"Nurse! Quick! Hand Me the Vagina!"

Yep, you read that title correctly

Sorry if that made you uncomfortable or if you deem that title (and possibly the entirety of this post) unnecessary, but it definitely pertains to my blog post for tonight.  So if you think that the word is weird or disgusting or inappropriate, please read up on my interpretation of it all.

(Talk about "Vaginas" that is - apparently)

It's not usual for the word "vagina" to come out of peoples mouths or even come up in conversation and the whole reason I am talking so much about it is because I just recently saw UCSD's rendition of The Vagina Monologues.

The Vagina Monologues is an episodic play created by Eve Ensler.  As Wikipedia describes it (and although it is Wikipedia, I believe the summary of the play is accurate):

"Each of the monologues deals with an aspect of the feminine experience, touching on matters such as sex, love ,rape, menstruation, female genital mutilation, masturbation, birth, orgasm, the various common names for the vagina, or simply as a physical aspect of the body.  A recurring theme throughout the piece is the vagina as a toll of female empowerment, and the ultimate embodiment of individuality."

I first went to The Vagina Monologues last year with a few of my friends and was not sure at all what in the world to expect.  All that people were telling me about it was that, "it's about female empowerment" and "its just feminists complaining about men."   But I kept an open mind and thought it would be a good experience to go and see the show, I mean its college right? The time of your life to go out of your comfort zone and learn not just about yourself but about others right?  Well, I am definitely glad I went.

The play was held in a ballroom in the hub on campus and there was a row of tables outside the entrance with a bunch of offices expressing the different resources they have for students to become more comfortable with themselves whether it be due to previous sexual assault or other traumatic experiences.  Walking past these I was starting to get nervous.  What did I just sign up for? 

We entered the ballroom and inside were some merchandise tables where The Vagina Monologues crew were selling T-shirts with "Vagina Warrior" or "Vagina Lover" on them, panties with "CUNT" boldly written on it, as well as "P*ssy Pops" which were little chocolate lollipops in the shape of .... you guessed it, Vaginas.  Naturally at this point, as a straight male, I was preparing my will in my head and readying to just have a woman come up on stage for the performance and call out me and every other man for being a man and not being a woman and being wrong and nonsense.

-Me-

But boy was I wrong.

The show was spectacular.  The play consists of an array of monologues performed by an amazing cast of UCSD women who speak on serious matters related to their vaginas and how it was about time that the word vagina was no longer deemed as BLASPHEMOUS or anything. This is where my title actually comes into play where in one monologue, the women on stage list off not only all the different nicknames a vagina has, but also just about how disgusting and uncomfortable the word naturally sounds.  Humorously they say how it sounds like a medical device shouting "Nurse! Quick! Hand Me the Vagina!" ... they then say how even in sexual encounters, at the mention of the word, all hotness is lost, "Oooooh yes, now touch my vagina".... uuuuuh no thanks.

Some monologues are funny.  Some monologues are just straight up fact.  Some monologues are hard to listen to.  Some monologues are gut-wrenching and teary-eyed.  

But all the monologues are real.

Although at first I could not understand why the crap I was there...

But by the end, I could not wait for next year to watch it for I plan to watch this show every year.  This play is so powerful and such an important message to not only women but men too.  This year I went again and brought some more friends that had not seen the show because I knew deep down that they needed to see the show.  Also! I had a quite a few friends that were on the cast and knew how much it meant to them.  

At the end of the show we waited for the cast to come out and congratulated my friends on their performance not only to prove that we went, but to share with them that we are all there to support them because choosing to be in this show means that the powerful & important message it sends, means something special to them.  You can never have too many people supporting you in life.

The play may not necessarily be everyone's "cup of tea" but I think it has an important message and definitely opened my eyes to the reality of ... well, reality.

Wingin' It

MORE FOOD!

I kind of meant to not just talk about food on this blog but since it basically is an ultimate passion of my life (yep, just called it a passion), and since it says its part of my life on the header of my blog... Deal with it.

So the other day one of my friends was like "Yo ever since you talked about wanting Buffalo Wings I have been craving them so lets get some chicken wings" ... 1. of course I talk about food enough to make my friends crave certain foods and 2. Hell Yes was I down for getting some wings.

She yelped a place for Chicken Wings and we ended up deciding on a local sports bar/wing spot called DIRTY BIRDS!  You can find it on 4656 Mission Blvd in PB (Pacific Beach) in none other than San Diego!

And of course, since we are super cool and super smart (and super broke), we went on a Friday which is their HAPPY HOUR CHICKEN WING DAY where all chicken wing baskets were HALF OFF!

Here's the MENU! I made it extra big so you could see all the different delicious flavors they had.  And yes, those are the prices and we paid HALF for it! 

[5 piece for $3.50, 10 piece  for $6, and 20 piece for $11]

Needless to say that when I got the menu I was a little bit more than just slightly overwhelmed with all of the options and all of the possibilities.  I didn't quite know which ones I wanted and all I knew was that I wanted wings now.

