The Many Faces of Hello Kitty

The store is gone now, but at one time if you went down the north wing toward Nordstrom's in the Fashion Place Mall and turned right, there it was, the crowning glory of the mall to any small girl: The Hello Kitty Store. I loved the pink flowered notebooks, stationary sets and candies. I loved the decorated bags they put your purchases in and the free little gift taped to the bag where it was folded over.

My teenage years took me away from Hello Kitty. Away from the pink and the flowers that I was suddenly too cool for. Providence brought us back together however when I got my mission call to Japan. It didn't take long for me to fall back in love with the Sanrio characters. And that love has continued. I can't pass a store that carries Sanrio without taking a peek. I own Hello Kitty stationary, a stuffed Hello Kitty and a collapsible Hello Kitty laundry bin (all gifts incidentally, but gifts I thoroughly appreciated). Before you begin to fear for me, I have drawn the line at Hello Kitty appliances. Tempting as it is, I don't need a Hello Kitty Toaster oven.

Recently Hello Kitty has been in the news in two very interesting stories. The first story is from Thailand. In an effort to adequately shame misbehaving police officers, police chiefs made any rule breakers wear a pink, Hello Kitty armbands for several days as punishment. "This is to help build discipline. We should not let small offences go unnoticed," Police Colonel Pongpat Chayapan told Reuters news agency.

In a story that seems the antithesis of shame-inflicting armbands, this month Sanrio announced a new line of Hello Kitty products. For men. Let me say that again. For men.... By removing the dots that formerly made up her face and replacing them with her name, making her bow light blue and placing her on a black background, Sanrio feels they have created the masculinized version of this formerly girls-only icon.

I admit that a year and a half in Japan didn't give me anywhere near enough time to understand Japanese fashion, but I just don't see it. Nothing about this new product says "manly", "male" or even "boyish" to me.

It's amazing that this one character could be so many things rolled into one-- the princess kitty every little girl loves, the vestige of my mission that I can't let go of, a shameful punishment for Thai police and the fashion wave of the future for boys and men everywhere.

How I love Hello Kitty. Who knows what adventures lie ahead for her!

Christmas Gift Highlights

Truly 'tis the season to be merry! I have no intentions of making anyone jealous...but, we got some fab gifts at our house. Apparently the members of this family were extra good this year because Santa did not forget us!

Tim's first surprise from Santa came early! I bet no one else has a Holiday Commode like this one!

Not too long later the ladies of the family were fighting over this gift that came from an elderly relative and had no specific tag on it, making it up for grabs. Notice the ease with which the velcro fastens these babies! Geriatric ward, here we come!

Tim's favorite gift though, came later. What college student doesn't need a hummingbird sun-catcher for his pad? Just hope the roommates aren't too jealous!

However, despite his generosity, Santa did have to acknowledge that Tim wasn't as good as he could have been this year. And thanks to a tip from Hollywood Flakes, he got the clever present shown below. (Sorry if you wanted some, I think he's eaten them all up!)

Finally though, as the crowning event of Christmas, Ari and I got matching ponies! Ok, well not real ponies--turns out they are unicorns. And not actual unicorns, but more like velvet coloring sets with pictures of unicorns on them and markers that dry out before you're done coloring. But you can tell people we got ponies. Ari's (Pony on the left was the most popular!)
I hope that Santa brought you what you wanted too. If not, start now being really good-- those elves are watching and Santa's starting a new list. It's never too early to get yourself on the "Nice" side!

Race for the Cure - Little Rock - October 2007

I finally downloaded the pictures from my phone. Here are some of the highlights from the Race for the Cure in Little Rock that I got to participate in. Good Times! There was no room for running-- but I shuffled along with the throngs of pink-clad women as best I could. It was great, and for a great cause!

Grandpa's Birthday!

This post may be slightly less than exciting for those not in my family, but feel free to view the video if you want. This year my grandpa's dog died. She was an ornery, yappy, fat, little miniature schnauzer named Cricket, who was spoiled, to put it mildly. She bit children. She bit us. She bit my Grandpa. She barked at everything. Unsympathetic people that we are, we weren't too sad to hear she was gone.

