25 Days of Christmas - Day 25: Feliz Navidad!!!!

Today was a day of eating lots of stuffing (boy, am I stuffed! tee hee), sleeping, sleeping, more sleeping, and the Downton Abbey Christmas Special. On the latter: I'm so pissed. I want to go find a certain actor and give them a good telling off for leaving the show at the height of its popularity when their character is so central to the plot. Dumb ass. I just want to scream. My reaction at the end of the special?

Also, is Lady Edith REALLY that damn desperate for a man that she's willing to ruin her reputation and become his mistress?! I understand that he can't divorce his mentally ill wife, but if he really loved Edith, he'd leave her be and not put her in such a terrible position. I foresee some hell coming down when Lord Grantham finds out about this in Season 4. I'm not going to spoil Downton Abbey anymore than I already have so I'll just leave it as is.

As for Christmas, I got other gifts from my mom. Didn't expect to get anything extra after she spent so much on my car, but I'm grateful either way. Food was awesome and I'm ready to go into a food coma once again. This blog series has been just as much a success as the Halloween one was. I thank everyone who supported it. Another holiday has passed us by so I'll bid you all good night and a very Merry Christmas!

25 Days of Christmas - Day 23: My Christmas Presents So Far

Christmas came early for me this year. Since my boyfriend and I won't be able to spend Christmas together, he gave me my presents earlier this weekend. As for my parents? Well, they gave me something I needed: car maintenance. Yep, one of my (many) Christmas presents from my parents is new tires and an a realignment. That might seem stupid to others, but I'm over the moon. Have you purchased new tires lately?! Those suckers are expensive! Considering the fact that my parents are willing to fork over a few hundred dollars to maintain their grown-up daughter's car counts me pretty lucky. I don't want material things. I have more than enough dvds, a closet packed with clothes that I never wear with the tags still on some of them, an iPhone, a back-up iPod, a laptop, a flat screen tv, a kick-ass DVD player, DVR, and a piano with a trunk full of sheet music. As far as material things that I don't need, I'm set. However, I DO need a car to get around for professional reasons. I'm afraid to drive too far from home or drive anywhere too late at night by myself due to the fact my tires could go on me at any time. When my stepfather asked me what I wanted for Christmas, I was honest and said I don't WANT anything because I have too many vital things that I NEED. Last year it was new brakes and rotars on my car. This year is tires. My parents (my stepdad especially) are more than happy to provide me with that because they're impressed I'm putting the important things in life over stupid little toys. Even though I've matured since I was younger, I'm still happy with the material things my boyfriend bought me:

My boyfriend totally understands my love of cooking and particularly, my love of collecting cookbooks I can learn something from. I've been coveting the hard copy of this cookbook for over a year now so my boyfriend came through and got it for me. It's a great reference book for cooking. I was shocked by discovering certain things I had been doing wrong all along (such as how to make a proper beurre blanc.) I suggest not buying this retail. It's cheaper if you order it new on Amazon or Barnes and Noble online -- Barnes & Noble $75 

My other love that my boyfriend is completely supportive of is my Downton Abbey obsession. I am absolutely head over heels for this show and I'm attempting to convert him to the series. Since I already have the first two seasons on DVD the third season hasn't been released in the U.S. yet, he was pretty confused what to get me that was Downton-themed. Somehow, he settled on this beautiful wall calendar because he saw me looking at it in a store. He's so sweet and he did good this Christmas! This calendar is easily available in stores or at Shop PBS. -- Shop PBS $14.99

Some Women Give Other Women a Bad Name!

Hey O'Brien, Anna's talking about you!

Years ago, a male friend of mine was dating this girl. She was pretty damn good-looking. Tall, leggy, sexy smile and eyes. Physically, she was every guy's dream. Mentally, she was every guy's nightmare. She was moody, insecure, hated his friends (including myself because she saw me as a romantic rival), and didn't understand why my friend was majoring in History and Political Science. She wanted a rich guy to finance her lifestyle and my friend was so never going to be that guy. He frequently complained about her and never seemed happy when she was around. Finally, I confronted him about his relationship and asked him why he didn't just kick her to the curb if he was so miserable. His answer? "Dude, she's hot!" *le sigh* This could easily be a dissection on the bad choices men make about women all the time but it's about how some chicks just give the rest of us a bad name.

After my buddy finally broke up with this girl, he was pretty damaged about women in general. Any girl he saw as dating potential immediately had red flags no matter how nice she was. At least he steered clear of picking girlfriends based solely on their looks, but it doesn't negate the fact that his ex sort of ruined him for future relationships. I have plenty of guy friends who all have that one ex who made the guy overly cautious of females in the aftermath of the breakdown of their relationship. I'm sure my ex sees me as that "cautionary female" given that we aren't on speaking terms. The thing is, some females don't understand how they can affect a man's fragile psyche. Being overly needy, insecure, behaving psychotic, those are all attributes that will make a man run for the hills. However, this doesn't just apply to relationships.

In the workplace, I've encountered other women that would stab their own mothers in the throat to get ahead. I'm all for upward mobility for women, but backstabbing and cattiness is not my thing. These types of women are simply the girls I grew up with in many ways. The difference is, they're in "professional environments" now and see their bitchiness as being a "tough working woman." When these women are cutthroat in their professional and personal lives, it makes the rest of us appear to be evil man-eaters. It's one thing to be hard-working and ambitious. It's quite another to be hateful and two-faced.

My most disliked females are the ones who insist on sexually objectifying themselves to attract a man. These are the women who not only dress like hussies but behave like ones thinking it will elevate their status. It upsets me that I can't wear a shirt that shows a tad bit of cleavage because it'll be seen as "showing my body off" (I am extremely top-heavy so ALL my shirts show cleavage, unfortunately.) Women like myself are unable to be sexually confident without being labeled as sluts. It doesn't matter if I'm saving it for marriage, having an open dialogue about sexual behavior will unfortunately taint me with the same brush as prostitutes. Either way, I'm out of luck.

Women will always fight an uphill battle between the stereotypes against them and the reality of their personalities. Not all of us are psychotic, vindictive bitches. Problem is, there are plenty of females out there that make it bad for all of us!