using the world wide web to share news about my wonderful daughter, all the while brainstorming little acts of subversion

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Lest we forget

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20090202/williams?rel=hp_columns

This is why we do it

And this is why I love President Obama:

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2009/1/29/131620/134/34/690503

I still get emotional ANY time I hear or read about our president's inauguration or his speeches or his accomplishments. This story REALLY gets me. This is amazing stuff.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Let's see what I can do today

I'm at home with Katie- my full-time job these days- and, true to form, can get nothing academic done in the meantime. We had fallen into the routine where in the morning, Katie was extremely sensitive and clingy and I could not put her down and after her nap, she was perfectly fine to run around the apartment, freeing me up to...clean and start dinner. Thank goodness, she's in a fantastic mood this morning so I'll see how much I can write before she demands my attention.

I started writing a response to a message someone forwarded me the other day, and as I wrote, I just got worn out. The message was a forward one of Eric's former students received and knew would get me fired up- this woman kicks ass on her own, and her handling of the situation was great. But, essentially, the message she received was every wing-nut's laundry list of lies about our President, Barack Obama. Tristianne, if you check this, Eric and I thought of something: she stated that President Obama renounced his citizenship and moved to India. Well, assuming she meant Indonesia, does she even know that he moved there when he was two years-old? Tell me, how the hell does a two year-old renounce his citizenship???

Okay, onto the next thing. We're waiting to receive our driver's licenses in the mail. Getting them was an absolute fiasco. God bless him, but Eric put so much time and effort into figuring out what all was needed for us to be street-legal in the state of Texas. And it was a multi-step process. The cars had to be inspected ($40 a pop, every year) in order to be registered in order for us to get our licenses. And in order for us to get our driver's licenses, we had to have VERY specific forms of primary identification- our Iowa licenses would not do by themselves.

This is when I realized that, for a state which seems to embrace free market principles (i.e., the deregulation of utilities, for instance, so that we can "choose" our electric company...although the carrier is really only one company) and local rule so entrenched in Southern politics, they sure do know how to erect bureaucracies. And of course, the protocol to receive a driver's license was only recently implemented (in October, I believe) to- you guessed it!- hinder so-called "illegal aliens" from getting driver's licenses.

That's my dissertation topic, so I'll save that rant for my committee at school. But, you know how in Oklahoma, we can go to any tag agency and you're in and out in 15 minutes with a license? In Iowa, there was a government office you went to, but it was quick and painless and you walked with your license. Not so in Texas. First, they only have one office per county here (although I may be wrong on this and I guess there are some satellite locations). But upon arrival, you stand in line to have some lady look over your papers to make sure you have the right documentation for your business that day. Then you take a number, to wait, again, to go stand in a line, again, to be summoned to a counter to get asked a series of questions and an eye exam by workers who have no clue what they're doing (Eric can tell you more about this one), to pay another $24 per license, to wait up to 30 days to receive your license. So we have slips of "official" paper as stand-ins while we wait for the licenses to come in the mail.

But here's what really got me bothered: remember, they channel every license request in the county more or less through this one office, so teen-agers are getting their permits and licenses in the same place as those of us who are seasoned drivers. But this is one of the most diverse places I've ever lived and keeping in mind that the new requirements for getting a license are supposedly to deter "illegals," in that very first line you have to stand in, a state trooper- or maybe he's a trooper who's only job is to administer driving tests to 16 year-old- stands over everyone, in uniform and with his gun, asking them as they near the front of the line, "What's your business here today?"

I think this is intimidation, personally. After I had noticed what was going on, I had already copped an attitude. The office is filled with people who are not white, and although he was asking everybody their business and then looking over their papers (before some grumpy old lady did), I cannot see the necessity in this other than to freak some people out and make them nervous. Someone might say, if you aren't doing anything wrong, you have nothing to be nervous about, but that's simply not true. If you're not white in this country, you have no reason to believe you won't be targeted or singled out even if you're minding your own business. So it really, really bothered me that these tall men (is there a height requirement for state troopers???) were lurking about with their guns and peering over people's shoulders. If that's not the increased militarization characteristic of advanced capitalism, I don't know what is.

On an entirely different note: I didn't quite get away with writing this without Katie noticing I wasn't paying attention strictly to her. She climbed into her high chair (she does that these days) and so I gave her paper and crayons. I drew some shapes, and she could identify the heart, the star, the circle, the square and the triangle. How about that, eh?? She's a freakin' genius.

Saturday, January 24, 2009

House update

GOOD NEWS! Once our realtor's company email is back up and he gets documents to us, we will have a contract on our house! We received an amazing offer, one we couldn't refuse, per se. Our asking price: $92, 500. Their offer: $95, 500, with up to $3,000 back at closing. So a full-price offer. Sweet!

Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well and the buyer's funding doesn't fall through...

Props to our realtor- he's done an AMAZING job. I want to post the link to our house on the Skogman site, but since it's down, I'll do that later.

