musings of the day...

So I was researching at work today and came across the little nugget that "in the United States in 1918, Margaret Sanger was arrested for distribuiting the first form of female-controlled contraception - a diaphragm of balvanized rubber." Crazy?! Looking further into who this person was, I came to find out she was a head figure for the birth control movement and she founded Planned Parenthood clinics. I also found out that it wasn't until 1965 that the last state lifted it's law which probhibited even married couples to use contraception!

Not 90 years ago (which depending how you look at it could be a really long time or merely a blink of the eye) the notion of birth control was completely subversive. It's just so interesting to me! On one hand I'm confused that our society at large had such a view of contraception...and on the other hand I'm confused of how we've ended up where we are today. I can't help but wonder what the real thought processes going on back then were. Was it purely because of the church that people thought sex was only for procreation? Something in me guesses it wasn't. How were people truly thinking? What are the influences that were going into their ideas about sex, sexuality, and women's roles in it? Hmmmm....my mind is abuzz...I'll be adding to my library list this week!

If anyone's interested...LIFE included Margaret Sanger as on of this centuries 100 most important people. It can be found here: http://www.time.com/time/time100/leaders/profile/sanger.html Albert Einstein was rated the MOST important person of our century. On one hand, people are still trying to wrap their minds around his findings and on the other it seems like he must have lived centuries ago...but he didn't...he died in 1955 at the age of 76. It's amazing how much a public figure he became and how compassionate he was in his thinking towards humanity (somewhat opposing the stereotypical detached scientist.) I read that his son taught at Berkeley...gee, how's that for being inadequate...can you imagine being the son of Albert Einstein???

On a more personal front...I got to go up to SF this past weekend. It was awesome! I got to catch up with the Campbell Street Girls, Jason, Scotty, Debbie....my good people. Even more then when I was there in September...I know I don't belong there anymore - as much as I love it and am familiar with it. It's an odd feeling. It was fantastic to stay with the Sojourners...I feel so lucky to be connected with them. They're truely a people seeking after God, actively pursuing Him. I felt very lucky to have all my SF peeps in my life - particularly the CG girls, Debbie, and Jason....I love you guys!

my first *REAL* week of work

Oh my goodness..this week has been fantastic! Tuesday I spent the entire schoolday teaching my first classes! They went so well. I didn't really know how to expect the kids to be. They were really cool! Although you could tell most were at least a little embarrassed, I think some of the things we talked about really got them thinking - and there was even some really thoughtful discussion! We discussed what some words meant,such as: "sex," "sexuality," "abstinence," and "contraception."

And it felt so good being out and about and intereacting with people. I'm so excited! We have an anonymous question box, and I had all the kids fill out a "question," even if they didn't have one they had to write something down...I got a couple of really cute notes (you can tell they're girls handwriting) that said that I seem like a "cool" and "nice" person! It was so cute...my own little private affirmations! And it was really fun reading the students questions...like I get a secret snapshot into their heads.

Then today I had a meeting with some parents at a junior high school which I'll be starting to teach in next week. It was so cool to be able to talk with parents. Particularly since I'm really passionate about finding ways to involve parents in educating and talking to their children more about sexuality issues. Research shows time and time again that even though media and friends are huge influences, parents are the biggest influence on their kids sexual decisions. And teens really want to hear from their parents about it. So it was just a great opportunity to talk with them and get some feedback with them and hear their questions.

It felt so great finally having an active work week. No more sitting in my office alone all the hours of the day! Yeah good work!

I'm off tomorrow to San Francisco for a 3-day weekend...very excited about that! I'll actually have Monday off work too, it's Martin Luther King, Jr. Day...I would suggest finding A Letter From a Birmingham Jail and reading it...a powerful peice of writing and a wonderful reminder of our responsibility towards justice.

Peace to all!

snow, snow, snow, SNOW

This past weekend I was lucky enough to make it up to Montana with my parents to visit my Grandparents and Aunt and Uncle. It was so great!

I got stopped by the special security in the airport - which nearly cause me to miss my plane...I had to run to my gate and jump on the plane at just the last minute. Seriously...one more minute and I would've missed it. And then on top of all that, my body decided it wanted to be sick...but Montana was a great place for some down time.

My favorite events were:
* playing cards with my Nan
*creating things with Aunt Pam
*eating (I tried my very first caviar and also visited, twice, my favorite bakery in downtown Hamilton)
*spending hours nestled up watching snow falling outside the window
*walking in the snow and hearing it crunch(okay...so I had to taste some too, I don't get to the snow very often.)

There's just something so peaceful about snow. Plus all noises seemed so muffled in the snow landscape....a vast difference from my very noisy neighborhood!

okay...so it's not that different

...................here's the new hair,
i guess it doesn't look that much different....but it is to me

change of hair...

It's been years. I didn't touch my hair color all through highschool. Then I very carefully waded into the pool of hair coloring until I was eventually submerged. At which point I was free to go and just jump in any other color. So I grew increasingly non-natural, then black, then red...which I've kept around faithfully now for 3 or 4 years!
My changable nature peeps its head every so often, but I usually rationalize myself away. Well...I've finally done it...I changed my hair color. And to a more 'normal' color at that. It was just time - I think. I'm still not sure about not being red, red anymore.
<----Me with the red hair one last time... About to find out....--->
...And I'm putting my hair in curlers this evening...so you'll have to wait a couple more days to see the results! I'm flying out to Montana in the morning for a family visit...yippee!