November 2007 Archives

1. Leftover Mexican food from Matt's El Rancho, where we ate last night. The baby came with us, he was quite well-behaved.
2. Dog Two, on her way to the vet to be spayed. They're done already, she's fine, and we're hoping it helps with some of her more annoying behaviors. We don't know why it would, but we can hope.
3. A mouse in a trap in a box, on its way to be released in a field near C-Man's work. I don't know if the same mouse we caught and released last time somehow found its way back, or if it was a new mouse, but either way I've been doing a lot of cleaning. Eccchhh.

Last year, I tried to follow Grace's lead and blog each month about where I was donating money. Not to show off, but to highlight those organizations while I was thinking about them and encourage others to give. I didn't do a very good job of the blogging, though I did a good job giving each month.

This year, everything fell apart. I was so sick for half the year, my monthly giving schedule did not survive. However, looking back over my records, I did manage to give. It just happened when something found me, instead of me going out regularly to find giving opportunities. I don't think I hit my goal for how much of my income was given away, but the following list isn't too shabby.

Maybe you'll see a new organization or an old favorite on the list and throw a few bucks their way. Remember, charitable donations make great holiday gifts - they don't need to be wrapped, and they don't require going to a store.

1. Women for Women International, at the request of Suebob from Red Stapler. "Women for Women International supports women in war-torn regions with financial and emotional aid, job-skills training, rights education and small business assistance so they can rebuild their lives."
2. Heart of Texas Lab Rescue, in honor of my boss's dog who passed away.
3. Joe Clark's Micropatronage effort to support an accessibility research project, which I saw linked from his own blog.
4. Genocide Intervention Network for their work on the Darfur genocide. I know I found out about them online but I don't remember where. I did a little advising to the Texas effort to pass legislation forcing divestment in Sudan by the public retirement funds here, and I'm quite pleased that it succeeded.
5. Paws of Austin, for the care of a specific dog I saw on their site.
6. The Paramount and State Theaters here in Austin, in response to an email they sent out.
7. Jane's Due Process, "a non-profit organization that serves as an information and advocacy center promoting fair and equal access for Texas teenagers seeking legal services in order to make a reproductive choice."
8. The Alzheimer's Association, although I did get a dog kiss for that one. Details here, let me know if you did it too.
9. Bitch Magazine, in response to a mailed fundraising request.

These aren't organizations, but I was glad to donate to them anyway. Since I'm lucky enough to have it, it's good to share when other people need it:

1. A woman fleeing domestic violence, at the request of Shannon from Peter's Cross Station.
2. The bloggers of The Primary Contradiction and Fabulosa Mujer, to help them attend the Allied Media Conference, at the request of brownfemipower from Women of Color Blog.

(And hey, whoever said blogs can't make a difference? I'm pretty sure this list proves otherwise.)

1. Is the use of the term "monkey" in children's clothes and toys offensive and/or hurtful to African-Americans? Examples off the top of my head are companies named Cotton Monkey and Little Monkey. I use the term monkey all the time in my home as a pet name for the dogs, the baby, and even C-Man, but I would never use it around an African-American because boy howdy does it mean something different in that historical context. But company names, books, even the designs on onesies are in the public sphere. I started thinking about this after reading What should I do about nursery rhymes with a racist past? at Anti-Racist Parent.

2. Why is Dog Two afraid of plastic bags outside? Did it start when she reacted to the vinyl shower curtain we had hanging up to dry in the backyard (used as a dropcloth, $2.00 at Goodwill) because it flapped in the wind?

3. You know those people who research what babies know? Like, babies recognize their mother's voice by a certain point? How do the researchers figure out how to test their hypotheses? How do they know what the babies' signals mean? Our baby reacts differently to different stimuli all the time, depending on whether he's tired, wet, hungry, cranky, etc. Do they just wait until the baby is rested, dry, full, burped, and seems reasonably happy and then someone yells "NOW!" and they hurry up and do a bunch of experiments?

4. How long will it take people to realize that most large companies could triple what they pay their overseas workers and still make a profit? How long will it take us to be so embarrassed about supporting their behavior that we stop buying goods from them? On a related note, why isn't there just a big website I can go to where all the goods are responsibly produced and environmentally friendly, like Target for people who give a damn? And while we can't consume our way out of the environmental and sweatshop crisis, wouldn't it actually make the world better that if you're going to buy something anyway, you buy a sustainable version? If it wouldn't, how should I approach getting curtain rods for the downstairs windows? DIY?

