Halloween Costume 2010 part 1
Oct 24th
This hat and a long blue (entirely homemade) skirt that doesn’t photograph well.
The Handmaid’s Tale: Review
Oct 24th
This story makes me think that as absurd as some of the things in this book sound, it is the little steps that get us there. Punishing children for things they do at home and spying on them using computers issued to them without telling them or their parents about it…yikes. Read the article. It’s interesting and disturbing.
So, the premise: at some point in the future, a group takes over the US government, and removes all property rights from women (can’t have their own money or jobs). Women are then divided up into new “jobs” of sorts: Wives (actual wives of the Commanders (aka “higher-ups”) in the new regime); Martha’s (older women who do housework in the households of the commanders); Handmaids (women who are expected to bear children for whatever household they are assigned); Aunts (teachers of the Handmaids); Econowives (women who are poor and do the job of Wife/Martha/Handmaid in their household). The handmaids lose their real names and are known by the name of their commander. The main character, for instance is “Offred” (Of Fred). It is the story of her experience as a handmaid, but as one who remembers what it was like before all of this.
I really like this book. I like anything in the post-apocalyptic genre, and while this isn’t typical of that it fits in quite well, I think. Wikipedia has a better, more in depth description. There were some things I didn’t quite understand, so I would probably read it again to see if I figured them out. But in general I thought it was a good read. Very disturbing, and made me a little angry toward patriarchy in general, but I think that’s the point.
Writing Daily
Oct 23rd
I have noticed that this whole 30 days meme has been beneficial for me. Once I got going, it was fairly easy to keep up the writing daily, and there have been times that I post more than one entry per day, or when I think about new things to write about, even though I have posts scheduled a couple days out. For instance, I am writing this on the 20th, but I have posts scheduled for the 21st and 22nd already, so it might not get posted until the 23rd.
I’ve never been very good at writing consistently. When I was younger and kept written journals I would go in spurts. Usually the spurts coincided with whenever I found a new crush or had a new energy for an existing one (quite often). But it would quickly die out when my life (and hormones) slowed down a little. I still write that way, although I don’t get crushes on boys anymore (other than Ryan. awww….*puke*). I get very energized about politics for a while, and then I get sick of it all or I can’t think of anything else to write that hasn’t already been said (better) by someone else. I want to talk about cooking, but I’m not a great cook, I don’t cook often, and I never remember to take pictures while I’m doing it. I read a ton of blogs, and there’s almost always something interesting that I read and tell Ryan about, but I don’t want to spend every entry rehashing things that people have probably read somewhere else. I want to develop my own original content, but I feel like my life is pretty boring. Even writing about James I worry that I’m writing too much about a baby who doesn’t do that much that is of interest to anyone but his dad and I. Our life is pretty mundane…laundry, dishes, Target runs, TV.
Hopefully I can keep up the mostly constant writing once this meme is over. And hopefully the content will be at least mildly entertaining. ;-)
Next thing you know I’ll be yelling about the government takeovers!
Oct 22nd
I just got done reading this article from the Huffington Post, and I have come to a realization that is kind of hard for me to admit. I….I kind of like *whispers*Meghan McCain. I don’t agree with her on policies; she IS still a Republican. But I respect that she is willing to say things that she believes, even if her party doesn’t agree with her about it (and in fact attacks her for saying it). And in this case, I think she’s right. I saw her on the news a couple months ago, and I was impressed then too. And on an evening talk show…impressed again. This was just the tipping point when I had to actually admit to myself that there is someone who right at this moment is an active Republican that I really like. Of course, along with realizing that I like her, I’ve also reconfirmed my active dislike for most of the Republican party. Attacking someone by insulting their body, or instead of actually defending your position with facts? Way to be mature, assholes.
Whew. It was good to get that off my chest (no pun intended). What things do you want to confess to?
Day 20- Someone you see yourself marrying/being with in the future
Oct 22nd
Um…I’m pretty sure I’m already married (unless I dreamt the whole thing!), so probably I won’t be marrying anyone else. Unless it is our friend Nic, who brought us the most delicious chocolate/caramel brownies the other day. I warned Ryan about it, so it’s ok, right? They were REALLY delicious brownies. Oh, and there’s my TV boyfriend. I decided after sitting for a full minute trying to decide who, of the many men I like to watch on TV, is my TV boyfriend that I must not have one. Too bad.
