Helen Boyd Kramer's journal on gender and stuff
The honey bee colonies in the US are dying. We really are up shit’s creek without them, since they pollinate most of our food so it grows. Haagen-Dazs has created a site, Help the Honey Bees, to raise awareness. You can donate there, find out more, & even buy “Long Live the Queen” t-shirts (profits go to the people researching the problem).
Me, I wish them good health when I see them.
A very very happy 55th wedding anniversary to my mom & pops. Crazy & dysfunctional as they are, they do still adore each other, & that rocks.
(Um, yeah, I’m an idiot. It’s my parents’ 56th wedding anniversary. Ahem.)
For those of you with foot or leg problems, get yourself a pair of MBTs. MBT stands for ‘Masai Barefoot Technology’ and they are amazing. As many of you know, I have one flat foot – which causes endless alignment problems for my entire spine, both shoulders, etc.
I borrowed my sister’s to get a feel for them after having them recommended by my favorite masseuse, and it was like I had no problems with my feet at all. They work your entire leg, straighten your posture, practically eliminate pain.
The only downside – and I know this might be a deal breaker for many of you – is that they only come in ugly, fugly, and not so ugly.
Still. You get some long flares & go about your day with no pain in your feet & give your legs a remarkable workout. & If you think I’m exaggerating, read the user comments for one model on Zappo’s. (This is the model I bought, though I found a pair on ebay.com for $100 less, but you have to know your EUR size to be able to buy them there.)
So I’ve decided my summer look this year is going to be ‘Stranger Than Paradise extra cum Buena Vista Social Club.’
Today is the Day of Silence, a day when students don’t speak in order to address issues of harassment and bullying in schools. It is not neccessarily specific to the protection of LGBT students, except that of course LGBT and gender variant students tend to be the target of most of the harassment.
From NCTE:
At NCTE, we believe passionately in the rights of all children and young people to go to school and be free from bullying and harassment. Learning needs to take place in an environment where children are safe — physically as well as emotionally — and can express their identities as they grow and develop. Transgender children and teens deserve these rights as much as every other student in our schools.
This year’s Day of Silence is dedicated to Lawrence King.
GLSEN is the organization who started this event, and you can find out more about it at their website.
My little plan today was to take 6 bags of clothes over to the Salvation Army since the one near us was gentrified out about a year or so ago; Betty volunteered to come with me, & then said coquettishly, “I thought maybe we could stop at the Old Navy.”
We never made it to Old Navy. We went to Victoria’s Secret, where I was promptly given the dyke sign to carry around when a salesperson came up to me to ask if I needed any help, and I just pointed to Betty and said, “I’m just waiting for her.” Afterwards, Daffy’s for a quick minute, since the place gives us both headaches. I walked quickly by the Cold Stone Creamery, since it’s a weakness of mine and I’m trying to lose weight, and then Target, since I have a firm belief that the only good summer clothes are cheap – nearly disposable. At least for bras and t-shirts I like, since I tend to sweat through them over a season. (TMI, maybe, but hey, you try finding cotton bras to support D cups in 90 degree heat & 90% humidity without sweating through them, & get back to me.)
We bought nearly nothing but we were starving by the time I’d try to pick out Hanes hipsters in the right size – $8 for 6! – and decided to walk to the Wendy’s in Fulton Mall. It was a hike, but we had lunch, & then we walked home, all the way down 4th Avenue (about 1.6 miles), decided to grab the all-important accordion files I needed for us, & for a client, on the way home.
& There was Kathryn Erbe! In Staples on 4th Avenue in Brooklyn! Kind of the least likely place I would have expected to see anyone, but it was her, & I didn’t gawk. The only odd thing was feeling safer with Eames in the house, which is of course desperately goofy since she’s an actor, not an actual NYPD detective.
We did make it home. I’d say we did a little more than 3 miles of walking, which means that my flat foot gave in & now I’m gimping with pain. But unfortunately there’s going to be a bit more pain before I get some of this weight off, which I have to do.
Betty’s a poor sleeper so I’ve looked up stuff you can do:
Otherwise, Valerian is a non-addictive herbal remedy that is readily available at health stores. It’s stinky, but the stuff is amazing for relaxing & good sleep, and doubles as a cat treat (since cats respond to it like they do to catnip). You can try some of these suggestions, too.
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That bonehead Bill O’Reilly made fun of Thomas Beattie for having a baby since his wife can’t.
Keith Olbermann called O’Reilly one of the “worst persons in the world” for doing so.
Olbermann 1, O’Reilly 0.
For those of you who are confused by the whole “pregnant man” story, here’s the nutshell: female-bodied person needed to change gender due to internal sense of gender role. Took testosterone, had breasts removed, was legally declared male on important documents. Did not have full hysterectomy. His wife, Nancy, unable to have a baby due to her own gyn stuff, opted to impregnate her husband via artificial insemination, who went off testosterone two years ago in order to be able to do so.
So that’s it. It’s not complicated, it’s not disgusting. It’s just a man who, with his wife, wanted to have their own child, and had the plumbing to do so. End of story. If any other husband could, and did, we’d all be talking about how brave & selfless he was, but because this particular man was born female at birth, people are freaking out. No need. Choice is the gig, and stuff like this is going to keep happening — baby, we ain’t seen nothing yet.
While I’m here, can we toss the phrase “artificial insemination”? It’s silly. You sure can end up pregnant, & there’s real sperm involved and a real egg. So how about “technologically assisted insemination”? “Manual insemination”? Something better than “artificial.” That makes it sounds like people are getting pregnant with robots or extras from Steven Spielberg movies.
Is anyone else grossed out by the PedEgg commercial? Has anyone else seen it? Do I really need to see someone’s heel skin scrapings on TV?
I don’t think so. Though I do find it ironic – make your feet pretty, and totally gross out your housemates in the process!