5. What did people use as nicknames for their babies before the term "bobblehead" was invented?

6. What is it that's toxic about plastic? When did we know this? What am I supposed to do? The baby gets a bottle (pumped, not formula) every couple of weeks, is the bottle going to make him sick? We got rid of all our non-stick except the crock pot, but the plastic thing is kind of blind-siding me.

7. Why did it take so long for someone to realize that highlighting your readers was an awesome idea for a blogroll? Check out The Blogroll New World Order at Kerflop and The Most Perfect Blogroll EVAH! at Oh My Stinkin' Heck for details. They are two of the most rockin' ladies I know of on teh Intarweb, and this just cements their positions as thought leaders. As soon as my sites recover from The Great Movable Type 4 Upgrade Semi-Mess of 2007, I am so game to do this here and on Heroine Content.

1. Gee's Bend - Ties and Christmas Ornaments, blogged by Kyra E. Hicks at her blog Black Threads. (Ms. Hicks is the author of several books on quilting. If you're into quilts and you're not reading her blog yet, why not?) Yummy ornaments, ties, and other Gee's Bend designs.
2. Crafting a Green World, a new blog at GreenOptions.com, covers eco-friendly crafting books, events, companies, and more. It's just started, so head over and give them some love.
3. This 404 page is overwhelming, but amusing.
4. Wallpapers and screensavers from National Geographic, via this post on etc.. Lovely.
5. Where cats go when they die.

1. Peace and justice for everyone!
2. Scientists will create a micro-climate that surrounds my body so I never have to be cold, which means I don't ever have to wear socks unless I just feel like it.
3. Which never happens. So then I can get rid of my large sock collection and have more room in the dresser.

1. C-Man's latest T-Mobile bill
2. Dog Two's leash
3. A piece of bamboo that came in a floral arrangement from C-Man's work when the baby was born
4. Cookbook rack
5. Canvas bag we use to take library books back and forth
6. Ten library books
7. The baby's "first Thanksgiving" card from his fairy godmother
8. Two AA batteries, condition unknown
9. A plastic doorstop wedge that needs to be returned to Home De(s)pot
10. Blue and white porcelain picture frame that we received as a gift last holiday season, still empty

Austin's Goodwills and other thrift stores have an abundance of all of the following, and I'm sure it's also true of most other resale markets in cities across the country. Let's put it this way - either you can keep items out of the trash while saving money and supporting local charities, or you can reward companies for mass producing more stuff that will eventually end up in the garbage or at Goodwill (and quite possibly exploiting and/or poisoning their overseas labor to make it).

You don't even have to settle for "used" merchandise in many Goodwills around here. They also have lots of new goods that were donated for sale.

1. Vases
2. Baskets
3. Gift wrap
4. Gift bags
5. Holiday lights
6. Holiday cards
7. Holiday decorations, such as ornaments and figurines
8. Unopened gift sets of soap, perfume, etc. to give as gifts
9. Baby clothes with the tags still on (or not, but in mint condition)
10. Cleaning supplies in case you're hosting the family get-together

And by the way, please don't think of shopping at thrift stores as taking something away from low-income folks. Thrift stores that raise money for charities are set up to raise money for charities, not to provide shopping opportunities for low-income people. Even if they were, I assure you that there's more than enough merchandise to go around.

So this holiday season, while retailers are urging you to accumulate more and more new stuff, head to your local thrift store at least once before you reflexively head to Wal-Mart, Target, Ross, TJ Maxx, etc. Your community, the environment, and society will thank you for it!

If you're in Austin and you need some guidance on thrifting, check out the Thrift category archives on What If No One's Watching. Grace has reviewed a number of the thrift stores around town.

1. Back up my database.
2. If doing a separate install to test it out and play around before committing, set up a new database.
3. Wait until NaBloPoMo is over.

C-Man:

1. He doesn't criticize me, even though I criticize him.
2. He allows me to believe I am the center of the universe, but he doesn't let me walk all over him. (I know it sounds contradictory, but it works.)
3. He cooks.

The Baby (who desperately needs a pseudonym for this blog - any suggestions?):

1. He helps me practice my patience - and I'm saying this seriously, not sarcastically.
2. He is trying to maintain a sleep pattern at night of 4 hours, then 3 hours, then 2 hours, only waking up for 20 minutes in between each shift. (Those of you who have parented infants know how good this is compared to how they start out.)
3. He never critiques my made-up songs, even when they are really quite awful.

