Hmm, I'm going to forgo the obvious answer of writer in favor of something - well - silly.

If I were going to be famous for anything - other than writing - I would want to be, are you ready for it?





I think that my unique experiences with a wide variety of cockroaches invading my personal space, makes me specially equipped to hunt them under extraordinary circumstances and in creative, new ways.  Now, my default fall back is always a full can of Raid - but do you know the athletic ability it takes to leap coffee tables and move furnature to get to your prey?  It's a lot of work!  I'd reason to believe that my Roach Hunting is as exciting as crab fishing in the artic.  Fer serials, it gets that real.

And when I'm without my trusty can'o'Raid, I'm not affraid to go a little old school.


I've used flipflops to stun my prey and dispose of them.

Not unheard of is the instance where I used a steak knife to defend myself against a flying cockroach that attempted to steal my dinner.  This is one lesson those roaches should learn and learn well; don't mess with my Dr Pepper - or my food.  Because I will cut you.


I'm not even against using house hold appliances.  When I was beset with the six inch hissing cockroaches I was involved in a high speed chase where the suspect took refuge in the drain of the kitchen sink.  Unfortunately the suspect didn't heed the garbage disposal sign.  Yeah.  And you just thought shot glasses were the only unfortunate mishaps involved with the dishwasher!

Also, there have been a few instances when the roaches decided to scale the wall or sneak attack me from the ceiling.  All of these have lead to me honing my skills and instincts to a fine point so that at any hour or day I am prepared to take up the great hunt for my prey.

So you see, I think that this skill has plenty of potential for pop entertainment.  Who wouldn't want to watch a little cockroach squishing action?

Oh man.... We're just going to go into list fashion for this one....

• Allowing a possibly high person to tattoo me.  This was later remedied and the tattoo looks awesome.
• Getting industrial barbells put in both ears - on the same night.
• Having half of my arm tattooed in one sitting.
• Going bowling the next day.
• Having a serious injury at a concert where I was rendered unconscious, woke up on stage being cradled by the lead singer - and still did not go to the hospital.  Hey, we were roadies (not groupies!) for the tour.  I wasn't going to miss that!
• Being a Spice Girl for Halloween.
• Watched my boyfriend light himself on fire in a tent.
• Put the ceramic pot of the crockpot on a hot burner.
• Played roller derby with a broken hand.
• Attempted to write 150,000 words in a month.
• Gone two weeks without showering - while camping.
• Assumed friend 1 knew friend A liked them - and then proceeded to tell 1 all about everything A ever said - only to them realize this was all news to 1.
• Got ran off the road by a bus, popping two tires and bending two rims.
• Stood up in front of a crowd of 50+ IT Professionals and proceed to speak - without any preparation or notes.  It was a disaster.
• Started reading a book at 11pm - finished at 3am - and was at work by 8am.
• Allowed friend-of-friend on IM to assume I was a drag queen.
• Let high school friend make people think I was in a car wreck - fooled even the theater teacher.  I got called to the counselors office.
• Went camping in a gully.  Tent flooded by water up to my knees.
• One winter I went snowbladding (think mini skis) , in a two piece bathing suit.
• Allowed my 18 year old boyfriend to think I was older than 13.
• Went hitchhiking in Thailand.
• Accosted a man in Russia and made him take me to a spot on the map.
• Crewed a three day bicycle race for my mom, where I had to grease her shorts.  If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'm not telling you.
• Blew a snot bubble while crying on the shoulder of Mr Hottness.  He laughed. We're friends.  Just friends.
• Ran through the sprinklers in 30 degree weather.
• Sent a text message about a guy, to the guy.
• Assuming what person A said about person B was true, and then trying to have a conversation about what person 1 did with person B - only to find out person B lied to person A and person 1 never did any of the things with person B.
• Sharing a hotel room with four other people and leaving them the room keys and going out to get tipsy.
• Sending a co-worker the first draft of a chapter instead of the work report.  She said she liked the story.

And I'm sure there are many more dumb things I've done - which were good and funny at the time....

