Friday, October 24, 2008

oh my god: I'm 23.

So it's been a week since I last updated, and here's what's been going on.

In the span of 7 days, I have:
- secured a place to live in Richmond (address and photo below, please note jeffersonian columns)
- moved all (okay, 95%) of my belongings into my apartment in Richmond (from Roanoke)
- been to 3 days of work and one 7-hr weekend training
- had my apartment cleaned by the Green Earth Cleaning Crew
- spent $200+ at target
- gotten my bike fixed and ridden it around
- hung out with a variety of friendly richmond folk, incl. my dear sister, bobby, and new friend zack (who i met at megan's wedding!)
- found a fantastic thai restaurant
- discovered how to make my gmail status into a lobster (type in "V.v.V")
- officially decided not to do Explo again next summer, and experienced the sadness involved--ie. MISSING ALL THE COOL PPL (and i think you know who you are).
- formed an undeniable coffee addiction and a possible Ellwood Thompson addiction

Things I still need to do:
- find and volunteer at the Richmond BOHQ
- go to the farmer's market
- buy a light for my bike
- finish unpacking
- purchase a couch, comfy chair, desk, and broom
- get paid.


home sweet home, 110 N Boulevard #10

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Get Used To This:

110 N. Boulevard #10
Richmond, VA 23220

and put it on all the snail mail you send me!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

I GOT A JOB!!!!!!

That's right, darling readers: I am now gainfully employed. I am the new Youth Programs Coordinator for ROSMY (The Richmond Organization for Sexual Minority Youth). That means that basically I will help plan events for the young folks that come to our youth center and I'll also manage our volunteer team. Otherwise known as: I'LL BE KICKING BUTT!! IN RICHMOND!!

more later when I'm not super tired

Friday, October 10, 2008

Birthday!!

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Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Picking up steam!!

Hellooo friends!

Time for an all-around update! In the past couple of days, my job search has really picked up steam! Today I had a phone interview with U.S. PIRG for a spot as a campus organizer (I know, sounds a little sketchy, I'll stay alert for weirdness, don't worry). Friday I'm heading over to Richmond for a job interview with ROSMY (like I mentioned before) and also to check out some apartments, just in case.

Today I also found out that I've been accepted to the interview stage of the New York City Teaching Fellows program, which is a program through which you earn a [subsidized] master's degree in education whilst teaching at a school in NYC (and getting paid the same as a regular teacher!!). I got to the interview round last year but dropped out at the last minute because I got accepted to Explo.

Ohhhh Explo. I don't yet know if I want to go back next year, so I'm keeping it on my radar (and joining the 09 Staph fbook group for good measure). Also on the radar:

Taking the GRE at the end of this month so I can apply to:

1. UMD's PhD Program in Women's Studies
2. CUNY's Master's program in "Liberal studies" (w/ women's studies concentration)
3. Whatever else I want!!

Annnndddd of course, there's always COLUMBIA!!

So that's what's going on in the long-term future right now. In the near future, I've got:

- This weekend: Megan's wedding/reception/partayyy!!!
- Halloween weekend: NYC!!
- Nov. 7th(ish?) Tamar's show!! (Rachel's going too right??)
- Nov. 10th: Felice Brothers and Conor Oberst in DC!!

woo! So it's been getting busy and things are rolling. In a good way. Not like, heads. No heads are rolling.


...yet

Tuesday, October 7, 2008

wish me luck!

I have two interviews this week: a phone interview tomorrow for a position as a campus organizer through U.S. PIRG (I've heard mixed things about the program) and an in-person interview on Friday in Richmond for a position with ROSMY (the Richmond Organization for Sexual Minority Youth)!! I'm super pumped. Wish me luck!!

Also, I caught this off cnn.com, it's pretty cool: the Oxford Project

Monday, October 6, 2008

Is it just me...

...or does this come off a teeeeeeensy bit racist?