In her defense, however, she also followed my Grandpa everywhere. Went to bed with him and got up with him and could rarely be persuaded off his lap when he was driving. When left at home she would race to the door as soon as he came in again. She was truly a loyal dog. When she finally got too old and sick and had to be put to sleep for her own benefit it was really hard on my Grandpa. I'd never seen him so sad, and this man who rarely cried in all of his 86 years broke down a bit talking to my mom about it. He said that everything around the house reminded him of her and that he missed her so much. It was enough to break your heart, even if that heart had no tender place in it for Cricket.

So for his birthday this year, my sweet sister found him a little, black, miniature schnauzer. She arranged to have it shipped in from Colorado, and got several cousins to all chip in to pay for the new little dog. He had no idea, and we were able to give him perhaps the best birthday present ever. He saw this cute little thing and choked up a bit and said, "Cricket's come back". He was so happy and thrilled. He could only say, "I'm so overwhelmed".

Thanks Ari, for putting this wonderful Birthday surprise together!

Jolie-Pitt, That Is...

I haven't quite forgiven Brad and Angelina for stealing my name, but it's not every day you're at the supermarket and see your name all over the front of a celebrity magazine!
We were debating about who she looks more like, Brad or Angelina and decided she is a combination of Brad and grandpa Jon Voight. Hmmm, hope some of mom's features come into play as she grows up.
So where is she? Personally, I think she's just over at Tom and Katie's house playing with Suri and learning about Scientology.
Any other ideas??

Palmyra on CNN

Thanks Ansally for sending me this cool link!

CNN's Jim Acosta takes a tour of Palmyra to find Mormon Roots in New York. Tied in, of course, is Mitt Romney and the many Evangelicals who believe that Mormonism is a cult or if not that, at least not a Christian religion. My favorite is the grumpy old man in the little pie restaurant who won't even shake Mitt's hand.

On a more serious note, I love that people get a little view of Palmyra's Church History sites and that a nice older sister missionary gets to bear her simple testimony on national news in a way that sounds sincere and accepting. Check it out! I hope you like it.

Rejection

A few years back, I got an ivory envelope--the small envelope-- in the mail with the insignia from Stanford in the upper left corner. I drew a long breath and read what I had secretly suspected all along. Because of the many highly qualified applicants they receive each year they did not have a place for me in their Japanese Art History PhD program, but thanked me for applying. It was the first rejection letter I'd ever received from a college, and unfortunately won't be the last.

They didn't thank me for the $100 application fee, however. Since I was rejected, I kind of want that back. Nevertheless, so it was that I was rejected despite my small hopes of living for a few years in the Palo Alto sunshine, studying Ukiyo-e to my little heart's content.

On an occasion or two, I've offered up that little heart to a young man or two, and found rejection can come without an official ivory envelope. Depending on the occasion this has hurt sometimes more, sometimes less than Stanford's declaration that they could do without me. In fairness though, in this twisted game we call love and dating, I have had to offer up the proverbial ivory envelope to good men and turn their dear hearts away as well.

Rejection on a two way street at least seems fair, I suppose.

But recently I was rejected in a way that still has my head spinning a bit. Having moved into my snug little apartment, and commenced setting up house, I decided my happiness at home would be utterly completed with, you guessed it, wireless Internet. And so I applied to Comcast, the seemingly dominating force in the field of Internet and television service. After filling in all the correct boxes with my information and waiting 15 minutes to chat via i/m with a customer service representative named "Megan", I was informed that because I was not already a Comcast customer I was not eligible for Internet service.

I was in a new state of shock. I waited for the sales pitch-- "But...if you sign up for a package...", but it didn't come. "Megan", politely put in the pre-prepared answer, "I'm sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you, Shiloh. Can I be of help in any other way?" So, you're saying I have to go to another service provider? I asked with the same feeling in my heart as those times I'd said, So, you're saying you want to date other people? I got the same pre-prepared answer, no sales pitch, no alternative. Just a polite computer generated rejection.

Comcast rejected me. I didn't think this day would come. And so I go on, Internet-less and humbled, trying to get up the courage to ask Qwest if they will have me as a customer, take my monthly offering of $29.95 (plus taxes and fees), and make my home life complete. Until then, I will just have to ponder what I did wrong, how I could have proven myself to be a better potential customer. But I will also be wary to not fall in with those who cast their Internet payments before swine to get what they want now, while losing sight of their long term dreams. Rejection will not conquer me!