Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Keep Your Laws Off My Body...
Flip Girl came out for the long weekend and, on Sunday, we headed to Washington, DC to March for Women's Lives. Yep, history in the making and we were apart of it all. The amount of women and men at this March blew me away and the chills started creeping up my arms before we even made it to the pre-March rally on the Mall. The noise, the signs, the spirit, the sisterhood- it was all so amazing and I'm SO glad my Catholic Flip was there to March with me.
The pre-March speakers were led by Lisa Gay Hamilton, and included the leaders of Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and the Women of Color Organization, as well as celebrities like WonderWoman Lynda Carter, Cybill Shepherd, and Ana Gasteyer. Apparently we just missed Hillary speak (which bums me out to no end), but the quick pick-me-up speakers got the 1 million plus crowd ready to march! There were also feisty women doing spoken word stuff and that got Flip Girl really excited for her classes in CA (she said Republican Socal never inspired anything for her to recite- now she has lots of ideas I'm sure).
While marching, we chanted ("Hey, Ho- George Bush has got to go" "What do we want? Choice! When do we want it? Now!" "Separate church and state"), talked, and watched the millions of people with their creative signs ("Worry about Laura's bush not mine" "Trim the bush" "Keep your rosaries out of my ovaries" "Republican from Texas for choice" "Fairies love Kerry" "I'm marching with my daughter AND my granddaughter- why?" "My body is not public property" "Bush+Dick=Fucked") and positive energy. It was all about love and freedom Sunday and, man alive it felt fucking fantastic! There were crazy right wing fanatics along one stretch and the crowd just got louder and louder. Walking by these pre-teenage girls holding signs about how abortion kills all I could do was yell to them they will need this choice in their life in the very near future. There was also a big protest held by a bunch of black men which we found very interesting and tried to figure out where they were coming from (what organization). There were also priests along the route and Flip Girl was there holding her big ass "Another Catholic For Choice" sign right in their faces saying, "Don't worry, I'm praying for you!" Whoah!
After a couple of solid hours of Marching, we ended back on the Mall just in time to hear Gloria Steinem and Susan Sarandon. The inspiration continued long after we were driving in horrible traffic home.
Interesting articles with some more info on the March:
USA Today (what a trashy newspaper- it's not just about abortion- it's about choice old white men)
C-SPAN click on video
I'll add more later...have to go to school now!
Flip Girl came out for the long weekend and, on Sunday, we headed to Washington, DC to March for Women's Lives. Yep, history in the making and we were apart of it all. The amount of women and men at this March blew me away and the chills started creeping up my arms before we even made it to the pre-March rally on the Mall. The noise, the signs, the spirit, the sisterhood- it was all so amazing and I'm SO glad my Catholic Flip was there to March with me.
The pre-March speakers were led by Lisa Gay Hamilton, and included the leaders of Planned Parenthood, the ACLU, and the Women of Color Organization, as well as celebrities like WonderWoman Lynda Carter, Cybill Shepherd, and Ana Gasteyer. Apparently we just missed Hillary speak (which bums me out to no end), but the quick pick-me-up speakers got the 1 million plus crowd ready to march! There were also feisty women doing spoken word stuff and that got Flip Girl really excited for her classes in CA (she said Republican Socal never inspired anything for her to recite- now she has lots of ideas I'm sure).
While marching, we chanted ("Hey, Ho- George Bush has got to go" "What do we want? Choice! When do we want it? Now!" "Separate church and state"), talked, and watched the millions of people with their creative signs ("Worry about Laura's bush not mine" "Trim the bush" "Keep your rosaries out of my ovaries" "Republican from Texas for choice" "Fairies love Kerry" "I'm marching with my daughter AND my granddaughter- why?" "My body is not public property" "Bush+Dick=Fucked") and positive energy. It was all about love and freedom Sunday and, man alive it felt fucking fantastic! There were crazy right wing fanatics along one stretch and the crowd just got louder and louder. Walking by these pre-teenage girls holding signs about how abortion kills all I could do was yell to them they will need this choice in their life in the very near future. There was also a big protest held by a bunch of black men which we found very interesting and tried to figure out where they were coming from (what organization). There were also priests along the route and Flip Girl was there holding her big ass "Another Catholic For Choice" sign right in their faces saying, "Don't worry, I'm praying for you!" Whoah!
