Category / About Me

by Lexine

1996

This is the first installment of a three-part series that will be rolled out during this summer and fall where I look back on my life (and society at the time) 10, 20, and 30 years ago. What was going on with me and the world back in 1996? Read on and pass me some Werthers…

Still from the Macarena music video from 1996

I can hear this image. And what else defined 1996?

OK, a lot more happened that year than just a viral song and dance, but this retrospective will be based not on all the major events that happened in ’96, but on the year in the life of yours truly. You may be wondering how I still remember some things from 30 years ago, in spite of all the things I’ve gone through since then that may or may not have affected my ability to remember old stuff. Simply put: I just do. Not saying I remember 1996 like it happened yesterday, but some memories still stand out for me.

Also, clothes from that year were so damn fun.

*A Young Artist* 

I was eleven years old during most of ’96 and started off the year in sixth grade. I started off the year the same way I started off 1995: a chubby, awkward introvert who liked to draw, read, and write. Except one new thing popped into my life in late ’95 that threw me into a tizzy. I’ll give you a hint of what that was: I’ll likely be done with it in 8-10 years. (And I just realized I’m closer to finishing it than I am from when it started. 😱)

Because I was a chubby, awkward, introverted kid, I was a target for bullies, although it eased up when I entered sixth grade. I don’t know why, but I was grateful to not deal with those asswipes as much as before. (Sadly, they’d be back on my ass in the 7th and 8th grade.) And because I was a chubby, awkward, introverted kid, I thought I’d be a loner in school that year. By the end of the 6th grade, however, I actually made some good friends, and they weren’t make-believe for a change. 😆 I also finished the 6th grade as a young artist of sorts. A drawing of mine that I had done in class would be featured in a local art exhibit. And one of my prose pieces would get published in my local newspaper. (That prose became my very first work to be published.) Sadly, that drawing is long gone, and I had hoped my published prose would be found in the newspaper’s archives online, but that newspaper doesn’t even have an online archive to begin with. 😖

*The Look*

(From left to right: an image from the Delia’s catalog that shows the kind of clothes I wore this year, an image on colorful teen fashion from Seventeen magazine, and an ad for Revlon–one of the brands us pre-teens and teens wore. All from 1996.)

I started reading Seventeen magazine this year; coincidentally, I began to dress up. (No pics of young me here, but my fashion sense from ’95 vs. ’96 is like night and day. I went from frumpy to less frumpy!) One look that was “in” was the baby tee and wide-legged pants. I couldn’t roll in baby tees then (they were practically crop tops and I didn’t have the body for crop tops), so I settled for (as what I called them) “semi-baby tees” that were fitted but long enough to conceal what I wanted concealed, if you know what I mean. And I thrived in wide-legged pants. Anyone who thinks the Zoomers came up with the wide-legged pants trend needs to brush up on their history and read an issue of Seventeen from 30 years ago; Gen X and elder millennials wore them first. About my only issue with them was that many of those pants/jeans were too long for me. So what us “shorties” did then was cuff them up to the length that worked for us, then stapled it so it wouldn’t come loose. (Side note: I was a shortie then, and still a shortie now.)

One great thing about being a pre-teen/teen during the mid-90s was that our It brands were drugstore brands. It worked out for me because where I lived, we didn’t have a Sephora (Sephora kids in the 90s? They didn’t arrive in the States till 1998), and I didn’t have the pockets for brands like Estee Lauder and Chanel. (Those brands were also seen as brands our moms and aunts wore, and that wasn’t cool to us.) We thrived on stuff from Cover Girl, Maybelline, Neutrogena, and Noxzema. And our “clean girl” look then was a slick or two of Lip Smackers (bubble gum and cherry cola flavors for me!) and a few dabs of pressed powder to keep our mugs matte and that was it. The Sephora-addicted teens today could never.

A lot more after the cut…

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by Lexine

It’s Lipstick Day! 💄

Some of my all-time favorite lip products!

As a lippie hound, today’s my day to shine (and shimmer and gloss and pucker up) for it’s National Lipstick Day! Some collect shoes, some collect figurines, while I…well, I don’t necessarily collect lip products, but I know I have plenty in my stash, and that’s all I’ll say! 😜

The ones you see in the header pic are my all-time favorites. As luck would have it, most of those lippies have been discontinued, and I can’t even find dupes for a few of them because those particular shades and finishes are now out of style. Apparently, shimmery lavender nudes and glittery glosses are not hot these days. From top left to bottom: Urban Decay Vice lipstick in “Asphyxia”, Marc Jacobs Beauty lipstick in “No Angel”, Pat McGrath Mattetrance Lipstick in “1995”, Urban Decay Vice lipstick in “Trance”, NARS Powermatte Lip Pigment in “American Woman”, Pat McGrath OpuLust lip gloss in “Naked Rose”, and NARS Lip Pencil in “Bad Girl”. Only two of these are still around. 😞 The OG Marc Jacobs lipstick cases were exquisite. And if only the OpuLust lip gloss line can make a comeback!

