As I was coming back from the Jackson, MI Project Homeless Connect committee meeting yesterday, I started driving with the radio off, which was a great way to quiet my thoughts. I have been feeling overwhelmed with media bombardments recently, and so I just started thinking, letting my mind wander.

On the Feministing community, a trans woman had decided that she was joining the trans person boycott of the website -- far too many people were derailing comments, asking to be educated or refusing to respect the posters and commenters. I was also thinking about the altmuslimah post on how to defend Muslim women. I had also, for a while, watched the deadbrowalking LJ community, interested in their discussion of race in scifi and fantasy, but being afraid to join in, for fear of using my status as a privileged white person.

I recognize that what I am about to do can also be seen as derailing -- it may be seen as a play in the Oppression Olympics, or possibly "But that happens to me, too!" Or even, "Look at how enlightened I am!" But I mean it as a sincere attempt at recognizing my privileged statuses.

I am:

White
Cisgendered
Heterosexual/Cissexual
Married
United States Citizen
Upper Middle Class
Christian (Catholic)
College Educated
Employed
Healthy / Fully Abled
Normal weight/BMI
Health Insured
Literate
Securely Housed
Right Handed

( Which means: )

This is just a beginning, just a note to myself to keep thinking about it. I hope that other anti-racist allies, other opponents of the kyriarchy out there might want to jump in, as well.

Another good link, just because: Help! I've just been called a racist! by dear LJ friend cacophonesque, who I hope doesn't mind that I've linked her.

For Getting Done with Undergrad:

General
Pick up HC Stole
File forwarding address at Post Office
Fill out and turn in Security deposit and evalution form
Call Consumer's Energy to disconnect electric
Send Mom list of furniture to pack and what needs to be cleaned in the apartment

MC 441
Catch up on class reading
Exam 5/2 at 10 am

Magazine
Finish Edits
Conversation
Extra Class Saturday 4/26 at 3

History
Final Paper

Senior Seminar in Social Relations
Draft Paper
Edit Paper
Turn in Paper by 5/1 at 8pm
Read Sexual Ecology

Work
Friday 4/25 from 10a-3p, including stray duckling
Friday 4/25 supervisor meeting @ 3:15
Monday 4/28 @ 7 am Open Banks
Monday 4/28 from 7-Noon
Tuesday 4/29 from 10a-3p
Thursday 5/1 from 8a-Noon

The obligatory Finals Week to-do list.

( And here we go a listing... )

It's short. It's strange.

As requested by kirrst, my current Mission 101 list is below. I am open to new categories and new ideas -- my list is so serious! I like it because it's serious, but at the same time it needs some fun things. (46/101)

There is some commentary on the goals in progress over here. Other than that... ( My current Mission 101 List, incomplete )

So. Inspired by cacophonesque and cherrysk8fan, I have decided to also do mission101. I wanted to get started -- some of my goals were pressing but I didn't have motivation to do it without setting them as goals -- so I started without my list being completed. I think this is a no-no in the comm, but I figured no one would mind in my LJ. For the record, I have 45 goals, and I need 101. Suggestions welcome!

So, a short sampling of my goals and their progress thus far: ( saving your friends page one cut at a time )

PS -- If your mission is supposed to last 1001 days, June 20, 2007 is day 30.

Food Blog:

+ Sangria is amazing. I am apparently a master at eyeballing drink mixtures. Sangria recipe: sprite, brandy, fruit (apples, oranges, ice cream cherries), and red wine.

+ I bought a single burner, a 3-quart pan, a cutting board, a spoon, two knives, and a pot holder for my dorm room. Tomorrow for lunch I am going to make chili. YUM.

+ I am really really craving a jacket potato with butter, sour cream, and bacon. Thought about this while I was at Meijer today, but I forgot that I could nuke rather than put a potato in the oven.

+ Meijer has a British Foods section! I kinda cracked up, because it consists of Cadbury biscuits, Jaffa cakes, and PG tips. Unfortunately no decaf PG tips, which were my favorites.

+ I need more recipes. Preferably vegetarian ones, partially b/c I don't want to deal with meat in my dorm room, partially b/c I feel better as a vegetarian. But I also am abusing canned beans. I need more fresh food in my diet. Suggestions, f'list?

Other News:

+ I has a car! The junk needs to be hauled out, the carpets need SERIOUS vacuuming, the bucket seats need replacing, the radio needs presets, but it's now mine for use. Currently it's parked too far away to be tempting on a daily basis, but I seriously grinned all the way from Canton to EL b/c I now had a car.

+ Not only did I buy new running shoes and groceries, but I got lost. I kinda missed the on ramp for the highway I wanted, and got stuck on one way streets. But I made it in the end!

+ My aunts approve of Tim. This means that his maternal aunt approval rating is officially 2 out of 5 aunts. (My mom being one of six girls and one boy.) My grandparents also seem to like him. Well, at least they can converse at length on one of my grandmother's favorite topics: Israel.

+ Sister has graduated. I knew she could do it. (I don't think HS graduation is much of an accomplishment these days...)

Ways to die on the job at the South Complex Desks:

Choke on an ID
Poisoned atmosphere in the confined space under the desk
Get run over by a car while doing parking
Get run over by a cart while doing check out
Electrocuted by the radio
Smothering by flannel mattress pads
Fatal paper cut
Staph infection resulting from a paper cut
Trip and get impaled on a pen
Lightning strikes the key cabinet
Being mugged on the change run

Plan for today:

220-300 Nap
300-500 Paper
500-620 Class
620-700 Dinner
700-800 Reading
800-900 MADI meeting
900-1200 Reading

To Read:
Finish Antrobus
Chapters 3 and 4 of Stranger Next Door
Pages 1-62 of Measuring up

To Study for Water Test (3/22)

Reread slide show
Review review notes
Practice exam/quizes on Angel
Pray a little

Score: 41/50 --> better than the first test, btw.

To Write Social Policy Response #3 (3/26)

Read assigned reading
Think up three questions
Write three pages

To Study for Econ Test (3/27)

Read chapters in text book
Take practice test
Review wrong answers on practice test
Review problem set
Review 1st test
Take online quizzes

To Write Field Experience Research Paper (No Specific Due Date, Draft Should be done by 3/28)

Locate or rewrite introduction
Clarify research question
Read From Legislation to Integration?
Read Race Relations in Britian since 1945
Read Race and Ethnicity in Modern Britain
Find secondary sources on the Race Relations (Amendment) Act of 2000
Write Thesis
Write Paper

To Write Women and Power Paper

Visit Professor See's Office Hours
Clarify research question
Rewrite research proposal (3/30)
Read sources
Write Thesis
Design poster presentation (4/9)
Prepare poster presentation
Write Paper

To Write Social Policy Paper (Draft 4/16)

Remember research question
Read paper conceptualizing marriage
Read Court Decisions (3)
Read books from crazy christians
Write thesis
Write Paper

Fifteen books in a list, for the booklisters. They are arranged approximately in chronological order of when they entered my life. Any series I list, I also have read the rest of (And in the case of Tamora Pierce, basically the rest of her entire catalog.) The last three are books I read for my Introduction to Social Relations class.

Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
Pastwatch: The Redemption of Christopher Columbus by Orson Scott Card
Deep Wizardry by Diane Duane (Young Wizards Series, book 2)
Squire by Tamora Pierce (Protector of the Small Quartet, book 3)
Court Duel by Sherwood Smith
The Chosen by Chaim Potok
Waterland by Graham Swift
Namless Magery by Delia Marshall Turner
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman
Midnight’s Children by Salman Rushdie
Heatwave: A Social Autopsy of Disaster in Chicago by Eric Klinenberg
Unbending Gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What To Do About it By Joan Williams
Unequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life by Annette Lareau

1. He should be a little bit Catholic. Or at least someone who could appreciate the traditions of the Catholic Church and not ask me to change or worry for my soul. If he is Catholic, he shouldn't be so Catholic that church teachings are law; just Catholic enough to love the tradtions and sameness that keeps me there despite my doubt.



2. He should love music, but not so much that we can't turn off the radio to talk, or put on the news or something. He shouldn't care that I hum songs I don't know the titles or artists to, he should laugh and tell me who they are -- or maybe he should sing along with me, just as clueless as I.
</li>


3. He should love books. Science Fiction and Fantasy. He'll have to read Ender's Game, His Dark Materials, and So You Want to Be a Wizard. He and I should have similiar collections of books. We'll fight over whose copy we get to keep, and which copy gets donated to the local charities. But in the end, it won't matter much. Or maybe we'll have different collections and just love each other's books equally.
</li>


4. He should want children, he should want a family, and quite possibly his extended family should be as large as mine -- or at least he cannot be afraid of or resentful towards it. He'd understand the cousins and aunts who still call me. He wouldn't fight when our Christmas Card list is a hundred people long, but he'd stop me from writing notes to all of them -- only the favorite aunts and uncles.



5. He should want to build a house with me. The house would be on a large piece of land with a big backyard where we can build a tree house for our future kids. The house will have a real library, where all the books are kept, and that room will be technology free.
</li>


6. He should be open to the idea (but not nescisarily agreeable) that I want my children to be free of television media at least until they can read -- or even better, until they enter school.
</li>


7. He should have the same amount of education as me. If it comes to it, we won't be Dr. & Mrs., or Dr. and Mr., we'll be Dr. & Dr. I can't see it any other way but complete equality.
</li>


8. He should like writing. He should discuss his ideas with me and let me challenge him so the ideas grow concrete. He'll do the same for me.
</li>


9. He should like discussing world events, history, literature, movies, and sometimes people and relationships. If I get a job in International Relations, he'll stop talking about world events if I ask him to, and if he asks me to stop talking about something, I will too. No questions asked until later, no feelings hurt in the least.



10. He shouldn't care that I plan on being a Girl Scout until I die. He shouldn't care that I love to volunteer, and wouldn't complain if I very occassionally dragged him into my projects.



11. He should make me do all the things I love but sometimes feel like I don't have enough time to do: reading, writing, sewing, camping, taking care of myself, etc. He should probably like camping. Or at least the solitude afforded by nature. Or at least be willing to try new, adventurous things. In fact, he should probably be tolerant of all of my hobbies.



12. He should not be weirded out by my journaling activities. He should respect that I'll probably need a personal paper journal, a family paper journal, a creative writing journal, my LiveJournal, and that I believe i'm writing a living history for people to read some day. Actually, I think I just stranged myself out. But it's the truth.

And he should remind me, when I meet him, when I drag out this list in my uncertainty to marry him, that no one is perfect. But if he's willing to try, and I'm close enough to perfect for him, we'll get married. It's as simple as that. But, of course, life is not simple, and neither is love. Which is why we try to go in prepared.