Update:
Here's the link to our adorable house:
http://www.skogman.com/details.asp?mls=2900028

Sunday, January 18, 2009

My beautiful Katie





poor internet connection, so just a few pictures.

I'm back

There have been little events, and BIG ones, the past few weeks I've needed to write about but just didn't. So, here I am. Let's see what I can get down in 20 minutes before lunch.

1. The Move.

The Move deserves to be capitalized and memorialized for all time. Our Move from Iowa to Texas was truly horrendous. No kidding. Iowa gave us a big "Fuck you!" as we made our exit. Eric and I were much busier with school and loose ends finals week than we had anticipated and so the mad dash was exactly that- a mad, freakin' dash to get the hell out. Of course, two episodes of snow that last week in addition to temperatures below zero- way, way, below zero- only made it so much worse. And hey, did you know that diesel fuel gels and renders moving trucks inoperable in such temperatures? Neither did we. Eric and I caravanned with my in-laws out of Iowa when we could finally vacate the house, and I will forever remember driving through Iowa and Missouri that Sunday afternoon, alone with Katie, thinking just how dangerous it was if we were to break down in the middle of nowhere, knowing my mom would totally freak out when she got the message that we had FINALLY left Cedar Rapids at 3:45, and there was ice ON THE INSIDE OF MY CAR WINDOWS the entire way to Emporia, Kansas. That's how cold it was.

But, I must give thanks where thanks is due:
Regina- for embarking upon, like I said, was similar to a mission trip in a developing country and helping us pack. And letting us know just how what you thought about it, the entire time.

My in-laws- thank you for driving up to help, for watching Katie and working on all those things that needed to be fixed that we couldn't quite get to on our own.

Our realtor, Barry Frink- Thank you for re-finishing our hardwood floors. I hope it makes you some money. More importantly, I hope it makes us some money. Please sell our house. Quick.

Rob- one of my favorite people in Iowa. You let us sleep at your place when our mattresses were freezing in the moving truck. You came through in a pinch, despite all the attitude I gave you the past three years. You also let me veg out on your sofa and watch cable television. And yes, IFC does have lots of nudity late at night. I kept on flipping threw it- I can imagine you don't. ;)

Mom- Thank you for letting me gripe and complain when I was completely overwhelmed. I know you wanted to be there to help and if you had, it would have gotten knocked out that much quicker due to your superhuman powers. I'm glad we're closer to one another now.

Our fearless, if not crazy and half-drunk packing crew that Friday- we're still finding stray screws, nuts and bolts in various places and boxes or trying to locate those various places and boxes in which you placed those stray screws, nuts, and bolts, but thanks for venturing out into the weather and helping us pack and load our shit.

Dr. Fay Botham- you let me turn in a paper after deadline and shorter than expected. And then gave me a good grade. I will miss our class, but you'll be hearing from me as I expand that paper and write that one I emailed you about re: the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka and Rev. Jeremiah Wright because the abstract was accepted at a conference. Oh, and I think of you and Sarah Dees every time I see a billboard around here that condemns me to hell or reminds me that abortion stops a beating heart. Um...yeah. (Hopefully you'll get that joke because I think some folks wouldn't)

2. Life in the land of the Lexus

The other day, Eric remarked that he thinks people in Dallas skip over buying a house and just get the Lexus. These cars are EVERYWHERE here in Dallas, particularly in our apartment complex. This reveals, of course, our preference for buying a house and then getting a new car (which will really only be needed if and when we have another kid). The Lexus is to Dallas as the Subaru is to Iowa City. And we don't live in a totally swank apartment complex, but it's not a shithole. After living in our own, albeit modest house for six years, it was unconscionable to rent an apartment that looked like the cabinets were about to fall off the wall and it only had two bedrooms. We're in a cool location with about 100 restaurants and twelve high-end shopping malls within a three-mile radius.

This was the moment the move truly sunk in: I was driving around one Saturday afternoon by myself, looking for a particular crunchy-granola-type grocery store and instead came across the Plano Whole Foods. I've never been in one, so I decided to check it out (checking out grocery stories has been a big part my adventures with Katie the past two weeks).

I think I made it to the cheese area of Whole Foods when I got a little emotional. I wasn't in Iowa anymore and this sure as hell wasn't the Co-op, despite the bulk foods and spices aisles. I was in the consumerist, corporatist heartland of the U.S.A., in a chain store with no real soul and a parking lot jammed with luxury vehicles. I fully realized what I already knew: I had left the critical, pseudo-socialism of Iowa City for a state with questionable politics and a heavier drawl than I remembered.

Here was the moment my sorrow got balanced out, if you will: I called Yeon to say hello. She told me they were expected freezing rain that day. I was driving with my window down.

So, what Texas doesn't know is I've brought my Iowa training with me. It kicked in as we left a pound of flesh in exchange for our driver's licenses and men with guns (okay, state troopers) literally patrolled the building, leering over people waiting in line and asking them what their business was that day. Intimidation? I think so. But more on that later. My chariot- that is, my husband coming from church, awaits outside.