February 2006

Daily Dose of Women – VDay

2 Comments / Daily Dose /

Did you know my first "date" with TW (which wasn’t really a date at all) was to see the Vagina Monologues?  Did you know we tried to go see it again a year later but TW ridiculously thought we could just get tickets at the door, ha!?  Did you know we’ve seen it several times since then including last year with Michelle?  Did you know we had tickets to see it a couple of years ago but missed it because TW was in the hospital?  We have quite the Vagina Monlogues history.

We’re attending again this year in celebration of Vday.  The monologues do get a little stale after seeing them for about the 10th time but being part of the VDay celebration is important.  So we’re going and we’re all pretty excited about it.  I just ordered the new VDay Tshirts.  I just hope Michelle likes these as much as she liked her Value Your Vagina shirt from last year!

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Charis Books and More

6 Comments / Bookstores, Feminism, GLBT /

I don’t know why we’ve never noticed Charis Books and More on previous trips to Atlanta.  I could use the excuse that we most often go at night and it’s set just far enough off of the main road that it is easy to miss.  But we’ve gone often enough during the daytime that you’d think we’d have noticed it.  Weird.  Maybe the fact that we’ve missed it is part of what’s keeping Charis in financial trouble?  Or maybe it’s just that small independent bookstores everywhere are suffering?

I made sure we visited this time.  It was the least we could do since we all three really love our little women’s bookstore, Wild Iris and would be very sad if it closed.  We even bought a little rubber wristband to support their cause.  But, well, we weren’t really all that impressed. 

We’ve heard about how great this bookstore and what we found was a pretty run of the mill woman’s bookstore.  Nothing unusual or special about it.  I’m not sure what we were expecting – something to live up to the hype?  Oh well, that’s ok, it didn’t stop us from spending just shy of $100 in there, did it?  Charis doesn’t have to be anything other than what it is to be worthwhile to the community.  It was a nice, clean, well-lit bookstore full of interesting books.  Tons of women’s literature, lots of GLBT books, a nice children’s section and TW’s favorite item, Pussy Pucker Pots (you’re welcome, TechnoDyke). 

If you’re in Atlanta, visit L5P and be sure not to miss Charis set back just a tiny bit from Moreland, on Euclid.  The oldest feminist bookstore in the south is worth a visit. 

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Daily Dose of Blogs – Blogher

4 Comments / Daily Dose /

When I signed on as a contributing editor for Blogher I immediately began surfing various blog search engines for new blogs related to health & wellness topics.  When I found a new blog, I added it to my aggregator in the "health" category.  Sometimes I created new folders for specific sub-categories when I knew I’d want to write longer, more detailed "surfing guide" type things.  I figured I’d keep the blogs til I wrote the posts for Blogher and then I’d release them back into the blogosphere.  Oh sure, I expected to keep a few really great, new finds.  But, for some reason, I’m having trouble letting any go free!  I’ve got a folder called "dogs" for goodness sakes!  Who would have thought I would have trouble letting go of blogs about dogs, even if they are really cool service dogs?  NOT ME, that’s for sure.

But no, I can’t let them go.  I sit down almost everyday to clean out my feeds and I can’t bring myself to do it.  We’re only a couple of weeks into Blogher and I’ve increased my list of feeds by 100!  I’ve only ditched 3!  Imagine how many feeds I’ll be reading by the time Blogher arrives in July?  It’s frightening.  I need an intervention or something.

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Email Murders

2006, Books in Bed, Children's Literature, Mystery /

I spend a lot of time searching for audio books for children and young adults. Prince J prefers to listen to books rather than read them and E just plain likes them. RJ use to complain about E’s book listening when they shared a room but she quickly began to complain that she didn’t have a CD player on which to listen to audio books! (We’ve solved that, after letting her stew over it for awhile and reminding her of how often she complained about E’s audio books.)

The Email Murders was one such audio book picked up at the library a few weeks ago. I didn’t know anything about it or about P.C. Hawke mysteries. I just knew the author Paul Zindel and figured it was worth a shot.

I put the first cd into the cd player in the car a couple of weeks ago and we all started listening as we drove to church. And then we never pushed play on the cd player again. Forgot all about it. Til yesterday on the drive home from Atlanta when I discovered the iRiver had not charged fully and we were out of power.

