What do I love? LEGGINGS! ♥

LEGGINGS, I have neglected you for so long. I hope you find it in your (sheer) hearts to forgive me.

My my my! Leggings have been in the racks for a VERY VERY VERY long time and it took me so much time to realize that they, in fact, look very good on a skinny body! I KNOW RIGHT?! So sue me.

I used to pride myself for having well-shaped legs due to years of dancing and table tennis so I love wearing shorts of all kinds. And those tight low rise jeans, THEY'RE MY TRUE LOVE. Although I'd love an additional inch or two for my legs, I was very proud of them. But I guess I spent too much time and money on all the other more "solid" bottoms and never paid attention to leggings..until now.

I only own two pairs of leggings, black and brown, and I use them for "cover up" when I'm wearing a long blouse. They kind of doubled as stockings. I used to think they were very tacky. I only wore them to show off my trench-like dresses but I never knew they'd look very good on me until one day I experimented and wore leggings with a cute short dress, flats, and a trendy bag. I looked divine. (Sorry, no pics. :p After all, this is an apology letter for leggings and not a camwhoring with an excuse.)

Come to think of it, leggings actually go well with skirts, shorts, short dresses, frilly tops, coats and so much more! Of course you already know that. Forgive the gushing. Ijustcan'thelpit!

So anyway, it might be a little late but it's still in the way you carry your outfit. There IS such a thing as fashionably late, isn't there?

♥bitch varsity team captain

Bitch Tip #5: Minimize Eating Out

Eating out bills are made up of cost of food + overhead + service (+ restaurant name!). So eating out costs a lot more than eating at home. Also, the same poison works for spending for overpriced coffee. Bring a “baon” at home or in school, or better yet, choose a clean kitchenette (karinderia), have a daily meal budget and ACTUALLY stick with it.

If you like eating out because it lets you catch up with friends, hold a poker/karaoke/board game night at a friend's house instead. Have easy-to-prepare meals and you may even throw in a bottle of wine. At the end of the day you'll still have fun and you'll save a lot more versus ordering entrees or paying for cocktails and overprices hors d'ouvres.

Bitch Tip #4: Save Up on Manicure Touch Ups

Seriously, the cheapest salon manicure I know costs P50 and the most expensive one (the basic one, not the one with nail art) costs P120. The thing with manicures is that they should always look perfect so you will be pressured to keep them up, or simply keep your nails looking natural.

If you are used to getting a manicure (especially with a colored nail polish on) it’s difficult to get by with naked nails. Plus, there's the pressure brewing if you go to a place where all the female members have manicure-maintained nails. (An expensive college? A bank executives floor?)

My advice: get a manicure set and do it at home. This helps you spend time with yourself, away from chores and work, lets you save, and most of all, you can pick the exact color that you want. If you don’t want that, get a basic manicure session, skip the color and do with colorless polish.

Bitch Varsity's Exclusives: My signature nail color is a sweep of glitters (one coat)and pink translucent polish (two coats). It looks just timid, classy, unique and healthy. Get your own signature color too! :)

Bitch Tip #3: Slash Your Laundry Budget

If you are living alone and has never been a fan of handwashing, you are most likely spending wads of cash to the laundry shop. THAT, or you’re simply extravagant and you want to have ridiculously sweet smelling clothes all the time. (SIGH. Such heaven.)

Laundry services costs start at P15 per kilo. A 2-person household with both people working can accumulate around 12 kilos of laundry a week, excluding bedsheets, pillowcases, curtains, etc. Imagine how much you can save if you did your own laundry!Plus there are laundry shops which charge extra for whites and "industrial" laundry. My advice is, you classify your laundry according to the complexity of it being handwashed. Jeans should be grouped together with heavy-material tops, bedsheets, pillowcases, etc. Send them to laundry. The lighter ones: the “pambahay” clothes, underwear, hankies and socks, handwash them using a good detergent, apply fabric softener if you want, and schedule washing with a buddy so you’d still have fun while you’re at it.

Before there was Tide Total Care and Downy, having the laundry-shop quality was difficult to do with bare hands. Today, mankind has gone a long way. So have fun washing!

Secret shame: I actually find handwashing fun. I get challenged with heavy materials and white bedsheets! Don't.tell.anyone! :)

My Birthday Wish List

Tomorrow, I will be officially leaving the teenage planet and if I make mistakes naivete won't be a valid excuse ANYMORE.

So, bad thoughts aside, I deserve the right to be a little self-indulgent. Here's my birthday wish list: (GET ME SOME GOODIES, BIATCH!)

1. Atonement; book by Ian McEwan
2. A pair of Dupe/ Havaianas/ Old Navy Slippers
3. A pair of pointed black leather shoes
4. A new mascara in brown-black or black
5. A massage! (sigh)
6. Simple, Everyday Silver Earrings
7. Albums Almost Kinda Acoustic 1, 2 and 3
8. A new phone! (pref. LG KS360, SE W302/ W395/C702, Nokia E71 or Samsung Star)
9. A BIG BOUQUET (sigh!)
10. A coat-like dress
11. A pair of boots (brown or black)
12. An uninterrupted day with....nobody nobody but you :)

Other Uses for THE POKER FACE

I've recently mastered the art of displaying the POKER FACE. And I've found it to be heavily useful in other things, namely:

1. When Your Parents Scold You For Going Home Late
2. When You're Doing Flea Market Shopping (don't appear too eager!)
3. When Beggars Ask for Alms And You Don't Wanna Give 'Em A Slice of Your Hard Earned Cash
4. When Your Lover Arrives Home Very Late And Asks You What's For Dinner
5. When Your Good-For-Nothing Employee Asks For a Raise
6. When An Overly Excited Insurance/ Encyclopedia/ Condominium Salesman Approaches You
7. For Mugshots
8. For Wedding Photos Where You Hate the Bride/ Groom
9. When You're Seriously Blogging (he! he!)
10. When You're on a Bitter Blind Date (not that I've been on one..)
11. When an Angry-Looking Dog is Shooting You Eye Daggers
12. Bumping Into an Ex Who Used to be Good Looking
13. When Trying to Shut Down an Overly Chatty Manicurista
14. When Your Pedophile Professor Winks at Your for the Nth Time

and lastly,

15. The Morning You Wake Up And Realize You've Turned 40

Bitch Tip #2: Facial Whitening Creams for the Underarms

I've always known they had to be good for something ELSE.

