Interesting things from the Wilderness.

Fall has crept up on me this year and I wasn't prepared for the fall beauty this weekend in the Wilderness. The leaves are just turning, the soybeans are drying and the sky is so blue and sunny. Augh. I love love love Wisconsin.

Some quotes from the weekend:

"Never trust anyone who says their favorite Jolly Rancher is peach." ~ Page's partner Andrew (who's last name I still can't remember!)

"I'm so STOOKED about my new Transformer!" ~ Isaac, after purchasing the Star Wars Clone Pilot Starfighter Transformer. "Don't you mean STOKED?" I asked. "Nope, I made it into a new word, and I call it STOOKED."

"I'll be the water wings than save you if you start drowning in an open tab, when your judgment's on the brink." ~ The Postal Service, Give Up, Brand New Colony.

Water wings. Awesome.

Also, I learned both what this thing called "bluetooth" is and I also learned how to do it on my phone.

And I got to take a nap in the soft chair by the sunny window with two wonderful dogs in my lap.

This week is a doozy. Prepare for sporadic postings. Here's a reader poll to entertain you:

What is your favorite Jolly Rancher flavor and why? What is your least favorite JR flavor? Have you ever pulled out a filling while eating a JR? (I have. It's awesome.)

I still have the same haircut!

My high school buddy Ray sent me this picture. L-R: Dewey, Leslie, Ray, your's truly, and Amanda.

I think this was from 10th grade. I remember feeling SO PROUD of how high and poofy my bangs were in this picture!

The Amazing Story of Fabulous Mike's Fabulous Shirt.

My friend Mike is really cool, and I don't think he knows it. That's part of what contributes to his coolness. He is in the Development Studies program with me, has been in the Peace Corps, speaks fluent Spanish, and is generally fun to hang out with. He's very droll.

A few weeks ago I noticed that Mike was wearing an unusual shirt. It was a short sleeved button down number that had these little flags all over it. And the collar was super wide. I remember thinking to myself, "Mike's shirt is rad." About a week after that, Mike came to a party at the Union and he was wearing the shirt. I decided to express my approval of the garment. That's when I heard the Amazing Story of Fabulous Mike's Fabulous Shirt.

It turns out that the shirt belonged to Mike's grandfather, who was actually in the secret service. It gets better. Mike's grandpa was a part of a US delegation to the founding meeting of the Alliance for Progress in 1961 in Punta del Este, Uruguay. He was the only Spanish speaking member of the delegation. Guess who he hung out with at the conference?

Way cool shirt, Mike. Way cool.

Crowd Anxiety

Apparently Badger football is a big deal. Two weekends in a row now, I've been nearly crushed by a crowd of people wearing red shirts near Randall Stadium. All I wanted to do was go to the coffee shop and read my articles.

Why can we mobilize people to watch a stupid game and yet we can't get a crowd that big to care about ending poverty?

Priorities. Sheesh.

Too busy...

...to post. Here are some pictures instead.

Bullet Update

• Isaac participated in a Dog Walk this weekend to raise funds for a no-kill animal shelter. Mom took Che and Shad to get haircuts and worked with them for weeks on a "dance routine". The routine consisted of her playing music and holding small pieces of chicken up high enough so that they had to stand on their hind legs and hop around in order to get it. Unfortunately, the pressure of the spotlight was too much. They basically stood stiff on the stage with their tails between their legs while mom and Isaac danced! But Isaac won for raising the most money in his category! So thanks to DomNem, Hob, and Idadele for their generosity!!!
• While Isaac was gallivanting in the wilderness with my mom, I read about 500 pages of theory, successfully resolved a domestic crisis, attended a birthday party for two friends, did laundry and grocery shopping!!
• This week is jam packed. I've got something going on every single night. Isaac has started to realize what it means that summer is over - he has been sad about not being able to watch more than 2 hours of TV a day. I'm mourning the loss of internet time.
• Speaking of internet time, I'm seriously cutting back on my browsing time each day. It's out of control. Although I can never give up reddit.com.
• The Domestic Nemesis has been having problems with stinky things in her apartment. Read part one and part two.
• Cake has a new CD out and their cover of War Pigs is excellent. If I had any money I'd buy it. Maybe Ding Ding will burn a copy for me. Pretty please?
• Isaac and I are going to take Italian class together. His school PTO offers it, and the classes meet before school starts in the morning. The reason we are learning Italian is because Isaac has a friend who just moved here from Italy and she doesn't speak English yet, so he wants to learn Italian so he can talk to her. Awwww.
  