I pushed play and the Email Murders began. It wasn’t bad. It wasn’t great either, though. I probably won’t bother tracking down any other P.C. Hawke mysteries and I probably won’t send it upstairs for the kids to listen to either. I don’t think they’ll like it much. Not “kid like” enough for them. And not adult either. Sort of an adult mystery trying too hard to be for kids. Something gets lost in all of the trying.

I was glad the book was still in the car yesterday, though. It was a nice way to spend a few hours of the drive home.

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Daily Dose of Travel – Atlanta

9 Comments / Holidays, Kid Talk, Money Talks, Travel Log /

We’ll be heading to Atlanta soon.  We being me, TW and Michelle.  This weekend will be part of Michelle’s 16th birthday celebration – woohoo!  (Did I sound properly enthusiastic?  Let me try again WOOHOOOO!)

We’re staying at the Beautiful Mid-Town Wyndham.  We’re going shopping at the Junkman’s Daughter (or whatever it’s called) in L5P.  We’re going to hit the bookstore, Charis, that I recently blogged about.  I think we’ll take Michelle to Mary Mac’s ’cause everyone needs to go to a southern tea room, once.  Besides there are tons of vegetarian choices!  The most important part of this trip though is…

IKEA

Michelle is getting a grown up bedroom for her birthday so we’re hitting IKEA in order to do that.  This will be her virgin IKEA visit and only the second visit for me and TW.  Someone remind me to bring the camera!  We’re excited!  WOOHOOOO!

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Daily Dose of Starbucks – #52 #60

3 Comments / Coffee & Tea, Pet Peeves /

Every morning TW and I stop at Starbucks.  We generally stop at the Starbucks where everyone knows our name and the baristas know our drink.  Sometimes we have to go to the Starbucks downtown but that’s just once a week or so, we don’t like that as much.  Lately though, there’s been a problem with our morning Starbucks run and it doesn’t matter which Starbucks we visit.  Two problems, actually.

The Way I See It #52 and The Way I See It #60

I was really excited to lose the holiday cups and get back to the traditional white cups with inspirational discussion worthy "The Way I See It" quotes.  That excitement has turned to frustration and dare I say, loathing?

I am sick to death of both #52 and #60.  Teddy Roosevelt is not the most inspirational of our presidents, in my opinion – I’m sure some of you adore Teddy and that’s fine – you can have all of the cup #60s if you want them.  Eavesdropping on baristas is something I do everyday and believe me I could write better cups from my eavesdropping than the little tidbit on cup #52.  The big problem though is 30 straight days of those two cups.

It appears as though all Venti cups in this town (is it the southeast? the country? the world) have those two "The Way I See Its".  (We’re going to Atlanta this weekend and I am hoping to prove it’s not the entire southeast!) (We went to Atlanta last weekend and unfortunately the #52 and #60 problem occurs there as well!)  The other size cups have different "The Way I See Its" and I’m tempted to change cup sizes just for something NEW to read and look at and talk about.  Won’t that make Starbucks sad?  If I stop spending $11 a day and spend $8 instead?  And after I get sick of those Grande cups, because I’m afraid I’ll get trapped with two new numbers, then I’ll have to switch sizes again, to a Tall,  and spend $5 a day.  And after that, I’ll have to stop going to Starbucks altogether.

Something had better be done about this cup issue, and quickly.  At this point I’d be thrilled with the Christian message "The Way I See It" cups that we read about last year.  At this point I’d be thrilled with quotes from the current President Bush.

**Updated after the trip to Atlanta**

I’m just that sick of cups #52 and #60.

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Daily Dose of Television – Gilmore Girls

5 Comments / Sights & Sounds /

Listen up Paladino, I’m getting angry.  Angry enough that I might stop watching TV altogether on Tuesdays.  That’s pretty angry since I am a diehard Gilmore Girls fan. 

What is Paladino thinking? Is she making it easier for fans to see the show end this year by turning really terrific characters into really horrible characters?  If that’s what she’s doing, she can just stop it.  As sad as I’ll be when there are no more weekly visits to Stars Hollow, I’d prefer the Gilmores, their friends and family, go out with a bang and not a bust.

Let’s look at the problems with the writing so far this season.

