The Sky is Falling - Prince on American Idol?

Good lawd what is the world coming to??? Last night, a wee bit before ten p.m., I heard my cellphone buzzing. I saw that it was Sweet Sis calling. (NB - there are two Ji sis' in the world - Sassy Sis, M.D. and Sweet Sis.) Sweet Sis, with urgency in her voice, told me to turn on FOX because Prince was on 'American Idol'. (Hereinafter "AI") I frantically turned it on only to see the last three seconds of the only short man I have ever loved. Sweet Sis said she had been trying to call me since the beginning but our home phone just kept ringing. (Oops, NB to friends and family, the Ji household no longer has a landline.) So, I missed it.

Upon further reflection friends, I must say that I am highly disturbed that His Holy Purpleness would feel the need to perform on a show such as AI. In fact, right after Sweet Sis called, I felt a tightness in my chest. At the time I was, perhaps, in too much denial to realize that said tightness was a direct result of Prince performing on a show that is so beneath him. AI is so far beneath Prince that it is difficult to put into words.

So the question must be asked: Why on earth would Prince, one of the all-time truly gifted geniuses of an artist, feel the need to perform on AI? I forgive Prince for performing with Beyonce, I'm even able to deal with the fact that he is a JW, but this? I, Ji, am completely at a loss.

*My love for you Prince is and always will be in tact but c'mon baby you gotta cut me some slack. Stop dropping these bombs on me. We're here (insert motioning with fingers between Ji and Prince's eyes) remember?

Lash Extensions - IN; Cowboy Anything - OUT

A permanent fashion OUT, as in it never looks good so don't ever wear it, for me is cowboy anything. Cowboy boots, hats, shirts, anything and everything cowboy is O-U-T for Ji. I have tried to see the style in the cowboy look but I just do not get it. Actual cowboys are not even remotely stylish, nor attractive for that matter. Even when Madonna tried the look for her 'Music' album, it failed. And I'm a big fan of Madge. If anyone could make the cowboy thing look good, it would be Madge. But she didn't; it didn't; cowboy doesn't. 'Nuff said on this anti-fashion topic.

Now, a what could be permanent fashion IN would be the lash extensions that I was reading about in Vogue. (NB, I can't stand Vogue really and would never spend a hard earned cent on the mag. At the spa though, I'll read anything.) Apparently, we can now get falsies (lashes that is) added to our own lashes. Unlike regular false lashes though, these will last between four to six weeks!?! Could it be true? Every gal looks better with dramatic eyelashes. By the end of the article I was ready to leave the spa right away and head for the extensions. That is, until I read the cost. Three hundred bones and up! Gawd. And just like good color, you need to maintain the lashes. This could become yet another expensive addiction. Ji is trying to keep my boundaries on this one. I can not add another expensive routine to my maintenance schedule. Can I?

The Other Love of My Life

I have two true loves in my love - Mr. Ji and my sweetest Creamy. (Don't ask me to decide who I love more.) Creamy is my 10 year old Staffordshire Terrier who has been with me through thick and thin. He is slightly famous in our neighborhood. We can't walk down the street without people having reactions to him. Sometimes good and sometimes ignorant, reactions abound over my cutest puppy. Yes, he is and always will be my cutest puppy. Cream has more personality than most people I know. Latinos like to call him Crema, I call him Boobah, Da-doo, Sweetest...and on and on. Thank Buddha for our puppies.

Uninspired

I've obviously been unispired lately dear friends. I apologize sincerely but an artist must have inspiration in order to create art. Perhaps I'll share another vacay photo...all rights reserved by the way.

Fret not, Ji will be inspired once again, I have every faith.

Palmer's Shea Butter Formula - OTC Product Review

Ok friends, I'm sure that most of you are already aware of the amazingness of Palmer's Cocoa Butter Formula lotion. Well, just recently I discovered the Shea Butter Formula! (Hereinafter, SBF) Is it new? Or have I just been too tunnel vision on the Cocoa Butter Formula? (Hereinafter, CBF.)

I am absolutely smitten over this new to me formula. This white in hue lotion, has the same unbeatable texture and non-greasy feel of the CBF. Being an OTC product, you will find it in your local drugstore for merely a few dollars.

The clincher of my smitten-ness over the SBF is the absolutely to die for, so yummy I want to eat it, scent. I love, love, love the light almost fruity scent. It's not the typical shea butter scent. (But all these scents in our products are fake anyway -yes?) But it is absolutely heavenly. I shall continue to slather the SBF all over my body throughout this sure to be fab.u.lous. summer. I can only hope you do the same.

Vacay Photo

Lovelies! I think I figured out how to publish photos (you know Ji is a photographer too -yes?). Now we can really share! First photo is of the view from our cottage on vacay. Enjoy!

Mirrored Doors - Why Must You Torture Me So?