[The McCain campaign] will try to reframe the economic issue as part of their overall theme against Obama: You don’t really know this guy — and you can’t trust this guy. The words in their new ad say it all: “risky… dangerous.”


Maybe I am just reading too far into this (I was recently accused by a friend of "claiming everything a man says or does against a woman is sexist"), but it sounds to me like all they haven't said outright is that they are relying on the good old "Black people are scary and dangerous!!" notion prevalent among many conservative white folk (esp in The South).

Boo McCain/Palin

Thursday, October 2, 2008

THIS JUST IN: I love Conor Oberst

yup, I'll admit it--I'm a huge fucking conor obert fan. I love his off-key voice and his floppy, swishy bangs. What I really love though is that he's playing ANOTHER show with the felice brothers, at the 930 club in DC, and my lil seester and I are going to it!!

here's a sample of how great mr. oberst is:

Um, Excuse Me?

Not that we needed it, but this new quote regarding Palin's latest fuck-up from McCain really shows how insane he is:
"[Palin's] had more experience in leadership than Senator Obama and Senator Biden put together."

WHAT??

Biden, who was also asked the question of what supreme court cases he disagrees with (spoiler: Palin couldn't name one), took it as a chance to talk about the work he's done to end violence against women:
"You know, I’m the guy who wrote the Violence Against Women act. And I said that every woman in America if they are beaten and abused by a man should be able to take that person to court. Meaning you should be able to go to federal court and sue in federal court the man who abused you if you can prove that abuse, but they said no that a woman, there’s no federal jurisdiction and I held, they acknowledged, I held about 1,000 hours of hearings proving that there’s an effect in interstate commerce.
Women who are abused and beaten and beaten are women who are not able to be in the work force. And the Supreme Court said there is an impact on commerce but this is federalizing a private crime and we’re not going to allow it. I think the Supreme Court was wrong about that decision."

I've never been a huge Biden fan, and I think it's a little dicey to be all "if you can prove the abuse" because a lot of times it's a he-said-she-said sort of thing and women need to be trusted, but otherwise I think he had a great answer.

Wednesday, October 1, 2008

I Don’t Like Where This is Going

This November, Colorado voters will get to weigh in on the infamous “Is a fertilized egg a person?” question, courtesy of the proposed Amendment 48: the Human Life Amendment. This amendment has been promoted mainly by a group called Colorado for Equal Rights, (interesting use of traditional feminist language there) and what it would do is pretty simple: “give fertilized eggs the same legal rights and protections to which people are entitled.” Yes, legal rights. Yes, fertilized eggs.

While many anti-choicers are tremendously excited about the fact that this amendment would make way for the outlawing of abortion, there are some other pretty scary implications that come along with defining a fertilized egg as a “person”:

1. A woman who suffers a miscarriage could be investigated for it, and if she is found to have contributed to the pregnancy’s termination, she could be charged (probably with manslaughter).
2. A woman who is pregnant and engages in behavior deemed risky for the fetus (smoking, drinking, riding roller coasters, cleaning litter boxes, going in hot tubs, etc), she could be charged with negligence or child abuse; this is particularly worrying because many women do not know they are pregnant until up to weeks after conception. Which means…
a. …it is conceivable that all women who are sexually active could be subject to regular (government-regulated?) pregnancy tests and/or behavioral restrictions (no smoking/drinking/roller coasters/litter box cleaning/hot tubs, etc)—to protect the health of the possible person inside her, of course.
3. As Scott Moss, a University of Colorado Law School professor, notes: “If a pregnant woman is really two people with exactly equal rights, then it is not clear the pregnant woman can undergo any medical treatment that jeopardizes a fertilized egg,”
4. Several forms of birth control, including Plan B (“The Morning After Pill”) and Intra-uterine devices, both of which have been shown to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting, would become illegal.

So not only does Amendment 48 aim to take away a woman’s right to choose abortion, but it could also take away her right to choose birth control, to get medical treatment, and to live her life as she wishes, riding roller coasters and hanging out in hot tubs. FUCKERS!!