Thursday, December 27, 2012

Christmas with the Other Family

The holidays are a time to spend with family. Sometimes that family isn't yours. Anyone who is a part of a "so-and so" and "so-and-so" usually has to make the decision of whether to spend the holidays with their significant other's family or with their own. The smart way to make the decision is to figure out which family will be having more fun. (My sister's boyfriend's famous line is "That sounds like something fun to do with your sisters" whenever my sister mentions some holiday-heavy event that he doesn't really want to go to, such as the Nutcracker or the Rockettes.) But, there are times when you don't have a choice in the matter.

A friend of mine, who I will call "C", recently told me a Christmas story.* Every year, C and her wife have a day with the wife's family when they exchange gifts Secret Santa style and take part in a Yankee swap. Every year, C mentions to her wife that she might sit out this year. But, at the wife's insistence that C sitting out will disappoint her family, C decides to participate.

Their Secret Santa is an elaborate process in which all of the names (C, wife, 2 sisters-in law, 2 brothers-in-law, and parents-in-law) are emailed to a friend, and then the friend emails them all back with their Secret Santa assignment.

This year, C was excited. For the Secret Santa, she had her mother-in-law and had bought a nice pair of leather gloves. For the Yankee swap, she had gotten a cool pair of earmuffs with built-in headphones, perfect for jogging or walking in the winter weather. Everyone gathered at Sister-in-Law #1's house. The gift exchange was underway! C watched everyone exchange gifts, and when the exchange was over, she looked down...at her empty lap.

You see, Brother-in-Law number #1 had "forgotten" to get C a gift. C would normally be understanding about something like this...except that this is the second time that this had happened. So, C sat there watching everyone open their presents. C's mother-in-law advised that she thought the new gloves that C gave her were the wrong size. C's sister-in-law went into another room and emerged wearing her brand new pajamas. And C sat with her empty hands and her visions of sugar plums.

And when it came time for the Yankee Swap, C got a lovely...jar opener.



When C and her wife returned home, her wife wearing her brand new gifted sweater, C casually mentioned that she probably would sit out the gift-giving the next year. To which her wife responded, "What? You have to. It means so much to my family!"

*Name has been changed to protect the innocent's marriage.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Anyone Can Be a Detective

It's probably new to no one except me that Google has a reverse image search function, meaning that you can plug the image into the search bar, and if that picture is anywhere on the internet, Google will be able to find it. I learned that from Nev on Catfish.

This week, I decided to go Encyclopedia Brown on this guy's ass. "Kevin" had contacted me online a few years ago and sent his picture. We spoke for a few days, and then he started getting weird. He had a ridiculous obsession with girls in boyshorts. And would inexplicably send me pictures of girls...in boyshorts, most of them of a female "friend" of his. I started to get creeped out and stopped talking to him.

After my radio silence, he sent an email telling me that he had sent me a fake picture, and he actually wasn't who he said he was. He had sent a picture of his friend. My response was, "Well, can you fix me up with that guy," because he was pretty cute. And he answered, "Yeah, I guess I can ask if he'll talk to you." About a day later, I received a message from a "Mike". I was pretty sure that it was the same guy as "Kevin", but at this point, it was kind of amusing.

Needless to say, I stopped talking to both Kevin and/or Mike within a day or so because he and/or they were just plain weird.

Going through some old emails for blog material, I came across the Kevin/Mike exchange and the guy's picture. Wondering who this guy might be, I plugged his image into Google. And his linkedin picture came up. [Just a note: no fairy-tale ending here, the real Kevin/Mike is married.]

Let's break down the facts, ma'am. Fake Kevin/Mike had about 8 pictures of this guy, and the female friend, AND the two of them together. So, it had to have been someone who had access to these pictures somehow. It was most likely someone that he knew. Doing a little bit more research from the name on the linkedin profile, I discovered real Kevin/Mike's facebook page and that he was married to the "female friend". Now, here was the dilemma. I would want to know if someone was sending my picture to strangers on the internet and claiming that it was me. I would especially want to know if he was sending pictures of my wife! But, I would also be kind of creeped out if some random girl Ace Ventura-ed me.