So I really wish I had thought about this blog post last night, because I would have taken a smattering of new pictures of Polly and Molly. As it is, I'll just talk about my Chinchillas.

I grew up with animals - all over the place.  Horses. Cows. Dogs. Cats. Snakes. Birds. Hermit crabs. Turtles. Chickens.  Goats. Sheep. Buffalo.  I feel like at some point in time, we've had every animal known to man.  And you know what?  They all need to be taken care of.  I'll never forget moving out and thinking - FREEDOM! Finally! I don't have to take care of the friggen animals anymore!

A year living alone and that 'freedom' turned into loneliness.  Now pet rent where I was living at the time was astronomically high and I just couldn't bring myself to pay that much to have an animal.  But - caged animals are pet-rent-free.  So I did a little research - looking for an animal that was fine being on it's own, yet social.  Somehow I arrived at a chinchilla.  I did some more research and found the Sharp Chinchilla Farm.  Farm I think is really an incorrect term; they do not breed chinchillas for their coats or anything of that nature.

Well, after a very short time I decided I would adopt the adult pair of Polly and Molly, mother and daughter.  Polly is an older chinchilla and suffers from separation anxiety.  Which is why Molly had to come with her.  Polly is a sweet heart and I lurv lurv lurv her!  Molly is a little snot, but I still lurv her too.

A year later, lots of learning experiences and warm cuddly moments learning about the joys of having a miniature chinchilla herd, and we're still a happy family.

So for this week's GTT we're going on a shopping spree.  With only $100. I think I could sneeze and spend that.  Yes, I am aware of the fact that I like to spend money - and that's not really a good thing.  Right now, for an internet shopping spree, I think I would have to start off with a few purchases for my current extra curricular activity: dancing.  For those of you who don't know, I started taking bellydance classes a little over a month ago.  It's lots of fun, and accessorizing with fun hip scarves is super fun.

Unfortunately it's not so easy to find different styles of hip scarves.  I have a beautiful light blue with silver coin scarf my amazing friend bought for me because I couldn't go to the fair with them.  Ebay has become my favorite place for trolling for scarves.  So lets see how much I'd rack up if I did a little accessorizing....

First up is this hipscarf from Australia.  I'm so close to clicking the Buy Now button it's not even funny!

It's different from what I see a lot of girls wearing - which means I sort of want it for that reason.  But if no one else is wearing it.... Does that mean it's not a good buy?  I'm torn.  I also really like the white - but it's WHITE!  There are other colors, but I thought that the beading and detail work showed up best on white.

I'm rounding up, but it's about $10 to purchase it and then about $7 to ship it, for a total of $17.

I still have $83 to spend on my online shopping adventure... More scarves!

Okay, so this one comes in lots of different colors.  Some versions have sequins up on the top of the belt, but I'm not totally in love with that.  The other versions also have pearl detailing that I like better - but this black version looks like it has more coins - which means more jangle - which means more movement...

My hips will shake louder than your hips!

Again, rounding up - the scarf costs about $5 and shipping is $10. $10 shipping!  For a total of $15.

I still have $68 to spend on my online shopping adventure. I think I need one more hipscarf.

Yes, red.  I like red.

I'm also really digging the different ways the coins hang.  I think that's pretty cool.  I'm really into all of the scarves having a different look, can you tell?

Currently bids on this start at $.98, and the shipping is about $17 - which until I realized this was in China, seemed a bit much.  However, I could go to their store and do a Buy Now option for $23.  The person inside of me that wants instant gratification would do that.

I still have $45 to spend on my online shopping adventure. I think four scarves is plenty - so what else would I want to shop for online?  I don't buy clothes online.  I don't really like shopping online anymore.  But I do like books.  And I like shopping for books.  I have a B & N card, so I get free shipping on things delivered to the store.  I also get like 10% off my purchases so I'm dropping change unless it's an online special.  So, were I to preorder books today, I would purchase the following titles:

Go, Mutants! by Larry Doyle ~ $13
Gamer Girl by Mari Mancusi ~ $3.99 (online special!)
Red Hot Fury by Kasey Mackenzie ~ $7
Night Myst by Yasmine Galenorn ~ $7
From Russia with Love by Ian Fleming ~ $10

Leaving me with $4...

