What Now

RANDOM ACTS OF BLOGGING

1) Sara and I went to see "The Help" yesterday.  It was a great movie, but it made me totally sick to my stomach.  I sort of knew what the movie would be about, but since I'd never read the book and really only had two movie reviews to guide me (one that said the movie was wonderful and uplifting, and one that said it was trite and manipulative), I wasn't prepared for how the movie would make me feel.

Look, I've lived in Alabama all of my life and I'm certainly no stranger to racism.  I've seen people say and do the most ignorant things imaginable because they were just simply, blindly, bigoted.   People who hate because their families say it's OK to hate others because of their color.  It's frigging TRADITION to some of these people, and it seriously makes me wonder if any of them even know why they hate.  It's awful.   I've seen and heard bad things, but if what went on in that movie was even close to what happened in real life...I haven't even scratched the surface.

Even though my family is descended from a mishmash of sharecroppers and Indians, and I'm fairly certain none of them ever owned slaves or had "Help" like the Junya-League Ladies in that movie, I still feel as if I should apologize to everyone for being white, southern and a woman.

I'm just relieved that the movie wasn't set in Alabama. Oy vey.

Great movie, though.

2) I started a new blog the other day!  It's called "We Review All the Things!" and it's basically what it sounds like. 

Hey, you people know how much I like to review stuff, and I do it on here whenever I think about it, but I thought it would be fun to have a separate blog dedicated to it.  I don't know why, really.  I'm not really contributing anything else to the world these days, so why not? 

I may have a friend writing it with me, but since she's off learning how to save lives, she may not get much of a chance to do it.  Hopefully I won't forget about it and leave it mostly blank forever.  We'll see!  :)

3) Oh, and since I haven't mentioned the job situation lately, let me give you an update.  I was offered a job in June.  I accepted said job.  I never heard back from the guy who offered me the job.  Well, I've talked to him, and even sent him a note asking about the job, but nada.  Oh well, I'm not bovvered.  He has his reasons, and I'm not going to bug him about it.  Apparently, it just isn't where I need to be.  I've gone zen about it all.  I'll just make hats.

4) I mowed the lawn today and had a minor freak out.  We have a large weeping willow next to the fence, and I hate mowing under it because there is just no way to avoid driving through the branches.  It's like being in a drive-through car wash, when the long, flappy things that slobber soap suds all over the car slide over you.  Only there are leaves.  Anyway, I finally just decided to go for it and get that one patch I always avoid when I'm mowing, and when I did, the branches slid over me and a whole lot of things fell on me, including something that looked like the empty shell of Cthulu.  I screamed and started swinging my arms around and brushing myself off and I can within an ace of running to a bush.  It took me a minute to realize it was a cicada shell, and I don't know why it bothered me so much, because I used to play with those when I was little.  It heebed me out badly, though.  I wasn't expecting it, and had I not realized what it was in time, my neighbors would have had the treat of seeing me strip naked in the front yard and run screaming into the house.  I think we're all glad that didn't happen.

5) I went to the gym this morning and decided to change up the routine a little.  Usually, I just spend a lot of time on the elliptical, doing whatever it is that ellipticals simulate.  I knew that I'd eventually have to change that up, so I added in some of the weight training machines.  I have no idea what it was that I did to myself on one of them, but it must have pushed me just a teeny bit past my current stamina level, because right in the middle of doing one of them, I almost puked on the machine.  I still have no idea what I did, but I hope that doesn't happen again.  Somehow, I don't think the nice Latina custodian will be as nice to me if she has to clean that up.  Oof.