rose withdrawal

Rosie left yesterday and I miss her already. So, I'm going to tell you about what we did (i.e. a weekend in the life of me)!

I picked Rosie up from the airport on Wednesday and promptly went to a few bars. We ended up at the hip Beauty Bar (I hear the original's in NYC) and Colombina met us there. I wanted Rose to try Lonestar which is the PBR of Texas so I ordered two and the bartender said, "All Lonestar is on the house tonight!" And then a guy, Jim (we think homeless), came up and talked to us and told us that there was going to be a fried turkey at the Beauty Bar later! So! We waited and got free fried turkey. It was super delicious and realllly fried.

On Thanksgiving, Rose and I went to Glenn's house. Glenn is the manager of Austin's Pizza, where Alese (Austin friend) and I go to get free pizza every Friday. It was interesting. It was Glenn, his friend Sam, and random Austin Pizza employees including two extremely drunk older maintenance guys. Glenn was totally stoned while cooking a huge feast for Thanksgiving. Basically, it was perfect.

On Friday, Rosie got to meet my friend Alese and we all went out and had a fun time! The rest of the weekend was less eventful with tv watching, flat tire having, traffic jams, but it was fantastic!

How was everyone's Thanksgiving?

PS: Woah

Just for kicks, I showed my mom the Bon Qui Qui video last night, and she LOOOOVED it. She keeps talking about how funny it is, but in a "Julie, we saw the funniest video on YouTube last night!" kind of way. Hilarious.

Still high on Tryptophan

Lots of moving around these days. A week in Philly for my (horrendous) AmeriCorps training, a night in Connecticut for Monty's dad's wedding celebration, a few days of work back in Northampton, two nights in New York for Thanksgiving with the men in my life (my dad, two brothers, Monty), and now two nights in Maine for Thanksgiving redux, mom style. Tomorrow's will be my third Thanksgiving feast of the week (after my office's and my dad's) and, frankly, I don't know if I can handle it. Pretty sure my mom is bribing me with chocolate cream pie, so I'll rally and pull through.

First: Why is the American federal government so cognitively impaired? (I'm trying to erase 'retarded' from my vocabulary.) But seriously, my AmeriCorps training was troubling. I tried at one point to make the case that "poor people" (who apparently represent a homogenous category) are most likely intelligent, resilient and resourceful if they're able to survive, and thus potentially helpful partners for those of us trying to do community development work; and the response I received from the trainer was that poor people (again, one homogenous group) internalize the messages of worthlessness, uselessness, stupidity and laziness associated with their poverty, and so cannot be relied on for our work. UGHHHHH. Does anyone else think there's something wrong with this message? Plus they showed us all these completely gratuitous images of brown people pushing grocery carts and living in tents as if that were going to teach us something about poverty other than the stereotypes we all already harbor. AND I tried to make a comment at my table about the ridiculousness of the generalizations used in the training and the response I got was: "The whole point of a generalization is that it doesn't apply to everyone." RIGHT, that's why we don't use them! I could go on and on. Needless to say, I laughed my way through the AmeriCorps oath at the end, when I swore to "protect America against its enemies, foreign and domestic" (um, what?). Luckily I found a few other people who found the training imperialistic, normative and absurd, and together we critical theoried the fuck out of the whole thing.

Clearly you can take the girl out of the Anthropology department, but you can't take the Anthropology out of the girl. Alas (or maybe, probably, not alas?), I'm to be an overly critical academic my whole life, at least inside my own head.

Oh! And my roommate was from Texas (I thought of you, Selena! Except she was nothing like you). Within the first five minutes of meeting she told me she wasn't a feminist because she doesn't "burn her bra". Uh-huh.

The greatest part about the training was when it ended, because it meant I could (and have) officially start my job full-time. So far I like it! I've had a very warm welcome all around. And I've already helped to submit two grant proposals, one for $5 million and one for $34,000. That feels pretty good. (For those of you who heard my heinous Friday story of driving to Boston at 90 mph to submit the application, the foundation decided to accept it for review, which means our application is in the running, which means I'm not a total screw-up. Yes! There have been multiple jokes at the office about the experience being some sort of hazing exercise, which, needless to say, are not funny.)

I love Thanksgiving! And I love you guys! Come visit our apartment and the bears in our backyard. (Still figuring out how I can get Monty a pet baby Black Bear for Christmas, but it's not looking good.) xoxoxoxoxooxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxooxxxxxcan'twaittoseeyousooooon.

giving thanks!

i am soosososo thankful to have all you beautiful souls in my life. seriously. wow.

with so much love and hugs and kisses, from the hilarious meketon household in lovely little ambler, pa--
carms

PS who's going to be in amherst on dec 18th?! it's a big big event and you are all invited -- the 10e dinner yo! let's have a round-up of love and friends that weekend, mkay? besos

binge eating - the american way

happy thanksgiving (soon) everybody!