Well, now I really want to go shopping!

Okay, so yes, I'm doing my GTT post on Friday because Thursday was a blur of work activity and it didn't occur to me to do this post earlier in the week when I had more time, so oh well!

Do I friend my exes on social media sites?  Hmm, well, lets define 'exes'.  I'm thinking of this as two categories, friends and boyfriends.

First and foremost, I'm totally guilty of not turning down anyone I remotely know.  Why?  Well because if we don't click or if I really don't want them to see my stuff anymore, I can and will delete them at will.  Granted, I think it's stupid that I have like 300 facebook friends.  Myspace I went through ages ago and only kept about 50 of 700 people that I really knew - but it's not like I actually use Myspace anymore; my twitter updates it and that's fine for me.  My facebook I used to keep to just super close friends, but I don't really care anymore.  Maybe I should?

There are friends I was once close with that I am facebook friends with.  I can't think of anyone I've unfriended or not accepted - unless I just didn't know them at all.  I won't lie, there are some people I would like to delete because we aren't friends, I'm not sure if we were ever real friends, and they still rub a raw spot on me.  Why don't I delete them?  Well on facebook it's much easier to hide their updates than unfriend them, and I seriously doubt they pay a whole lot of attention to me anyways.

Ex-boyfriends.  I don't have a lot of these.  While my breakups have never been anything short of catastrophic, I have, in each and every situation, found it in myself to forgive and get over what happened.  That doesn't mean I want to be chummy friends with them, but 'unfriending' them seems childish to me.  In a few years we everything could turn around and we could be friends again (I can't think of anyone I've dated that I would give a second chance at dating again.)  I think I am still friends with two exes, but that would mean I would have to actually go and extend the effort to find them and - that's too much work.

I think the biggest reason I never unfriended them was that in each circumstance I moved on.  I picked up with my life, and didn't linger over the sad, pathetic leavings of what had been a one sided relationship.  I stuck a bandaid on my booboo and went on with life.  Time heals all wounds, right?  And I love living life.  Maybe some super mean, horrible part of me wanted to let those people know that they didn't keep me down.  They might have fooled me for a long time, but I wasn't about to hole up at home and be miserable because of them.  I was still going to go to shows, hang out with friends, see movies, do everything I wanted to do - regardless of the lack of their presence.

I tend to be very open about a lot of things; my Twitter is a public feed and updates my Facebook, Myspace and blogs so it's not like I hide a whole lot.  Okay, I am very private about my feelings but that's about it; other than my feelings I'm very open and public about the rest of my life - because why try to hide stuff?  Again, too much effort.  So if those people who have kicked me to the curb want to keep tabs on me, go ahead - bring it - you'll see that you'll never keep me down.

As a kid I didn't get as much of an opportunity to read as other kids.  What I do remember vividly reading when I was a kid was a graphic novel/bound comic book of Scheherazade and the 101 Nights.  It came with a tape and I swear I listened/read that thing over and over and over again sitting on the bed in the motor home as a kid.  I got $.50 comics at truck stops and read those, but mostly I wrote my own stuff.  Occasionally I would come across a book or someone would give me one they didn't want anymore but these were few and far between.  When I mean I wrote my own stories as a kid, I mean I did it out of sheer boredom.  I do recall that the first chapter book I read was about a pig, though other than that I'm not altogether certain.

When we stopped traveling and I could read actual books, I read anything and everything horse related.  I recall having a very deep need to identify with my parents livelihoods, horses, and if I was obsessed with horses then it was a connection to them.  I read all of the Black Stallion books, Brumby books, Black Beauty, anything that featured people and horses, though I wasn't always keen on westerns.

I honestly can't recall ever reading that many children's books that were kid-geared, probably because it was a fruitless endeavor to keep me in books since we traveled so much.  I don't have a reason to read kid's books now, the closest I get are some middle grade and YA books - like the Percy Jackson books.