Not usually one to be embarrassed, I believed that the right thing to do would be to let real Kevin/Mike know about fake Kevin/Mike. And so, I sent him this:

"Hi! You don't know me personally. This is very weird and random, but I thought that you should know. I know I would want to! A couple of years ago, I met a guy online. He told me that his name was Kevin and he sent me your picture AND a picture of your wife. As we talked more, he sent me more and more pictures of you two, so I think that it must be someone that you know. We only talked for a couple of days because he started to seem sketchy, so I ultimately stopped talking to him.
I reversed google image searched you so that I could tell you because I think that if a friend of mine was sending out my picture and pictures of my wife to random strangers on the internet, I would want to know that. I can give you more information if you need or want it. Or you can just ignore this message which is ok too. I just wanted to let you know."

I'm not sure if I'll hear back from the real Kevin/Mike. But, hopefully, I have rid the world of one more lying liar. I can't help but think that real Kevin/Mike's wife in her boyshorts is smiling at me from somewhere else...or maybe she's horrified by the whole ordeal because her husband is showing her racy pictures to all of his friends.

Thursday, December 13, 2012

Things you Shouldn't Do Post-30 while Socially Drinking

I frequently channel my inner Murtagh by saying in a gruff, gravelly voice, "I'm too old for this shit". And it mostly happens when I'm out having a couple of drinks. But, sometimes I wonder whether other people realize that they're also too old to do some of this shit. So, I thought I would be helpfully patronizing by submitting my list of things that people shouldn't do once they've hit 30 if they're out drinking socially. I realize that I'm going to sound extremely stodgy here...let's just hope it's in an endearing "Get off my lawn! Leave an old lady in peace!" way.

1.) Standing in line to get into bars. Hopefully, by the time you've hit 30, you've realized that the alcohol they serve at the bar next door with no line is exactly the same as the alcohol that they serve in the bar for which you've been standing in line for 20 minutes, in the freezing cold, surrounded by too many loud drunk guys looking at their phones and loud drunk girls who should be looking for the other parts of their dresses. You've also realized that whenever you actually do get into said bar, the likelihood of it actually being full is much less than the likelihood that the bouncers made you stand outside so that it looks like it's a popular place. Walk past the line and go to the bar next door. I say this not because you're too good to stand in a line (which you are), but because after 30 you're much more likely to ask to see the manager once you see that the bar is empty with a line outside and berate him for making you stand outside for 20 minutes and then get madder than Dave Seville after Alvin has pulled his most mischievous shenanigans. Best to go next door, enjoy a night of accessible bartenders, and write a nasty yelp review about the bar with the line when you get home.

2.) Referring to people as "Bro", "Bruh", or something that changes their name into Bro-something, like "Broseph" or "Brohammed". Unless your nickname is the Big Kahuna and you live in a surfboard storage shed on the beach, you should never refer to people as "bro" unless you're using it ironically. You'll notice that Barney Stinson always refers to the "Bro-Code", but he still calls Ted, "Ted".

3.) Hanging out with college kids. The over-used movie cliche in teen coming-of-age movies is the football star from last year who was a big deal in high school, but still comes to underage parties after everyone else has gone to college. I don't think that this is quite so bad, because sometimes you have friends that are still in high school and you like to see them when you're home for winter break. But, there is a real life version that involves people over 30 hanging out at college parties and this is not ok. Yes, college girls can be easy but legal. Yes, the booze is usually free. There's just something really sad about a 30 year old partying with a bunch of 20 year olds in the basement of a house that belonged to a professor in the 1920's. I would like to make an exception for people that belong in a fraternity and still go to the frat house to hang out with their "brothers"...but I can't. Speaking of people who are drunk and sad...

4.) Being a "sad drunk". It isn't overly enjoyable, but it is still tolerable when a 21 year old has had a little too much to drink and bursts into tears about how she doesn't have any friends, and how she really loves [insert name of man that she met at Hollister last week, but doesn't know his last name yet], but feels like he's never going to love her back, like really love her back. By the time you get to 30, the people that are around this girl every time this happens are pretty sick and tired of it. They would much rather be with the 30-year old drunk across the bar who's telling everyone in sight that she loves them and ordering everyone to do "I love you this much" shots.

5.) Sleeping around. So, in your 20's, it can be ok to have seen too many episodes of Sex and the City/Entourage and think of yourself as a liberated feminist/playboy that chews up men/women and spits them out on their "You'll call me, right?" face. But, when you hit 30, and people seem to be coupling up and settling down and popping out kids, then waiting till closing time every weekend to see whom you can bring home should make you feel a little bit washed-up. If it's not, you may want to re-watch Sex and the City 2 and Entourage Season 8, and then see how you feel.



