Lucy Caboosey

Evening All. I, as always, hope this finds you well and healthy. It has been a few weeks since I have been here to torment you all so I felt it was fair time for an entry. First let me thank you all for reading. This blog has hit over 2000 views (half in the last 2 months) and its thanks to you all and your support that I am here.

So on to Glee fun! I didn't get to comment on last weeks episode, the first episode since our hero's won regionals. As much as I want to sit here and make witty comments about that episode, sadly I have none. It was not, by any means, my favorite episode. Infact my only description is taffy and evil henchman. Either way I am sad to see Gwenyth is gone, but what can you do.

So on to this week. I don't know about you but I have been waiting a while to here Santana proclaiming her rug munching desires. Finally, she is a lesbian! Sing it proud sister!!! Or in your case blackmail others with it. Santana hatches a diabolical plan to become prom queen by blackmailing Karafsky into forming an anti bullying squad so that she can get Kurt back to Mckinley and save the day and earn Brittney's heart. During their "planning" session Santana outs herself, of course playing on lesbian stereotypes, this is Santana afterall. Both her and Karafsky actually do good, going on a crusade that eventually brings our lovable Kurt back home where he belongs and has us all begging to have Blaine join him. As much as I feel that Satana's motives are far from honorable, I think the end result will make us all go 'Gaga' (like what I did there.... )

The idea behind this episode is to show us all that despite our imperfections we should all love ourselves. Even the Jewess Rachel and Princess Quinn (is it just me or is she channeling Brooke McQueen of Popular fame?) have issues with their body image. Rachel, who suffers at the hands of Finn's dancing, cannot stand her nose and Quinn has some chubby ghosts in her fashionable closet. While both women wrestle with these feeling, both in their own way, their choice of song is perfect. This was an amazing mashup of Unpretty and I feel Pretty. I didn't think these songs would work as well together. Re listening to the song and watching their interactions I have a hard time not feeling bad for Quinn. Rachel, as much as she can be trying on your nerves, is always going to be that underdog you root for. Quinn on the other hand, is your queen bee. She had it all, football playing boyfriend, future prom queen, popular, pretty, you name it. Who knew that she harbored such low confidence.

The Glee Clubs assignment is to wear what they are ashamed of on a t-shirt and of course perform the new anthem for every down and our person alive, "Born This Way." (Which replaces "express yourself" as the new gay anthem) Santana chooses the title "Bitch" to represent herself while Brittany feels "Lebanese" is a better choice. Sadly Santana pouts in her gay non gay corner with Karafsky instead of gagaing it up. This performance was a toe tapping, smile inducing riot. Watching the pride on each and every persons face as they sported something that made them ashamed was inspiring. I felt an overwhelming amount of pride seeing Kurt sport a "likes boys" shirt for the world to see. Everyone gets in on the fun (well except her role highness Santana anyway) with Will sporting a "Butt Chin" shirt and Emma finally admitting to having OCD.

Overall a very solid episode. It had its funny moments mixed in with touching, heartfelt moments (anyone else shed a tear when Finn hugged Kurt?) I am finding Glee is getting better and better with each coming episode. The songs, the story lines are always very entertaining and very real. That's what keeps us coming back week after week.

What have you done today to make you feel proud

Evening to all of you out there. I hope as always this finds you well and happy. I am taking a break from my regularly scheduled review (or rant) to get a tad more serious then I have in a while. As you may or may not know tomorrow is the Day of Pink. In the event you are not aware, the Day of Pink is a day to stand up against Bullying and Homophobia. The day began to speak out against bullying towards a student in a Nova Scotia highschool and has since grown into a global awareness campaign.

If you have read some of my earlier posts you may know that I work for the Royal Bank of Canada. Last year when the Day of Pink (DOP) came about we had little to no coverage within our workplace about this activity. However this year, to my pleasant surprise, this has not only reached the "powers that be" at RBC but has filtered into branches (I work in a contact center.) I am moved beyond words that an event that is no very personal to every human being on the planet is part of a billion dollar corporations priorities. I am already very proud to work at RBC. Its values mirror my own and I appreciate that I have the opportunity to blossom. However, seeing the company come together over something that many people consider to "not be an issue" is heartwarming and unbelievably motivating. What makes me even more proud to be working for RBC is the people. As the only openly gay female (that I know of) and even more so, the only women I know who identifies as Gender Queer, I have never felt left out or even harassed due to my sexual orientation or outward appearance. Yes, like every gay individual, I have had to explain a few things to my hetero colleagues but these were always cases of genuine interest and never anything in the context of discrimination or ignorance. All this to say that I work in an amazing environment surrounded by amazing people. And I say this to anyone who works with me daily, YOU ARE RBC and you are what makes me proud!