Yup, probably not all that enlightening this time.

I live in a one bedroom apartment so there's not a whole lot I can do as far as remodeling or renovating.  I do, however, like to be crafty and creative about my space.  I'm nowhere near as imaginative about my current apartment, which is kind of a bummer.  The issue is that my living room space is taken up by overstuffed, large, leather furniture.  I adore my leather couches, got them off of Craigs List for like $150 for both of them.  They're great!  But, they fill everything up to the point that I don't have space for a desk.  My second problem with my living room: no light.  Seriously.  There is no lighting besides an accent light above the entertainment set.  Ikea was my savior here.  I took two lampshades and bought two hanging light fixtures and created my own ambient lighting.  It works and it's bright and solves all my problems!

I'm currently struggling for desk space and trying to figure out a solution to my problems.  My grandmother bought me a rolling desk from WalMart for Christmas, something I could sit in say, a normal table chair and use - except I don't have any normal chairs.  I have two couches and then pub type chairs for my pub style dining room set.  The table's turned into a roving side table.  I'd really like to be able to figure out something that maybe.  There's one option I found at Ikea that looks interesting.  It's a wall unit that supports the laptop and provides some cubby space, but I question how well it would hold up on drywall in an apartment. 

Other than that, I'm really happy with my living space, considering I live in an apartment and can't change anything really!  LoL.

I fell off the GTT wagon the last two weeks, mostly due to things directly pertaining to the subject of this week's GTT.  I've been so busy reading and writing that I haven't been blogging much, but I really had to pause and answer this question:

Do you make time to read?

Why, yes, yes I do.  In fact, I have a website/blog devoted to my reading and writing habits. 

www.CidWrites.com

Books have always had a fond place in my heart.  They're a way to escape.  To pass a long day.  To learn something.  To give my mind new things to ponder.  Books are very, very important to me.  I currently have about thirty books on my to-read shelf, and I can confirm that I've read 43 books this year alone - which I think is a bit low, but I'm not going to complain.  I buy lots of books too.  I plan on buying six books in the next week; four are ordered and will be waiting on Saturday, two are new releases coming out on Tuesday.

As a writer books are important because it's knowing the lay of the land.  Being aware of what people are buying or talking about makes it easier and better for me to have a feel on the pulse of the reader.  I have no illusions of being published anytime soon but someday I'd like to say: I'm published.

Finding time to read can be difficult.  I often read in splurges; it's very hard for me to drag reading a book out over days.  Most I pick up and read a chapter or two before work, read during lunch, and then marathon the book after work.  I tend to have a good idea of what I will and will not like so it's very rare a book will take me more than two days to read; the exception being very large books or busy times for myself.  There are even times when I've sacrificed sleep to read an entire book all night - um, last week actually.

So yes, the answer to the question is, yes.

[[ if you would like to peek at the books I've read you can check out my website or even find me on goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/cidreads  ]]

Prom. Oh my the memories.  I guess it's odd because I went to three proms; two of my own and a friends.  See, our little podunk country school let Juniors and Seniors go, so totally exciting, right?  I scrounged around for pictures last night but couldn't find anything.  I'm assuming they're all at my parents house still, which is a bummer!

I remember knowing that no one from my school was ever going to ask me to prom, so I don't have a fairy tale moment of being asked by some guy and having a romantic evening.  In fact my dates had a tendency to refuse to dance with me. For serials.  And I never even got to have a big, fancy, fun dinner with my friends.  We tried one year, but an unnamed party sort of ruined that because they wanted to do something stupid and slap 'romantic' on it, and the other plans fell apart.  It's the one thing, from my three proms, that I wish had been done differently: I wish that I had spent more time before prom with my friends doing a fun dinner or something silly or fun.