If I were to pick one from that bunch to have an endless supply, it would have to be the UD Vice in “Trance”. It’s not advertised as a nude (it’s a medium-tone pinky-brown), but it works well as one with my light-medium neutral beige skin tone. It also gets bonus points for its metallic finish, and I lean towards lippies with more of a satin/shine finish over matte finishes. I’ve seen a few shades from MAC’s Frost Lipstick line that are decent dupes for “Trance”, but I’m still clinging onto what’s left of the original for dear life. “Trance” was as close to perfection in a lipstick for me. It was never drying, lasted up until I ate something (unless if it’s a liquid matte or a lip stain, lipsticks don’t really last that long), and had great color payoff.

Also, I find it amusing that Lipstick Day shares the same day as Chicken Wing Day. If I were to pick one lippie from my all-timers to last through a feast of chicken wings, it would be the NARS Powermatte. That baddie will last through almost everything.

by Lexine

Back To School

A GIF from the movie

I’ve gone back to school today! I’m taking just one college course for the summer (a six-week basic English course) and it’s all online with no in-person meetings. I’ll admit: as someone who has done all of her academic schooling in person eons ago, it took me a bit to get the hang of online classes. Now I wish online classes existed when I was in college. I just completed the day’s assignments, and I’ll be taking more online classes for the upcoming Fall semester.

Why did I go back to school? For one big thing: a career change. All the classes I’ll be taking are prerequisites & suggested courses to get into a program I aim to be in within the next few years. I will write more about this in a future post.

 

 

by Lexine

Happy 20th BiVersary

yours truly wearing a dark blue shirt that reads "Bi-conic" in pink-purple-and-blue lettering on the chest

You know the more I think about it on this first day of Pride Month (which is a good time to come out with this, so to speak), the more I kinda feel like it’s…been more than 20 years of being Bisexual. The first time I was attracted to a woman was back in 1998, and, at the same time, I still liked guys. That same year was the first time I heard about bisexuality, thanks to a movie called Gia–a biopic about 1980s supermodel Gia Carangi, played by Angelina Jolie. Both women happened to be Bi. Though the biopic featured Gia’s relationships with women, the more I read about bisexuality, the more I felt like, “could that be me?”

The definition of being Bisexual has evolved beyond being attracted to just men and women, yet I still identify as one because my tastes have evolved as well. 😁 And twenty years ago this month, 21-year-old me looked at the mirror and declared to myself that I am Bi. (And then I went out on a date with the woman would become my first girlfriend.) I still refuse to pick a side.

Happy Pride Month, and Happy 20th BiVersary to me. You bet your ass I will be (as the youths are now saying) annoying with my Bi self this month. 🩷💜💙

by Lexine

The Time I Almost Died!

*sighs* A pool almost killed me, too. 😭

I may have saved a life five years ago, but 35 years ago, someone saved mine. It happened 35 years ago this Spring–unsure what exact month but you can’t blame me as I was only 6 when it happened. What I do remember is: I was in the Philippines at some beach resort my family and I were staying at, and I was running around like unrestrained six-year-olds would. I’m not sure what got me into the pool; I don’t recall being pushed or knocked into it. Somehow, I do remember falling down and down, unaware I was sinking into the deep end. And then someone got ahold of me and brought me back up. When I returned to surface, I saw my parents and relatives surrounding me, making sure I was OK. I wasn’t in a state to where I needed to be revived via CPR or go to the hospital, but I was definitely disoriented from it all. And, as far as I know, I didn’t sustain any neurological or health issues from the incident (thankfully).

That someone who saved me from drowning was my cousin. I’ll always be thankful for her, and while I haven’t seen her in almost 30 years, I hope she’s doing well.

All this said, I still have not made the efforts to learn how to swim since then. You’d think my parents would’ve enrolled me in swimming lessons right after that, but nope. (And young me probably would’ve noped out of those swimming lessons then because I was scared of drowning again!) I’d be the girl who would either hang out in the jacuzzi or in the shallow end of the pool while watching others play Marco Polo in the deep end. Other things held me back: weight issues, money issues, lack of time, still scared of drowning…Now, it’s just trying to find some free time in my schedule. I guess I got another goal to achieve by or before I turn 50 (the other goal being having little to no debt): learning how to swim.

by Lexine

Pics From The 107 Days Book Tour (Oakland, CA)

I almost passed up on attending this event. It was two weeks ago when I found out MVP Kamala Harris scheduled an event in her hometown for her 107 Days Book Tour. My initial reason for not needing to attend was that I had already seen her, albeit for free and unexpectedly, and how could I beat that? In the two weeks since, well…plenty has happened here in the States. And I had a feeling Harris wanted to talk about all that, so I went!