After a couple of solid hours of Marching, we ended back on the Mall just in time to hear Gloria Steinem and Susan Sarandon. The inspiration continued long after we were driving in horrible traffic home.
Interesting articles with some more info on the March:
USA Today (what a trashy newspaper- it's not just about abortion- it's about choice old white men)
C-SPAN click on video
I'll add more later...have to go to school now!
Tuesday, April 20, 2004
Italy Trip...
Enjoy the pictures! This was the best vacation I have taken and I look forward to returning someday soon to rent a Tuscan Villa and visit Florence!
I think the pictures explain our trip pretty well, but I have to make some comments about our trip. I researched each city as we were in route so the information would be fresh and we used The Green Guide as our "helper" for specific information. Having a thin book with so much historical information as well as detailed maps and interesting walking tours really helped us out when we would start our days just walking in one direction. I found there was way too much to see and we didn't want to run ourselves ragged (I threw my back out one day and we had to do a half day tour of the Spanish Steps in Rome), so we picked some things we really wanted to see and hit those with the neat areas around those locations.
Lufthansa was a fun airline. I must look German because every flight attendant would ask T a question in English and then ask me the same in German. On our flight out to Frankfurt we had a little boy who must have been sick because he screamed the entire 8 hours in the air. As a "red-eye" flight that really put a damper on things right away. On the return trip, T asked the flight attendant how long the flight was. With her 8 hour response, he jokingly said, "can you make it six?" She turned beet red and said, "you want to make sex?" The joys of international travel!
Our hotel in Rome had a driver pick us up and he drove over 100 mph on the highway- now that's a wake up call after not sleeping all night!
Italians must not indulge in soda because I spent about $15 for a four pack of Coca Cola Light (Diet Coke).
We saw two fights inside restaurants between employees and customers with violence involved.
My Italian is not good, but I tried. I would speak my best Italian and the locals seemed to appreciate my efforts (they would laugh as they corrected my horrible pronunciations). A street vendor at St. Peter's actually gave me a free charm of St. Peter because he was so amused with my attempts in his native tongue.
Venice was so romantic and T's proposal was such an unexpected surprise! God, now the nightmare of planning begins (actually we haven't even talked about it)!
Walking around the Ghetto in Venice one of the stores had a poster of the Sopranos on the wall as well as the 2nd Ave Deli here in NYC (the owner told us it's the best pastrami he's ever had).
Easter Monday is a holiday and in Milan everything was closed. We were hard pressed to even find a restaurant open to have dinner that evening.
And then there's the food...Definitely the best part of the trip (besides the bling on the finger)! I'm such a dork, I actually kept a record of what I ate everyday...The pasta, pizza, fish, veal, ham, cheese, bread, salami, wine, gelati, and the coffee. I must have gained thirty pounds but goddamn it was so worth it!
Enjoy the pictures! This was the best vacation I have taken and I look forward to returning someday soon to rent a Tuscan Villa and visit Florence!
I think the pictures explain our trip pretty well, but I have to make some comments about our trip. I researched each city as we were in route so the information would be fresh and we used The Green Guide as our "helper" for specific information. Having a thin book with so much historical information as well as detailed maps and interesting walking tours really helped us out when we would start our days just walking in one direction. I found there was way too much to see and we didn't want to run ourselves ragged (I threw my back out one day and we had to do a half day tour of the Spanish Steps in Rome), so we picked some things we really wanted to see and hit those with the neat areas around those locations.
Lufthansa was a fun airline. I must look German because every flight attendant would ask T a question in English and then ask me the same in German. On our flight out to Frankfurt we had a little boy who must have been sick because he screamed the entire 8 hours in the air. As a "red-eye" flight that really put a damper on things right away. On the return trip, T asked the flight attendant how long the flight was. With her 8 hour response, he jokingly said, "can you make it six?" She turned beet red and said, "you want to make sex?" The joys of international travel!