With all the Filipino obsession for fair skin, my four-woman household gave in to the curse and bought lots and lots of products in the Pond's whitening products range. I don't use whitening products for my skin because I'm already fair skinned (better use sunblock!) and I don't wanna look like those kids in Twilight.

So yeah, this is what I do: I use the Pond's whitening facial wash and creams FOR MY UNDERARMS. When I have more time, I also use them for my elbows and knees for that white-all-over look. And when I wear sleeveless, it's just...pretty. :)

Bonus: Such products are also designed to make your skin more supple so when you tweez or wax, the hair comes off more easily and pain is lessened.

lots of love and beauty,

♥bitch varsity♥

Booty Call

I can feel it rising
that familiar itch
The longing for some
Weight pulling me down
And taking me high
At the same time
In inexplicably loud breaths
And the aroma of
Sweat and other
Forbidden liquids
Filling the air
Along with
Raspy sounds
of muffled words
of opposite nature
“Yes, yes” and
“stop, don’t, stop”
More “yes, yes”
Until---
Both of us are breathless

Fake me some lovin’
some nail-scratchin'
good old hair pullin'

Today,
anyone would
Just do
Just fill the void
And take me
home with you

Bitch Tip # 1: Use Bond Paper Instead of Wax Strips

If you're using cold wax instead of hot wax (ouch!) use bond paper (pref. substance 20) instead of the wax strips. Bond paper takes off more hair in one strippin' so it saves you time waxing. It hurts more though; but just make the strippin' off quick and promise the results will be worth it. :)

GOSSIP GIRL: Examined

I actually knew Gossip girl as a book series back when I was still in high school. (Note: I’ve finished college already.) Today, every high school and college girl must have heard of Gossip girl. This is because Gossip girl has turned into this sensational TV series featuring highly fashionable clothes and a ridiculously good looking crew.

Gossip girl is all about a certain group of affluent students in Upper East Side, New York who are in a seemingly tight place to be climbing up an already crowded social ladder. The most controversial crowd includes:

1. Blair, the “Queen Bee”, a daughter of a famous fashion designer also known as evil sugarcoated
2. Serena, a reformed party girl and Blair’s best friend
3. Nate, Blair’s long time boyfriend who fell for Serena
4. Chuck, a rash play boy who is the son of a rich businessman
5. Jenny, a middle class girl trying to get into Blair’s posse
6. Dan, Jenny’s brother, became Serena’s boyfriend after a few fateful meetings

Gossip girl features this anonymous web site where everybody who is a somebody is featured. This web site thrives in nothing but gossip—who is dating who, where they’re going to college, what (insert name here) wore during the last pool party, who is the latest social climber, etc. Basically, every other person’s life in the Upper East Side is just another tragedy waiting to happen.

What alarms me is that this show has a lot to do with problematic female behavior. Males where taught to deal with difficult situations physically. Two men eyeing the same woman at a bar? A fistfight finishes the story. Computer game buddy getting on your nerves? Fistfight finishes the story. A cheater at gambling? Fistfight all the way. (Not that I encourage it.) However, women are not “trained” that problems should be dealt with physically. Instead, women adopt a slyer and scheming approach: gossip.

The show Gossip girl feeds the notion that gossip is okay and that it is an effective defense against people who seem to want to destroy your life. A gossip is countered by a more poisonous gossip, and this starts a cycle of hatred where there is no end goal but to murder the image of a person. What’s more, the danger multiplies because in Gossip girl, the people are expected to hang out with a particular posse, which is composed of people who are willing to invent the nastiest rumor just to protect a member of this posse. Basically, it’s just like the classic Filipino frat war—just as heartless albeit bloodless.

Moreover, there are a lot of things in Gossip girl which are disapproved by most Filipino minds today. Things such as casual sex, cheating, rebellion, revenge, drug addiction, gambling, catfights and social climbing are presented in Gossip girl in a very natural way, as if it is as natural as the sun rising and setting. What’s worse, they sugarcoat these cultural detriments by hiding them under the coat of glam and good looks.

As one of the most awaited shows of the whole world (thanks to outstanding marketing), Gossip girl received mixed reviews during their first few week of airing. In fact, the Parents Television Council of America labeled Gossip Girl as “Mind-blowingly Inappropriate”, “A Nasty Piece of Work” and “Every Parent’s Nightmare”. If that’s not enough, people who ACTUALLY live in the Upper East Side also accused Gossip Girl of over-glamorizing their lifestyles. Tsk tsk.

Anyway, I won’t be a hypocrite here. I was also addicted to Gossip girl. It was that addiction which made me examine it a little bit deeper (I actually rewatched Seasons 1 and 2!). Sure, the clothes are great and everyone is just ridiculously attractive. Gossip girl is a guilty pleasure, a sin chamber, and you know you love it (anyway). But we have to take a good look at our values again and not be taken by this storm of evil disguising as a TV show.

Got something to say? Email it to me —live_out_loud@ymail.com. Gossip girl’s third season is just coming up, and we’ll all be waiting…or not.