My junior year was really special because I did the second installment of the Duct Tape Stuck at Prom.  So the outfits weren't as cool as they are now - bite my toes!  I worked my arse off - by myself to make those and I'm proud of them! I still have the corsage.  The dress was actually black based plaid, done with red, green and yellow.  It was an insaine outfit, complete with an underskirt, overskirt, bodice, and removable sleeves.  I made the guy a duck-tailed suit jacket in red that I wound up wearing most of the evening.  Duct Tape isn't warm, fyi.  Prom it's self that year was fun because my group of friends was awesome.  We didn't dance, but we did play with our napkins and made ourselves the prom Taliban or something.  I think I have a picture in a frame somewhere with a friend of ours wearing a turban made out of napkins with the caption, "Osama bin Bobbied".  We thought we were very funny.

My senior year what I really wanted was a pretty prom dress.  What my mom wanted was something that didn't have spaghetti straps, showed off zero cleavage, and boring.  Since we couldn't agree on anything I decided to again make my dress!  Everyone asked me what I would do to top last year with the duct tape, but seriously - how could I?  I went for fun and made a plaid prom dress and went with a really good friend of mine in a clashing plaid.  It was super fun.  We wore converse, and black rimmed glasses and stripy socks.  I think my favorite picture of this prom is my date and I with my skirt hiked up and his pants hiked up showing off the socks and shoes.  Again, we didn't dance, but if I remember right - we did play cards, at prom.  And I think this was the year that the post-prom-party involved a full casino being set up at our high school.  And I vaguely recall staying up all night watching bad movies and then going to church to only be told that I had to perform in like.. half an our four times straight.  Yeah, prom I remember as being a blast, the day after suuuuucked.

I then turned around and sort of last minute went to my prom date's prom - and wore a borrowed dress because it was so last minute.  It's a pretty prom dress, and I have no idea how I got away with wearing it!  It was one of those sheath things with the bodice in some layered sheer-on-satin material that was beaded and pretty and a full length skirt.  We decided to revisit the converse and socks theme, and because of that we were almost kicked out of his prom.  For serials.  The teachers all came over and threw a fit - not because he was wearing a thrift store suit and brand new converse, but because I was wearing converse with a dress.  The student class president got involved; I was friends with her and all I know was that at some point she threatened to leave the prom herself.  It was a huge drama fest, but in the end we also had a lot of fun.  And I can say I was really and truely almost kicked out of prom!!!!

So my experiences with prom were not the fairy tale kind, they were the fun with friends kind and in the end, I think that's best.

This is going to be short and to the point.  I'm currently working on an anthology submission that needs to be in ASAP.  When I grow up, when that day happens. I want to be a writer and a destination travel journalist so I can travel places and write about them, and then write my other stuff.  That's it.  Boring.  Simple.  And to the point because, well, I still need to proof my submission for the 10th time.

Hm, this one isn't so hard.  I would list off a bunch of historical places, Greece, Rome, Italy, the UK, China, Japan, South Africa, Egypt, Argentina, one of the Poles, some islands and detail all the really cool experiences I would love to do - but I think we would all do just that.

So I'm going to look at this from a different perspective.

I love books.  In fact, I like to pretend I'm a writer.  When I day-dream, I don't think about places I could fly to, I dream of the places that are cut from the things dreams are made of.  If I were going to take a Dream Vacation, well, lets list off the places I would want to visit!

Steampunk.  All that fashion!  The corsets, the parasols, the goggles!  And not to mention vampires, werewolves and ghosts!  If I could vacation in Gail Carriger's London, England I would have to take a tour of the BUR offices wearing the latest fashion of dress and sport the all important, silver tipped parasol.  After all, a lady never knows when she will need to protect herself and parasols are very handy things to have around!  Now, it probably wouldn't be allowed, but actually going into a hive or a den would be superb or even tea with the queen, hmm, how pleasant that could be!


