Barbies and Basketball

Good taste. High Price. Type that you buy ice. Possibly be my wife. Hips mean. Thighs tight. Works out. Rides bikes. All that excites me. And... I think she likes me. Jadakiss - She like Me ft. Nicki Minaj 

         I'm not sure if people really have favorite anythings. It's tough to find someone who actually has an opinion about... anything. I mean... anything. People simply dont have interests. I think. Sometimes we're no more than the TV shows we watch and the food we eat. I started thinking about this because of my "movie collection". That's in quotes because I only own 8 movies:

ATL The Movie (2006)
Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
Goodfellas (1990)
Donnie Brasco (1997)
King of New York
Carlito's Way (1993)
Pulp Fiction (1994)

[I also own a couple of seasons of Nip Tuck stolen --or borrowed extra long-- from Loyola's library that I've never watched (& never will) along with Yoga & Pilates for Abs for days when it's too cold to run outside. ]

    This is what I watch because I hate TV. I feel like the same shit is always on --with different characters. Every show is the same and it's no wonder Kelsey Grammer is a millionaire. & Really, I don't have time to make it home every week to watch a show. The last thing I want is to have a "date" with my television. But really.... why is anything that's our favorite our favorite? I'm here to admit that most of my favorite things are things that my older brother liked --including his favorite artist (Shawn Carter) and color (green).  I was Robin to his Batman and I really have no shame in that. "He brainwashed this one," my sister once said when her husband asked if I recognized songs he was shifting through. 

      I mean... so what? My brother had impeccable taste. As does my older sister (whose favorite color is also green) but I copy her in different way. She's a fan of Bobbi Brown make-up and Ralph Lauren. She only uses white sheets on her bed, lives by a mantra I interpret as this: if a woman is expected to  cook, a man is expected to bring home the bacon to be cooked. So.. I am a perfect mixture of my brother an sister. I grew up playing Barbies and basketball. 

     I am the girl who, growing up, stored my Nintendo Games in a pink Barbie carrying case (and still do) & my Barbie & I had a tough time deciding between her Jeep and the convertible (but she obviously had both). My favorite part of family dinner is talking basketball with my brother-in-law while helping my mother cook. In the 8th grade, I quit Ballet to play basketball. I was once the only girl on my baseball team and the only one of my friends who hated all that had to do with cheerleading.  The same girl who, right now, uses a Calvin Klein Collection all access pass as a book-mark. There is a bizarre balance in all of this, balance the world is missing. Which is probably why I like my Goodfellas with a side of Breakfast at Tiffany's [which was not my brother's move, ok.] Karen Hill or Holly Golightly... they both had it made. [She Got it Made: The Gangsta's Wife]. 

     Today, the heels I'm wearing measure 5 inches on my Shaedler ruler. I wear high heels and make-up 5 days a week & sweatpants all weekend. I fill my closet with dresses and my iTunes with Jay-Z. No matter how much Basketball and Barbies I played, there are two things I don't have favorites of... I don't have a favorite basketball team or clothing line. I have preferred players and designers. I'm a Lebron/Balenciaga fan with Kobe/Lagerfeld coming in at a close second.  Iverson/Rocawear are dear to my heart, and it hurt when I let them go. It still does. 

    My least favorite thing about "favorites" is that people tend to say what's cool. What you like is supposed to define you. So we try to pick out the things that will make us  cooler. Some people chose whatever is hot at the moment. Like McQueen is now everyone's favorite designer and the Louboutin company has to have had increased sales lately. When you ask people what their favorite anything is, they say what they think they should say.  I think favorites is really what you have an unconscious inclination towards.  I mean.. I knew I liked Pulp Fiction  simply because I can re-watch it time after time... but maybe I like it off the strength of it being a Quentin Tarantino film. Maybe I like Tarantino?  I mean the Kill Bills were great... as were From Dusk Til Dawn, Reservoir Dogs & Inglorious Basterds.  & favorites get more profound if one takes the time to research. If I wasn't in the fashion industry, I might like a clothing line as opposed to the designer. But... I admire Burton's debut for McQueen and see the amazing steps Ghesquiere has taken in the name of Balenciaga. But I'm sure Burton and Ghesquiere's passion goes much deeper. They probably have a favorite thread, & fabric. & Idk if I like the Lakers, but I think Kobe is amazing, especially after watching the Spike Lee's Kobe Doin Work . **Watch That**

      The deeper you delve into that which you think you love... the more completely you can understand what you like. For example, I own MAC make-up.. & I love the colors I have... but I prefer the smoothness of NARS & only use MAC because it's cheaper but okay. Let's be honest, I only got MAC money right now lol. But IDK what my fav makeup is yet... I haven't been wearing it long enough to understand a choice and back up my claim. Like the people who like Ciroc more than Grey Goose  and don't know why. Or people who like Chardonnay but "not this one".  A lot of people do it, I'm just sayin you shouldn't. I'm not trying to go on anyone who's trying to find out what they like... just do your research before you make statements. After a presentation for my Advertising capstone at Loyola, the professor took the class out to a bar. I ordered a Riesling. "You like a sweet wine?" he asked. "Yea, I do, " I responded, glad that I knew that the grapes used in Riesling are picked later in harvest, allowing them to ferment and build up natural sugars. I didn't say all that. But I'm glad I knew it. 

    It's better to have no favorites at all than to claim something and then look stupid when you have no further information. When we're younger, we're so pressed to define ourselves. As if we're approaching judgment at any moment. To be honest.. you won't know who you are for a  long time. My sister, now 31 years old, told me that I won't really be living until I'm 27ish. When I'm comfortable. Stable & have more money to do better things, go better places and buy better clothes & shoes.... just  better shit, overall. 

        So... I guess this was a round-about way of saying idk what my favorite things are. I'm actually trying to figure that out now. When I've finally entered a point in my life where I'm not so influenced by the people shaping me. Growing up in the 90s, I think, was tough. It was a time when the only cool thing to wear were Nikes or Jordans. Jerseys. I mean... we all looked the same. There was no creativity, to be honest. You either had the right shit or the wrong shit. The way these little girls can wear no name flats to school and be the coolest of the cool? That's not how it was when I was a teenager.  You could get as creative as you wanted with your Nikes, but they still had to be Nikes.  The people who've raide  shaped me well so far... but I'm just trying to understand and decipher myself. I like the things I like. I'm just trying to understand why now. 

     oh & my favorite color is green because it comes in enough shades to never go out of season & looks amazing on all skin tones. [&... $$$ never goes out of style either.] but Pink makes me happy & makes me feel pretty.. Whole time, though, I own a lot more purple than I care to admit. I had 3 bikes that were purple. (& only Crystal will understand this: Purple with sparkles. I need one of those right now lmfao.) 

I just.... wish people could be who they really are, is all.