My mom:

1. She doesn't hold my adolescence against me, even though I treated her pretty badly.
2. She stayed beside me the entire time I was having the baby, even though she was having painful flashbacks of how scared she was when I was sick as a child.
3. She taught C-Man how to make scrambled eggs the way I like them.

My mother in law:

1. She firmly believes that I need care and support in order to be a good mom, and she is more than happy to provide that care - including taking me to get a massage tomorrow morning.
2. She is a great source of information and ideas about caring for children, all shared without judgment or expectations that what she has done or read about will necessarily work for us and our baby.
3. She has learned where all the dishes and clothes go in our house from doing so many chores here.

My sister:

1. She is one of the funniest people I know, so every time I call her I can be confident I will end up laughing.
2. She took on the role of being excited I was pregnant when all I could perceive was how sick I felt, and sent a box of super-cute baby clothes that arrived within days of me telling her. Those outfits have turned out to be my favorites.
3. She's shorter than I am, so I have something to make fun of her about.

• One of the database servers at C-Man's work crashed and he had to help fix it for several hours tonight and by the time he got done it was really late like 9:30 and I am very tired oh wait that's kind of more than one reason good night I'm going to bed.

1. They have many, many red trucks. They have so many red trucks that I have concluded they operate a rescue organization for abandoned and abused red trucks, giving them the TLC they need to recuperate and then finding loving homes for them.
2. Their wireless network is called PanteraNet. Hee hee!

C-Man: Those are some awfully jumpy legs you've got there, son.
Baby: Southside Jumpylegs Crew! Southside Jumpylegs Crew 4-ever!

C-Man: Don't you wish you were doing some calculus homework right now?
Baby: I laugh at calculus homework, give me some diffy q's! I'll knock 'em down!

C-Man: How can a 14 pound baby have a five pound diaper?
Baby: Dad, you've seen Doctor Who! It's like the Tardis!

1. Home Fries (1998): Advertised as a light romantic comedy with Drew Barrymore, turned out to be a vicious black "comedy" full of people being awful to each other.
2. Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas (1998): Why did I think that a movie about people being on drugs would be entertaining for me, even though I find drunk and drugged people quite annoying in real life?
3. Secret Window (2004): You know I love me some Johnny Depp, so it's odd that two of his movies are on this list, but I actually put down my popcorn and walked out of this one... and all the way home, since at that time my apartment was walking distance from the theater. I don't know how to be more specific about why I disliked the movie, but it was like nails on a chalkboard.

1. The Dog makes sure the bed has plenty of dog hair on it, so when the baby lies on the bed he can be marked as a member of the household.
2. Dog Two has dug up some of the grass that comes up to our back porch, which means I don't have to edge as much.
3. Both dogs bark loudly and often to ensure that no sneaky squirrels, pedestrians, or plastic bags breach the perimeter.
4. Dog Two caught and pulverized the broccoli that fell on the floor last night to make sure we didn't run it down the garbage disposal in too large of a piece and end up having to call the plumber.
5. The Dog shakes when there is a thunderstorm so we know to keep the baby inside, protected from rain.
6. Dog Two eats The Dog's food if there any any leftovers, preventing insect infestation.
7. Both dogs failed to catch the mouse several weeks ago, correctly assuming that I wouldn't want to deal with the consequences.

Friday in the craft blog world is Work In Progress (WIP) Friday. So here are the three quilts I have in progress. In progress, in this case, means started but not finished. I'm not really making much progress lately... for some reason...

1. Purple, Green, and Cream colored quilt for our king-sized bed. We planned on 12 inch blocks, randomly arranged. We laid out the rows across the bed. Then we realized it would look cooler if the rows were different widths. So I sewed the rows together, then cut two of them apart into skinnier rows. One was cut in half, the other was cut into 1/3 and 2/3. If we could manage to lay it back out to choose the new order of the rows pretty soon, I think it could get done by the end of the year. I'm eyeing Thanksgiving weekend hopefully, since there will be people around to cuddle the baby.

2. Earlier attempt at a quilt for our bed, made entirely of scraps of previous projects. 2160 rectangles, each 2.5 by 3.5 inches. You can perhaps understand why this didn't get done, and we moved on to the 12 inch blocks idea. (Side note: when I suggested putting this one on hold and trying to get the other one done before the baby was born, C-Man expressed trepidations about starting another project before this one was completed. Ha ha ha ha ha! He is not a crafter.) But this is a nice one to do in 20 minute increments here and there, because it's just chain piecing and there's no risk I'll run out and have to stand up and iron any time soon.

