next month I’ll be marching in gay pride parades wearing flannel and waving a rainbow flag. The point is, I wasn’t interested in dissecting What It Meant, not for me, and certainly not for the benefit of others. Read More »

Marriage is a big thing in this country, isn’t it? People are all up in arms about protecting the sanctity of it. Making sure people wait for it before they have kids, and that those of the same sex don’t do it because that would be wrong. With all of this to do about stopping certain people from marrying, who’s making sure that other people do?

It seems that marriage (according to statistics, which as we all know, are infallible) has become a white institution. Black people just aren’t doing it anymore.

Some of you may be familiar with the special CNN aired, “Black in America” in which they spoke on many of the issues that black America is having not only with marriage, but with other aspects of day to day life: employment, education, etc., all of which impact the black community.

Dionne Hill, the producer of the segment has a special rumination on black people and marriage. It’s not a new statistic, but the fact still remains: black people simply are not getting married in the numbers that we once used to. Certainly no longer comparable in numbers to the ethnic majority of Caucasian people marrying. In the article, which can be found in it’s entirety here, she talks about her own experience with the illusive unicorn that is marriage and her own vision of the perfect life, which is, of course: marriage, career, and children. Read More »

[Editor's Note: I have no idea what this picture is, but it made me laugh so I used it. I hope you love it as much as me.]

Since learning that confidence is the most attractive thing to a man, I have been pretty successful in my late night endeavors. I see a man I want and I go for it. The general “walk up to a guy and flirt your heart out” approach is most definitely the way to go, but it is the variety of pick-up lines that makes the whole thing so much more fun.

My 5 most successful are listed below. Feel free to use ‘em…they work like a charm. (Just make sure to thank me later. I accept cookies, hugs and dates with Jake Gyllenhaal.)

1. Did you go to [Insert school here]? It is always good to have something to talk about when you approach a man. I mean, you would look pretty creepy if you just walked up to him and stood around. The school thing is always the best way to go because even if you know for a fact that kid did NOT go to Michigan, it is a great way to start off a convo. And let him know how smart you are. Read More »

Every girl likes to surround herself with fun people who bring lots of positivity into her life, right? I mean, who wants to go through life without the fun/support/advice of some friends? But, do you ever feel like you don’t have enough of those people?

Well, you’re not alone, CC-ers. Story of my life.

Growing up, I always had friends; guys, girls…a whole lotta them. We’d all play, hang out and have fun with each other. As I started to get older, in high school, then in college, my circle of friends got smaller and smaller. My tight knit posse went from 30 people to 20 to 10 to 4. It’s not that I had fights with my friends that caused us to become distant, but the phone calls, emails, nights out and shopping trips all seemed to dwindle as our lives progressed. Read More »

Is it wrong that I sorta wanna watch this?I knew McDonalds loved fat people, but gay people?

Being a billionaire isn’t just for men anymore!

The menu may say that meal is lowfat, but the truth has been revealed.

There are only a few more weeks of “shorts season” left. Choose wisely!

Miley Cyrus as the face for Lifestyle Condoms? Yeah…that’s not creepy at all.

Jon Voight Has Got A Conservative Stick Up His Ass About Obama.

Everyone and their mother has an iPod. Everyone and their mother is gonna be deaf.

Bands you should know but don’t.

How to follow your intuition.

And, just to make you laugh, our favorite video of all time.

[Photo courtesy of x17 online]

Got 10 minutes? Got 13 bucks? Got frickin’ tastebuds?!

Then, boy, have I got the dessert for you.

Seriously. It’s called Mint Chip Pie and the only downside (the ONLY downside) is how retardedly addictive it is.

So take ten minutes and make this delicious summer dessert. It’s about 5 servings, so invite some friends over…or don’t and have lots of leftovers. Your choice. I won’t tell.

And now, without further ado, I give you:

Mint Chip Pie Read More »

Here’s a shocker: BBC News reports that young girls face increasing pressure to become sexualized at younger ages, and besides becoming sluttier and sluttier, they also give into self-destructive habits to cope with social stress.

My first thought? Oh, no! Save the children. My second thought? Ummm, obvi?

When I was young, my role models were Barbie and Kelly Kapowski. Barbie had an impossible waist paired with magic tits, and Kelly Kapowski had cheated on Zack Morris with college boy Jeff, her boss at the Max. Parents today are concerned that the Bratz dolls negatively influence girls’ body images. I think they look like ghetto skanks with big heads, myself. But I suppose if they are inspiring young girls to seek a ghetto-skank look, there is cause for concern.

But I digress. BBC reports that girls are suffering from various social anxieties: two in five girls studied knew someone who had self-harmed; two in five knew someone who had panic attacks; and one in three knew someone with an eating disorder.

These problems suck; I know, I’ve dealt with all of them. I went through a brief bout of anorexia when I was thirteen, dropping to 104 pounds on a 5’7” frame. When I started eating again after an intervention, knives and razors became my friends. Read More »