 

It was a lot more packed at the event than this pic shows
A menu of the drinks served.

I didn’t get to see that drinks menu until after the event, and if I only knew they had mocktails, I would’ve gone for that!

Sign that tells attendees that our likeness can be used in any way for the event, that they may own it “for eternity”, and that we can’t sue the venue for this.
Our should-be First Gentleman, Doug Emhoff (Harris’ husband)
View of the stage from my balcony seats

 

She’s back! My President has returned!! If a smile was energy, hers could power all of the Bay Area for days.

Close-up of MVP Harris in discussion
Harris listening to Congressman Simon

Plenty was talked about. How Congressman Simon (who moderated the event) first knew Harris. MVP’s days as a prosecutor in SF and rising up all the way to Vice-President. The Orange guy (of course), his “totalitarian” regime, the new war he started, and his “feckless” ways. (I like how she said that feckless was the only “F” word she could say as there were kids present at the event. Now I wonder what would’ve been said had it been an 18+ over event 😆) She also spoke about voter suppression, ICE raids in Minneapolis and elsewhere, her experiences while touring the South in the past year, and how all this chaos we’re witnessing in real time has been decades in the making.

However, my favorite part of the event was when Harris answered questions from the audience. Two of them came from adolescents. The first teen recently lost her mother to cancer, and MVP told them while it’s always tough to lose a loved one, what can’t be taken away are the moments they’ve shared together. The second teen wants to organize his peers to vote when they can, and how to proceed with it. Everyone applauded him and Harris told that him to “remember” that applause, because there could be a time when his idea may be met with no support. 🥹

It’s that kind of encouragement to our youth alone that make me go…goddammit, she really should’ve been President. Like, she could’ve still done a book tour, but her book would’ve had a different ending and she would’ve held the tour four or eight years from now. Alas, the racism, misogyny, and willful ignorance that still plague this country…

One thing I’m glad I didn’t see were hecklers, as there were none (I’m pleased to report). I legit was ready to cuss them out! Didn’t even see any protestors outside, which was a relief because, mind you, Oakland is right next to both Berkeley and SF, both of which has its fair share of antisemitic idiots that still–in the year of our fascist 2026–think she and Biden are responsible for the mess in Gaza.

Now, go check your voter registration, everyone. MVP said so! If you want to restore democracy, make sure you’re still registered to vote for it!

by Lexine

The Time I Saved A Life

Five years ago yesterday (according to my Google Photos), I got the first of the two original Covid vaccines. But me getting the vax is not why I gave this entry its title. What took place two days before that is why. And anytime loud noise is involved, I remember the moment more.

I had woken up all of a sudden around 4AM on Valentine’s Day, 2021, to loud banging on the walls. It came from the side of a neighbor who was an old, former homeless drug addict (he told me so) but had been sober for years. (Only vice he had was smoking cigarettes.) The noises weren’t consistent, but that he kept banging on the walls (it sounded like he was hitting the walls with something?) every other minute drove me to call & email my then-property manager about it. It’s always a horrid inconvenience to have your sleep interrupted, but worse when you also have to wake up early that day for both a Covid testing (to make sure I didn’t have “The Rona” before getting my Covid shot) and work (I worked a temp job during pandemic lockdown).

I turned up my sleep noise machine (which I must always have on when I hit the hay), put on some earplugs, and managed to get a little bit of sleep before needing to wake up at 7am. While I was at the drive-thru for Covid testing, my property manager emailed me back. Here was her reply:

The gasp that I gasped in my car when I read that. I had no clue my neighbor had an emergency. I had to report him over noise disturbances in the past, but what happened to him that early morning was unusual. (His previous noise issues were things he could’ve controlled, like turning down his TV or music player, or not talking to himself too loudly.) I later talked with my property manager about this, and she told me he had a heart attack that morning.

(By the way, I was surprised that I didn’t make a single spelling or grammatical error in my 4AM email to my property manager. I thought there’d be at least some incoherence in my email that was written when I was half-awake.)

While my neighbor survived that incident, he would sadly pass away a year later. I found out from another neighbor that he passed away (of a stroke, unfortunately) while I was out-of-town for a few days. It’s a shame, but I felt like his fate was inevitable. Even after that heart attack, the guy still kept smoking till the very end. Dude just didn’t care. Just as sad was finding out he didn’t get a proper leave–no funeral or wake whatsoever.

RIP to my neighbor. 🕊️

To this day, I’m still that chick who will say something if I see or hear something (unusual or suspect). Who knows–it could end up saving another life.