We're a "top story"!!

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My Spanish phrase of the day

No me gusta ir a casa de mi suegra porque ella es muy antipática.

A cool little Christmas site

Here's a step back to the past, with a website that has gathered all of the decent videos that youtube has of Christmas movies, tv specials, christmas episodes of shows and commercials. It's a nice trip down memory lane. Personally I love this sort of stuff. Nothing is too cheesy in my book when it comes to Christmas. They have a TV guide in the corner that tells you when stuff is coming on, though it doesn't seem to be super accurate. It does play two or three things at once, so there's usually something good on. I've promised myself not to spend much time on here til after finals, but BYU's computers block it anyway because of the utube ban, so that wont be much problem. And you can even tune the antennas to remove fuzz. Just like the good old days.

hattip: http://www.boingboing.net/

Happy birthday to me.

Strep throat. No insurance. Hundreds of dollars. No place to live come January. Going to class on my deathbed. I think I may faint any minute.

BUT on the bright side:

Wonderful husband. Secondary education. Access to health care (even if it costs hundreds of dollars). Free lunch at the Pennyroyal courtesy of Cecilia. Wearing PJs all day long because I can. Plans tonight? Maybe.

My least favorite poet

I'm doing a project for my introduction to middle east studies class, and we're doing it on Saudi Arabian poetry. Under the topic of Saudi Arabian poetry on Wikipedia there are four names. The second name on the list is Osama bin Laden. That's right. According to Wikipedia one of the four most noteworthy poets from Saudi Arabia is Osama bin Laden. Here's a sampling of his poetry:

Tomorrow, William, you will discover which young man [will] confront your brethren, who have been deceived by [their own] leaders.

A youth, who plunges into the smoke of war, smiling
He hunches forth, staining the blades of lances red
May God not let my eye stray from the most eminent
Humans, should they fall, Djinn, should they ride
[And] lions of the jungle, whose only fangs
[Are their] lances and short Indian swords
As the stallion bears my witness that I hold them back
[My] stabbing is like the cinders of fire that explode into flame
On the day of the stallions’ expulsion, how the war-cries attest to me
As do stabbing, striking, pens, and books.

Corollary to last post

Please do not imply that I think being a suburban housewife is a negative thing. It is just not me. That is all.

Do you ever wake up in the morning and realize that your life has happened and you did not even realize what was going on at the time but then you look around and think and it all sinks in? That happens to me at least once a week. Sometimes, I wake up and look over and there is a boy in my bed and a little tiny part of me freaks out until I quizzically peer up at the wall and see our wedding picture and then I quickly recall that he isn't a boy he's my husband and it's totally appropriate that he is in my bed. I still find it hard to comprehend how much my life has been altered in six short months. That long ago, Tim was not even a figment of my imagination, let alone my husband who I will be with for eternity (and how freakishly long is that!?) My life happens to me like this though. I wake up one morning and it all hits me and sinks in. Nothing ever occurs to me while it is occurring--it always takes some time to become reality for me. I am so afraid that I will be one of those highly-motivated and intelligent college women who wakes up in 15 years and is a desperate, suburban housewife who is without an idea about why or how she ended up where she did but just knows she is not happy. I tell Tim on a regular basis to not let me end up somewhere in my life just because I am lazy or complacent or seeking an easy way. There are so many goals and aspirations and dreams wrapped up in this convoluted brain of mine that I want and NEED to accomplish. But I am certain of the need to take the time to counsel with my Heavenly Father and think things over thoroughly and live my life a little more deliberately.

Our adopted family

For Christmas this year, we decided to adopt a family from the International Rescue Committee to buy presents for them instead of each other and our families. I am so excited about the family they gave us-- they are Burmese refugees with a 3-month-old baby girl. I have an excuse to buy baby things! I am deliriously happy. And we get to help a family in desperate need who just arrived to the US four months ago. I hope that our little contribution will help.

We are also adopting a Utah County child as well, but have not been assigned yet. I have been needing to do something good in the community recently. There are so many people in need and I couldn't be happier to help.

"Lucy Stoners"

Since exercising my right to vote last month, I have been reflecting upon the work and sacrifices of the early suffragettes. The first wave of suffragists in the mid-19th century paved the way for the more radical movement in the 20th century that ultimately resulted in the 19th amendment.

I was reading today about Lucy Stone, a prominent suffragette who was present at the Seneca Falls Convention with Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony. Lucy Stone was the first woman to graduate from college in Massachusetts, having been inspired to receive an education by Mary Lyon (the founder of Mount Holyoke) while sitting in a sewing circle of all places. After graduating, Lucy married Henry Brown Blackwell, a prominent abolitionist and brother to Elizabeth Blackwell, the first female doctor in the US. Let's just talk about what a progressive feminist family: Another Blackwell brother married Antoinette Brown, the first female minister and another prominent feminist in the early women's rights movement. Those Blackwells must have had fantastic parents (father was a sugar refiner from England, mother bore 9 children, nothing too unique except that they were adamant about education for their daughters).

But what I learned today that I really wanted to share: Lucy Stone is the first known woman in the United States to have kept her last name after marriage-- "Women who continue to use their birth names after marriage are still occasionally known as "Lucy Stoners" in the U.S."

I'm a Lucy Stoner! That sounds so cool!

Good choice Barack