Besides the fact that we didn’t need a younger Rory and an old flame for Luke who is a mirror image of Lorelai, we’ve now got Luke acting completely out of character.  I get that he wants to be a father, that part makes sense.  But Luke would not do it in this fashion.  He wouldn’t have hid the truth from Lorelai for 2 months.  He wouldn’t be shutting her out right now.  And he certainly would not have canceled the wedding.  That’s not Luke, that’s some other dirtbag man of which we have many examples and do not need more.

And Lorelai, what is up with her acting all weak and submissive?  The real Lorelai would have said HO!, it’s not ok to cancel the wedding!  It’s not ok that you didn’t tell me you have a daughter for 2 months and it’s not ok that you haven’t yet introduced us to each other!!

By the way, making Luke into some idiot who has never lifted a book in his life is ridiculous.  In the early seasons Luke did in fact read.  He may not be a Rory and April quality reader but the man has never been a dumbie.  The dumbing down of Luke has been a progressive thing, a la "What’s the DAR" but this week’s episode was just too much.

Now let’s talk about Rory.  I know Rory has always made bad choices when it comes to men.  If you’re going to completely change a character could you change that?  Wouldn’t it be nice if Rory had actually grown up during her community service?  But no, you have Logan coming in to win her with a coffee cart and save the day with his Huntsberger family connections.  Rory should have saved the paper without him last week.  And then met him for coffee later, reveling in the glory of her success.  But no.  You couldn’t give her that.

The lack of supporting character appearances is also a problem.  No town troubador.  No Lane.  No Sebastian Bach.  No Michele.  Very little Paris and all can’t cope Paris makes for a really crummy show, people!  Heck we’re not even seeing much of Kirk or Taylor this year and that’s just crazyness.  Lorelai and Rory are the stars, no doubt, but what got this show where it is was, are the cast of supporting characters.  Quit with the Paul Anka and bring back the town!  I’d even take more of pfTL.  He’s better than Paul Anka.

I’m warning you Paladino.  I’ll quit watching on Tuesday.  And I may own seasons 1 and 2 but if you keep this up, I won’t buy the other seasons.  And I’ll stop searching for that fuzzy meowing alarm clock from season 1 that I’d kill to own.

Get rid of these pod-people versions of Stars Hollow residents and give us back the real thing.  RIGHT NOW (using Emily Gilmore’s voice, maybe that will shake you up).

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Daily Dose of Health – Women – Heart Disease

1 Comment / Health and Wellness /

On February 3, 2006 people all over the country will be dressed in red to support the campaign to reduce the risk of heart disease in women.  (I’m thinking about turning my blog template red, care to join me for the day?)

Visit the Go Red for Women website to learn about local events, shop the go red store and find information about the #1 killer of women, heart disease.

On the morning radio show I heard a college professor, about my age, describe her heart attack almost a year ago.  She was a professor of dance, she had no history of health problems, no risk factors and no heart disease in her family.  Yet she had a heart attack.  She did not have any of the signs you generally think of when you think about heart disease.  Instead she felt sick to her stomach, she had severe pain in the middle of her back and her arms were weak, like noodles.  That’s it.  No chest pain, no shortness of breath, no pain in one arm.

You may think it can’t happen to you, but you would be wrong.  My old friend Milindoe found out she had a mild heart attack years ago, and she never even knew:

About 6 or 7 years ago, I had an ecocardiogram (ECG) done and it was found that, at some point in my life, I’d had some sort of cardiac "episode" that caused some slight scarring around the heart. A mild heart attack, and I never knew it. Scary, isn’t it?

Laura’s life has been touched by this, too.

Last night, he told me a dear friend (and his boss) was going to have heart bypass surgery today. She is in her early 50s. Cathy and her husband, Joe, are very dear to us. Their office is a lot like family so Bill and the rest of the staff are understandably worried. I sat with Joe and his kids this morning in the hospital as Cathy underwent quadruple bypass surgery.

Zuzu on of the new Feministe bloggers shares this comment to Jilly’s post asking "What’s Your Biggest Health Concern".

When my mother had her heart attack, she didn’t even recognize that that was what it was, because the symptoms didn’t fit the “classic” model — shooting pains in the left arm and whatnot — which is derived from studies of men.
As a result, she didn’t seek medical help for three days, because she thought she just had the flu. She’d probably be alive today if she knew what the common symptoms in women were.

Dr Helen talks about her three month check up, linking to her post about her heart attack, at the age of 37.

Join the Go Red For Women campaign. Spread the word, spread the education.

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