Fashion Throughout the Decades

I am sure many of you have seen this amazing video floating through the blogosphere but I wanted to post it too cause it is just so much fun.  Happy Friday.

Hot Potato

 

That is what one guy is calling me after watching me play in my first rugby match. Every time I got the ball I would immediately pass it on as if it was the kiss of death. Funny how that works. You would think I would want the ball cause maybe I could score a try or at least help gain some yardage and receive fame and glory from my teammates. But the truth of the matter is that getting the ball means getting chased and tackled. Getting tackled meast having big girls break my bones and broken bones means difficulty in life :)

Which explains the hot potato passing.  Not what I recommend since I wasn't actually looking for my teammate, I was more just hucking it to the side and hoping she was there to catch it.  Who knew that maybe it is important to look where I am throwing the ball. I am working on that.  I might actually be getting better at this game.  I might actually understand about 10% of what is going on, which is a huge improvement.  But I do love my teammates.  I am feeling more and more accepted and that is a cool thing to find something like this at 29 years old. I thought my chances of being a cool athlete were behind me (who am I kidding...it never happened) so this is fun for me.

Did I mention that I have another game Saturday.  Want to come cheer us on?

UC Berkeley is at it Again

Controversy erupts over Campus Republicans bake sale plans

By the CNN Wire Staff

updated 7:52 AM EST, Sun September 25, 2011

Here is an excerpt please read it and tell me what you think. I think they may have a point.
...But it's not your everyday collegiate fundraiser they've got in mind. They've developed a sliding scale where the price of the cookie or brownie depends on your gender and the color of your skin.


During the sale, scheduled for Tuesday, baked goods will be sold to white men for $2.00, Asian men for $1.50, Latino men for $1.00, black men for $0.75 and Native American men for $0.25. All women will get $0.25 off those prices.


click HERE to watch the video

(CNN) -- Campus Republicans at the University of California Berkeley have cooked up a storm of controversy with their plans for a bake sale.

But it's not your everyday collegiate fundraiser they've got in mind. They've developed a sliding scale where the price of the cookie or brownie depends on your gender and the color of your skin.

During the sale, scheduled for Tuesday, baked goods will be sold to white men for $2.00, Asian men for $1.50, Latino men for $1.00, black men for $0.75 and Native American men for $0.25. All women will get $0.25 off those prices.

"The pricing structure is there to bring attention, to cause people to get a little upset," Campus Republican President Shawn Lewis, who planned the event, told CNN-affiliate KGO. "But it's really there to cause people to think more critically about what this kind of policy would do in university admissions."

Lewis says it's a way to make a statement about pending legislation that would let the California universities consider race or national origin during the admission process.

But the young Republicans have been on the receiving end of a fierce backlash. Reaction has been so negative they've been forced to cancel their customary lunchtime tabling duties, according to KGO.

Lewis told CNN's Don Lemon that they expected a certain amount of opposition but not the level of outrage they experienced.

"We didn't expect the volume, the amount of response that we got," Lewis said. "In the first few hours, hundreds of posts on our Facebook page. And the tone of some of the responses -- we expected people to be upset. We didn't expect personal threats to be made. They were implicit and explicit threats made to the organizers of the event, from burning down the table to throwing our baked goods at us and other kinds of physical threats."

Tim Wise, author of the book "White Like Me: Reflections on Race from a Privileged Son," calls the bake sale a "sarcastic and rather smarmy slap at people of color."

"There are a lot of ways to make a point about your disagreement with affirmative action," Wise told Lemon Saturday night.

"I get the joke," he continued. "How very original. It's been done for 15 years. The point that I think needs to be made ... is that by the time anyone steps on a college campus ... there has already been 12- to 13-years of institutionalized affirmative action for white folks, that is to say, racially embedded inequality, which has benefited those of us who are white. And it's only at the point of college admissions that these folks seem to get concerned with color consciousness."