3. T-shirt quilt for a certain someone who helped me paint my quilt studio. I am trying not to feel guilty about not getting this done before I had the baby, since I know the recipient doesn't hold it against me, but I wish I had finished it already. I don't know when I would have done it, but I wish I had.

1. Lack of Internet Access Without Resorting to Measures Like Plugging Keyboard Into PlayStation or Stringing Wires All Over The Downstairs. Hello, I'm a stay at home mom, and hello, it's NaBloPoMo. So the router chooses now to break? It can fuck right off.

2. Bugs. In the bread flour. FOUR POUNDS of bread flour. For one thing, wasteful. For another, I have no toast, because I cannot make bread, because no bread flour. Sucks.

3. No Elves to Put Away the Dishes. I have no idea how we generate so many dishes. Baby doesn't use any dishes. I need more calories because I'm breastfeeding, but it's not like I get them by eating six extra meals a day. So why I am unloading the dishwasher every other day?

4. Dell. Dell F*$king Computers. They can't stop sending mail to my house, no matter how many times I use their online request form or call their CSRs who can't understand what I want them to do. No mail here ever. None. No matter how many old lists you have with names of college students who used to live here.

5. Mosquitos. Just on general principles.

• cat playing jinga
• ugly hand crafted items
• lyric soalmate
• thanksgiving puppy
• run over stick figure
• sexy santa claus hate
• layered beach cake
• dog hanging on for dear life
• hand drawn chainmail
• boys lingerie

1. Diabolical plot by our neighbors to get revenge for how bad our lawn looked during much of 2007.
2. XBox and PS3, now linked, have created an artificial intelligence bent on destroying us all.
3. History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of man - GODZILLA!

1. Horrible Laceration Of Lower Arm, sustained while falling down a hill. Right before my first wedding, to which she was planning to wear a short-sleeved dress. Lovely.
2. Period of Unconsciousness From Blow To Head, caused by a weed suddenly coming loose. She was standing on a hill (another hill, not the same hill that caused the Arm Laceration) and so when she fell backwards, she kept going. Onto the driveway. No one is sure how long she was out, but she still knew her name and what year it was when she woke up.
3. Broken Leg, acquired while stepping off the deck onto a lurking tree root. Don't ask.
4. GANGRENE. Yes, gangrene. Do you know any other American suburbanite who has contracted gangrene lately? Her doctor was bewildered.

• Amy's Ice Cream (flavors: pumpkin and sweet cream)
• Brown rice
• Parmesan cheese (in his ear, required his dad to use the plastic bulb thing to suck it out - can you imagine how embarrassing it would be to take the baby to the doctor for an ear infection because you dropped cheese in his ear?)
• Whole wheat capellini
• Sauteed tofu with a bit of mushroom
• Vanilla low-fat yogurt
• Fresh spinach
• Macaroni and cheese
• Ice water (not really a food, I guess)

1. People are fundamentally kind, altruistic, and smart, until they get messed up by life.
2. I will find a walkable route to the park from my house.
3. There is such a thing as "caught up" on laundry if only I work at it hard enough.

• 11:00 p.m.
• 1:00 a.m.
• 3:00 a.m.
• 5:00 a.m.
• 6:00 a.m.

Alternate Titles for This Post:

• Why This Post Isn't More Interesting
• Post-Nasal Drip Really Sucks, and If You Don't Believe Me, Ask My Baby
• Props to All The Single Parents Out There, Because Without The Shower I Took This Morning While C-Man Took Baby-Monitoring Duty, I Think I Would Be Dead Now

1. The doors. Some drunk-ass motherfucker hung them all crooked, and they don't work. Some let light (and air and bugs) in, some don't close all the way, two have started tearing screws out of the frame by dragging on their hinges, one locked itself. C-Man is working on them as they threaten us, but it's obnoxious.

2. The "air conditioner," by which I mean the inside bit that blows the air and makes all the noise. Some jackass laid out the floor plan for this place and stuck that damn thing right next to the TV room. I don't like having to turn on the English subtitles on an English-language movie so I can simultaneously hear the dialog AND maintain a reasonable room temperature. This one will require a miracle to correct.

3. The paint. Some college students who used to live here decided it would be fun to draw cartoons and graffiti tags on the walls. Then whoever painted the place didn't use enough primer. Is that why we have cans of Kilz primer left over in the garage, and graffiti showing through the ivory paint upstairs? Gee, I wonder.

