Dear Nadia G

So I’m one of those ‘not so smart girls’ that chose fashion over functionality this winter and bought boots with zippers up the side. I struggle everyday to zip ‘em up cause they’re saturated in slush, salt, and everything else gross that goes along with winter. What can I do to make my zippering life a little easier???

Much Love,

Sticky Zippers

The Bitchin’ Lifestyle Crew figured it’d be nice of us to take pity on all those last minute shoppers out there and bail you out with some great gift ideas. If you feel like going a step beyond the “old standards” when it comes to present presentation, here are 5 gift ideas designed to be Merry-Christmas-Makers for anyone on your list.

With Thanksgiving and Christmas already around to remind us of all the things we have to appreciate in life, we here at Bitchin’ Lifestyle think it’s equally important to have a chance to complain about all the stuff that sucks too. So, in the spirit of this week’s theme of things that piss us off, here are a few of the more annoying trends that really grinded my gears in 2009.

It’s the end of the semester and while you would normally be celebrating such a glorious occasion, you’re still knee deep in term papers and endless study group sessions. Not to mention that it’s Christmas, you’re broke, and your girlfriend wants a Tiffany’s necklace. Ah, the joys of being a student.

Students are on high stress alert this time of year, and rightfully so. Between preparing for a twenty-five minute oral on some mundane and utterly useless topic – which in itself is cause for anxiety attacks – students also have to juggle studying for classes A, B, and C. Between all this madness, they’re probably working too. University can be a tough gig.

Meet Ted. He’s a 34-year-old Lord of the Rings super-fan. He’s read all the books and seen all the movies. He’s gone as Gandalf for Halloween the past fourteen years running, and last month he paid a jeweler over $900 to forge him his very own ‘Ring of Power,” which he wears on a chain around his neck.

But what are super-fans to do when all that’s just not enough anymore? They roll up their wizard sleeves, sit down at the computer and proceed to take the characters and settings that they didn’t create and in no way owns any of the rights to, and write their own mediocre tale of Middle Earth. Soon it will be posted along with millions of other stories written in dozens of different languages on sites like FanFiction.net to be shared with the world.