I have seen so many people on Facebook so I will jump on the band wagon.

1. I have no middle name. (Polish Tradition)
2. My grandma died when I was 5
3. I have attended 9 different funerals
4. I have only attended 4 weddings
5. I thought about killing myself 4 different times
6. My brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia at the age of 11, I was 9
7. I got hit on, by a Mormon named Truman, at the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C.
8. I’m a “wannabe” Jew
9. The only states that I have traveled to is Ohio, Illinois, Washington D.C, Florida, and Canada
10. I have retired 16 different vibrators
11. I have been swimming for over 10 years.
12. I have ASC, a type of arthritis that is in my hips that will work its way up my spin to make me a hunchback/cripple
13. If I ever had a daughter I would name her Layla or Josephine (Josie)
14. I brush my teeth about 4-5 times a day
15. I have had sex in the men’s bathroom at Westin Mall
16. I can’t stand people who lie about their sexuality (closet virgins)
17. During my sorority weekend I had to carry around a hot dog in a plastic bag for 3 days
18. I can’t say “POSTAL CODE”
19. When I was born my leg was dislocated from my hip
20. I can’t stand people who think that they know everything
21. The first time I dyed my hair blond I ran around the house screaming I’m blond, I’m blond, and slammed into the walk. I was forced to dye my hair back to brown
22. I have been fired from 2 jobs
23. I lost my virginity at the age of 18
24. I’m proud to be Polish…I know how to make ice
25. My bunny (Nibbler) just celebrated his first birthday

First of all I would like to inform you and everyone that I have ever been kind of person who give presents and thinks that they own me anything. Over the holidays I gave one of my friends, who was hurting, a basket full of Bath & Body supplies. When I give gifts to people I never expect anything in return. I gave you the gifts out of the kindness of my heart because you are my friend and I love you. I wanted to give you something special because you are going through something that I would not wish upon my worst enemy. From personal experiences I know that the holidays are the most difficult period to go through. I know how frustrating it is that you are supposed to be happy during the holidays when inside you want to cry everyday. I have been in that situation and I know how difficult it is.

The holidays are a time when you should thankful for the family and friends that you have. And to all that think that this time is all about presents you are DEAD WRONG. Those types of people are selfish and spoiled. I will never fully understand what you went through all those years ago and the pain that you experience everyday. However, I know what it is like going to a therapist and reliving every painful detail and feeling like you are alone. The Christmack present that I gave you was a gift from me to you. The only acceptable present that I would expect from you would be for you to get better and work through the demons in your life. NO STRINGS ATTACHED.

Today I understand the consequences of my actions. Yesterday I took Plan B for the first time because of a stupid mistake that I made. I choose to have unprotected sex and I allowed my boyfriend to come in me. I choose to have unprotected sex because I wanted to know what it was like for a guy to come in me but now I regret it. Having a guy come in you is one of the most interesting sexual experiences I have ever had. It was so intense and I could feel everything. It just afterwords that sucks. I could feel sperm running down my leg and a burning feeling around my cervix. The part that is unfair is that we were together when it was time to have sex but he was not there afterwords. After we were done I told him that I would get Plan B tomorrow to make sure I would not get pregnant. The part that was annoying was he kept asking me are you sure were getting Plan B?

The next day I had to go to school and get Plan B all by myself. This is my first time taking Plan B and it was embarrassing talking to a male pharmacist about what Plan B is going to effect my period when he does not have one. All day I just felt alone. I had to take the first pill alone and then take the second pill twelve hours later. Everything that I’m feeling now I don’t know if it is normal. My stomach hurts, I have cramps, and my head kind of hurts. I wanted to lock myself in my apartment and pray that the birth control and Plan B work it’s magic so that I’m not pregnant. He is confident that everything will work out but I don’t believe him. I don’t know what is going to happen until I get my period for the next couple of months to make sure that I’m ready not pregnant.

The last time I thought I was pregnant I was left alone in a fraternity bathroom waiting three minutes. Just because he had a little fraternity meeting and I had to text him the results. That was the longest three minutes of my life and I was so scared. Who knows maybe next month I will be sitting in another bathroom alone for another three minutes awaiting the results again.