4. The location. If I could just move it 1/2 mile west... then it would have been at least twice as expensive, and we wouldn't have bought it. So I guess I'll leave that one alone!

1. Repeatedly smashing his head into my shoulder and collarbone.
2. Latching on to C-Man's arm and giving him a hickey.

Mike Doughty's show at the Cactus Cafe here in Austin last night was part of his tour called The Question Jar. He invited the audience members to each put one question into a jar, then he answered a few in between almost every song. C-Man and I did our best to remember them without being obsessive or taking notes, here's what we got. His answers are in parentheses.

• Do you know the Muffin Man? (No.)
• How much bacon is too much? (Fifty cubits.)
• Will you play American Car? (No.)
• Do you like robots? (Yes. These are easy questions!)
• In the early/late 1990s, do you remember getting an email from a guy in Houston inviting you to a high school debate party? If so, why didn't you come? (I told you guys I was on drugs during the 90s.)
• Which is your favorite leg? (Left leg.)
• Which of your songs is your favorite? (Fuckin' shitfuck, I don't know. It changes. There's a pansy-ass answer.)
• With the advent of digital music distribution (mp3s), why are there no more supergroups (Foreigner, Rush, Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, Poison)? (Summary: you've been getting screwed by record companies for a long time, I'm glad they're not making money anymore.)
• My lovely wife and I met at a Soul Coughing show in New Orleans. Will you play our fifth wedding anniversary? (Probably not, but congratulations.)
• Would we have fashionable babies? (Obviously we would.)
• Why did you go to northern Africa? (Summary: Listened to some 1970s records from Ethiopia.)
• Was there one event that made you realize you needed to get sober? (Summary: There were a couple, here is the funny one. He was in a hotel room in Cleveland, shitfaced at 10am, ordered room service, and when the server showed up he had his daughter with him because it was Take Your Daughter to Work Day. He felt terrible.)
• How is recovery? (Great!)
• What three things do you most often think about? (Food, girls, music.)
• Were you ever thrown out of a bar in Rochester, NY for looking at porn on a computer? (No.)
• How do you feel about Steely Dan? (I like Steely Dan. I'm not going to be one of those not liking Steely Dan guys.)
• Can you play Purple Rain? (We think so... and they did!)
• Did you give Sebastien a beat down for playing bass for Vanessa Carlton? (I didn't know he did, but hats off to him.)
• Do you still talk to the Cuban girl? (Yes. She's bummed about the song.)
• Since Soul Coughing, your songwriting has become more spiritual. Was there something in particular that caused that? (I used to be a junkie who listened to Sam Cooke records and decided to believe in Jesus. So it started a while ago.)
• Who was the favorite person you have worked with during your musical career, and do you have any more collaborations coming up? (Summary: The producer on the first couple of Soul Coughing albums, because he was a freak. He thought there were 6 singles on Ruby Vroom and that Circles was a crap song.)
• What do you get when you cross a tree and a metronome? (I don't know, what do you get?)
• How do you deal with writer's block now that you're sober? (Summary: drugs were more of a writer's block.)
• What's the inspiration for the chorus of True Dreams of Wichita? (Summary: his girlfriend dumped him for his drummer, they went on a roadtrip and kept calling him and leaving messages cause they assumed he was still their friend. One call was from Wichita.)
• What's your perfect day? (Eating good food . . . and DOIN' IT.)

• Went on a short honeymoon, half of which I spent sick.
• Worked lots of overtime.
• Thanksgiving.
• Took a week off, during which I found us a house to buy, which pretty much ate the whole week.
• Started a quilt for our new bed.
• Christmas.
• Bought the house.
• Moved into the house.
• Ice storm.
• Unpacked everything during ice storm.
• Came down with the flu. Oh wait, it's not the flu, I'm pregnant!
• Got through 80th Texas Legislative Session at work.
• Continuing horrible nausea and stabbing pain in gallbladder due to pregnancy.
• Started All Access Blogging.
• Adopted Dog Two.
• Spoke at BlogHer.
• Around the beginning of August, finally got some relief from nausea.
• Started an easier quilt for our bed in hopes of finishing it before the baby was born.
• Started developing pre-eclampsia.
• Put on bed rest.
• Induced delivery ending in use of forceps, lots of stitching, and a neck injury (mine, not baby's).
• Definitively established that having a baby around, despite fallout from actual birth, is WAY better than being pregnant.
• Quit job to stay home and enjoy the baby.