Thursday, November 29, 2012

Steve and the Cowboy

I recently visited my friend from college, Steve, in Los Angeles. We had a great time! We even talked him into Disneyland, which is like at the bottom of the list of places you want to go to when you live in L.A.

One of the funniest things about Steve is that he doesn't watch television and doesn't really pay much attention to who sings what or who's in what movie. So, while he lives in L.A., and knows famous people, he has absolutely no idea that they're famous. Here are a few examples:

Example #1 (relayed to me by Patrick):
Steve: My friend, Neil, is on some dance show that I think you like.
Patrick: WHAT DANCE SHOW??
Steve: I think it's called So You Can Dance or something?
Patrick: Are you KIDDING me?? You're friends with 2007 So You Think You Can Dance Third-Place finisher Neil Haskell??????
Steve: I guess so.

Example #2 (after I saw Steve tagged in a facebook photo with one of my favorite actresses, Lizzy Caplan):
Me: Are you seriously in a facebook photo with Lizzy Caplan?
Steve: She's a friend of a friend. How do you know Lizzy?
Me: Are you seriously asking me how I know Lizzy Caplan?

Steve rarely cares when I let him know who these people actually are. But, on this visit, I was finally able to excite him about someone he had encountered in his past, that he didn't know he had encountered. While Steve, my sister, Stacy, and I were lounging around in the Roosevelt hotel lobby, Steve told us a story about something that had happened with him there one night.

It had happened the weekend of the Country Music Awards. Hollywood had been overrun with men in cowboy hats and boots and puffed out chests hanging out with women who were way too pretty to be hanging out with them. It also happened to be Steve's birthday, so he and his friends had gone out for drinks at the Hollywood version of a local dive. Steve, being the generous guy that he is, decided to buy one of the cowboys (let's call him Yosemite Sam because that's who I'm picturing in this story) and his way too pretty girlfriend a drink, stating excitedly, "It's my birthday! I'm buying drinks! I'll buy YOU a drink and YOU a drink!!" Yosemite Sam and PG acted grateful and wished him happy birthday and accepted the drinks. But, then while Steve was in the bathroom, Yosemite Sam exclaimed to the guys next to him (who happened to be Steve's friends), "Can you BELIEVE that guy??"

Now, rightfully, Steve's friends were bothered by this. Here was Steve, nice enough to buy Yosemite Sam and his girl a drink, on his own birthday, which they accepted. But, then the moment, Steve walks away, Yosemite Sam starts badmouthing him? So, they began to call him out on his assholery. Steve, coming back from the bathroom, is wondering why his friends are being mean to his new buddies. And, Steve and his friends leave.

Out on Hollywood Boulevard, Steve and friends are being followed by Yosemite Sam and a disinterested gigantic black man, who is most likely Yosemite Sam's bodyguard and probably has been through this song and dance before, even earlier that night, and who is just kind of lacklusterly watching the scene unfold. Steve's friends had explained to Steve, in the meantime, what Yosemite Sam had said, and now Steve is thinking "what in tarnation is that lily-livered bowlegged varmint thinking?", or so I imagine. So, Steve also starts getting in Yosemite Sam's face. Yosemite Sam is inexplicably hopping mad and throwing gibes at Steve and friends, hoping to insult their patriotism, but not being very good at it. Gibes like, "How many things do you have memorized?" "I bet you can't even name all the states." "My boots cost more than your HOUSE, City F*cks". Steve and his friends just looked at him in blank disbelief. At this point, Yosemite Sam started naming off books of the Bible (to prove how Christian American he is??)...and I mean, not like the ones that we all know, like Genesis and Matthew. Books like "the book of Habbakkuk" and "Zephaniah".

Steve and friends, by this point, have made it to the Roosevelt Hotel and enter it by bypassing the locked side door and going through the back. As Steve's milling around through the hotel, he hears yelling. He goes to the locked side glass door, and there's Yosemite Sam outside on the other side. The door was still locked from the outside, but Steve could have opened it from within. Yosemite Sam starts banging on the glass, yelling "LET US IN!" And Steve, with his face inches away from the glass, yells, "No! You were MEAN to me!" And Yosemite Sam's biscuits were burning. He begins to threaten to kick Steve's ass.

