Girly Archives
Ma belle
10:55 pm | 7 | Blog | Girly, Places
Did you know that some Canadians, when they are traveling overseas, prominently display maple leaf icons and Canadian flags so that they do not get mistaken for USians*?
Somehow a few years ago I came into the possession of two tiny Canadian flag lapel pins. C and I have joked about wearing them while we’re in Europe next month.
But as disappointed as I have been in the regime of the past 8 years, I still love the United States and everything it idealistically stands for, and the thought of masquerading as someone else’s citizen doesn’t sit well with me.
Then C (voice of reason) had the brilliant idea of wearing Obama pins. We’ve been wanting to find some way to publicly display our support for him at home, and this has the added benefit of announcing to the citizens abroad that we do not support the colossal boob currently in office nor the never-ending war with which McCain seems to be in the midst of a love affair.
Besides, how could I resist this Team Obama button featuring Barack and Michelle knuckling up? Did you see her get teary during her speech this evening? Friggin’ love her.
*I use this term because Canadia is, technically, part of America.
Never tear us apart
11:35 pm | 1 | Blog | Girly, The Man
C left yesterday for what is supposed to be his last regular trip overseas. This is the sound of me crossing my fingers.
At the start of the year we were eager to undertake this experiment, to live the life of vagabonds, to willingly separate ourselves for the sake of having more time together, and on the surface I would say the experiment worked. This has, after all, been a epic summer for travel: scooter rallies, road trips, overnight motorcycle rides. It may seem glamorous — I had a friend say Saturday “You’re going out of town again?” but the truth is that I have spent more time alone in the past 8 months than I have in the five years previous and when my husband is gone I miss him so much I can not sleep at night.
When he’s home we never fight because there’s not enough time to fight and make up for the previous 30 days. We sleep late and stay up late and eat out too much and struggle to fit everything else in to the allotted time.
But when he’s away I can barely hear his voice over IP without breaking into tears. I have to make notes about all the things I want to share with him because I’m afraid I’ll forget to tell him. We have to schedule sessions because his workdays are 12-hour shifts and he’s 6 timezones away.
What made it particularly heartbreaking yesterday is that this last time home has been one of the funnest so far. I really did not want to tell him goodbye. In the morning I said to him “I’m not ready for you to leave yet.” In the afternoon, as he walked into the airport terminal and I moved into the driver’s seat I rolled down the window and yelled to him at the top of my lungs “I love you.”
Wednesday I am flying to California for a week. And in a month, instead of me picking him up at the airport here in Houston, he will be picking me up at the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. To celebrate the end of the Living Apart Experiment we will spend three weeks traveling Europe. Together.
John McCain is a misogynist
2:25 pm | 0 | Blog, Internerd, Video | Girly, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
There are a million reasons* not to vote for John McCain but here are two that have my blood boiling lately.
First, McCain calls his wife a make-up smeared cunt ** and then he offers her up to a pack of bikers in an event that equals little more than a debaucherous wet t-shirt contest.
Other ways in which McCain shows little to no regard for women: he wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, limit access to contraception and and doesn’t believe in fair pay.***
* Next time I get a blanket email from my grandmother about how Obama is the Muslim antichrist I’m going to reply with this video.
** Here is an interesting follow-up to that story.
*** I know most of these videos and links are old news but I still think they’re important.
Indulging myself in narcicism
2:38 am | 7 | Blog, Video | Girly, Places, Two Wheels
Here’s the video from Chattanooga Channel 12. That’s me in the first montage, kick-starting my scooter in one shot and then revving the throttle a few shots later. That’s also me at the end of the video, rambling about helmet hair. For the record, I don’t know what the fuck I’m talking about when I say I can ride “for weeks” on one tank. For those thinking of buying a scooter, that’s not true. She just asked me a mindless question and I responded in kind.
The current *spin* on scooter stories is about how people sick of high gas prices are turning to two wheels to ease their economic woes. It’s the only way the news can come up with to relate to the scooterist community. But I’ve been riding scooters for 5+ years, way before gas prices reached unreasonable levels, and even before then I was raised by a father who raced and was obsessed with moto-cycling. There are so many people out there now who have bought their first 2-wheeled vehicle and who have no idea on how to ride safely (flip-flops? no helmet? tank tops? lane sharing?) and in my opinion they are not the bulk of the scooterist community, nor are they representative of what AmeriVespa is about. I mean, my bike is a greasy 30-year-old 2-stroke highly-pollutive inefficient engine. If I was in it for gas prices, surely I’d be driving a hyrbid. I’m in it for the scooters themselves.
Okay. End rant. Enjoy the video. Sunday Punchers REPRESENT!
Works in progress
5:09 pm | 3 | Blog | Girly, Watching
Guess what? I’m turning this site into a tumblelog. As if you haven’t noticed my gradually increasing tendency to post only Twitter updates and YouTube video.
God, this exactly the kind of meta-blogging blog post that I hate. I was ruminating on this last night at Stitch ‘n’ Bitch — why do I always think that everything I make or create has to come out perfect? I have spent so much time on this silly little narcissistic website that I almost take the joy and spontaneity out of it for myself.
Less talk, more rock. That’s what we need. Except Wordpress and I aren’t on good terms right now either. Why can’t you just do what I want you to do, inanimate object?
Point of this post is to tell you that I have been having many adventures, and I want you to hear all about them. I’ll get to them as soon as I can. Patience, my pet.
In the meantime, I’ve updated the Movies page. I’ve seen some real shitters this year.
My lady parts do not ache for Hillary Clinton
1:03 pm | 1 | Internerd | Girly
I am a full-blown feminist and would love to see a woman in the White House. Just not this woman.
The Village Voice’s Allison Benedikt articulates much clearer than I can the problems with the Clinton campaign.
I *was* Angela Chase
12:18 am | 1 | Video | Girly, Watching
Sorry. I just spent the past month watching every single episode.
Really? Really!?
Ugh. Currently editing two-year-old blog posts that make me sound like a vapid, attention-hungry idiot.
But don’t worry, I’m not deleting any of them.
Yet.
Barbed wire
7:37 pm | 4 | Blog | Girly, Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
The idea that a married woman and a single man can not be just friends is fucking sexist patriarchal bullshit tripe. This is the Twenty First Century in the Land of The Free, and shame on all you who think otherwise and perpetuate jealousy and divisions between the sexes.
Clearly I need some buddies of the estrogenal variety, but my experiences as an expat wife have soured me greatly. What to do, what to do? How does one find girlfriends to share my high-falutin’ nerdy interests but who also aren’t outright catty bitches?*
Por ejemplo, I would like to meet someone who will go see “Persepolis” and hold an intelligent (and hilarious) conversation with me afterwards, but who can also compare the merits of various vintage Pyrex patterns. I personally own pieces in Butterfly Gold (1 and 2) but I have an insatiable lust for Moon Deco and Barbed Wire.
*ETA: Actually, blatant catty bitchitude is preferable. It’s concealed catty bitchiness that I find troublesome.
Valentine’s Day Victory
12:22 am | 0 | Internerd | Girly
Appeals Court overturns Texas’ ban on sex toys, the government gets the hell out of my bedroom. (And yours.)