• I'm way to busy to be blogging. That's all for now.
  

"Poverty", shame and feminism.

First read this. (Bitch Ph.D. complains about only having $1475 in left over money per month.)
And then this. (What Bitch Ph.D. thinks she should be ashamed of.)

Then read this. (WoC Ph.D. eloquently points out what she's ashamed of, and has some great insights about academe, poverty and feminism.)

Here's my shame list. Feel free to add yours in the comments.

What I'm ashamed of:

• That I've ever said (and believed) that "I'm so poor!" even though my husband makes a decent salary, we have our basic needs met, and we're able to spend quite liberally on our wants. (And that I've seen real poverty extremely close up and still throw the word around flippantly.)
  
• That I have the luxury to spend years and years pursuing my education and some people struggle to graduate from high school, and I whine about how hard it is.
• That I don't always confront people when they tell racist/sexist jokes.
• That I'm studying "development", which is a discipline that arose from colonialism and is arguably a tool used by world powers to control the resources of "developing" countries.
• That I am considering going into academe rather than applied work because I want to have the security of a contract, health insurance and retirement benefits even though I know that I'll be sacrificing a little (a lot) of my ability to affect real change in the world.
• That despite my relatively privileged upbringing, I pretend to be qualified to advocate for the rights of the oppressed.
• I still hold subconscious beliefs that are racist, sexist, elitist, and although I try to recognize them and change, sometimes they slip out and hurt people that I love.
  

Graduate school has made me brilliant.

I'm such a good planner. I knew that in the weeks to come, I'll be crazy busy and won't be able to remember things like when to return movies to Blockbuster or the library. So I decided that we'll only rent on Fridays, and that way I'll know that if it's Friday, I probably have something due at one of those places. It's working great.

Except for one thing.

Today I got everyone in the car and we drove over to Blockbuster and I realized that I left the movies sitting on the couch at home.

Again I rock.

Notes on the first day of class.

Isaac:

My school was really fun because it was awesome. My teacher's name is Mrs. Schulte, and she is amazing. First I went outside to play, and then I came in and then I learned some more and then I had lunch for ten minutes and then I went outside for a shorter time and then I did gym and then I did computer and then done. I made a new friend who helped me with my puzzle thing, but I don't exactly know her name yet. I also helped some other kids do their puzzles and find their snacks.


Katie:

The gates of heaven opened and a chorus of angels began to sing when my new stats professor went over the sum of squared residuals the least squares theory in class today. I understood every word. I even understood why we take n-1 degrees of freedom! It's because we used the data to calculate the sum of squares, so one of our values is not independent!

I really can't explain to you what a relief it is to have a good teacher.


A secondary note on socks:

Isaac sighed with relief when he put on socks this morning. He needed to wear socks so that we could wear our matching chucks on the first day of school. He actually said, "Ahhh, socks." I, on the other hand, am a sock-hater. My toes feel suffocated and crowded when they have a sock covering them. I love wearing flip flops and wish I could wear them year round! And I can never EVER sleep with socks on. It drives me wild.

Reader poll: In the winter, do you sleep with socks on or off?

Taste of Madison

Masud with a chunk of meat. Eww. Dead food.

Nothing tastes better than a good ice cream cone on a hot day.

It was hot, and there were too many people, but the Taste of Madison was fun anyway. I had a falafel and a custard sundae, and Isaac had two chocolate cones, a piece of pizza and breadsticks. Mom and Masud ate weird meat things. We all shared the best part - the double vanilla cheesecake from Lombardinos. WOW. Best cheesecake ever. EVER.

Then we came home and collapsed from overeating. It was great.