At this point, it finally dawns on Yosemite Sam that Steve and friends must have been able to get inside somehow. At the same time, Steve and friends are amped up and ready to "take it outside". So, both parties hightail it to the back door at the same time, and almost pass each other as Steve and friends run out and Yosemite Sam runs (and bored bodyguard saunters) in. *cue Benny Hill Yakkety Sax music* It should have been "go-time", but Steve and friends started to see the humor in the situation with all the chest-puffing and bemusedly decide to go off laughing into the night, leaving Yosemite Sam with smoke coming out of his ears outside the Roosevelt Hotel.

At the end of this tale, I asked Steve the real identity of Yosemite Sam. He responded, "Some country singer guy named John something or other."

I replied, "John who?"

Steve texted his friend to find out the answer..."John Rich. I don't know who he is."

I said, "Steve! You know who he is! He's in that Big & Rich group."

Steve just shook his head.

I said, "You know that song? 'Save a horse, ride a cowboy'?"

Steve's eyes grew wide. He exclaimed, "That song??!!! I chest-puffed with the guy who sings THAT SONG??!!"

All in all, I find this story and Steve's realization of who his attacker was hilarious. Hopefully, Steve has learned that sometimes situations are better when you "know people"...and that the Roosevelt Hotel is a good place to "ride a cowboy"...wait, that didn't come out right.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Don't Do Any of This Stuff

With the holidays coming up, I'm sure a lot of you will be traveling somewhere by plane. On a recent trip to California with my sister, Stacy, I made every airport-related mistake that exists in the known universe, short of forgetting to empty my pockets and then saying the word "bomb" in the security line. Just so you don't make the same mistakes that I made, I decided to give you some Travel Don'ts (Don't's?) for the holiday season.

1.) Don't forget that you have to actually travel to the airport.

None of us live at the airport. As someone who likes to plan ahead, I decided to look at the Logan Airport website to see what time they recommend that you arrive at the airport. They say during peak times, you should leave yourself at least two hours. Luckily, my flight was leaving at 10:30, which meant I would be arriving at the airport at an off-peak time. To give myself some extra time, I decided to be there by 8:30. And here's where I made the mistake. Just because you're arriving at the airport at an off-peak time, doesn't mean that you'll be driving there during an off-peak time. By forgetting this simple math, I ended up being one of those people who have to cut the line in security and then run through the airport with all of their bags a la Home Alone, barely making it to the gate on time. Speaking of security...

2.) Don't wear shiny sweaters.

We all know that in this post-9/11 world, you will most likely have to stand in a full-body scanner which shows every little anomaly on your body on a big computer screen. Sometimes if you're holding your passport in your hands, the passport will show up. Sometimes it'll pick up your bra clasp, or your shoe buckle or something. The TSA person usually pats that area and sends you on your way. While dressing for my trip to CA, I decided that I should probably dress in layers. And, the layer that I picked was a metallic cardigan. I went through the scanner. My image showed up on the screen. The TSA guard breathed, "Holy sh..." My entire computer-imaged torso was covered with green, blue and yellow dots. There was a moment of silence as I looked at the TSA people. They looked at me. Just before they were about to body slam me to the ground, I yelled out, "It's the sweater! It's the sweater!" And after I removed the sweater, luckily, my scan showed clean. Which leads me to...

3.) Don't expect airport people to know what they're doing

I'm betting that I wasn't the first metallically robed person to go through the scanner. Yet what would have happened if I hadn't pointed out that my sweater was the likely culprit of perceived terrorism? Would I be writing you from the "big house"? Why didn't anyone think to mention, "hey, you should probably put your sweater on the belt?" Once I was scanned, why was the first conclusion, "she must be carrying millions of tiny, little bombs on her upper half", rather than "her sweater is shiny"? As for other things that don't know what they're doing...

4.) Don't rely on the rental car's GPS.