I will probably always be something of a sucker for stories that are girl-and-her-horse.  Add in that the horse is magical and intelligent, and - take me there!  I very well might take a one-way-ticket to dream land if it meant I got to stay in Valdemar.  Seriously.  Magic.  Heralds.  Companions (the horses).  Yes, I'd wear white or gray if I had to, I really wouldn't mind - even if I would just look ever so pale.  There probably isn't a lot about the country of Valdemar that would be captivating if it weren't for the sentinels, the Heralds who are bound to their Companions to meet or see.  That I would want to see or do a stint as.  Of course they have some very colorful neighbors I would have to visit.  The tree people and the horse people of the plains are fascinating as far as people groups and would need a visitation.

Okay, so yes, it's just New Orleans, but New Orleans plus vampires?  Yes please.  It's not so much the setting as the company that would push me to go to New Orleans.  Vampires have of course been around for ages but they cannot make new vampires, until recently - oh my... I think I'd like an evening with a vampire, drink some wine, ask lots of questions, learn about history - that sort of thing.  I mean, who better to ask about history than someone who has lived it?  That and they tend to be rather handsome.  I can pick one dream vacation that's nothing but self-indulgent, right?  Shut up, you'd do it too!

Okay, so more horse-and-her-girl vacationing.  It's the desert, yes, but it's also home to these amazing horses! You ride with no bridle, so you have your hands free to do stuff, like read or swing a sword.  It's all riding with your legs and weight - which is how good riders ride anyways - but the issue is often with the horse.  It would also be neat to see the Lamprun Trials where the head of the evil old dragon made a flat tabletop so long ago, and the royal palace, which always sounded interesting to me.  The royals have a tendency for magic so why not? Magic and horses and swords? Sign me up! When am I leaving? And can I take two carry ons?



Again, set in a fairly normal, boring place - but what if the world around you were alive with gods and myths?  I'd like to take a trip to Camp Half Blood and see what it's like to train with Chiron and the others.  I have to say I'm partial to hellhounds and pegasus.  If I've ever wanted to write fan fic, it might be to appease the inner kid in me that wants to see things behind my desk or under my bed.  Give me a dream vacation spot where I can recline and drink nectar and eat ambrosia while listening to nymphs and satyrs singing and playing music?  Where I could jump in the ocean and go see an underwater city?  Who wouldn't want that sort of vacation!  It totally beats Disney World - which I actually don't remember.


Lastly, I'd want to visit the kingdom of the God King.  Tropical and colorful, there was so much about the setting that made me want to dream about living there.  A magic system that's so unknown and flexible that it bends to your will?  Much of their power comes from colors and your very Breath gives you power to animate objects and do stuff.  A very intriguing destination would be the Court of the Gods.  Where can you go in today's world and  talk to an in-the-flesh god?  I would do it for curiosity's sake.

And I've run out of steam.  There are six Dream Destinations I would visit - if they ever existed beyond my imagination.

Fashion... right, okay, I can do this one!  Lets talk about Cid and fashion, since this is a timely post as I am currently attempting to wheedle down on the absurd bulk of stuff in my closet.  When I was little fashion was ~ whatever mommy picked out.  Jr high and high school it was sort of a whatever-is-different-or-not-cool phase.  In college my fashion extended to wearing the same pair of jeans and a band tshirt every day.

And then somewhere along the line I met my gay man.  That's another story in and of it's self, not for this time.  If you can believe it, shopping with guys was what finally turned me into a fashion literate person; that and watching lots of bad fashion shows when I could afford cable.

Some time ago I decided I really wanted to be rockabilly/retro kinda hot.  I mean that's Bernie-freaking-Dexter!  She does a lot of rockabilly modeling stuff.  I really like the hair, the clothes, the super retro style and everything about it.  If I could 'choose' to be a style or fashion, I would love to dress rockabilly every freaking day!  This was really what I wanted to 'be' when I graduated college and finally got a real job.  I did entertain the idea of dressing this way and even had that sort of pin-up a-la-Bettie-Paige hairstyle for a while, though mine was more red.  And then life happened.  Do you know how long it takes to style rockabilly hair?  Or how expensive and hard it is to find 'rockabilly' clothing?  It's just too much effort.  Seriously.  I'm not pretty enough to spend that much time on how I look every day.  And, to be honest, I'm not that good with putting up with uncomfortable clothing.

