For women and people who know women

As I hope you’ve already heard, the wingnuts in the state legislature of South Dakota have passed a law (waiting to be signed by the governor) that would outlaw all abortions, except to prevent the death of the pregnant woman.  I am beyond incensed by this – for reasons that others have outlined much better than I could in my rage.

And so I offer these links, so that you know this information is out there, in the event that the wingnuts succeed.

• Emergency Contraception Website (including a nifty page on pills available in different countries and the dosage to take for EC purposes)
• A Woman’s Book of Choices: Abortion, Menstrual Extraction, RU-486 from the Feminist Women’s Health Collective in Seattle.  They also offer some great information on finding clinics, finding funding for an abortion, personal stories, options and choices, etc.
• The Center for Reproductive Rights – because any decision that I make about what goes on in my uterus shouldn’t be mandated by the state.  A highlight is the publication "What if Roe Fell?" (full text in PDF).
• I’m Not Sorry – a web site with stories from women who have had abortions and SHOCK OF ALL SHOCKS, aren’t sorry for their (highly personal) choices.

Take your reproductive rights seriously, folks.  Don’t let the wingnuts control your body.  It’s your choice – fight for your rights.  And for the love of all that is right, if you live in South Dakota, move the hell away! 

N is for New

I love new things. While I’m not always very good at dealing with change, I do like NEW.

This week has been a new job.  Last August it was a new dog.  But usually what I like that’s NEW is a little bit smaller in scope.  For example: it pleases me to no end that Amy and I, in the course of moving in together, got to buy a new shower curtain.  For the first time in my life, I got a liner and a fabric curtain!  New all around.  Today, I hied over to the nearest Target and got myself (among other things), some new socks.  I LOVE new socks!  They feel so nice against my feet.

Other new things that I like: music, dog toys, items to read in Bloglines, email, leaves on trees, flowers in the spring, snow, razors,  routes for going routine places, books, and insights.

What new things do you like? 

P.S. Fill out my Johari Window! 

M is for Moving On

No letter image to go with this post today, as I’ve got a billion things to do before the end of the day.  For you see, today is my last day at this job, and then I’m moving on to a new job in a new city.

I’ve moved on many times in my life – some by choice, others by circumstance.  My favorite moving on was from Iowa to Philadelphia.  It was the first time I was moving to a big city – a really BIG city.  I was moving on from a job that I only liked, and into a job that I knew I was going to love.  From the time I was in grad school and had an interview at a library in Philadelphia, I knew in my heart that some day I’d be moving here.

And that time came, and it’s been so wonderful.  There are a list of things I’m going to miss about here, in this moving on:

1. My co-workers
2. The students
3. The faculty
4. The campus
5. The day-to-day rhythms of the job
6. The Crum Creek
7. My house
8. Clark Park
9. Fu-Wah’s tofu hoagies
10. Dahlak (and yes, yes, I know that there is the Abyssinia camp too.  I’m just not it in!)
11. The Green Line Cafe
12. The dog park crew – Tony, Christine, Michael, Kathy, Kimba, Tuna, Iggy, Zoe, and everyone/dog else
13. Amy’s housemates
14. The hockey team

And a lot of other things that are hard to enumerate right now.

But it is a moving on, and so I move on.  Tomorrow we move ourselves on to get a moving truck (and lots of Dunkin’ Donuts and the Papa Johns). And then we are moving on from here.  

Bye-bye, Philadelphia!  It’s been a great 5 and a half years.  I’ll miss you, but don’t you worry.  I’ll be back to visit. 

L is for Lunacy!

L stands for many things in my world; libraries, love, laughter, lefse, and left-handedness in hockey all come to mind.  But when I read the Yarn Harlot‘s blog today, and she linked to the Knitting Olympics Team Wales page, I was hooked.  And trust me when I say that L truly is for LUNACY.

I’m moving next weekend.  My yarn is packed.  My needles are packed.  We don’t have cable in the new place yet, and I gave away the bunny-ears attenae when I sold my television.  Rest assured that Amy doesn’t own any of those antiquated things.

And February 10?  Well, that’s just a few short days after I move into a new place, after Amy and I pack up our houses and move 350+ miles to a new city where we will put the bulk of our possessions into a storage unit and will try to figure out how to merge the rest of our stuff into a 7-month rental in a city I’ve never lived in before.  And then just 3 days after the Knitting Olympics begin, I will start that new job I wrote about earlier and trust me when I say that I will be brain-dead at the end of each day and how on EARTH do I think that I’m going to be able to knit up 400 yards of heathery navy blue and heathery purple corriedale wool into a multidirectional diagonal scarf?  In 16 days?

That, my friends, is lunacy. 

So Team Wales, you get me, whether you want me or not.

K is also for….

KNITTING.

Which is really hard to do when all your stash, needles, and WIPs are packed away in boxes.   Soon, though, I’ll be able to get back into it.  I’ve decided my next project is going to be the multidirectional diagonal scarf my mom was making when she so graciously and helpfully flew into town last weekend to pack up my kitchen and office.  I’ve got yarn in mind, and a recipient in mind too.  I had planned to make a scarf for this person for Christmas ’05, to no avail.  Maybe if I start in February ’06 it’ll get done in time for next Christmas!