Dear Glee, You Make Me Sad

Show I don't think I can bring myself to watch again: Glee

It started with simple things; this season has been fraught with story lines that I do not care about at all (for starters), so I've mostly been tuning in for performances. Then, performances started getting lazy. There is no excuse for resting on your laurels, and I will lose my shit if I see Rachel Berry make another anguished face regardless of what she's singing about. But when performances got stale, the Puck/Original Elpheba storyline got kind of cute. Then she slept with him and I was like, well I could've done without that. You're a grown woman and I don't care if he is 18. You have a child to provide for and how are you supposed to do that when you lose your job for having an affair with a student. Tsk.

I will say, I've enjoyed the Brittany centric episodes. She's kind of a dingbat, but she's completely comfortable with who she is, and I love her singing voice. Other characters I wish they had given more screen time to: Mike Chang, Coach Beiste, and in particular Santana. And that's what I really want to talk about.

Her coming out episode, was awful.

I said it.

The entire episode is about other people telling her why she should come out, more importantly that she needs to, because it will make them feel better. They sing songs originally written and performed by women as if that's what finally makes a closeted homosexual realize that all of their fears and worries are ridiculous and everyone they know and love and admire will continue to see them the exact same way regardless of the secret they've finally found the strength to disclose. And maybe some have been moved by music, I don't doubt that for a second. But to be told that you have to come out? You are forcing a person out of the closet. You have staged an intervention. And while it might work for a drug addict to see how they're hurting the people they love, a homosexual is afraid that by being honest about who they are with the ones they love that it will drive them away, not heal the pain. The people "trying to help" are being selfish. They aren't doing this for her benefit. They're doing it for themselves. The entire episode is absurd.

And, to make it even more asinine and misogynistic, when Santana finally does come out to everyone, she sings Katy Perry's 'I Kissed a Girl.' Which isn't actually even about liking girls. It's about liking girls because it turns your boyfriend on.


Shame on you Glee. You have an audience that needs to know it's okay to come to things on your own terms. In your own time. In your own way. You need to hold yourself to a higher standard, or get off the air.


For more reference on Glee and their terrible handling of this story line and proof that I'm not alone on this (and for more feminist rants) see this enlightening article over at fempop. This woman knows what's up.

Home For the Holidays

Since we're coming up on the holidays I've been thinking a lot about family and how you show one another that you care. Growing up our family only saw our extended relatives, aunts cousins grandparents etc., at gatherings before Christmas Day itself. We would get together at my dad's parents early in the month, or sometimes we would actually wait until after Christmas to see my mom's side but we never did anything on the day itself. I remember a few times when we had family over for Thanksgiving but that didn't last long, for whatever reason. My main point here is that Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day were always the days where we just hung out at home as a family and didn't go anywhere or do anything. We called family or friends but we never had anywhere to be or anyone to dress up for. We had a semi-traditional meal on Thanksgiving, but I don't honestly remember if we always ate at the table and for Christmas dad would cut up a ham but we never had an actual meal planned. We would just sit around and veg all day. And I loved that.

Being in a relationship has seriously thrown a kink in that plan. Our first Christmas together I hated the idea that I had to leave the apartment. I was fine with going to my parents house but I would have rather waited a day to go to his parents because I just don't like that on a day when I've been practically trained to be lazy I have to be presentable and punctual. The first Thanksgiving was rough. There was no way I was ready to eat two meals like that in one day. But us going on four years together now (I think?) I'm used to the rushed scheduling.

Last year my parents decided to have Christmas on Christmas Eve. It worked out fantastically. We hung out, got a little drunk, took a nap, rallied, got a little drunk again, and laughed at presents. Then we went home and slept and the next day we went to his parents house. Perfect. For some reason, both years we had to do Thanksgiving on the day itself with his parents. Which I get works for everyone else because they have office jobs where Thanksgiving is a holiday where they don't make money. But I work in retail and we do make money on that day, and the day after. And I have to be there super early when we open. Why is it inconsiderate of me to say, hey sorry in-laws I can't make it because I came home from work at 2:45 this morning and I go back in at 8 tonight for 13 hours and I'd like to sleep a lot because I'll need the energy? But Jeremy brings my love. I like to assume that they would they understand.

So I decided that when we have kids, we're not doing anything for the holidays. We'll see family before or after but on the days itself, I don't want to leave the house. I see no reason to. Getting together on major holidays and birthdays does not make you a family, and taking pictures at that time doesn't show others that you're a family. Keeping in touch throughout the year, calling, texting, hanging out with no motives (like needing to ask your parents for money) or pretext, these things keep you close. Having a few days out of the year to catch up on each others lives seems like cheating at being family. Maybe I'm biased because of my upbringing but getting together to exchange gifts and have a good time doesn't automatically mean it's Christmas to me. It just means that this time everyone brought gifts.

Crap, I still haven't put up my tree!

More Things Going Wrong in Our Apartment

Our stove, for starters. It apparently only heats to 300 now, and at that it takes almost an hour for it to heat up. We finally got the drainage problem all fixed and now the stove is going to hell. That's not that big of a deal. It's probably just some internal crap and we'll end up with a new stove. Cool, whatever. But there's also the issue of our shower.

The cold water handle broke off today. So before when we had no hot water, and only cold, we now have no cold water and only hot. Which I suppose is better. I can take shorter showers and still be more clean than if I took longer ones. Because I'm basically boiling myself in there now. It's awesome, let me tell you.

So the new plan now (the previous one where we just toughed it out for a few more years until our student loan debt was a little more under way is completely ridiculous) is find a For Sale by Owner and get the fuck out. Like, now.