Our hotel in Rome had a driver pick us up and he drove over 100 mph on the highway- now that's a wake up call after not sleeping all night!
Italians must not indulge in soda because I spent about $15 for a four pack of Coca Cola Light (Diet Coke).
We saw two fights inside restaurants between employees and customers with violence involved.
My Italian is not good, but I tried. I would speak my best Italian and the locals seemed to appreciate my efforts (they would laugh as they corrected my horrible pronunciations). A street vendor at St. Peter's actually gave me a free charm of St. Peter because he was so amused with my attempts in his native tongue.
Venice was so romantic and T's proposal was such an unexpected surprise! God, now the nightmare of planning begins (actually we haven't even talked about it)!
Walking around the Ghetto in Venice one of the stores had a poster of the Sopranos on the wall as well as the 2nd Ave Deli here in NYC (the owner told us it's the best pastrami he's ever had).
Easter Monday is a holiday and in Milan everything was closed. We were hard pressed to even find a restaurant open to have dinner that evening.
And then there's the food...Definitely the best part of the trip (besides the bling on the finger)! I'm such a dork, I actually kept a record of what I ate everyday...The pasta, pizza, fish, veal, ham, cheese, bread, salami, wine, gelati, and the coffee. I must have gained thirty pounds but goddamn it was so worth it!
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
A New Adventure Awaits Me...
Got home last night from an amazing trip to Italy. I am in the process of getting the digital pictures online to post, but I had to share some exciting news first...
T and I are engaged. Yep, in Venice on a sunset gondola ride along the Grand Canal. The diamond in the ring belonged to T's great-grandmother and is a European cut that is apparently quite rare these days (about 100 years old we think). I am shocked, thrilled, and so, so, HAPPY! All this was T's plan...Everything was his doing and I feel completely spoiled. Why do women wear an engagement ring and not men? My god, for this he deserves something....Any suggestions?
OK...Pictures of our amazing trip are forthcoming...
Got home last night from an amazing trip to Italy. I am in the process of getting the digital pictures online to post, but I had to share some exciting news first...
T and I are engaged. Yep, in Venice on a sunset gondola ride along the Grand Canal. The diamond in the ring belonged to T's great-grandmother and is a European cut that is apparently quite rare these days (about 100 years old we think). I am shocked, thrilled, and so, so, HAPPY! All this was T's plan...Everything was his doing and I feel completely spoiled. Why do women wear an engagement ring and not men? My god, for this he deserves something....Any suggestions?
OK...Pictures of our amazing trip are forthcoming...
Thursday, April 01, 2004
Spring Vacation Here I Come...
A week and a half off of work couldn't come at a better time. With the crap T's mom pulled earlier in the week and the horrible state my students are in right now, I am ready for a vacation. It's off to Italy for us. We leave tomorrow at 3pm and arrive in Rome around 9:30am. Four days in Rome, train up to Venice, 4 days there and then to Milan for an evening before flying home. With only 10 days, we didn't want to rush our time there since neither of us has been so we are saving Florence and Tuscany and the other fabu sights for another time. Expect pictures upon our arrival back home!
Oh, and I have to add how fucking proud I am of my sister. Seriously, this is such an awesome opportunity- I wish I was closer to scream about this in person- over the phone just doesn't cut it! Can't wait to hear the official news!
A week and a half off of work couldn't come at a better time. With the crap T's mom pulled earlier in the week and the horrible state my students are in right now, I am ready for a vacation. It's off to Italy for us. We leave tomorrow at 3pm and arrive in Rome around 9:30am. Four days in Rome, train up to Venice, 4 days there and then to Milan for an evening before flying home. With only 10 days, we didn't want to rush our time there since neither of us has been so we are saving Florence and Tuscany and the other fabu sights for another time. Expect pictures upon our arrival back home!
Oh, and I have to add how fucking proud I am of my sister. Seriously, this is such an awesome opportunity- I wish I was closer to scream about this in person- over the phone just doesn't cut it! Can't wait to hear the official news!