Some days I wounder what would happen if I was pregnant and I had to get an abortion? Are you going to leave me alone then too?

Sorry it took a while to respond but I realized that I do not own you an explanation.

I stopped talking to you because you were driving me nuts. I could not stand you calling me every single day when I had so much crap going on in my life. Thank you for reminding me on why I do not let people know the intimate details of my life because they walk all over you and use you any way they can. I have cried enough over you. Oh, how dare you try to steal Andrea’s phone to try to call me. I guarantee that if you had succeeded one of us would have been crying. Guess what, it would not be me. I still can’t believe that you were calling sisters and asking them, “Why is Marianne not talking to me”. What the fuck is wrong with you? Who asks that seriously? But, since you are so desperate to know what has been going on in my life here it is:

In the past six months that I have not talked to you:

I have been going in and out of the hospital/doctors’ offices.
My doctor told me that I had to remove ALL the stress out of my life. Let’s face it over half of the time after I got done talking to you I would be so upset that I would start to threw up again. Remember the 72 hours that I helped plan your weekend. I never told you this but I had a large blood streak (and it was not my period) I asked my OBGYN and she said that if I was pregnant I would have had a miscarriage.
You did not understand any of my disorders. You thought that you could develop vertigo from taking antibiotics for bronchitis. Guess what you don’t get a disorder like this from medications. News flash I probably have had it all my life and I still don’t know how I developed it.
I did not want to hear about what NEW disorder you thought you had. Examples: ADHD, Vertigo, and Heart Attack
My vertigo is getting worse
I have been having problems with my medications
I had finals / papers/ homework
I did not know whether I would still be enrolled in school
Problems with money / financial aid
LAST BUT NOT LEAST MY FUCKING COUSIN TRIED TO KILL HERSELF.

Just for fun I have included a list of things that I was sick of hearing about:
Your Job. At least you have a job. I’m still unemployed. You chose to be a teacher either deal with it or change it. It is that simple.
Your Wedding. I just don’t care anymore. You are living in the marriage capital of the world just get married there.
Daniel. I still can’t get over the fact that he insulted me and my degree. I will remind you because you were given a percosette by Daniel (not a doctor) because you thought that you were having a heart attack. I told you that you need to seek professional help from a therapist. Daniel said “no you shouldn’t all therapist want to do is take your money they don’t want to help you”. You even told him that I wanted to be a therapist. He insulted my degree, the profession that I wanted to go into, and myself.
You being sad in Vegas. I’m sorry that you are away from Cleveland but you made that choose. People move away and you should be able to adapt to a new environment. Make new friends start to socialize with others. You have to make yourself happy.

I have used this phrase before. I will miss you as a friend, but not as a person.

I have always heard the jokes on Family Guy that Walt Disney was an anti-Semitic. There was one episode where Walt Disney comes back to live from being frozen. The person who opens the pod says “Welcome back Mr. Disney” and Disney response with “Are all the Jews gone?” “No” the person responses, than Disney closes the pod and says “Put me back”. I laughed about this because I grew up watching all the Disney movies and I could not believe that Walt Disney hated the Jews. It was not until I took a class where we were talking about propaganda that was used in World War II. Now everyone knows about the propaganda that was used against the Jews in Europe by Hitler, but what about in the United States? My professor told us that one of the largest propaganda markets in the United States was Disney. I told not believe it so I Google “Disney Propaganda” and there were tons of images of Donald Duck wearing a NAZI uniform and wearing the swastika. There was even one cartoon of Donald and his nephews saluting a picture of Hitler. After I saw that a little piece of me died inside. I started to think of all the Disney movies that I have ever seen and whether there were any scenes that were Nazi like. Guess what there is. There is a scene in The Lion King were Scar is plotting to kill Mufasa. In the song “Be Prepared” you get to see all the hyenas marching just like Nazis while Scar is on a podium, just like Hitler, watching them all. It is so creepy to watch because even in the movie Scar plays the part of Hitler because he wants to be king. He illustrates and kills anyone who posed a threat to him. While the hyenas were like his SS soldiers who were brain washed into following his “Master Plan”. If you don’t believe me You Tube it and see for yourself. I can’t believe that was in there. That movie came out when I was a child. I loved that movie. Thanks to that scene my childhood is officially ruined. I wonder if there are any other scenes like that in any other Disney movies? If I ever have children they will never watch any Disney movies or visit Disney World or Land.