On our way home, we were flying out of San Francisco Airport. As we were staying in Oakland, we figured that it would only be about 20-30 mins drive. We plugged it in the GPS which gave us a travel time of one hour and 15 minutes. We were very confused. So, we plugged in the airport again. Same thing happened. Making excuses, like "Oh it's probably one of those magic GPS's that knows the traffic conditions" and "Well, I haven't really stepped on the gas yet, so maybe it thinks we're going to drive 3 mph the whole way", we decided to just drive where it told us and hope for the best. As we got on the freeway, heading south, Stacy and I were both thinking, "We're probably not going the right way" but we drove on. After about 45 minutes of driving, it dawned on me that even though I had typed in San Francisco Airport, and the GPS read San Francisco Airport, it was sending me to the San Jose Airport. We quickly did a U-turn (...meaning we got off the exit, took a left, crossed a bridge, and got back on the highway) and barely made it to the airport in time for our version of Home Alone 2.  Of course, we didn't have time to buy snacks for the plane ride home, which brings me to Don't #5...

5.) Don't leave so little time before boarding that you can't buy snacks.

Back in the olden days, airlines served lunch and/or dinner. (And, yes, we also flew upwind both ways.) Nowadays, you can buy your lunch and/or dinner. Not that airline meals were anything to burst into song about before, but they were actually much more substantial back then when they were free. Now, the "meal" is equivalent to a Lunchable. And not the big box with the dessert kind. So, if you are on a long flight with only complimentary snacks and soft drinks and you haven't brought snacks, you will starve. That may sound dramatic, but it's true.

And so, readers, learn from my mistakes...and have a happy and well-traveled holiday season.

Monday, November 5, 2012

Un-Parents Just Don't Understand


We all know that I have a habit of rolling over electronics in my bed while sleeping and accidentally pressing buttons. It usually gets me into trouble and Saturday night was no exception.

Recently, I have had a new “like” interest who is a single father of two. We were supposed to get together on Saturday night, but I had had a long day, so I called him and left a message telling him that I wanted to stay in. He sent me a text in response that he had “fallen asleep, putting his son down at his mom’s, and was going to stay with him for the night.”  

Exhausted, I went to bed at 10:00. Around 4:00 in the morning, I woke up to my phone ringing. It took me a second to realize that this was the sound of an outgoing call, rather than an incoming one. I sat up and looked at my phone which was calling “Single Dad”. I thought, “Oh crap!” and hung up as fast as I could. Evidently, I had rolled over on my phone and it had dialed the last person that I called. I knew that Single Dad had been with his two-year old son earlier and, if he still was, the phone might have woken them both up. I wanted to apologize then, but I knew that it would make it worse if I called or texted a “sorry”. If the first ring didn’t wake them up, the second one was definitely a bad idea. I figured I’d talk to Single Dad in the morning and I went back to sleep.

At 6:30 am, I receive a text message from Single Dad:

“Don’t EVER call me in the small hours again. You woke my son and he won’t go back to sleep now.”

Now, I get the anger.  It’s frustrating when your kid is sleeping and then all of the sudden, he’s not… because of someone else. I was a bit irked by the capital letters, but willing to chalk it up to his frustration. So, I responded:

“I didn’t mean to. I rolled over on the phone in my sleep and pressed redial. I tried to hang up quickly. Sorry.”

I thought that that would be the end. I made a mistake. He was mad. I apologized. Hopefully, he was forgiving. But, it didn’t end there. The next text I receive from Single Dad said:

“Also don’t ever call or text me before noon because if I have worked until late I will not be happy at having my sleep broken. Understand?”

All right. Now, he was crossing into uncalled for territory. Warning me about only contacting him during his “business hours”, I guess was ok. But, it wasn’t so much what he was saying. It was the way that he said it; with that “Understand?” My dad has used that tone with me in the past. I think that he stopped using it by the time I turned four years old. So, I could only come to the conclusion that it was very likely that Single Dad had no concept of the difference between talking to a child and talking to an adult.

Unable to let this one go, I responded:

“You know, your phone has an off switch…”

The next text that I received from Single Dad stated:

“But I have two kids that might not be with me and I may need to be contacted in an emergency. Right now I don’t appreciate your sarcasm”.

Ok, another dad-ism. This guy was three for three. So, I responded again:

“I would never intentionally wake up your son. I knew you were with him and I’m sorry about that. It was an accident. I will take your other statement under advisement.”

But, as the morning went on and it became 7:00 am, and I couldn’t get back to sleep, I began to think, here I am lying awake, because he texted me and woke me up, yet I didn’t feel the need to scold him like a colonial schoolmarm about it.  I couldn’t resist sending one more message:

“Do you see the irony of texting me at 6:30 am on a Sunday to tell me not to wake you up?”

Single Dad decided to leave the dad=isms and go for the threats:

“Keep this up and I will permanently block your number.”

Well, I had had enough. So, my final response was:

“No worries…I won’t be calling.”

I began to think about this a little bit more. I have discovered that as I’m entering my mid-thirties, I have two sets of friends. Those who don’t have children, who I don’t really have to think about whether it’s too late to call or whether I can invite them out last minute, and those who do have children, who I have to think twice about calling at night and that I have to notify in advance of a night out so they can snag a babysitter. There’s nothing wrong with either camp and I’ve always thought of myself as understanding of those who have children. But could I be telling all you kids all across the land, that there’s no need to argue, non-parents just don’t understand? Maybe I should have given Single Dad the benefit of the doubt.

On the other hand, I do have an idea of what parenting is like. My sister, Lori, was born when I was 7. I remember the sheer exhaustion of my parents and their zombie looks. I’ve seen Three Men and a Baby forty-seven times. Sometimes sirens go by, doorbells ring, heroin dealers come to pick up their “package”, and the baby wakes up. My own parents (who clearly are exceptional  at being parents, considering how fabulously I turned out) told me, in my mom’s words, “He’s a jerk.” Plus, as Andrea astutely pointed out, when I mentioned this to her last night, his reaction was not a knee jerk one. He had fumed about this for two and a half hours before sending it to me. And when you type all caps in the middle of a sentence…you have to make a conscious effort to put the caps lock on and then turn it off again. So, this wasn’t a Hulk Smash moment. This was a thoughtful and methodical Dr. Bruce Banner.

Therefore, I ultimately came to a conclusion, and I think that both parents and non-parents can agree: Single Dad…kind of a douche.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Making Sexy Costumes and Costumes Sexy

Every Halloween, a woman is faced with a difficult decision. Does she go for the funny, topical costume (i.e., binders full of a woman, an unimpressed McKayla Maroney, a Hillary Clinton meme)? Or does she go for sexy? I usually choose an un-sexy costume only because I feel like I'm trying too hard every time I don fishnets. Did you ever really think about the sexy costumes out there and what makes them sexy? Some of them aren't based on anything remotely sexy. Who was the first person to think if I cut the midriff out of a police uniform and wear short shorts, I could be a sexy police officer. Really the only recipe for a sexy costume is to add a teaspoon of clothing, a pair of thigh highs and mix well. I'm sure most sexy costume ideas are based on the typical male fantasy. However, when you really think about fantasies and realities, they almost never resemble each other. Anyway, here is my list of sexy costumes that really shouldn't be sexy:

1.) Prostitute- The lazy sexy costume. For some reason, when a girl thinks of a sexy costume, she automatically thinks hooker. It's true that out of all the professions hookers wear the least clothing. But, for a sex-based career choice, the prostitute is not very sexy. The first thing that I think about is venereal disease. That's not sexy...unless you're Joey Tribbiani.


2.) Bunnies- Why did Playboy choose a bunny as their icon? Yes, the tails are cute...ears, not so much. But, bunnies, if you think about it are like squirrels. They're little rodent-like annoying pests that ruin your garden. They suffer from fly strike. FLY STRIKE. This means that actual flies lay actual eggs on bunnies that become actual crawling maggots. This is our idea of sexy?

3.) Nurse- Now, I know many sexy nurses, but what they do at work...not so sexy. Do you know what a sponge bath is cleaning off? Poop...mostly poop.

4.) Maids- Along the same vein, a maid does not have a sexy job. I do know that, like nurses, the reason a maid costume became hot is because of the fantasy that there's a woman in a short skirt taking care of you and doing your bidding. Guys like that idea. But, when is the last time that you saw a maid in anything but a polyester shift or mom jeans and a Champion sweatshirt?

5.) Bees- What is sexy about an insect that carries flower sperm, buzzes around your head, and stabs you? Plus, I can't see a bee costume without conjuring up this sad image from the Blind Melon video.


So, while I might sound cranky about these so-called sexy costumes, I do love Halloween, and I'm glad that it exists because it's fun to watch people dress up. I just think that women are inherently sexy. It doesn't take much to turn a man on...really. So, don't overdo it. Try being a librarian or a baseball player. I've heard it through the male-vine that the sexiest thing about a woman is when she doesn't know that she's sexy. Am I right, One Direction?