Ah, 90210. I remember sitting on my couch in middle school, my legging-clad legs propped up on the coffee table and my boys size extra small plaid shirt tied to one side around my waist, watching every episode religiously. I mean, these kids were so cool and had such dramatic lives and how awesome was it that they got to go to school by the beach?! I loved everyone, except Donna — who was whiny and had horrible fashion sense — and often dreamed that my high school experience would be full of ex-boyfriends, accidental drug overdoses, trips to Paris, and constant sexual tension.

Sadly, reality isn’t half as fun as fiction. But happily, 90210 is coming BACK to prime time TV later on this year! The promos and whispers have finally begun to surface, and one interesting (but I mean, how are the two related?) tie-in with the 90210 resurgence is OPI nail polish. Apparently, OPI is bringing out a “90210 inspired collection” of polish colors with names inspired by either the new cast or the old one — we’re not sure which.

It’ll be interesting to see how a company ties in nail polish to a series, but I’m sure today’s consumer culture will not disappoint. If, however, they try to make a color that has to do with Donna — stay the eff away. It will look ugly, and quite possibly make people suddenly decide you’re too annoying to live.

[Editor's Note: check out the Mom Jeans on every single cast member in the above pic. PRICELESS]

A few summers ago, I worked as a CIT at a day camp I had attended as a child. You’d think that going to work at a place that was a major part of your childhood would be pretty awesome, but those eight weeks proved to be an utter disaster. I try not to think about it and, so far, I’ve been fairly successful at suppressing those memories.

But this article in the New York Times reminded me of a particularly nasty piece of work I encountered during my counseling duties that summer. She was the mother of two abnormally hyper and mischievous twin boys who I had to supervise on the bus every morning and afternoon. Frankly, the kids were easier to deal with than this woman. She makes the helicopter mothers mentioned in the article appear to be merely “concerned.”

In addition to supervising a group of kids at the camp, my older brother and I were bus counselors on the vehicle that transported campers in our area. Every morning as the bus approached her house, the crazy woman would come outside wearing her pink, flowery robe and greet us with a sickeningly sweet smile, only to go completely apesh*t on us that afternoon. She would yell at us the moment we pulled up, blaming us if she got a call that day from the camp about her devil spawns’ misbehavior.

I’m pretty sure she was bipolar, because one moment she would be calm, and the next she would be screaming like a banshee about how the camp was lying about her boys’ behavior and how we should be fired for not doing our job. She called the camp director just about every day to complain about us and the lousy job the boys’ group counselors were doing. I fought the urge to tell her that her parenting was the problem, not our performance. Read More »

With the economy in a serious downturn (thanks to the Wall Street Hangover, apparently), smart college women like ourselves know better than to hit the malls and stock up on the latest fashion. We have to save! We have to buy gas! We have to invest in our futures!

But, there are just some things out there that are worth a little splurge. Sure, you may not be able to buy corn products next week, but who cares? You have yourself one of these babies:

1. An iPod.

I’m sure half of you already have iPods, but I’m also sure there are a few of you out there who are like me… unwilling to fork over the dough because you’re cheap and/or poor. Well, let me tell you, investing in an iPod is the way to go. After forking over the dough for something REALLY huge (a new computer), I got a free iPod touch, and wow. Just wow. The future is here. I can’t even fathom getting to access the Internet for free on a device that also plays music and lets me take notes, get the weather, and watch movies… it’s so awesome.

2. A new computer.

After eight years (serious) of lugging around an outdated Mac laptop, I took a deep breath and hit the “purchase” button last week for a new MacBook Pro. My old computer was still working… it was like a tortoise in terms of speed, though, and it wasn’t really capable of streaming video. Oh, yeah, and the total hard drive capacity was 9 GB. My new computer, I am already convinced, is the best investment I’ve ever made. I can Skype! I can load Web pages in under the amount of time it takes me to make a sandwich! I can listen to podcasts! With my old Mac, podcasts were something strange and exotic that I had heard about but never experienced. If you too are toiling away on an ancient computer, GET A NEW ONE! It is sooooo worth it! Read More »

I do not swim in the ocean. This is not because I hate the beach. I mean, I do hate the beach but that hatred has nothing to do with why I don’t swim in the Atlantic or Pacific. I don’t swim in those bodies of water because sharks live in the ocean and sharks eat people.

My fear of being eaten alive by sharks has become so irrational that I cannot swim in a pool alone without thinking of being thrashed about. Of course, the obvious starting point for this fear is Jaws. But lots of people have seen Jaws and can swim in the ocean just fine. For me, the real cause of of my phobia is Discovery’s Shark Week.

I’ve been watching this week long event since I was 14. My parents originally thought that watching the “edutainment” would lead me to realize that my chances are getting attacked and killed by a shark are less then dying in a car accident. To that, I submit two responses…

1)Hah! Propaganda spread by the shark-controlled media.

2) Regardless of chance, I would rather not swim in the ocean then EVER be that .5%.

You think Shark Week is trying to educate you on how misunderstood Sharks are, but if you read between the lines, you will see the truth. Here is a breakdown of one day’s (literally, Monday the 28^th) worth of Shark Week shows.

Sharkbite: Surviving Great Whites

People share stories on how they got pieces of themselves eaten by sharks. Title suggests you can survive an attack. The truth? Sharks let these people go to lure you into the water. Read More »

I. Love. Plaid.

I don’t know what it is about that winsome pattern, but I can’t get enough.