Now that this class is over I am so glad that I took this class. I have a psychology background and I am currently back in school majoring in International Studies with a minor in Criminology. So my reasoning for taking this class was mainly personal. The main reason that I took this class was because I wanted a deeper understand of addiction. Back in Cleveland I have multiple friends who are addicted to drugs, alcohol, eating disorders, and bad relationships. I wanted to learn how addiction affects an individual in a non medical source. I feel that it is my duty to be more educated than the common person about issues that are taboo. I also feel that it is also my duty to understand why people make the choices they do. Thanks to this course I can understand the pains that my cousins went through while battling with their eating disorders. From watching the movies about eating disorders I know how hard it is to not relapse down that dangerous road. I also feel a sense of pride that I can talk to my friends who have drug addictions and it will NEVER come from a judgmental place. The other thing that I could take away from this class was to look at non conventional forms of addiction. If it was not for the digital scrapbook I would never have thought about shopping as an addiction or playing video games unstop and an addiction.

Now that the quarter is over I would not change anything about the course. I loved that everyone could openly talk freely about the articles and you know that it was a safe place to share your feelings. It was nice that there were women and men there from all walks of life. Each women had a different experience that we could learn from and grow spiritually, physically, and emotionally as strong independent women. Even when we were in our individual groups you could freely talk about the topics tell stories that related and there would be no judgment. Even before we watched “Thin” I talked to one of the girls, who were always in my group, about all the emotions I was feeling. She even told me that I should talk to the professor about what I was going through because she of all people would understand. She was right the professor did understand. While we watched “Thin” I even ran out of the room because it was too much for me to handle and while I was waiting for the bus with other members of the class I was not treated any differently. We were even talking about the movie about how difficult it was to watch. I made the comment, “yeah, well at least you did not run out of the room crying” and they were concerned with how I was doing. For that I appreciate. Even though that was a very hard week for me, thanks to this class I could take that experience that learn and become a better person.

The other thing that I liked about the course was the professor. I loved that you were not a “fema-nazi” blaming all the problems that women experience on men. If everyday focused on the point that everything was the man’s fault then I would have dropped the course. I appreciate that you picked articles that were not written by individuals with that opinion. It was also fun that you called me Twiggy. I hope that I will be the only Twiggy that you will ever teach. Thanks for a great quarter.

I remember seeing hundreds of anti-drug commercials when I was younger. I remember seeing a person with an egg and a frying pan. I do not think that there is anyone who does not remember this famous phrase, “This is your brain. This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?” The commercial that I selected is one of the most remember able and most entertaining. The commercial features Rachel Leigh Cook in a small kitchen. She is holding an egg and a frying pan. The egg is supposed to represent your brain, while the frying pan is heroin. She puts the egg on the counter and smashes it with the frying pan. The residue that was still on the pan represents what your body does through. While in a crazy motion Rachel takes the pan and starts to smash everything that is in the kitchen. This is done so that the public could be able to see how heroin ruins everything else in your life. When I turn on the television there are so many anti-smoking commercials than illegal drug commercials. It just seems backwards because cigarettes are legal and marijuana is illegal. There are so many problems with smoking. Everyone claims about the smoking ban, which is in effect in Ohio, is criticizes smokers because they cannot smoke in public but they have to pay taxes. It is also a personal chose that a person can do what they want because it is their body.

After I saw that commercial for the first time it made me laugh. Granite I had no idea what heroin was nor did I care but the commercial seriously made laugh. I even remember as a child running up to my mother to ask her if I could trash the kitchen just because I thought it looked cool. Even growing up I remember all the programs that were around to prevent children from doing drugs. One of the largest programs in my school was the DARE. We were taught to “Just Say No” even though I had no idea what drugs were. It was also ironic that our instructor, who was a police officer, was arrested for drug charges. There’s not a mixed message.