I am moved by the amount of attention the DOP has received. All too many bullying cases and discrimination situations go unnoticed or worse are not even dealt with. I defy you to find one person in your surroundings who has not been bullied for one reason or another. We live in a society filled with a variety of social networking sites and means to communicate between ourselves. Unfortunately, we also leave ourselves open to harassment through those same means. We can be reached by facebook, myspace (yes that still exists,) BBM, MSN, facetime, email ... and those tools can easily be used against us to turn our lives into what some may consider hell. We put our whole lives out there on these mediums and they can all be used against us so easily. And when the harassing starts in rarely ends in any way that does not leave the user scared or worse. Yet we continue to bare our souls to the universe (present company included) without a second thought.

So I plead to you all gentle readers to take this fight to your cities, towns, schools, workplace. Do not tolerate the intolerable. Do not stand idly by and watch one more person shrink into obscurity. Stand up for those who are not ready to stand up for themselves. BECOME A ROLEMODEL!. Stand tall and proud, because you, YOU are the future and you have the power to mold it into anything you want it to me. I am proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with you in the fight.

I leave you with resources that may help.

http://www.dayofpink.org/

PLFLAG: http://www.pflagcanada.ca/en/index-e.asp

BullyingCanada: http://www.bullyingcanada.ca/

FCKH8T: http://fckh8.com/Bullies/

Be strong my friends...

But these stories don't mean anything. When you've got no one to tell them to. It's true...I was made for you

Happy Monday to all. I hope this finds you well, warm and happy. I am a bit behind on this blog post as I intended to have it written before the weekend. If you have been anywhere near me in the last 2 months I can assure you that you have wanted to hit me atleast once or twice because my favorite topic on conversation has been the Greys Anatomy Musical Event. (I ask you to stop rolling your eyes. Thank you very much)

Now, to say that I am a big fan of Grey's would be a complete lie. (I am a HUGE fan) Other then Glee its the only other show I never miss. Yes, dear audience, I love this show. More so than the show, I have a fond love of my favorite gay female couple, Arizona Robbins and Callie Torres. Man oh man do I love these characters. Despite not always having a major plot point, I sit patiently waiting for either character to grace the screen or even (GASP!!) share an affectionate moment or two with once another. So you can understand my excitement knowing that an episode would be devoted to Callie (and subsequently Arizona) and to make my gay little day even better there would be singing! I read anything I could possibly get my hands on about the Musical Event. I knew every spoiler, had listened to every song from the set list, watched every pre-released clip, I was good and prepared! Or so I thought....

I knew poor Callie was going to perform a triple lutz straight through the passenger window, I knew Callie would go to hell and back. However when I first saw her twitching on the hood of her car my heart was in my throat. The full on panicked and helpless feeling Arizona was going through made it all the more painful to endure. What do you do when you know you can't do anything? It's that earth shattering moment when you realize you could loose that person you love more than anything and would trade places with them if it were possible. An Emmy needs to go to both actresses for their roles in this episode, honestly, Bravo ladies, Bravo!

When the first notes of Chasing Cars floated in, I like many of you, had fallen under Sara Ramirez's beautiful spell. As Callie's eyes dart back and forth in shock and panic as she "sees" her friends and colleagues singing I felt that panic transcend to those watching. Owen's deep, almost soothing voice was pleasantly surprising. I had no idea the man could sing! The key moment in Chasing Cars was the angelic moment where all three (Baily, Hunt, Callie) voices joined. My props go out to the sound mixing in this episode because how they went back and forth between signing and actual medical work was amazing.

Another highlight was "How to Save a Life." I appreciated that the group numbers (mostly) contained the entirety of the song. The emotion in each persons voice, conveying each ones fears and insecurities. Their desperation was palpable. The song pulled me in, culminating at the point where Callie and Arizona's hands link on the glass looking down at Callie's body as she flatlines and her baby lies motionless. That moment for me sealed their bond forever.

If you have seen the episode I am sure you are going to think that the duet between our fair ladies was my favorite scene. Well gentle readers that is unfortunately not correct. I was somewhat disappointed to be honest. Not because of the acting or the song choice, only because more of the song was not used. I was looking forward to hearing Arizona (Jessica Capshaw) get to sing more. However the powers that be started it well into the song where Callie's part started. I thought the dynamic that was created was beautiful and very touching, however I was looking forward to more.

Now what was my favorite scene of the show? Well I am so happy you asked friends. When Callie goes back into her head I wasn't sure where this was going to take us. I was worried that Callie would be saying no to Arizona's ill timed proposal. Then they started to sing and I found myself smiling like an idiot completely caught up in Callie's mind and what she thought everyones "happy place" was like. Seeing the flirtatiousness between both women was o amazing. There was no big deal about the gay couple or treating them any differently. Frankly, it was refreshing.

I honestly would give this episode a 10. It had so many elements that worked for them. They made the idea of a musical work in a medical drama which I know many people said was impossible. They succeeded in making big mushy sucks of us all. I commend Grey's for taking such a risk (a very well publicized risk however a risk none the less.) I fell in love with the show all over again!