Shir, I hate that kind of thing. Both the willful ignorance and the tension it can add to friendships.
So, I talked to B last night for over an hour. The trip to NOLA is back on. I don't know where if anywhere this is going, but our conversation reassured me that I'm not being a total idiot. I am fully prepared to accept any and all "I told you so"s. Now to find a cheap place to stay.
Now to find a cheap place to stay.
define cheap. I know a great B&B in Marigny for $99 a night.
I don't suppose it would make this guy feel better if you suddenly take the position that "of course it is not stupidity, men are not that stupid. It's not ignorance, either. It is deliberate evil, engaged in for the purpose of ensuring that women never get the idea that they deserve the right to exist without feeling powerless to determine how other people are permitted to treat them."
He gets it. He is a very clever dude in a lot of aspects. And yet, nor he or the other guy who upset me this morning get that extra mile, even though they think of themselves and they mostly are feminists. Or actually, the right word would be humanists. Maybe that's why they don't get the specifics, of where it's important to lean more towards certain principles in feminism. Yes, even if it upsets The Man or The Man's Marketing Scheme.
And JZ, thank you. This is a very good idea, and I'm surprised I forgot that people need to know something about feminism to support Hollaback's idea to begin with. I am sometimes daft.
Anyway, these were the only frustrating events of the week, really. I had tons of excellent feedback, over 700 individual clicks to Hollaback Israel daily, and a wonderful strange guy who sent me an email with "Great idea, but I really think you should start a Facebook page", and when I replied with "you're right, but I don't have the personal. Wanna do it yourself?", went "sure thing!", and did it that very night. With that, he made more work than any of the ladies who said they'll admin the site with me and left me with nothing.
The problem with Prop 21 is that there's no guarantee the state parks won't lose funding some other way. In Illinois when they decided that all the money from the state lottery would go towards school funding, politicians said, "hey look at all this money coming from the lottery" and took funding away in other areas and it ended up that the schools really didn't gain anything. But I doubt it will pass regardless- the people rarely vote to charge themselves more money.
Shir, you're really doing a wonderful thing. I'm sorry that it is hard sometime.
G is being exceptionally good today. Maybe I should have him at my place every week.
Yay Shir!
Vortex, which one? I love the Marigny.
All hail benedryl and steroid cream. The swelling has gone down, the hives are gone, and I don't itch.
I'm glad things are going so well, Shir. I'm excited for you. I'm glad someone was there to put some actions to his words, by starting the Facebook page.
smonster, I don't care if you do waffle back and forth between certain decisions. I want you to be happy. So if there is a chance that you think is worth taking, that spending time and energy on B will lead to more happiness than putting him out of your life entirely, then you should go for it. Daniel and I were long distance for three years before we even met face to face.
I may have told this story here before, but I love it. My oldest brother (not the dear ass-chapeau who tries to blame Obama for the budget for a fiscal year that started a month before he was even voted into office) spent four years serving in the army in the 80s, stationed in Germany. He met a girl there, and when he came home in '88, he wanted to bring her with him, but she was not ready to leave her friends, her family, her country. His big-brother advice to me on love the year I graduated from high school was that love does not conquer all. They kept in touch, and sometimes even saw each other, but my brother did his best to get over her and find someone else. Then one day, about six years after he had come home from Germany, he called me to say that he and his German girlfriend were engaged. And a couple months later, he called to say she was in the country, and did I want to come to their wedding later that week. They are still together, and still happy, so far as I can tell. I believe that the added time was something they needed - so they are much more confident in their love, and the added maturity has to be a benefit to their marriage. It was hard at the time, but it was what was right for them.
smonster, you are beautiful, inside and out. You deserve love and happiness. You deserve to take risks as you see fit, without having to worry about showering yourself in shame and recriminations if things do not work out the way you hope. You deserve to have enough confidence in your own strength that you can afford to take those risks.
Vortex, which one? I love the Marigny.
Elysian Fields Inn It's run by a great couple from Virginia. It's clean, inexpensive, and well located. It's a 15 minute walk to the Quarter, and right near the highway as well. They have wi-fi and Aveda products in the rooms. I've stayed there several times when I've been in NO recruiting.
I know I baby picspammed yesterday, but holy crap, these came out too cute not to share! [link]