With all the programs, advertisements, and commercials that are still around I wonder whether they truly work. I ask this because you always hear about the individuals who “experiment” or “try it once” think about everything they learned from those programs. In my graduating class there was one student who organized a student assembly about the dangers of marijuana, even though him and his friends were high every day before class. I wonder if my school did not have the DARE program would more students would have drug problems.

If you want to check it out click HERE

In the movie “28 Days” Sandra Bullock plays the part of a women, Gwen, who enters a treatment center for her drinking problem. There was a history of alcoholism within her family. Her mother was contently drunk. Gwen and her boyfriend were always drunk and irresponsible together. On her sister’s wedding she arrived drunk and while she was dancing she crashed into her sister’s wedding cake. In a drunken state she tells her sister that she will get her another cake so drives her car down the road and crashes it into a house. Instead of receiving any jail time she is sentenced to 28 days in rehab. While she is in rehab her bags were searched of any illegal substances. While she is in rehab she experiences bodily withdrawal from the alcohol. She started to throw up, shake, and experience black outs. When she first entered rehab she would not follow the rules. She refused to clean her room, attend sessions, and took medication that was provided to her by her boyfriend. Even when her boyfriend would come and visit her he would sneak in alcohol for her. Now I do not have to tell you that, that is not allowed. Smart move, give a woman who is trying to quit drinking alcohol. When she was taught trying to seek out of her room she voiced to the counselors that she could stop drinking anytime she wants. Gwen started to notice that her hands were constantly shaking and that there were times where she could not breath. Once the reality set in that there was a chance that she could go to prison she took the rehab more seriously. She started to attend group therapy sessions as well as individual therapy sessions. While in group therapy she made friends with people who were addicted to alcohol, heroin, and drugs. Unfortunately, tragedy would strict when Gwen’s roommate was scheduled to be discharged committed suicide. She received a package which contended a toy bear. Inside the bear was heroin. It was never clear why she committed suicide but according to the movie 1 out of every 3 patients will return to rehab. Maybe, she did not want to be that one person. Gwen still made strives to fix all mistakes she had made while she was intoxicated. She was able to confront her sister and apologize for all the hurt and pain that she caused over the years. At the end of the movie she knew that she would have to leave her old life behind so she could live a happy and sober life. Gwen realized that she could not hang out in the same places where she would drink. She went out with her boyfriend and she could smell all the wine that was in the restaurant. She decided to break up with her boyfriend since he could not understand what clean and sober meant to her.

Seeing this movie reminds me of Smashed. Throughout the book Koren constantly convinced herself that she was not an alcoholic. Even though it was clear that she was. Both Koren and Gwen would wake up in the morning not knowing what they did last night. Earlier I talked about how Gwen was convinced that she could quit at anytime. Koren stated that she needed the alcohol so that she could socialize with others. At least at the end of each story they were able to walk away with the proper tools to make sure that can hopefully remain clean and sober.

Thanks to television shows like “Sex in the City” and “Friends” that have characters who glamorize the shopping industry. All of the women on “Sex in the City” always wear the most extravagant clothes and have a shoe closet that is largest than my apartment. On the show “Friends” when Rachel first moved to New York she went shopping because she was depressed. She even maxed out her credit cards because she saw something in the store that she had to have. Shopaholics feel that they must purchase every new design and clothing line that comes out without any worries in the world. After watching these shows several of my friends want to look and act like these characters. They will spend thousands of dollars at Victoria Secret so that they can have the newest bra and panty set. Today she is a gold member for Victoria Secret which means that she has spent over ten thousand dollars a year. Personally I think that, that is ridiculous. Manufactures look the other way because their products are being sold. However in this society we do not view shopping as something that an individual could be addicted to. It is not classified as a “normal” addiction because there are no treatment centers and there are no visible signs. When an individual has a problem with alcohol they show visual signs: blackouts and constant drinking. The other problem with shopaholics is what kind of treatment society could be able to offer them. There are shopping centers everywhere you look what do they expect these people to do never buy clothes ever again.

