Sunday, March 25, 2007

Funny Lists

To Kay and Dean:

Snappy Comebacks to "Why aren't you married yet?"
-You haven't asked yet. 
-I was hoping to do something meaningful with my life. 
-What? And spoil my great sex life? 
-Nobody would believe me in white. 
-Because I just love hearing this question. 
-Just lucky, I guess. 
-It gives my mother something to live for. 
-My fiancee is awaiting his/her parole. 
-I'm still hoping for a shot at Miss/Mr. America. 
-Do you know how hard it is to get two tickets to Miss Saigon? 
-I'm waiting until I get to be your age. 
-It didn't seem worth a blood test. 
-I already have enough laundry to do, thank you. 
-Because I think it would take all the spontaneity out of dating. 
-My co-op board doesn't allow spouses. 
-I'd have to forfeit my billion dollar trust fund. 
-They just opened a great singles bar on my block. 
-I wouldn't want my parents to drop dead from sheer happiness. 
-I guess it just goes to prove that you can't trust those voodoo doll rituals. 
-What? And lose all the money I've invested in running personal ads? 
-We really want to, but my lover's spouse just won't go for it. 
-I don't want to have to support another person on my paycheck. 
-Why aren't you thin? 
-I'm married to my career, although recently we have been considering a trial separation.
--(Bonus reply for Single Mothers) Because having a husband and a child would be redundant.

And just hilarious:
Top 10 Reasons Beer is Better Than Religion:
10. No one will kill you for not drinking Beer. 
9. Beer doesn't tell you how to have sex. 
8. Beer has never caused a major war. 
7. They don't force Beer on minors who can't think for themselves. 
6. When you have a Beer, you don't knock on people's doors trying to give it away. 
5. Nobody's ever been burned at the stake, hanged, or tortured over his brand of Beer. 
4. You don't have to wait 2000+ years for a second Beer. 
3. There are laws saying Beer labels can't lie to you. 
2. You can prove you have a Beer. 
1. If you've devoted your life to Beer, there are groups to help you stop.

Sunday, March 18, 2007

Trips

The weary traveler is home. Nick and I went to Minneapolis over a two-day spurt to see the Mall of America. First day, we stop in Mason City, Iowa to get fuel and food and also to realize, no thanks to my best friend Kay, that it is the home of Meredith Wilson who wrote the Music Man one of my three favorite musicals. And, the home of a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Kay was a little bit in trouble for failing to mention this, but I forgive you because I just realized that I forgot all about calling you the next day to see if we could meet up, and please forgive me cause that is way worse of a transgression, and I will definitely be visiting soon!!! Okay...anyway. We reach Minneapolis and find our hotel. It's a small room. With a really small bathroom. I mean, no elbow room. A shower, a sink, a toilet, a hairdryer that if you tried to use would probably result in a broken elbow and concussion. It was that small. So, naturally, we hurried out of there and headed to the Mall. Huge. Enormous. Gigantic. Will we be able to find the car again? large. We entered through Bloomingdale's which was really cool. Then sort of stared in awe for a little bit and walked around. And then we decided to go to the aquarium. Of COURSE they have an aquarium! It's the largest underground aquarium, in the world, I think. And we saw fish and sharks and sea horses and sea turtles and THEN, we petted sharks and rays. I got a sticker that says I touched a shark! It was flippin' cool! Awesome! Then we walked around some more. Found a store devoted to all things Irish, where Nick bought me a history of the last name Regan. Found out that one branch of my royal family (yes, I'm Irish royalty!) kinda, sorta kicked some Danes asses. Nick gave me a look cause he's part Danish. Hehehe. We ate at the Bubba Gump Shrimp company. Good food, but really greasy. So greasy, I really can't think about eating greasy food for awhile. But good. We bought postcards, walked, saw the Legos center, played, walked, walked, and oh, yeah, walked some more. Went into Sephora which was amazing. Went to the Apple store where I drooled over the laptop I want. Walked some more. Basically it was a walking trip, and I'm glad to sit on my couch now that we're back. But it was so cool! And I can't wait to see what we'll plan on next. Maybe Chicago?!
Other news: Nick got a scholarship to go to Canada for a library conference. Oh, and he's planned his train trip to Prague from Berlin this summer and his mom is excited! It also means we're driving down at the end of May to drop him off, see my niece graduate 8th grade and then he'll head to the exciting European continent, and I'll head to Iowa to work. Anyway, that's my story.