Lewis insists, however, that Campus Republicans will go ahead with their bake sale and are committed to their controversial pricing structure.

Homemade Fall Wheat Wreath

I have wanted a beautiful fall wreath for quite sometime now.  I looked at several stores and either found ones that I loved that were too expensive or ones I could afford and I thought were nasty ugly.  So I decided to make my own, which is the one pictured above.  I was inspired by these Martha Stewart wreaths below.

This is how I did it.

1. Bought a Grapevine Wreath from Hobby Lobby. Mine was 14" in diameter and it cost me $2.70 cause they were having a sale. SCORE.  Normally they cost $4.

2. Bunch of Wheat (I got mine at Tai Pan) for $3
3. Ribbon

Cut the wheat stem to be about 6 inches long (not including the wheat flower part). Randomly stick the wheat into the wreath and try to lay it flat so the wheat pieces don't stick up weird. Remember to continually go in the same direction with you wheat.  It took me about 20 minutes to do, so it is fast and I think looks pretty cute for only costing like $6. Tie the ribbon on and BAM you are done.

Survived My First Rugby Match

Yesterday was my first rugby game. After only having 3 practices in my whole life, I was extremly nervous and had high hopes that my coach was planning on having me just warm the bench and watch how the game is played. Oh man I couldn't have been more wrong.  We played three 30 minute thirds.  In rugby the ball/game never really stops moving so there are no resting periods.  He called me in about half way through the second third and had me playing right wing.  About 3 minutes into being on the field, I got the ball and froze cause I didn't know what to do with it. It was as if all the practicing and logical processes left my brain. The whole game went silent. Girls were yelling at me to run, but I was frozen in fear.  Well that fear ended really quickly when a girl weighing about 200 pounds charged and tackled me.  Yep, woke me right up and I figured out what to do after that.  My coach was laughing on the sidelines and yelled "Leah, welcome to the game of Rugby!"

I played the rest of the second third and then at the beginning of the third third he moved me to outside center (a position that runs all over the field).  I did alright and almost scored a try (a touchdown in rugby).  I was so tired when the whistle was blown.  Oh my goodness.  I had so much fun and pretty much didn't know what I was doing out there, but my teammates were amazing and coached me through the whole thing.  I am already feeling much more like a part of a team.  Go Boulder Babes! I had a huge cheering section too. My cousin Kristen, her husband Dan, their baby, my hubby, and our two great friends that live across the street, Kristy and Collin. Thanks for the support guys.

PS. We won like 55 to 0!

10 Years Ago

My dearest friend Katelyn posted an eloquently written story about her experience coupled with my experience of that dreadful day ten years ago. Please read it. Here is hers and here is mine. As I read the names of those on United flight 93 I am sick with grief to think what if...what if I had used my dad's United miles...what if he wasn't inspired to tell me to use his Continental miles instead?  What if the terrorists decided to take my plane instead?  How terrifying that must have been for those on board.  Both of our planes left an hour apart from each other at the same airport.  My heart is heavy and tears are right at the surface.  I think of that dear family that housed me in Houston, Texas.  I think of the fear that that day brought to so many.  My heart goes out to those who lost loved ones to such a tragic act of violence.

Like Katelyn so beautifully expressed...
September 11, 2001 was THE defining political moment of my generation. Much like the assignation of Martin Luther King Jr., or the bombing of Pearl Harbor was to those before me. The image of 3 firefighters raising a flag at Ground Zero has become as iconic and recognizable to me as the image of 6 soldiers raising a flag a top Mount Iwo Jima is to my grandparents. It’s hard to believe a decade has past since that harrowing day, I can remember so much of it, so vividly, I think we all can. I give it several moments of my thoughts every year and tomorrow may get a few more. I love my country. I love the hope and opportunity it resonates. I hope this ten year anniversary can help us, or remind us of that commonality we once all shared there for a while. As we heard so often those several months following…May God continue to bless the USA.  

The coverage in New York Magazine has been beautiful. 

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