I made a zine in college called Your Furry Godmother about societal pressures to shave and wax. I should see if I can find any old copies of that. Good times with a copy machine.

Dude, if you can find them, I would love to see one!

Western societal norms about body hair on women drive me crazy. And yet I shave my legs and my pits, because I just don't want to deal with feeling judged if I don't. Bleh.

We are home! We've been visiting my parents for two weeks, a trip which included seeing most of my extended family at my cousin's wedding, plus tons of old friends. Tiring, but wonderful to see folks and introduce them to Rose. She did pretty well on the flights, too. She slept through both flights on the way up, and then coming home yesterday she slept through the first one and half of the second. Of course, she was pretty fussy when she did wake up, halfway from DC to Nashville, but at least it's a relatively short flight.

It's good to be home, but man, I miss Massachusetts like whoa.

What do you miss, Kate? The place? the weather? your family?

What do you miss, Kate? The place? the weather? your family?

All of the above, Kat. But mostly my friends and family. It's the place where I grew up -- not just in childhood, but in my 20s too -- and where so many of my chosen tribe live. It's hard to be so far away from them, especially now that many of us have kids. I wish Rose could grow up around their kids, and that I could rely on them for help & support the way they do with each other. I know we'll make, and are making, friends with kids in Nashville (including our own Gris!) who will come to serve much the same function. But I miss my old friends, and the ease of talking to them and being around them and being part of their lives.

I wonder how many women are going "So if I don't change my name when I get married, I won't have this grief", followed by "If I don't bother getting married at all . . ."

Identity Confirmation Laws are anti-marriage!

My mother had issues with getting an NJ drivers license because some of her ID things had her middle initial and some didn't. They said that they'd need something with the full middle name added to the pile of identity papers if she wanted the ones with just the middle initial to be valid.

In Pennsylvania, in order to get a drivers license, you need a social security card. I'm not sure what people who don't have those do, but I know that I needed one, and I'd just moved to PA and had no idea where my social security card was in the stack of boxes, so I had to get a new one.

There's some state where you need a photo id to vote. And you need a birth certificate to get a photo id. And you need a photo id to get a birth certificate.

There's some state where you need a photo id to vote. And you need a birth certificate to get a photo id. And you need a photo id to get a birth certificate.

There's a woman suing the state of Pennsylvania over the voter ID law there. You need a photo ID to vote. You need a birth certificate to get a photo ID. She has no birth certificate, because she was born 93 years ago at home to parents who never went to the city office to register her birth. She used to be able to use her baptism certificate as proof of being born, but that's not allowed anymore. She went through a whole bunch of offices and bureaucrats and eventually concluded that there is no way for her to vote under the new law.

She went through a whole bunch of offices and bureaucrats and eventually concluded that there is no way for her to vote under the new law.

One might think that theoretically, this might possibly be a violation of her civil rights. Maybe.

Yeah, PA is going to disenfranchise about 9% (IIRC) of their voters. One Republican official actually said that this was so Romney will defeat Obama in PA.

I hate work mini drama-

We have a "Human Resources Assistant" in our building that thinks she has a lot of power. So she apparently spoke to another student worker supervisor about a student who was inappropriately dressed (like a shank) and walked around with a smirk on her face. That person told HR person that the student was mine. She then came and told my boss and I, and we were both shocked, because our student is sweet, and we don't think she dresses inappropriately. She does wear shorts and sleeveless (not tank) tops about 2 days a week, but it is hot and she has to walk a mile and half outside to get here. Also, there is no written dress code in our building for employees, and the student employee handbook says that dress is up to the employer. The only dress code we have is to wear "neat and proper dress".

Now the HR lady is lurking around my offices, waiting for a glimpse of this student, I am am annoyed. My boss says that if she speaks to me, I should ask her for the dress code, because my boss does not think it is inappropriate either, unless there is some rule that we are breaking.

I know there are several wingnuts who bemoan ever giving up the Constitutional definition of who was allowed to vote. Land-owning white men 50 years or older will take wonderful care of us. (I'm iffy on the 50 years old thing.)

Crap, I just realized I'm going to need another copy of my birth certificate, because the DMV is probably going to want to keep a copy.