Monday, March 12, 2007

Some of the new stuff I've been reading about

I've been branching out, reading more about the history of women's rights in America - not just abortion, but work and job related, health related, etc. And this article was interesting because it touched on some stuff I have been reading about. I think even my pro-life readers will agree with some of it - even if it is just a little bit.


Towards A Real Culture Of Life
Lynn M. Paltrow
March 12, 2007



Lynn M. Paltrow is the executive director of National Advocates for Pregnant Women.

Many people in the U.S. work to protect the rights of pregnant women and to ensure that they are treated with dignity and respect. But as a result of the divisive abortion debate, many of those advocates typically do not work together—or even speak to one another.

The anti-abortion movement has successfully used the abortion issue to divide the electorate, and a key part of their strategy has been creating the illusion that there are two kinds of women: those who have abortions and those who have babies. The truth is that 61 percent of women who have abortions are already mothers, and another 24 percent will go on to become mothers. Over the course of their lives, 85 percent of all women bring life into this world and provide the vast majority of care for the lives of those around them—without compensation.

This means that whether someone is an abortion provider or pro- choice advocate defending the right to choose abortion—or a midwife, doula, or birthing rights advocate seeking to ensure that women have access to health care providers that listen to and support them—they are advocating for the same women, regardless of their position on abortion.

Members of both groups struggle with U.S. policies that run counter to women’s health and well being. Both know that many pregnant women are not receiving the information or support they need. Both represent pregnant women who lack protection from workplace discrimination—and lack supports available to women in virtually every other western industrialized country, like a national health care system and paid maternity leave.

Both groups are hurt by state legislative agendas that focus on restricting abortion to the exclusion of virtually every other health issue concerning pregnant women and mothers. (In the 2005 legislative session, over 650 bills were introduced that would directly or indirectly restrict access to abortion and contraception or advance the legal status of the fetus as if it were separate from the pregnant woman.)

Despite these shared challenges and their shared commitment to the health and rights or pregnant women—whether or not there is agreement on abortion—pro-choice and birthing rights advocates have only recently begun to talk, organize, or advocate based on their shared interests.

Finding common ground among these two groups, and beginning to build a broad-based coalition of activists were two of the primary goals of the National Advocates for Pregnant Women when we sponsored the 2007 Summit to Ensure the Health and Humanity of Pregnant and Birthing Women earlier this year in Atlanta.

The summit brought together over 300 maternal, birthing and reproductive rights/justice activists along with social justice activists, legal and policy experts and healthcare providers from 37 states, the District of Columbia, Mexico and Canada. It was co-sponsored by more than 60 organizations ranging from advocates for mother-friendly childbirth to those that advocate for the right to choose an abortion.

Participants moved beyond the divisive abortion debate to find common ground in the experiences of pregnancy and the increasing limitations to care and support that all pregnant and birthing women face.

For pro-choice advocates these barriers include laws that mislead or misinform women about abortion. Twenty-eight states currently mandate that women seeking abortion receive an approved set of materials that often contain misleading information (for example, raising expectations for benefits or child support if she continues to term that she may very well be unable to collect). Millions of government dollars are being spent on medically inaccurate abstinence-only education. Millions more in state and federal funding goes to pregnancy crisis centers whose staff have been caught red-handed providing false information to pregnant women about abortion.