For the 3 fans of Ji and the City with whom I don't actually work, in our elevators here the doors are mirrored. Every morning when I get on the elevator I silently curse the nimrod that came up with the ingenious idea to make the doors mirrored. Why is it that in my mirror at home I see a half way decent reflection but upon stepping into the elevator, I see a gargantuan woman slightly resembling myself? And to have to start out everyday in this manner is a serious test to a girl's sanity (or attempt at sanity anyway.) The scariest mystery is whether my mirror at home is just being nice to me. Could it be? Is that woman in the elevator reflection the real Ji? Dear Buddha the thought alone is enough to make me want to throw myself down a long flight of stairs!

Aside from the hopefully distorting qualities of the mirrored doors. It does crack me up when the elevator is full, yet no one looks into the mirrored doors. Everyone looks at that little tv screen thingy with the factoids or at their (usually unfashionable) shoes. The little tv screen thingy makes huge sociological statements -yes? Ah! Let me not get too metaphysical here.

I, for one, enjoy looking into the mirrored doors and silently critiquing the other elevator riders fashion choices. Usually goes something like this, "ooo, not good, um, not quite working for ya buddy, who told you to wear that???" Once in a while though I am impressed. And what joy this brings me. A law firm is not fertile ground for high style. So on those rare occasions that someone looks good in the elevator, I send them a telepathic message letting them know they get the Ji seal of approval. Did you get the message?

Fendi Spy Bags - Like Buttah Baby

I'm itching for a new bag. I've been trying to ignore the itch but it just won't seem to go away. Out darn itch, out I say! Although admittedly not a true fashionable gals way of thinking, I do not enjoy spending large amounts of cash on bags. I adore Fendi bags and I have been coveting the Spy bag for quite sometime now. But I had a revelation a few years ago.

Back in the good ole days of when a designer bag was still under a grand, I was watching a lifestyles show on E! or the Style channel - aren't they the same channel? Anyhoo, on the show they were featuring one of the Fendi family's summer homes on some tropical isle. Suddenly, as I was oooing and aaaing over this home - it hit me! By golly I pay for that home! There I sat, the owner of many designer bags but not a single summer home to speak of. Right then and there, I vowed to stop funding the summer homes of designers until I had my own.

Since my revelation, I do admit, I have broken down and purchased a designer bag here and there. But I will only do so if it is on sale. In my quest to gain "more guns, less butter" (50 points and a mwa for anyone who can name the movie from which that fabulous line comes) I came to realize, that as I kept purchasing over the counter bags, I had an emptiness inside. The OTC bags just don't do for me what a superfluous designer bag does. Let me give you an illustration.

When I was recently in the market for a spring/summer bag, I purchased a Stone Mountain Handbag. I know, a wha? I found them via Lucky magazine. I bought a beige-ish large hobo bag. I was trying to be anti-designer, I was trying to save money, I was trying to be good. I got the bag in late March and here now, barely into May, I am tired of the bag. Although a beautiful, well-crafted bag in its own right, I never loved it. The bag never gave me that jolt of adrenaline, that skip in my step, that designer bags do.

So, now here I sit longing, crying out for, coveting a Fendi Spy bag. (Friends, be warned of the online discount designer sites such as bergacci -most are fake .) As much as I desperately covet, I shall not have thy Spy bag. A girl's gotta keep her boundaries -yes? Perhaps this weekend when I visit designergirl in that moneyed suburb wherein she lives, perhaps, just maybe, designergirl will loan me one of her many sticks o' butter.

Keeping Bathing Suit Tabs

Helloo lovelies! Yes, I missed you all terribly. Holiday was wonderful. Now back to the daily but fabulous grind that is Ji's life in the city. Ah, it's good to be back.

The location wherein Mr. Ji and I holed away was so small that it was rather easy to keep up on daily bathing suit tabs of the other female holidayers. Just how many bathing suits does one need while on a fab.u.lous. holiday?

Personally, I brought three bikinis and a one piece suit for the rare times that I might feel like doing some serious laps in the pool. Although I did wear each suit at least once, for the most part I interchanged between my two favorite bikinis. Which means, I suppose, that I really only needed those two favorite bikinis. Believe it or not, I was actually on the more down to earth side as far as number of bathing suits go. Thus, I reason that three bathing suits is a good number for a holiday.

I give some leeway to those young (and not so young) chickidees who were honeymooning (which seemed like practically everyone.) On one's honeymoon, a girl should certainly go overboard. Overboard with cute bathing suits, cute dresses, cute sandals, cute bags and on and on. Certainly overboard on the love element as well -yes? So, to the honeymooners, take as many suits as make you happy. (But please don't forget the cute coverups to match!) There was one honeymooner there from the London area. I never saw her in the same suit twice. Although she lacked any cute coverups; as I said, London, we'll forgive her.

Most of the other women had north of three bathing suits each. When did this multi-bathing suit condition necessitate itself? Today, four bathing suits, tomorrow what? The craziness has got to stop. Don't you agree friends?