Transformation

This weekend has turned out much better than expected. In the midst of depression I never remember that leaving the house and hanging out with B and the TG’s does wonders for my mood.

Saturday, after much debating I forced myself to go down to the AMC. (stopped at the post office on the way to pick up these rings.) Julie and Adele were in sessions by the time I got there, so I sat at the TG table alone for a while. After about an hour of cranky text messages to B and half-heartedly talking to people that stopped to find out what TG was about, Adele came out and sat with me. She’s the type of person that cares enough to ask questions and I’m unable to tell her I’m ok and everything is fine when it’s not. So it was helpful to get some of that crankyness out of my system.

The last set of sessions started and we stopped in for a panel on the Jena 6 and New Jersey 4. The discussion centered around the media coverage of each and why the Jena 6 was publicized much more, while the New Jersey 4 was essentially ignored by mainstream media. The discussion was intense and the panelists brought up things like: why women of color (woc) stories and LGBTI stories receive little or no attention from the media, victim blaming, police brutality centered around race and gender, questioning the idea of getting big media attention – is it needed?

I also had the privledge of meeting BrownFemiPower – she is an absolute genius woc blogger. Add her to your reader NOW! I also met Jessica Hoffman from Make/Shift and Debbie Rasmussen from Bitch Magazine. (Watch for A Bitch Project to come to your town)

Listening to those people speak pulled me out of my own mind for a while, so went I left I was energized and in a good mood for the first time in days.

I drove over to B’s house where he had dinner all set up – my man is not only incredibly sweet, he’s a damn good cook. We ate dessert while lying on the couch watching TV – best part of my whole weekend.

Around 10 we headed to Skip’s going away party – I was wearing knee-length shorts and a tshirt (which B called my skater girl outfit) and the party was outside so I was freezing. I ended up wearing B’s sweatshirt, which was two sizes too big on him, so it looked like a cape on me. Two beers later we drove to Ferndale to meet people at a bar. I got good and drunk on a jack and coke, which left the rest of the night a little blurry. (and a little x-rated, so we’ll skip forward to today)

Raced home at 10 to meet Jenn and head back to the AMC. We got down there by 1 and manned the TG table while making plans for Warped Tour. We’re thinking of having a safe sex/body image theme to our booth this year.

Around two we all eagerly piled into the auditorium for the closing session where Grace Lee Boggs was the speaker. She is my hero! (and probably everyone else’s that was there too) She is an author, anti-racist activist and feminist. She founded Detroit Summer, a multicultural intergenerational youth program and…she just turned 93! Every word that comes out of that woman’s mouth is gold. And you could tell we all knew it by the number of people with pen in hand when we sat down in the auditorium. (I want to write a little about that Grace spoke about, but I might save that for another post.)

We ended the conference with everyone singing happy bday to Grace and Jenny Lee (one of the organizers). Then Jenn and I went back to the table and while I packed up, she hawked chocolate vaginas. The drive home was nice, windows down, music off, talking about work and dudes and life.

Now I’m back at home, hoping the wind will die down and the sun will come back out so I can try out my new bikini, but it looks like that might have to wait for next weekend since my feet are getting hit by a pretty cold breeze. Dinner with the fam in a couple hours and then I think B and I are going to see ‘Get Smart’.

I think I need a nap!

AMC

Headed downtown for the Allied Media Conference today. Keep an eye on my Twitter – I’ll be updating from there since I’m not taking my computer.