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.

3rd Monday

Yesterday I scooted out of work early to meet up with the TG’s for a meeting. Everyone was into my speakers bureau idea. I want to form a collection of successful women available to talk to students about how they got from high school to their chosen career. Something like 60 percent (don’t quote me on that) of parents in Detroit don’t think their kids need more than a high school education to get a good job and support a family. While that may have been true when they graduated, with the state of the auto industry, it’s no where near enough to survive on now.

We also talked about holding a feminist mixer (part of my 101 things to do in 1001 days!) to bring together all the activist groups working on women’s issues in metro-Detroit. We had a woman that’s working with Detroit NOW and Planned Parenthood join us and she seemed really receptive to the idea. She also brought up doing some sort of Take Back The Night parade with V-Day, which we would love to do.

There’s something about being surrounded by intelligent, creative women that really gets my brain buzzing and puts a fire under my ass to get stuff organized.

After the meeting Jenn and I went to the WAB for dinner. Dunner was just getting off work so he sat with us while we scarfed down a giant salad. The size of the bowls they serve it in is just ridiculous…I should have taken a picture. Then we walked down the street to The Post and it was teaming with white hats because of the Wings game. Mondays and Thursdays are usually safe nights to go because it’s taken over by punk rock/indie/metal kids, but not last night.

We didn’t stay for long, the vibe in that place was too weird and the Wings went into overtime. Took the chance to drive home and watched the rest of the game from bed.

Monkey Tan

Race For The Cure was this morning. Got lots of compliments on our shirts…guess we should have entered the t-shirt contest afterall. I’m always terribly annoyed with the whole thing, trying to get everything organized, until we get down to the event and get caught up in all the action.

Spending the rest of the day on the couch watching movies. Don’t feeling like doing much else after getting up at 7am. Just finished watching The Night Listener, which was incredibly creepy and now I’m watching The Rose. (Is she gonna wear the same outfit through the whole movie? Or maybe it’s a bunch of outfits that are all purple and pink and sparkly…)

B is in Omaha today without much service. Didn’t hear from him until after 7 when he sent an email to say he has zero service. Two more weeks!

Get yo race on

I finally finished all the shirts for tomorrow and they turned out awesome. I only had to go buy iron-on transfers three times! Sat down and started printing them today and my ink cartridge runs out. So I called Kate to have her stop at Kinkos and get one before she came home, which totally saved the day and my sanity.

I tried to get them done in advance this time, but my lack of interest in reading directions really screwed me.

Brian is trying to figure out blogging and I’m coaching him through it over the phone. It’s very cute.

Bored Blog

I’ve been pretty much bored to tears all day and haven’t had much motivation to come up with anything to entertain myself. I updated, un-updated, and re-updated various layouts on the website all day as things were being tested.

I was eating a “lightly textured crunchy multi-grain” snack, but it’s as disgusting as it sounds so my stomach will continue to growl until I get home. Which I think will be very soon since someone will not stop trying to talk to me. You’d think not turning around while responding or not responding at all would give him the hint. Nope…not at all.

Tonight will be spent finally making shirts for Race For The Cure. I was all set up and ready to go last night when I realized the iron-on transfers I’d bought were for white shirts. Balls. I’m going to go buy new ones after work, then reprint them all, and iron them on while watching Lost. I’m planning on ordering white shirts for the transfers I already printed and selling them online.

Duh!

So far I’ve spent the day trolling blogs looking for something interesting at add to my reader so I can waste time at work. My sister is upstairs straightening her boyfriends hair, which I’m sure will look hilarious when it’s done. She even managed to use a couple unnecessary purple hair clips, which just makes it even more funny to watch.

Talked to B all morning on aim since he has the day off. He always manages to ask the right questions and give the right prompts to help me have some sort of epiphany about my mental state. This morning’s topic – mommy issues.

He also made me laugh for the first time in a couple days by declaring my MySpace friends list to be a sham and then remembering that he wanted a sham cloth we saw on an infomercial once.

I’m still trying to find the motivation to get off the couch, get dressed and go pick up supplies to make our Race For The Cure shirts. Still kinda hoping printer cartridges and iron-on transfers will randomly appear in my house.

The future looks soooo sweet

Things on the job front seem to be moving along. My boss and his boss have repeatedly told me they absolutely do not want me to leave and it looks like they’ll be able to convince me to stay. Which means I will be able to start looking for a house very soon!! I don’t know which I’m looking forward to more, not having a 40 minute commute to work or getting to decorate.

This morning I checked my email to find three more people had signed up for our Race For The Cure team. Huge weight off my shoulders. I don’t know why it always comes down to the last minute…racing to get 15 people signed up so we can be considered a team. Now I’m gonna wait until the last minute to make t-shirts.

I’ve been meaning to get caught up on Lost for the past 3 nights, but have found other things to entertain me like laundry, finally writing about my rockstar weekend and One Tree Hill. Tonight I’ve gotta get through the last two episodes so I can watch the new one on Thursday!

B is Montreal today and Toronto tomorrow, which means no phone calls for a couple days. Video chat wouldn’t work last night, so we’re down to texts and ims. He sent some cute, drunken texts from the bar last night…the count is up to 4 or 5 I think.

Drunk on tea

Tonight was Cecelia’s farewell get together at Goldfish Tea. We met last fall at a Think Girl consciousness raising. I think she fascinated everyone there. She is a healer who is very connected to her Ojibway roots and when she talks gestures wildly with her hands, acting out every sentence.

(Cecelia on the left)

I only intended to drop by for a cup of tea (I sound like I’m 80) and to say goodbye. I ended up staying for four hours. I’m not usually big on hanging out with a bunch of people I don’t know, but I’m really glad I did. It was nice to have a conversation that didn’t revolve around work, feminist issues, or gossiping.

I’m going to miss her not just as one of my favorite TG volunteers, but also because she’s taught me a lot about staying grounded and being a giving person.