But not only women seeking to end a pregnancy are being deprived of information. Today, caesarian sections account for nearly one in three births in the U.S., a statistic that far exceeds international recommendations. Even though c-sections constitute significant invasive surgery with a considerable recovery period, only two states, New York and Massachusetts, mandate that their hospitals provide women who are going to term with specific information regarding their birth-related practices.

Both pro-choice advocates and birthing rights advocates are challenged by decreasing access to services: the former struggles with the fact that 87 percent of all U.S. counties have no abortion providers; the latter struggles against policies at over 300 hospitals around the country that deny women who have previously had c-sections the right to even try delivering vaginally.

And both have been negatively affected by growing claims of “fetal rights.” While these are advanced as part of the campaign to outlaw abortion, they have begun to effect the lives of women who personally identify as “pro-life.” Christian fundamentalists have been told that they must have unnecessary c-sections to protect the rights of the fetus; pregnant women opposed to abortions have been arrested as child abusers in the name of fetal rights for things they did or did not do during pregnancy.

We saw at the summit that pro-choice advocates and birthing rights advocates can work together, whether they are identifying civil and human rights violations or formulating an agenda that genuinely values pregnant women, maternal health and motherhood.

The time has come to move away from divisive (and inaccurate) “pro-life” and “pro-choice” categorizations and stand together. We need broad based support for laws and policies that genuinely promote a culture of life—one that includes and values the women who give that life.






Reject Bush's Health Care Plan March 12, 2007
Towards A Real Culture Of Life March 12, 2007
Seeking Justice In The Drug War March 12, 2007
Iraq: Pulled Out Or Pushed Out March 09, 2007
Who Cares For Incarcerated Girls? March 09, 2007
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Tuesday, March 06, 2007

Some pics



My niece Kaylin with Sophie.














Sophie crashed on Nick's Shoulder















Sophie helping with my Christmas cookies. She must be hungry!















Leo and Sophie LOVE to cuddle!!!

Monday, March 05, 2007

Razors

Okay, faithful blog readers, and commenters. I need some advice. Have any of you found a really good, fairly cheap razor. I've tried the Venus ones, but they're so expensive! I need one that are good, but also cheaper. I'm sorry you guys, but unless you have found a good, fairly inexpensive razor that will work well on my legs, you probably won't be able to comment. So in a sense this is a sexist blog. Thanks for any help!

Friday, March 02, 2007

Friday

I love Fridays. Today, after two weeks of rushing around, not getting enough sleep, or rest, doing all that adult stuff that takes up so much time, energy, stress, I acted like a teenager and slept in..until 9:30. Not exactly like a teenager. And I had coffee, which I never did as a teenager. But I stayed up later last night, slept in today, and then read a cheesy romance novel I'd started last night and finished it. No worries about getting to work on time or making sure I had everything done before or after. So nice to have peace and quiet every now and then.
Nick told me the other day he had a surprise idea for me, and then asked me how I'd feel about visiting Minneapolis for two days over spring break (I will only have two days off). I immediately began looking at the website to Mall of America: they have an aquarium there! Major cool! And of course, a lot of stores. Chicago would probably have been our next choice, but it's more expensive than Minneapolis and we have to have a budget trip. But still, I'm so excited. This is sort of our first vacation together. Before we started dating we did check out college campuses together, but we kept it clean! Not that I'm saying this one will be dirty, but it will be nice to travel as a couple. Especially since we both want to go to so many place. It's like our first start on traveling around the world - and it may be short - but I think that will make it really special. At the end of May, he and his mom are traveling to Berlin and Prague. I'm so jealous! But only cause I can't wait to go to Berlin and Prague with him! Of course, this way, he'll know a little more about the city (well, Prague, because he studied in Germany for awhile so he already knows Berlin quite a bit). Anyway, that's a bunch of kinda fun stuff. Much more fun than that article I posted - which was so sad and depressing. Have a great weekend everybody!!!!