It's Official!

...because online quizzes never lie.

What female superhero are you??? Wonder Woman! You're an original. A champion of justice and able to keep up with the best of male superheros, you attribute your power to amazonian origins. You`re a powerful, independent woman, and you`re not afraid to show it.

Click Here to Take This Quiz

Tunes for Tuesday

Now that I am embracing my inner superheroine, I clearly need a soundtrack. This started off as a serious list, but what I ended up finding turned this into, well, something else. (Also, I really wanted to avoid overlap with my previous lists, so you'll probably note the absence of other Grrrl Power faves like No Doubt's Just a Girl, and any number of other Christina/Britney hits.)

Keeps Getting Better
Christina Aguilera

I think these lyrics pretty much require me to make this my new personal theme song:

Some days I'm a super girl out to save the world and it keeps getting better

One Girl Revolution
Superchick

Okay, this is what it is, but the themes under the bubblegum aesthetic do what the Bangles and Bananarama (and the Go-Gos) could've done for me and my Gen X chicas. Meh.

Rock What You Got
Superchick

It's On
Superchick

Me Against the World
Superchick

Ain't Nothin' but a She Thing
Nobody's Angel

Supergirl!
Krystal Harris

Watch Me Shine
Joanna Pacitti

And now the Close, But No Cigar Awards (here's where things go awry):

When this was going to be super-superhero-y, Batdance seemed like a logical place to go, but check out the Batgirl Theme and lyrics. This is awful on so many levels, not the least of which is auditory. But I like the idea of asking a superhero if she is a "chick who fell in from outer space" and if she isn't, then the logical alternative is that she might be "real with a tender warm embrace."

People ask me this all the time (the outer space part); maybe it's a sign that my inner superhero is shining through.

Batgirrrl, Batgirl! Batgirrrl, Batgirl!
Where do you come from, where do you go?
What is your scene, baby, we just gotta know.
Batgirrrl, Batgirl! Batgirrrl, Batgirl!
Are you a chick who fell in from outer space?
Or are you real with a tender warm embrace?
Yaaa, whose baby are you? Batgirrrl, Batgirl!
Yaaa, whose baby are you? Batgirl!

Wonder Woman Theme
For obvious reasons, I wanted to include this in the "serious," kickass list despite the background vocals being shrill and annoying. But the lyrics "in your satin tights, fighting for your rights" relegated this to the silly bin.

Sometimes it Takes Balls to be a Woman
Elizabeth Cook

Excerpt:
Sometimes it takes balls to be a woman Standing up to a test, while wearing a party dress Sometimes looks can be deceiving when you¹re quietly over-achieving Oh, sometimes it takes balls to be a woman He says I should repent for the money I spent on shoes and bags and jewelry Well To hell with that, my hard working ass ain't gonna sit before a jury Now isn't that a mighty small price to pay For all the love I send your way Honey when it comes down to the plumbin' Sometimes it takes balls to be a woman

A. I shoulda known this was a country song from the title alone.
B. This is from an album called simply, "Balls."
C. Rhyming "plumbin'" with "woman" -- now THAT'S artistry.

And that's when I had to give up the search.

Wonder Woman Challenge 2008-2009

So my training partner Jen started on a 90-day Bikram Yoga Challenge at the end of August. Seeing as how I'm a sucker for stuff with catchy names, I decided that my next training endeavor needed to have a snappy title like hers. Wouldn't you know, she came up with this:

Wonder Woman Challenge

Hell yeah!

Things to Look for in a Training Partner #43: Ability to come up with snappy names and phrases.

Since I donned a Wonder Woman-esque outfit for the run leg in Louisville (which brought me great strength), this is a great way for me to live up to the outfit.

Of course, I am also a big fan of creating snazzy blog themes. I'm not really ready to give up my "Gutsy Broad" banner yet, nor am I that interested in mixing the minutia of my training sessions with my other musings. Thus, I've created a separate site for my training diary, complete with badass aesthetic.

Two Gutsy Broads

I have a training partner! Woot! Jen and I planned a ride today, both of us showed up, and the whole thing kicked a lot of assk. Since she has begun telling peeps, and since the 2-3 points of overlap in our social circles probably don't read my blog, I don't think she'll mind if I announce here that our joint goal is for IMAZ '09.

In addition to the well-known, universal benefits of training with a partner, here's a sneek peek at what will make ours sooper dooper:

- A mutual love of tots
- Boy-watching
- Tri crafts!
- Winter movie marathons on our trainers
- THE MIXES!!!

Work Sucks

Okay, it doesn't really. But it is cramping my see-Chris-Isaak-for-free-except-the-eight-hours-of-driving-plus-gas style.

:^(

And I do want wine.

Oh Chris Isaak, Say It Ain't So

If you didn't already know, I love Chris Isaak. I mean really, I LUUUUV him. He usually sticks to the west coast for tours, so how happy was I when I learned that he will be in Chicago next week? At first, ecstatic.

Then I investigated.

He'll be giving a free concert (WOOT!) at the grand opening of a shopping mall. (WHAT?!) You read that correctly. My Chris Isaak is channeling the New Kids and Tiffany and hitting the shopping mall circuit. (Is this a step up or down from the casino he played here in Iowa last summer?) As if that weren't bad enough, the press release reads like something off The Simpsons. Read these money quotes with Kent Brockman's voice in mind:

Platinum record artist Chris Isaak is set to highlight the grand opening celebration at The Arboretum of South
Barrington later this month.

The free concert takes place at 7 p.m. Sept. 27 on the plaza stage at the new 600,000 square-foot outdoor shopping center near routes 59 and 72.

Guests are encouraged to bring a lawn chair.

"We want to properly introduce the project as one of the most important new retail developments in the Chicago area in terms of scale, retail offerings and ambience," Jaffe said. [emphasis mine]

-insert snarky Kent Brockman comment here re: Chris Isaak doing a bad, bad thing-

Three things:
1. If you didn't already know this about me, I'm kind of a liberal, anti-sprawl, anti-consumerism, if-you-don't-keep-your-wits-about-you-suburbia-will-kill-your-soul type.
2. I try to live deliberately: sticking to my principles, shopping locally, using public transportation or my bike.
3. You bet your ass I'm going!

*sigh*

4. I live a life of hypocrisy contradiction.

Girl, Why You Trippin'?

Here's footage of my Ironman finish -- and they even got the part where I almost fall on my face. AWESOME!

Also, I love how the music and editing make it seem like all of us were out there for some kind of leisurely fun ride -- or out chasing Duke Boys.