The Chronicles Of Jessica

Well, yesterday was Valentine's Day, and owing to the fact that D.C. is like a dirty, windy ice cube right now, Paul and I didn't get to have dinner at this restaurant where I had made reservations almost a month ago. We could still have gone, but it was so nasty out, and I literally could not figure out how I was going to get to this place in high heels and a dress. I would have had to wear snowboots and legwarmers and bring my shoes in a separate bag and that's just not classy. We could have taken a taxi but dinner was going to be pretty expensive on its own - see aforementioned posts re: "poverty". And as you know, our car is on the fritz. We ended up going to this Italian place around the corner from us, which I had read about online. The food was just okay. Still, we had a really sweet evening; Paul got me this new Annie Leibowitz book I've been dying for, and we were home in time to watch LOST.

(Spoiler alert! Also - people-who-don't-watch-LOST-and-don't-care-about-it-alert!) And speaking of lost, LOST has lost me. It was pointed out to me recently that LOST did not start out with some sort of story arc in mind, the writers just keep churning it out and what's going to happen next is as much of a mystery to them as it is to us. Well, it shows! If JJ wants me to remain a loyal fan of this show (and I have no reason to believe that he's indifferent to me) then I need some answers and I need them right now. I don't want any more flashbacks into the lives of these tertiary characters. I don't care about creepy Scottish guy and his ex-girlfriend, I don't care about mincy Juliette and her ex-husband, and I could give two shits about any of the stupid stuff they keep showing that happened before the damn plane crashed. Just tell me what is up with this group of psychic nutjobs hanging out there and kidnapping everyone and let me go live the rest of my life in peace.

Also, there isn't nearly enough footage of Sawyer without his shirt on. Althought at least they did finally have him do it with Kate, so I guess I can't complain that I'm not getting thrown any bones. But you're on thin ice, LOST. The shark is poised and ready, and you are about to jump it.

On an unrelated note, this is possibly the creepiest thing I've ever seen.

Apparently, a cross-section of Evangelicals have started hosting these "purity balls" which is a kind of cotillion for virgins, who've promised their fathers to remain virgins until they get married. I read that some of the fathers and daughters exchange "purity rings" with one another when the girl gets her first period.

There are so many things about this that give me the shimmies. Obviously this whole movement is intended to get girls to abstain from having sex until they get married. In theory, I don't have a problem with that at all. There was a time in my youth when I thought I would wait until I got married to have sex, too. (Stop that - why are you laughing?) I think that abstinence-education is fine; there's certainly nothing wrong with letting kids know that the only sure way to protect against STD's and unintended pregnancy is not to have sex at all. But to just stop at abstinence education is ridiculous and it's irresponsible. Teenagers are going to have sex no matter how much we try to talk them out of it and when they do, they deserve access to information about how to protect themselves. The Bush administration funded over 170 million dollars to abstinence education last year - not sex education, abstinence education. That means that by definition, the course material can't include information about how to use condoms or any other forms of birth control. And I read that more than half these programs were purposely disseminating misinformation to scare the kids, like telling them that condoms are only 50% effective and that you can get pregnant by touching another person's genitals. (Although in high school we did hear about this one girl who got pregnant that way, it was a friend of Misty's boyfriend Randy's cousin. At this time, The Chronicles know of no other relevant statistics.)

I just don't understand how people can talk out of both sides of their mouths about this stuff - we don't want you having abortions but we don't want you knowing about how not to get pregnant either. ???? AAAAARGGHHHH! Why can't those people get kidnapped by the group of psychic nutjobs on LOST?

Plus, the whole thing is totally sexist. Why aren't they trying to get the boys to promise to remain pure until marriage? Hey - I freely admit the futility of that exercise but it's their dogma and what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

I like the idea of father's becoming closer to their daughters and trying to help build their self-esteem, but this is icky. But you know, the one thing that is kind of fun is to imagine the expression on my father's face if I ever tried to initiate a conversation about my periods. I have a feeling that a desert island would not be far enough away for him.