But it doesn't stop in wars. Juarez, Mexico with its drug wars (second most dangerous place to women in the world, after Darfur): the murders of the women and girls there have nothing to do with the drug wars in themselves. But a lot of social tensions are usually directed towards who the society considers as its weak. At most cases and most places, these are women.

Shir, I don't *need* statistics, but I would love the source for this. Mostly because I represent people from both Darfur and Juarez seeking asylum in this country and this sort of information could be useful in convincing a judge to let them stay.

I'm not sure I can help you with data on Darfur, but I know an activist in Mexico. I'll contact her for something official, as the information came from her.

Oh, no problem. I just thought it might be easily citable, if that's a word.

ION, school is closed again today due to cold. I went out and started the cars to be sure they would start. The Honda has a tire that is too flat to just leave, or put air in, but I think I can drive it to the tire store and buy new tires. Yay, me! I was hoping to spend $250 unexpectedly this morning.

All the public schools around here are closed today, but the university is open. I'm unsure of the condition of the roads, though, so I might call in and say that I can't come in today.

Wow, I am feeling incredibly defended right now.Which is weird, because throughout my childhood and youth, I was regarded as exceedingly sensitive and my emotional life was like riding a mechanical bull, well, not quite at all times, but a lot of the time.It's not now, and although I have worked on it, I feel that I can't claim some sort of brilliant emotional mastery...I guess when I put up boundaries, I don't fuck around. occasionally, I miss the highs. And it's hard to let go now...but I guess it's worth it for some equinamity

TCG's office wasn't opening until 10 today, but he has had a 2 hour commute in this weather so he left at 8. They just called now, at 9ish, to say that he didn't have to come in until at least 11 and they may have to close for the day. Of course he's already halfway there. They are on the list.

I am so glad they called everything closed here for us yesterday. I went to bed at midnight, turned off my alarm and awoke nicely refreshed at 7:30. I got up, did the dishes, made myself an omelet with spinach, roasted red pepper, pine nuts and goat cheese. Now, I'm nicely full and drinking my first cup of coffee. I am looking forward to just slounging around the condo. I may complete a few onerous tasks today! Usually I save them for Sunday, but it would be nice to actually do my onerous tasks on our onerous task day. But I stopped for groceries last night on the way home, so today may be a crock pot day to get 4-5 meals out of the way (usually done on Sunday). I am all gleeful at having an actual SNOW DAY! I never have snow days!

I'm technically WFH but I still plan on catching up on movies and stuff today. There's a good 18 inches on my porch, which is sheltered and has a roof, so I suspect there'll prove to be a lot more outside once I make it that far.

My sister just texted that at her house the snow is up to her hips.

Is today onerous task day? Awesome.

We didn't get that much snow, I don't think. Less than 12". But the winds were crazy last night (40-60mph) and the drifting is something bizarre. I've got snow up to the three foot mark on my balcony. The TV news station showed a picture of a car in their back parking lot completely covered by the snow and the snow next to the building was drifted up about 8-10' on the wall. I saw our maintenance guys out plowing the parking lot and they didn't just bring their usual plow, they brought a front-end loader! Lots of snow.

I just emailed to say that I won't be able to come in today. The sidewalk in front of my house is a solid two inches of ice.