I suspect it has something to do with the years I spent looking at fashion magazines with my mother. Every September, from the time I was 11 until I was 17, my mom would come home with a copy of the Seventeen: Back To School issue. And we devoured that sh*t.

And for some reason, every September without fail, that magazine would be busting at the seams with plaid. Plaid dresses, plaid shirts, plaid fricking socks–is plaid in every fall? The answer, my friends, is yes.

I don’t read Seventeen’s Back to School issue anymore (although my mother still does), but plaid don’t fade and neither do my love.

So here, for your viewing pleasure, is the creme of the crop of this season’s fall plaids. Pair with otherwise simple pieces, a smile, and a nostalgia that time will never defeat. Ahhhh. Plaid. Read More »

[Every once in a while, we have to go something that blows. Something we're not prepared for. Something, that at least, makes a good story...]

I looked down at my shirt, suddenly wondering if it was too revealing for this slightly backwoods New England waiting room. The few other people also waiting for the doctor were mostly over 40, fans of crocs and t-shirts advertising farm stands, and all seemed to be looking at me over their glasses or magazines. I turned back to the wall and checked my watch; I really wanted to get out of here so I could swing by Marshalls before handing the car over to my parents. A week out of the city had its perks – and cheap clothing was one of them.

The doctor herself opened the door to the waiting room and looked at me, motioning with her hand that I should follow her. I got up, vaguely wondering why she had come out to get me herself. After all, I had just gone in for a simple x-ray; proof that a dislocated rib I acquired as a kid was still dislocated.

Instead of walking inside an examination room, we stepped into her office, and she pushed my x-rays up on a light board so I could see them. Something looked strange. I blinked.

“So, you can see, right there, you’ve got a tumor on your ninth rib.”

A what? Huh? I shook my head. I felt like she was speaking French. I couldn’t understand. Read More »

Probably the most drama-filled evening, last nights I Love Money sure did not disappoint.

The challenge consisted of constructing a catapult to launch raw chickens from (flashback to hottie, circa Flava Flav Season 1) and the first team to catch and place five raw chickens on the plates, wins the challenge and seals their fate away from elimination for the night.

As always, alliances began to form between teams before the mission even started. At the route of all problems was – surprise, surprise – trashy, plastic Megan, who formed too many alliances, causing Destiny, Mr. Boston and Brandi C. to be chosen as the three bottom players.

Originally, Megan, Brandi C. and Mr. Boston formed an alliance with 12 Pack, the winning team’s captain, to try and get White Boy’s name into the box, as he’s seen as the biggest threat. However, plans were brought to a halt when Megan and White Boy formed an alliance together to save each other, which they did, but not before Megan threw her prior “partners in crime” under the elimination bus. Read More »

The weekend is over. You still feel hungover. You have no idea where all your money went. And where is that other shoe? I mean, how the hell did you get home with only one shoe? Ugh, and now you have to be up and chipper for that damn internship that doesn’t pay you anything anyway. Not that you do anything there. You just sit around waiting for someone to give you something to do while you refresh Facebook/CollegeCandy every 5 minutes.

Yeah, it all really sucks, but let’s be honest….you still look a whole lot better than this.

What the hell happened to Madonna? Her face is sinking in! And look at those scary arms! I wonder if her baseball boyfriend turned her on to the ‘roids?

Poor lady. All that marriage drama and weird religion bullsh*t is really taking its toll on the pop superstar. She used to be a fashion/sex/music icon and now…now, all she is doing is making me feel a whole lot better about my Monday-morning-under-eye-circles.

Thanks, Madge!

[Photo courtesy of TheSuperficial.com. Love it!]

The first date… those three words alone are enough to fill my soul with terror. The person likes you enough to go out with you, but did they just agree to be nice, or do they really like you? Do they mean to be friends? Have you just completely misjudged their advances? What if they act really overzealous? What if they act really uninterested?

It’s clear that there’s a lot to worry about when you meet up with somebody for the first time, so try to cross at least one thing off of the Worry List by having a low-stress meal. These five things are not the way to go for first date fare:

1. Mexican.

Refried beans are soooo delicious, yes, but the effects are musical, and you really don’t want that to happen at an inopportune time.

2. Sandwiches/burgers more than three inches thick.

Honestly, these are the most annoying things ever, and they will embarrass you when you least expect it. When you finally maneuver the thing so that it’s possible to put it in your mouth, everything inside it will inevitably spill out onto either your hands or your lap. (Editor’s Note: Sounds familiar to the bedroom festivities later. Ayoooo!) You can’t eat them with a knife and fork, either, for fear of looking like an extreme neatnik. Read More »

If you’re a fashion fanatic like myself, then you’re always on the look out for the latest trends and the hottest new designers. Perhaps, like me, you’ve dreamed of being able to design your own clothes, but (also like me), don’t possess the craftiness to do so. Well, thanks to Andrea Marron, now you can.

Andrea Marron, a recent graduate of the University of Rochester, is already on the road to success in the fashion world. She got a headstart, having started Studio 28 Couture while she was still in school. Andrea is different from most up and coming designers, not only because her website is a unique concept in the world of fashion, but because she graduated from school with a degree in optical engineering, not exactly the norm for fashion designers out there.

Andrea took the scientific approach she learned in her studies and mixed it with her passion for fashion and her entrepreneurial attitude in order to create Studio 28 Couture, a company that lets you design your own one-of-a-kind dress and have it custom made for you. The dresses are vintage-inspired, handmade by local seamstresses and delivered to you within three weeks. Read More »