Personal

I love burritos from Chipotle. I could eat them every day for lunch and dinner, and maybe breakfast too if they were to come out with a breakfast burrito. :-)

My friends are having babies faster than I can knit blankets and booties and stuff for them! Amanda, I'm working on something for little Milo now. I really hope you guys like it.

Ugh, I am so burned out right now. I should be gearing up for the fall semester, all bright-eyed and refreshed, but all the work I've been doing this summer has really sucked the life out of me. Maybe Michfest will rejuvenate me. The melancholy just hit me today; last night I saw Bend It Like Beckham and came away from it with all the euphoria you'd expect from a feel-good movie. Now, though...another story. :-(

As you know if you read this previous post, I just read From Housewife to Heretic by Sonia Johnson, who fought and fasted for the passing of the Equal Rights Amendment in the late 1970s and early 1980s. And as you know, I've been despondent thinking about the state of the world and of feminism since. I've been thinking of feminism as similar to that movie Awakenings starring Robert DeNiro. If you haven't seen it, his character has Parkinson's disease. The scientists come up with this great new drug to treat the disease, and for a while DeNiro's character (who at the beginning of the movie was in a catatonic state) comes back to life, enjoys himself, etc. That only lasts for about 3-6 months, though, and he gradually starts getting worse again. It's a freaking sad movie. Anyway, I was thinking that there was a feminist awakening, and where is it now?

A few weeks ago, I went to the local Pride festival and put my name on the Minnesota NOW mailing list. The other day, they sent me a summer schedule. Thursday night, I went to the meeting. In attendance were 22 energetic, beautiful women of all ages. The first item on the agenda?

[drumroll]

"We have to get back to work on passing the Equal Rights Amendment."

I got such a rush! One woman in her 50s said that women in their 70s and 80s who fought for the ERA back in the 1970s want to see the ERA get passed before they die (IT NEVER PASSED, just for the record. Many people are surprised to learn that.). Before they die. We have to do this.

In the meeting, they also mentioned the Constitutional Equality Amendment, which is like the ERA but more specific. I'll have to do more reading about it.

Recently, Scott made this comment to one of my earlier posts. He makes some really good points, and presents a valid challenge: "If your privacy is so valuable that you fear exposing it, maybe you shouldn't blog. Or maybe you should consider why you blog in the first place."

I've been thinking about the real me and my blog persona. Maybe some people who know me well would say that the two are continuous, but most wouldn't, I bet. I think that revealing personal information on my blog is, for me, an ongoing process. I just need time, I guess. If CultureCat were a topic-driven, filter-style blog, saying nothing about my personal life would be expected, but I can only assume that you who come here and read my posts do so because you maybe think we have something(s) in common. I need to put myself out there more...and face the fear of being judged.

The other day, I bought a Demeter Fragrance. I have a couple already--Wet Garden and Green Tomato, but this time I got New Zealand. I thought, hey, I've always wanted to go there; I can at least smell it for now. I'll be getting a free Dirt candle too, yay. I like the smell of dirt. I wanted to take some of the Alabama red dirt back with me here to Minnesota, but then I thought about all the microorganisms living in that dirt, and what might potentially hatch. I decided against it.

Besides the New Zealand fragrance, I finally got around to buying those Jean Ritchie CDs I've been meaning to buy for a while now. I got the double album None But One / High Hills and Mountains, which is a collaboration of Ritchie and a lot of other folks. I also got Jean Ritchie and Doc Watson at Folk City because it has the song "What'll I Do with the Baby-o?," and I like it.

WHY are plane tickets to Toronto so bloody expensive?!?! I cannot find one lower than $598.00, and I've searched CheapTickets, Hotfares, Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and even that place that won't tell you the time of the flight until after you pay for it, so you might get all redeye flights. Should I just forget it or what? I really want to go to the AoIR conference and present my paper, but that's an outrageous price to pay.

Why will Winamp not generate playlists from my mp3 files? When I go to Misc --> Misc Options --> Generate HTML playlist, it gives me this browser window that says "unknown." Paul is always generating random playlists, and it's cool to see the eclectic mixes that come up. I want to play too!

Whenever I look at the URL for Phlebas, which is "phlebas.blog-city," I sing the URL to the tune of "Detroit Rock City" by KISS. Just had to get that off my chest. :-)

The June 2003 issue of Sexing the Political is out! You can bet I'll be blogging about specific stories in there, but for now I need to drop some stuff off at Goodwill. The apartment I just moved into isn't any bigger than my old one, and I'm trying to make my living space more sparse and open, which is hard in an apartment the size of a matchbox! Anyway, I'm getting rid of the stuff I don't wear all the time, and any white or light-colored shirts. They just don't work with my skin and hair color. Plus, I'm getting rid of all my pants that are too short. I have several pairs of pants that are just a *little* too short. From now on, I'm only going to have tall pants in my closet. I stopped buying any pants that weren't a tall size some time ago, and now I just need to get rid of any short stuff that is still hanging around. :-)

Actually on Friday this time:

1. Is your hair naturally curly, wavy, or straight? Long or short?

It's naturally straight, and...let me see...about shoulder-length.

2. How has your hair changed over your lifetime?

I've never experimented with color, but my hair has been all kinds of lengths and styles. In the late 1980s, I had the standard BIG hair--tons of Aqua Net hair spray, very high bangs. I used a curling iron and all that. Then in high school, my hair was pretty calm for the most part--almost the way it is now, just bangs on the forehead and shoulder length (my forehead is too high not to have bangs). Then, in college, I went through kind of an anti-glam phase. I wore clothes that were inspired by that Green Day work clothes/coveralls look, and my hair was like Mia Farrow's pixie cut in Rosemary's Baby. Observe:

and

I had my hair really short like that for years, but I don't think I'm thin enough to look good with that haircut anymore. The pixie cut looks best on very slender people, I think.

3. How do your normally wear your hair?

Parted on the right side, hanging straight down. I hardly ever use any ponytail holders or barrettes.

4. If you could change your hair this minute, what would it look like?

It would be the way it is now, but THICK. My hair is baby fine and there's not a whole lot of it.

5. Ever had a hair disaster? What happened?

Nah, it's just hair, it'll grow back.

**Edited because Mia Farrow's site doesn't like remote hosting.