I'm spending it in austin/dallas with Selena! super happy fun times all around. haven't felt particularly motivated lately, but definitely doing a lot more of this "life" thing.

some highlights: jenny visiting from nyc, her and Emily coming to see my dance show. lots of random parties, and meetings up with new friends. bar food pretzels with many sauces, sampler beers in my room blasting terrible music, carms sending me my new favorite band, studying to the tune of green tea and a giant clock on the wall, fancy sandwiches, sitting on the floor, close to the earth, drunk dancers. are. hilarious. wonderful. doors on tables next to windows chairs and ottomans, everyone is a singer, rapping comp lit or lit crit or flash fic with blue bics, master of the rubix cube, mending of the amish dress, and i can't get my mushroom costume off of my umbrella, a honey-soaked hot toddy.

big plans for the future: me and EM are going to take Intro Rock Climbing (something that sounds like that) at the BU gym, and maybe my school buddy will come too. we all have terrible reasons. terrible wonderful reasons. two tickets to the gun show.
rachel is coming to live with me (TWO people in a closet), and it will be glorious urban camping.
...come visit me! the bed holds three, the couch holds one, and my heart holds everybody (although its a little sticky in there) ...tmi?
love, rose

Good News:)

Soooooo I just found out that I got the job with the ACLU that I wanted and mentioned in my last post. YAY!!! I don't have any of the details yet other than that it's full-time and I can start in two weeks, and that my official title will be the Office Coordinator of the SD ACLU Office:). I should be getting a formal written offer from the national office in a few days which should have more info. The pieces of my life are starting to fall together...even if it is in SD. Although I've come to the conclusion that if I'm interested in working with low-income families, then SD is a good place to be for now. I wish I could celebrate with you folks...but I think I shall make myself some red velvet cupcakes as a temporary fix.

p.s. sarah palin is coming to sioux falls on her book tour. there are already welcome signs lining some roads. kind of makes me want to egg her upon arrival. not sure if that's legal or not...may need to be restrained that day.

ok back to being excited!!! hope everyone has a great thanksgiving! loveee, sam

an awesome video.

for serious!



In life, I am beginning to be up to my ears in grad school apps. I need to narrow down my list of people, which currently consists of about 20. Oops.

also

jenny sent this to me and how true is this (click for full comic)?

Hi friends, it's Monday morning and I'm in San Antonio for a work-related conference! Had to leave my house at 6 in the morning. I'm tired, but full of McDonald's coffee. So I rode a bike yesterday for the first time since I rode to Puffer's Pond with a lot of you. I rode 4 miles through the ghetto-est part of Austin, which is pretty ghetto. Also, by rode, I mean biked half the way, walked the other half. Then we went on an art tour around the East side and I’m getting good! My butt is still sore, but I’m well on way to growing up (one criteria being knowing how to ride a bike). But that also means I bought a bike and will force myself to learn how to use it like a normal human being. Rose is coming to visit on a week and a half! I'm pumped! What is everyone doing for Thanksgiving?!

Here's a photo of me and my helmet in front of some art!!!!

posting from the roof of the octagon

why's it so warm ? anyway, a pleasure to be posting from the octagon roof. had a wonderfully "unproductive" weekend with megan carmz becky cait .. lala, lotsa peeps. been feeling really uninspired (or maybe just really really stressed) about my thesis, to the point of .. i can't think . can't see the bigger picture... it was helpful to let myself just "hang out" (tho, to do it unstressed i had to be drunk or hung over most of the time) anyway now i've been tapping away at my intro for the past couple hours (plus lots of copy-pasting from emails i wrote you guys from bolivia....) which feels good. gewertz won't be satisfied, i won't be satisfied. but damn, it'll all be over in three weeks WTF - mind-blowing reality changes awaiting maybe. LOVE, rach.

courtesy of selena

if you've ever seen glenn beck, this is hilarious:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
The 11/3 Project
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

love love love you're a whore

hi friends! all same here! a little sicky, but still smiling. trying not to let the man (homework) get me down. hrm, proving to be a bit hard at the moment... otherwise, i'm learning the harmonica. so far, my repertoire (ha) includes blowin' in the wind, my country 'tis of thee, twinkle twinkle little star, and beethoven's 9th symphony! next up - blue moon and jingle bells. hehe, i like having a hobby, somethin to occupy the hours i have left being a student -only 5 more weeks ladies and gent! crazy, eh? i miss those of you who are not with here with me, but you should all come to miami sometime during the month of january - possibly round my birthday?! (the 9th, yo!) beach, coconut trees, bonfires, sunshine, ocean, mangos, avocadoes, laziness... join me for some fun in the sun!
also, this song is a rockin' good time!



wit luv, carmella

conversations with a 3 year old.

Still no word on the job yet...although he told me he would call either way so i guess that's fine. But for anyone who needs some cheering up...let me tell you what my niece told me earlier.
Part one...we are making cookies.
Me: hannah are you done decorating your cookies?
Hannah: yep.
Me: ok we can put them in the oven then.
Hannah: well can you help me with that babycakes.

Part two...eating supper while cookies bake.
Me: How do you like your new pets? (they just got 2 new baby kitties)
Hannah: They don't taste good.
Me: what? the kitties?
Hannah: That's why we don't eat them.

I dont know if she just really understands and appreciates the circle of life or may one day be a sociopath who abuses animals. But i'm guessing it's number one since she doesn't dislike the cats...she just doesn't understand why they are a big deal or why they have them. But i find her hilarious. She's like a real person with opinions already...not like most little kids who are just excited and distracted by shiny things. But then again...i am just biased...but i never wanna be one of those parents who thinks their kid is a genius for no real reason. Maybe it's ok though if i'm just the overzealous aunt? loveeee

marriage is between a man and a virgin

sometimes i feel like i'm on the left and sometimes i feel like that awesome chick on the rope. in general, life is in color.



also, hilarious sign from a gay rights rally: