Deviant Dispatches

Source I loved  Madison Mahdia Lynn's  suggestions, so I'm writing them out here. If you're feeling like a bit of flotsam in a sea of tears, give this a try for yourself - feel free to start from my list. Also, it's often the case that others can see you more clearly than you see yourself. Do you have insights for me? Let me know. STEP ZERO: Give yourself a moment to breathe. This was the first two weeks. Now I need to multitask. STEP ONE: Make a list of what you’re good at. Writing (incl. coming up with effective slogans and bringing humor) Knitting/crochet Empathy Patience Baking Listening Attention to detail Discount shopping Using the phone Passion for ALL THE THINGS STEP TWO: Make a list of your limitations. Public speaking (I can do it, and I might be good at it, but it's emotionally taxing) Inability to directly confront problems ... which is going to be fun for me Constraints due to having a toddler (time available, time of day issues) Li...

Source The next four years will be hard for this country. Our rights will be hacked at with ice picks, machetes, toothpicks that introduce cracks in the foundation. It is Day 1 and the White House's climate change webpage has already disappeared , along with the LGBT , civil rights , and ACA pages. Trouble is not brewing; trouble is here. So what can we do about it? Groundwork has some great starting points on their site, and I listed a few details more below. Artist Haley Gilmore Educate yourself . What issues matter to you? Learn about them. What issues matter to others? Learn, and then fight for those too. " A healthy society is one in which those at the center scream in agony when those furthest away are cut." Make calls . Phone calls are the most effective method of contacting elected officials. Set an alarm on your phone to remind you to call on a regular basis. Keep your senators' contact info  bookmarked (or on speed dial) so you don...

If you're looking for causes to donate time or goods to or volunteer for, here are a few. You can find another list here . If you want to check these out more carefully, view them on  charitynavigator.org ; I haven't done so for all of these yet. Please share this with others.  Children Boys & Girls Club Big Brothers, Big Sisters Domestic Violence/Sexual Assault Prevention National Coalition Against Domestic Violence rainn.org Freedom of Speech/Press propublica.org rcfp.org Global Warming nrdc.org earthjustice.org sierraclub.org Legal Defense aclu.org LGBT Rights thetrevorproject.org lambdalegal.org Political Activism www.emilyslist.org runningstartonline.org Racial Equality naacpldf.org The Anti-Defamation League maldef.org splcenter.org showingupforracialjustice.org Refugee/Immigrant Assistance refugeerights.org nilc.org theyoungcenter.org Reproductive/Women's Rights plannedparenthood.org reproductiverights.org now.org nwlc.org  - a 4-star charity for ...

Last weekend, I finally didn't have to go anywhere. It was glorious to not sit in the car for hours, waiting to arrive at some distant destination. It meant I got to clean the house a little and have time for fun things like art. I discovered a pile of old fortunes that I'd kept in my wallet. There were nine that were clearly happy and positive, so I decided to arrange and frame them. I have an old dictionary for art purposes, so I tore out the page with the definition for fortune and applied a layer of green watercolor paint. After it dried, I used double-sided tape to attach the fortunes, drew on it with marker, and mounted the whole thing on a piece of cardstock. I love how it turned out. (Click to enlarge and read the fortunes!) Continuing that trend, I painted several more dictionary pages with watercolors and cut them into squares after drying. I folded each to look like this little guy, again using double-sided tape to hold it all together. After t...

On Saturday, in a fit of restlessness, I headed out to the nearest department store. It wasn't that I'd been inside all day; on the contrary, I'd been to the Madison physics museum and the grocery store earlier. It was more of a desire to get out on my own for a bit while Spousal Unit engaged with video games and action movies I wasn't thrilled with at the moment. And so I went on a meager adventure. I'd not planned to buy much; after all, that was not the point of the trip. As long as I was there, however, we did need a tablecloth to conceal the unsightly mess below the living room table. We also needed a second set of sheets (yes, we only have one). And then, I somehow ended up in the makeup aisle. I've been noticing my age, lately. Not to say I'm getting old; I don't believe that at all. But the cells in my body are slowing their rejuvenation , and along with that come aches I never used to have, a desire to stay in when it's snowy out, and...