My idea of fashion now?  Jeans, my comfy Target jeans, and a cute/fun shirt and flat shoes.  Maybe a sweater if I don't want to get ogled as the Tattoo'd Wonder.  I love my tattoos, but they aren't exactly dressy sometimes and I like my sweaters! (apparently I own 15 of them in different colors and designs!)  The thing I'm really jonesing after, is being able to be comfortable and confident in what I'm wearing.  I don't think it matters so much what I wear anymore as much as how I feel wearing it.  Yeah, there are things I wear that I like and I think are fashionable.  I have a whole collection of headbands and jewelry I like to accessorize with, but I don't wear it if I'm not comfortable dangit!

Still not clear on what I'm talking about?  *sigh* I GUESS I'll have to communicate with pictures  :P

Starting from the feet up.  If I'm going to lust after one shoe, it'll be anything made by Naughty Monkey.  They're about $100 a pair, I have two, but they're the most comfortable shoe I've worn in my life next to converse.  Aren't these HOT shoes?


I wear a lot of jeans.  Target has hooked me on these jeans.  I think they're that Mossimo brand, they're women's and they're amazing.  Not high waisted and not the fall-off-my-butt hiphuggers, but a nice middle ground.  They do stretch so ladies, if you want that tight arse look - wash and dry often.
Spring and summer I wear dresses more frequently, and I like to show off my tattoos.  Hey!  I got'em might as well share them!  I'm developing a small collection of mostly sleeveless dresses.  I don't think I have anything strapless like this one, though I'm awfully tempted to go buy it this weekend.....
Okay, so my #1 thing to wear in the summer: tanctops!  I adore tanctops.  Okay, I don't have like, amazingly taunt arms or anything, I have a tattoo sleeve, but in Texas you just want to not be stuck wrapped up in clothing.  I especially gravitate to things like the third one which could easily have a sweater tossed over it to be considered "work appropriate" - those are always my favs.  I'm really digging this loose trend.  I've gained weight, I've never been a twig so that fashionable flowy look really appeals to me.
Speaking of sweaters, I like them either plan or patterned.  And yes, I own a gray and black leopard print sweater I love.  If you don't love it, shut up. I do! Sweaters are really great because they're versatile and useful.  I think I'm always lugging a sweater around with me.
I have a massive tshirt collection.  Seriously.  Most of them are like the one on the left; very artistic.  I hardly ever wear something like the one on the right.  I do not wear ones with like, sayings or logos on them, but I like this skull and crossbones one, because, well - it's a skull and crossbones!
This whole vest thing, totally love it!  I've bought three vests that I don't wear too terribly often, but I really like them!  They're fun and just give an outfit a little something else.

No outfit is complete in my opinion without accessories.I have two drawers in my dresser devoted to necklaces.  I have gauged ears so I don't wear normal ear rings, but necklaces I do wear!  I always love pearl anything, but I really like this sort of mix-and-match artistic thing going on like in the picture on the left.  I also like really long necklaces that dangle.
Lastly, one of my true loves ~ Loungefly bags.  I don't really stick to the whole sub-culture fashion anymore, but there's just something about a Loungefly bag that suckers me in.  I own two, both I paid a pretty penny for and if I could find this one in a store I would probably buy it and it's matching wallet too!
So there you have it.  Things Cid does not need, but wants.  I'm something of an eclectic now I think as far as fashion and clothing goes, but I'm okay with that!

Me? As a popstar?

The first thing I did when I seriously started pondering this Girl Talk Thursday, was laugh.  Okay, maybe it's the doses of medicine I've been consuming that are clogging up the proper ways of thinking or something, but I just saw record companies loosing money with me as the next greatest pop-star.  Why?  Because I doubt I would be easily controlled. If I had to compare myself to current pop-culture-super-stars, I would pick the following:
P!nk, Sara Hudson, and Marti Dodson from Saving Jane.  Why?  Because all three women have some seriously killer pipes and attitude.  I could never be a Lady Gaga, dressing up to just shock people, or a Brittany with her publicity stunts or a Rhianna with the crazy boyfriend. 