The wedding pictures, however, are almost done. I'm just waiting on a few extra ones from C-Man's aunt. Here's one of my favorites. Thanks to I-ROCK for taking it.

I've been married to C-Man for exactly one year today, and it's the most fabulous thing. I'm so glad he was bored in the law school library one day and looking at online personals.

Oh My Stinkin' Heck is a personal blog I would enjoy reading whether or not I'd met Heather at BlogHer. But I did, and she's gracious and lovely and fun, and I'm so glad she blogs.

Anti-Racist Parent is a group blog by a wide variety of parents. Invaluable for thinking about how we're going to raise our kid.

Dollymix is perhaps my favorite feminist blog. Fun, irreverent, linky, but not shallow.

Twinkle Little Star is a what? Mommyblog, disability blog, personal blog, all of the above. If I can be half the mama (and blogger) this woman is, I will be doing a great job.

C-Man driving the car, lookin' all fly.

A crazy sign I saw on Guadalupe near 30th, that says "The power within us to move it along" in all caps. I think it was part of a series, so perhaps it would have made more sense if I'd gotten the other ones too.

A bizarre installation of Bois D'Arc seeds, which are these green spheres bigger then my fist, which was set up in the women's restroom at work. To be sure, the accompanying sign was quite informative, but why was it in the ladies' room?

The view from our garage after the second half of our hackberry tree fell down in the driveway. It was kind of neat, actually, except that we couldn't park the car in the garage.

Possible Reason #1: He does not read newspapers or blogs or watch television.

Possible Reason #2: He actually had heard about it, but as a lawyer he was shocked and horrified that a fellow member of that profession could do such a thing, and he repressed the memory.

Possible Reason #3: Every weekday he showers, gets dressed, and leaves the house to go sit under a rock for eight hours with his hands over his ears yelling "La la la la!" really loud if anyone tries to tell him what's going on in the world.

(Just google "pants lawsuit" if you don't know.)

Here is information about the Writers of Color 50 Book Challenge. Basically, it's just what it sounds like. I had really wanted to do the Anti-Racist Action Group run by Carmen Van Kerckhove of New Demographic, but with the baby I didn't know if I could commit 100%. So the Book Challenge is my next best thing. I'm not sure I can manage deep cultural commentary on each one in my current state, but I'm enjoying the books so far and I think it will be good for me.

My first books:

1. American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yuang. This is an amazing graphic novel that C-Man brought home from the library. I read it at 2am while feeding the baby, and in fact the baby got some bonus naptime in my lap because I didn't want to stop reading until I was done. Three stories that combine to communicate the pain of discrimination, especially the internal damage. However, not depressing at all.

2. Sassafrass, Cypress, and Indigo by Ntozake Shange. Is it cheating to count something you've already read? I hadn't read it in a long time, so I'm including it anyway. Three African-American sisters figuring out how to be in the world of 1960s America. I think in high school I would have stopped reading this after a few pages because I would have thought the way it was written was too strange (code for non-white, since white was normative) - words spelled "wrong," recipes mixed into the narrative? Thankfully I was slightly less racist by the time I found it.

3. The Inheritance of Loss by Kiran Desai. Pankaj Mishra reviewed it for the New York Times and said "Although it focuses on the fate of a few powerless individuals, Kiran Desai's extraordinary new novel manages to explore, with intimacy and insight, just about every contemporary international issue: globalization, multiculturalism, economic inequality, fundamentalism and terrorist violence." I completely agree. But honestly, I got tired by the end. Slow pace, lots of details, my own sleep deprivation...

4. Listen Up! Voices from the Next Feminist Generation, edited by Barbara Findlen. I'd read the first edition, and it was great to read the new essays and to refresh my memory of the original ones. This is what any book that purports to be about feminism should look like. White women are not the center of the universe.

5. Getting Mother's Body by Suzan-Lori Parks. The writeup on the back said something about how it was amazingly original. I can't agree, as it seems quite clearly related to As I Lay Dying. However, I don't think that's a bad thing. It's like Parks took a cultural myth and came up with a completely new vision for the basic elements. I was annoyed by most of the characters at first, but I stuck with it, and in the end I was glad I did.

6. All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes by Maya Angelou. This is one installment of Angelou's autobiography, which apparently spans six volumes. (How did I not know this? I only knew about I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings.) Traveling Shoes covers a period in her life when she lived in Ghana in the 1960's. It was a time and place I knew nothing about, and I enjoyed seeing it through her eyes.