To glamorous the idea of a shopping addiction there is movie called “Confessions of a Shopaholic” is a movie that is based on a book, by Sophie Kinsella. The main character Rebecca Bloomwood is a twenty-five year old woman who has a shopping addiction. The movie follows her life living with a shopping addiction. Thanks to her shopping addiction is now in thousands of dollars in debt. When her bills start to pill up she decides to work harder to urn more money. Unfortunately, no matter what she did she was still in debt because of her addiction. I wish I could tell you more about the movie but it is not scheduled to play until 2009. So you will have to tell me how it is when it comes out.

Here is some shocking information shopping addiction is a mental disorder. According to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (DSM) when an individual has a shopping addiction it is called Oniomania. Oniomania is the compulsive desire to shop to eliminate any emotions of their sorrows. Psychologist believe that an individual develops Oniomania because the reason that the compulsive behavior occurs because there is a change in the brain’s chemistry. Individuals who have this disorder will suffer and often experience rapid highs and lows when they are going to make a purchase. Once the purchase has been made the shopaholic has a feeling of a personal reward has already gone to continue that sense of reward they will go shopping multiple more times. According to the DSM Oniomania normally develops at an early age by individuals who have low self esteem with parental neglect. As adults these individuals have learned to depend on materials for emotional support. Just like in the movie the main character individuals who have Oniomania accumulate an extreme amount of debt. Individuals can also experience theft, defalcation of money, defaulting on loans, and have financial trouble for the rest of their lives.
If you want to check it out click HERE

This is one of the most entertaining beer commercials that I have seen in a long time. The commercial is for a Dutch beer. The commercial was so controversial that it is banned in the United States. It takes the idea of “beer goggles” to a new extent. The idea behind the commercial is that the woman will look one hundred times better once you have a couple of beers in you. The commercial takes place in a bar and there are two individual, a man and a woman, sitting across from each other. The waitress hangs the man a glass of beer. The woman is shown wearing glasses and is dressed very conservative black dress. With every sip the man takes of his beer the more attractive the woman becomes. Her clothes become smaller and more revealing. At the end of the commercial the woman changes back to her original appearance because his beer glass is empty. At the end of the commercial he orders another beer so he could keep the fantasy alive.

After watching the documentary, “Killing Us Softly” I could understand why some commercials are designed to make women out to be an object. Before I would look at commercial and not think a single thing was wrong because commercials are supposed to be funny. Now I look at commercials more closely to see hidden messages. In this commercial the woman is only there as eye candy for the man. The woman does not even have a drink anywhere around her so why is she in a bar? Is she looking for the typical drunken response? She even seems to be educated so she should know better. There are other commercials that use woman’s bodies to help sell their products. Sky Vodka has one commercial where a woman’s body is the bottle. Woman’s bodies are used in alcohol commercials to provide the chance that if you drink that product than women will always be around you. This is not always true. Most women when they see a drunken person they do not want anything to do with them. There is nothing more unattractive than a guy how is falling down drunk.

Another problem with alcohol commercials is that they do not show any consequences of drinking. There are no clips of the next day. No clips of the vicious hangover or the chance of alcohol poisoning. Even a flash forward a couple of hours later so that we can see him preying to the porcelain gods because he drank too much. Even much later that night being rushed to the hospital to get his stomach pumped because he developed alcohol poisoning. There is even the extreme chance that he could take full advantage of the situation and rapes her. If the wrong type of man sees that commercial he could get the impression that raping a woman is acceptable. All alcohol commercials show on the bottom of the screen “Please Drink Responsibly” when how could you tell who is being responsible. Every body type is different a person who weights 108 cannot drink as much as someone who is 220 pounds. While who is the person who should be the responsible party? Should the establishment be responsible if one of their customers caused an accident? A commercial like this could possibly send the wrong messages that notice you are drunk; women will start to flirt with you.

If you want to check it out click HERE