If I were going to be a popstar, I'd be one because people liked me, and not because I was a safe bet for the music industry.  Sara Hudson had an amazing voice, lots of talent and family in the industry, yet her solo album tanked for many reasons covered in a documentary I once saw, but what they didn't say - and what made me like her - was her attitude.  The way she just sort of flipped the world the finger and was herself.  It takes a lot of guts to be yourself.  (now, I'm not saying I support everything Sara does, don't read me like that.)  I'd want to be like that; myself in front of the world.  It might be hard, and people might be harsh, but it's too much work to create a persona in my opinion.  I'd have to be myself, and people would have to be okay with it.

P!nk had to rediscover herself.  I remember her early music and I didn't like it.  She was just another face in the music, another voice - and whatever.  However, she sort of reinvented herself some years back and - okay, I don't agree with everything P!nk does, but I do love her music and how she is - just P!nk.  See - people can make music, as themselves, and still do awesome.  I like a lot of stuff about her; her attitude, her performance ability, her voice - yeah, I guess I have a girl crush - So What????  I guess I have some of that same toughness in me.  Guess it's the tattoos.

Marti Dodson from Saving Jane I know the least about, but just listen to her music.  It's awesome I would want to write music like that.  Stuff that said something, and didn't just have a catchy tune. 

I probably wouldn't go with a different name, though I could see a band name, something ridiculous most likely.  I would have a lot of fun and I wouldn't take it too seriously.  Fads come and go; we can't all be Green Day or MxPx that somehow seems to reinvent themselves to sound current and appeal to new fans. 

Hmmm, I think my first album would be Simply Cid, and it would be ... insane.  I'd stand for something, have lyrics that made you cry, all while wearing jeans and being barefoot.  Yup, sounds about right for me.

I think the answer to this question has changed a lot over time.  For my own entertainment, I think I'm going to do a review of my life in answer to this question.

When I was in high school...

• ....it was converse.  
• I hardly ever dressed up.  I didn't like to.  I rarely did.  
• Most of the time I wore jeans and tshirts or ... something strange.  
• But I always wore make-up.

In college it didn't change much.  

• I rolled out of bed and put on my jeans, my converse, but most importantly my band tshirt.  In college (and even now) I owned a huge collection and wearing them made me feel super awesome.  Why?  Because I could always identify the other people of my personal little music club by peoples reactions to what I was wearing or if they were a poser or for real.  I also really liked looking like I could have been on tour with a band; later on I really did.  
• A few times I would dress up, but the instances were rare and only for special purposes - which I always tried to down-play.  
• I still never went a day without make-up.

As an adult *shudders* it's changed.  

• Now, I feel awesome by just being in my own skin.  I have freaking awesome tattoos, that I love.  I like that by just being me, I am art.  And I'll admit, even though I did not intend for this to happen, I like the way people give me space when I'm showing a lot of tattoo'd flesh.  It's like an instant intimidation factor; it also lets me know pretty easily whether or not a person (read guy) can handle my personality.  
• I accessorize a lot; from my 00 diamond-like gauges to the collection of necklaces that fills an entire drawer in my dresser - I love accessories.  
• Jeans are still my #1 pick in the morning.  I've discovered a target brand of jean that fits awesome, and is comfortable.  
• Slimming shirts that um, accentuate and hide are always favorites.  
• I wear heels sometimes, and when I do they're usually awesome; I buy Naughy Monkey heels for a reason.  Not only are they fun, funky and sexy - but they're comfortable.  I've been on a date before and had to stand around for an hour and was no worse for being in heels.
• My hair.  I like my hair.  I get fun cuts and colors and I love it.
• I still don't go a day without make-up....

So maybe my things haven't changed much.  I don't know that I try to feel sexy...  It's a little weird for me, but I do go for feeling awesome about myself.  Oddly, yes, tattoos have made me love my body more for just who I am because it's unique and colorful thanks to the tattoos.