This question makes me feel kind of silly for doing this whole meme, because it’s obviously directed at teenyboppers. And in case you missed it, my teenybopper years are long gone. Oh well. I’m still the youngest person at my office, and it seems that I probably will ALWAYS be the youngest person at my office. So there’s that. ;-) At least I’m not the youngest by 15 years anymore.
In unrelated but exciting to me news, we rearranged our living room last night. We pulled the couch and chair closer to the TV, creating an area behind the couch where we put our kitchen table (we have a chest freezer in the kitchen at the moment, and no room for that AND a table in there). I put my sewing machine on the table in the living room, and voilá; a sewing area! Now I just need to put it to good use and get sewing!
PS. I just Googled and taught myself how to get the accent to show over the “a” in voilá. Because I’m awesome.
Day 19- Nicknames you have; why do you have them
Oct 21st
I don’t have a lot of nicknames that are used constantly. The main one is Becky (short for Rebecca), and that obviously gets the most use. There are about 3 people who consistently call me Rebecca. Almost everyone calls me Becky. I like either, but I FEEL more like a Becky. I think the why I have this one is pretty self explanatory.
In high school, I once told a couple of friends that my dad had wanted to name me Pamela when I was born. My mom didn’t like that name, and wouldn’t let him. But they thought it was hilarious (no one knows why; not even them), and they called me Pami the rest of my high school years (and sometimes still do). A variation on this was Pami-Pet.
One of my coworkers calls me “Re-Becky” or “REbecca” (long E sound). He’s also been known to refer to me as “Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm,” “Hey You,” and “that annoying girl who sometimes says I can’t do the things I want to do.” I try to take pity on him, though, because his name is Earl. Poor guy (<–that was sarcasm, in case you missed it).
I don’t think I have any other nicknames (that I know about). Probably someone will correct me on this. As previously mentioned, I have the worst memory ever.
Bouncing in the jumperoo
Oct 20th
James loves the jumperoo. Ryan and I have been laughing at this all evening.
Freezer Cooking
Oct 19th
I recently started reading a blog called Mom’s Plans, and she wrote about her October freezer cooking day. It was a schedule of her day, during which she made 22 meals, 64 muffins and 7 breakfast burritos. Did I mention that was in one day? Actually in about 6.5 hours, and it included cleanup.
I have occasionally toyed with the idea of making meals ahead and freezing them. We do that a little bit now, with soups mostly. But I would love to get in the habit of making a lot of them at once and having them ready to go so that we have good, healthy food ready to go when we are hungry, rather than having to make a full dinner every night. Or, let’s be more realistic here, eating frozen pizza/pre-made foods or going out. I thought that before James was born that we would do something like this: set aside a weekend and cook like mad. But we didn’t. And we haven’t. I think seeing it laid out like this might inspire me to try it, though. It looks much less daunting from this angle.
Today, she is having a contest where you can win a cookbook and some software to help you organize your meal planning. It prints out a grocery list for you, divided into sections of the store, which is awesome. Part of my entering the contest is blogging about it, so I admit that there is some selfishness going on here. But it is something I’m interested in, and maybe you are interested in it too, and would like to enter. You don’t have to blog about it (or even have a blog); all it takes is a quick comment on her blog.
So…that’s the story. Let’s pretend there’s a witty wrap-up here. The end.
Day 17- Someone you would want to switch lives with for one day and why
Oct 19th
I like my life for the most part, so have no real desire to switch places with anyone. But if it was just for a day, I think I would like to switch with someone who works for President Obama. I have thought occasionally about getting involved in local politics, but especially with a baby at home I don’t want to commit that kind of time, and I get so sick of political ads and the attitudes behind them. But I have a lot of respect for President Obama, and I would love to know what it’s like to work at the White House in general. I wouldn’t want any job that is too important (what if I screwed something up!?), but just to be some sort of aide or something would be awesome.
