Girl Power!

I love the phrase, "Girl Power!!" When I hear someone shout, "Girl Power!" (okay, it's usually me), I instantly think of cute cartoony girls, dressed in various shades of pink, jumping in the air, waving their pom-poms and cheering. It makes me so happy! They're just so cute! It kind of reminds me of my Gmail theme, "Candy," which has cute little cartoon girls eating candy and smiling. The colors are teal and pink and I'm pretty sure the "i" in in Gmail is dotted with a heart. Occasionally, you can see the redheaded candy girl (when the screen is wide enough) and then I get super excited/happy. OMG, I sound so creepy right now.

Anyway, back to Girl Power. I also love saying it because it's cheesy. I mean, really. Who actually says, "Girl Power!" and means it? Who can take that phrase seriously? Who doesn't think of little cartoon girls flying through the air with streaks of color behind them when they hear girls shout, "Girl Power!"? It is hilarious. And SO CHEESY.

But here's the thing. My favorite part of saying, "Girl Power!" is that I mean it. Over the years, I have participated in coed sports (sailing in college and more recently, beach volleyball) and I work in the (still) somewhat male-dominated field of SCIENCE. There's nothing that I love more than being paired up with the smallest girl on the team and then kicking some boys' asses. And then shouting, "Girl Power!" Sometimes I say it before so that it disarms the boys into thinking we're stupid girls who don't stand a chance. If I'm on the volleyball court, I jump up in the air, throw my arms up and kick my feet while I cheer it. It really adds to the effect. And then we dominate the boys.

I don't mean this in some weird man-hating feminist way. It's just that sometimes I feel underestimated as a woman. I kind of envision "Girl Power!" as a way of saying, "In your FACE! You totally underestimated us because we are girls. HA!" Only it's a little bit nicer and funnier and it makes me smile.

Consequently, I also love the phrase, "You go, girl!" and try to use it as often as possible.

HSM

Every year, my labmates and I venture into the Sequoia foothills for Lab Retreat. In an attempt to "bond" with each other, we spent most of the time eating, playing boggle, competing in sudoku tournaments, reading (and complaining about) the Twilight series, eating some more, and interpretive dancing to records from the 70's (you can't beat my "worm"/caterpillar dance moves to ABBA - I am a dancing queen!).

But there's really only one point to Lab Retreat and that is watching movies. Specifically, watching Oscar-nominated movies. Although we may all seem like science geeks, a couple of us are in relationships with Hollywood-types who donate screeners to the cause, giving us access to the year's big movies.

Well, usually this happens. This year, the only screeners we got were The Reader and Revolutionary Road. From this selection, you may think we're big Kate Winslet fans. We're not. Sure, I think she's a great actress. And I've always admired her "stand" against stick-thin Hollywood (which, btw, seems to be a lie, since she's pretty thin in both of these movies). But really, these were not my favorite films.

The real winners of this weekend were High School Musical and HSM 2. After a mix-up at Blockbuster, we also had Sunday School Musical. Of SSM, Emily Johnson of Arts Alliance America reports: "The movie is a strong inspirational tale that exemplifies good morals through exciting and catchy musical numbers." Sadly, we didn't watch this one.

Back to HSM. I've been wanting to watch this movie for years now. Once (okay, maybe twice), I actually looked for it at Blockbuster, but it was sold out (rats!). I even asked my 10 year-old cousin if she had a copy I could watch while baby-sitting (she had a copy, but had watched it so many times, she was over it. Foiled again!). When HSM 2 came out, I tried to avoid it, despite the repeated showings on the Disney Channel, in an attempt to watch the movies in order. I felt utter despair when HSM 3 came out. I was never going to be able watch these amazing made-for-TV films!!

Or so I thought until Lab Retreat 2009 came along. Luckily, my coworker, V, felt just as passionately about HSM and she took action, picking up the movies (along with SSM) before the retreat. YES!!! HSM was everything I could ever hope for! Little Troy and Gabriella were so cute as they defied the laws of high school and pursued their secret dreams of trying out for the winter musical (But how could this be? He's a jock and she's a science geek!! They're not members of the drama club! Shouldn't they stick to what they know?! My head is going to explode!). My boss' side comments of "Do her!" every time Troy and Gabriella almost kissed added to the charm of this fine film. In fact, HSM was so good that we actually turned off Revolutionary Road 30 minutes in and put on HSM 2. YES!!!!

And since you're all wondering, my favorite character is Ryan Evans. The way he stepped up and showed the baseball team that dancing is cool in HSM 2 was brilliant. And his skin is so clear and luminescent. Just like a vampire's... hmm... reminds me of another teen series...

Not Enough!

I can't get enough of Wallace Shawn's new character on Gossip Girl. For those of you who are thinking "Wallace who?" think back 20 years to The Princess Bride and his character as Vizzini ("Inconceivable!!"). Anyway, he's now playing Blair Waldorf's new stepfather, Cyrus Rose. And he's AWESOME!! My favorite part is his catchphrase, "Not enough!!"



It turns out that I use the phrase "not enough" at least 25 times a day and now all I can think of is his character shouting it out with enthusiasm. I'm not even kidding. Yesterday I was having a serious philosophical conversation about science with my boss and we kept referring to part of an experiment as not being enough of something. After a few snickers, I couldn't take it anymore. I burst out with "It's NOT ENOUGH!!" just like Cyrus Rose. Sadly, this didn't go over too well with my boss (turns out, he's not a Gossip Girl fan... Weird).