This weekend, I went to the Memorial Library Book Sale with a group of friends. It's part of the Wisconsin Book Festival every year, and this was my first year attending. (Last year, when I was in the book business, I was required to work rather than go to it.) This book sale is terribly exciting because on the last day, you get to fill up as many bags as you can carry, and each one is only $4 (though some friends were charged $5 for an extra-large bag - still a great deal). At an event like this, when all the good stuff has been picked over in previous days, you don't expect to find much that you've been meaning to read, but you do always find some little treasures that make you squee in delight. Following are some of mine. Legends of the Ferengi by Quark, a.k.a. Ira Steven Behr  I'm excited about this one because I'm a geek (obviously), but especially because Spousal Unit and I have been watching lots of Deep Space Nine lately. I tried to get him to wat...

When I start a new job (or anyone, I imagine), I worry far too much about the first impression I make on new coworkers. This week has been no exception. Something like clothing style is perfectly acceptable to change on the first day, I think. On Monday, I wore dress pants, dress shoes, and a business-casual sweater (whatever the hell that means), so that I could properly gauge the office dress code. Since then, I've worn skirts every day - my personal style is dressy enough for my new place of employment, thankfully. But then there's the problem of my geekitude. It's not so much that I want  to hide my geeky, unusual nature from people - the side of me that's a Trekkie and a Star Warsian, who loves apocalyptic sci fi and plays fantasy football. (Poorly this season, but I'm still playing.) All of that stuff is rather bizarre for an office woman to partake of, according to popular thought and general office culture. I know from experience that if I let my nerdi...

This weekend, I get to have fun with a bizarre aspect of my life which, to most people, is a square peg in a star-shaped hole. But I love it and throw myself into it every year. This weekend is the fantasy football draft. I love the weird sense of community that develops between me and my friends - mostly guys, of course. The one other girl on my team always thrills at seeing how well we do overall, compared to the guys - and we've done pretty well every year. Here's hoping one of us wins it this time. I've been doing research on this stuff, because last year I was woefully unprepared to choose my team. I chose... poorly.  (Okay, I did just fine. But I wanted to use that line.) Still, when all is said and done, the English major in me can't resist having the most fun of all with the least important aspect of the game: developing a team name. The best one I've had so far was The Aluminum Falcons; I hope to top it this year. I spent a good hour putzing around ...

I love one part of my body above all others, and it’s not my armpits. Really, does anyone love armpits? My guess would be no. I don’t just hate my own armpits; I hate everyone else’s, too. As I’ve mentioned, this is why basketball will never be my favorite sport, or even a sport of which I can stand to watch more than one minute. Unless you have some weird armpit fetish and nothing gets you going quite like a freshly shaved underarm, my guess is you also hate them, whether you’ve ever consciously thought about it or not. And now I’m going to get all kinds of hits for people seeking armpit porn. Awesome. But armpits are not what I came to talk about today. I came to talk about how much I love my hands. I think every woman - and maybe even every man -  has at least one body part she absolutely hates and would do anything to change. Society puts so many unrealistic expectations out there for body image – thinner, firmer, taller, blonder – that it’s almost impossibl...

Let me be up front with you about a topic many don't discuss: leg shaving. I will never shave my legs again if I can help it (unless I really want the feel of smooth legs again sometime, but it's not likely I'll ever want it that badly). First, apologies to my mom. She tried so hard to make me a lady, and here I am, all hairy legged and burping at the table with my sisters. Love ya, Mom! My sister's friend asked one day why I don't shave. My short response was that it's too time-consuming and sexist for me to bother with. Here's the long answer, in two parts. Practical Reasons I have always been really bad at shaving. My shins and knees are so angular that I have myriad scars from various careless experiences. Last time I shaved, I ended up with a scar two inches long. I'm not a fan of risking injury like that on a daily basis. Because I'm so terrible at shaving, it takes me twenty minutes or more to make the whole of my legs naked. I'd...