CHECK OUT WHAT ME AND MY FRIENDS DECIDED AND DEVOURED

This was mine! - Dirty Ranch & Teriyaki

This is what my friends got 

(Left) Garlic Parmesan

(Right) Honey Mustard & BBQ

My favorite was of course the DIRTY RANCH - It was basically buffalo wings with ranch already on the wings which is what I dunk my buffalo wings in already so it was perfect for me

We definitely will be coming back to DIRTY BIRDS sometime soon because we got a lot more flavors to try out and a big appetite to appease.

Taco Tuesday? Tacos Every Day!

Funny story.  When I went back home my friends and I were eating some Mexican Food and they made the comment how they wished they had some good legit Mexican Food near their campuses (they study in Washington & New York) and I agreed with them not really thinking it through to which they were not happy.  "YOU GO TO SCHOOL IN SAN DIEGO LITERALLY ONLY A FEW MILES FROM MEXICO WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT!?" ... woops

It was then that I had realized my friends and I HAD had some Mexican Food like Vallarta's Carne Asada Fries but had yet to find a traditional taqueria and taken advantage of being so near Mexico to have real good Mexican Food without having to bring a passport with us for a meal.

So yesterday some of my friends and I needed some comfort food and found this great Mexican place that was delicious and magical and all that we needed and will be going there a lot more often I just know (and hope). Not only was the food good, traditional, and cheap... it was FAST!

I mean as soon as we passed the place while looking for parking we knew we made the right choice driving to this restaurant.

Mmmmmm $1.95 tacos

Maria's Mexican Cocina is the name of this delicious Mexican restaurant in Downtown San Diego that my friends and I thoroughly enjoyed!

        

First off they kicked us off by giving us some chips and salsa AND even some Queso Fundido which is basically like a cup of melted cheese delicious for dipping and its like some NACHOS for appetizer with no extra charge.  I also ordered an Horchata to test out just how authentic the place is and it was delicious! Not too cinnamony and not artificial.  It was Good!

For our main dish I got a plate of fish tacos and my friend got a chicken tamale and they were both amazingly delicious.   The fish tacos were fresh and crunchy and super savory.  I actually do think I enjoyed my friends' tamale a lot more than mine but they were both really good.  The tamale was fresh and homemade and not super filling but just right .... she finished the whole thing and is a very small individual so the fact she finished it says a lot about how good it was.

So in summation, my friends and I will be enjoying a lot more authentic Mexican Food more often - and I am excited! NOTHING IS HOLDING US BACK TO EAT MEXICAN FOOD!

Milkshakes Make Me Too Lazy to Go Out to the Yard

Why fight the urge? Milkshakes are delicious and you know it and I have never heard of someone having a disappointing experience while drinking a milkshake.  I apologize for the hint of aggression behind this post its just that this year I really learned what it meant to have a really delicious milkshake.

It was when I went to my first improv festival which was held at USC that I realized you don't have to only put ice cream and milk in a blender to have an awesome milkshake and the more sugary products you blend the better.

[I hired John Travolta to reenact me drinking milkshakes all weekend]

GROUND ZERO is the name of this student-run cafe at USC which is better known for its milkshakes than it's coffee (and I don't mind, I like coffee but damn those milkshakes are good) and you should really go check it out if you're in the area.  They're open weekdays from 8:30am-Midnight and weekends from 1:00pm-Midnight by the way, I looked it up.

 

LOOK AT THIS MENU!

Well, if you can zoom in somehow, look at it... there's a bunch of different mixtures where they'll mix in bananas, oreos, brownies, oreos, chai, marshmallows, snickers, peppermint, and/or twix... not all in one though of course, but you get the point.

Also, when we went they had specials based off of superheroes and holy crap were those amazing and I WAS SO HAPPY BECAUSE THERE WAS A BATMAN THEMED SHAKE AND IT WAS DELICIOUS.... Even if it wasn't my type of milkshake I most likely would have forced myself to like the shake because it was a Batman milkshake but that's besides the point. - It was banana, chocolate syrup, and Oreo cookies by the way so you can totally make it at home and feel just like Bruce Wayne when he orders Alfred to make some shakes for him.

But this was all a while ago, and actually a few days ago I told my friends about this place and we decided to recreate some of these milkshakes.  We didn't look up the actual milkshakes but we ran over to Target and followed our hungry stomachs to whatever we wanted.  We bought some vanilla ice cream, Twix, peppermint patties, chocolate syrup, and unfortunately lactose-free milk because my friend is lactose intolerant but hey they were still good.

[Hard at Work]

The milkshakes were great and we only got a little bit of the concoction on the ceiling (not joking) and we may have made a mess on the kitchen counter but it was awesome.  So whether you're still at home, at college, or just plain hungry, I recommend you get your blender and mix in whatever you want and I promise you will not regret it.

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