Lyda Morehouse's Blog, page 5

A Tuesday that Feels Like a Monday

 I got my family off this morning.  Last night, apparently, it rained, froze, and then snowed on top of that.  It was very gross and i was fairly sure that we would NEVER chip the ice off the windshields in time to do our usual Tuesday morning bagel run.

Sometime ago, my family started the tradition of Tuesday morning bagels.  It might have been me who suggested that Tuesdays are actually much worse than Mondays because people EXPECT Mondays to suck.  You go to bed on Sunday, knowing full well you need to be braced for Monday, you need to mentally gird your loins, as it were.  Tuesdays? No one is ready for the suck of Tuesdays.

Except us, because we have bagels.

But, of course, today is a Tuesday-masquerading-as-Monday because we all had Martin Luther King, Jr. Day off, and so it's actually kind of a double-whammy.  We probably should have gotten twice the bagels.  But we were already running late.

Our new recycling bins are working out great, but I've already called the recycling company to order the largest size.  We're a single-family house, but we recycle a LOT.  Of course, it's hard to know if we'd actually have overflowed since 1) we had the last curb-side pick-up on Thursday, and the first alley/bin pick-up on Monday, and 2) some yahoo dumped their recycling in our bin.  OMG that made me mad. I was cursing up a blue-streak in the alley because not only did they dump it in our pristine bin, but also they DID IT WRONG. They dumped things in in an enclosed plastic bag (NOT OKAY, and that meant I had to tear open and dump in their gross recycling) and they also didn't break-down one of the cardboard beer boxes and just stuffed gross recycling in that, too.  I HATE PEOPLE SOMETIMES.  It's especially annoying since you can get more recycling bins and larger ones FOR FREE.

Grrr.

So, I made that phone call first thing today. I'm going to also have to get on the phone and schedule a visit from our handyman.  We need a few things fixed around the house, and I've been putting off calling until we had enough stuff to fill an hour of his time.

After that, it's probably going to be another call to Senator Franken's office again, because I see he sits on the House Committee for Health, Education, Labor, and Pension, which oversees the appointment of the Secretary of Health and Human Services.  Trump's pick is Tom Price, whose senate track record is pretty abysmal when it comes to women's and GLBTQIA+ rights.  I'll let you know how that call goes. I suspect that Franken is against this appointment, but I still think it's important to call.  The Education Secretary confirmation hearing is heard by the same committee. So, yay, a twofer!  (Head's up people in Wisconsin, Sen. Tammy Baldwin is on this committee, too. No reps from Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, North or South Dakota, alas. Next closest is Indiana: Sen. Todd Young.)

Otherwise, a friend and I are considering doing a thing called Solidarity Sundays. I just wrote to the organizers to get more information about possibly starting a Minnesota chapter.  The idea is that a bunch of women gather in someone's home to do political action together--calling, letter writing campaigns, things like that. Basically, just another way to keep the momentum going.

Eloquent As Ever

A nice picture of my sign showed up on the Minnesota Women's March page.  I thought I'd share it here.

Women's March (MN) Sign-Making

I happened to see that the Women's March (MN) had a sign-making event today from 2 pm - 4 pm at the Black Dog in Saint Paul.  I know the Black Dog really well, since it's the place that my Women of Wednesday used to meet on a regular basis.  We stopped going there when they remodeled and  switched their format to be more of a bistro.

At any rate, I thought it would be a nice reason to get out of the house.  As I said in my previous post, we've been cooped up thanks to the stomach flu plague, so I haven't really socialized with anyone for about a WEEK.

I got there about ten minutes to 2 pm and was able to find parking on the street.  I'd considered going via light rail, but decided to drive since I had a few groceries I needed to pick up on the way home.

I could tell by the poster board and boxes of supplies in their arms that a lot of the women I saw as I walked toward the Black Dog were headed to the same event.  I had checked in on the Facebook page and the organizers said there would be plenty of supplies, so I didn't bring any of my own.  There were TONS, because not only did the organizers buy a lot, but also other people had also brought enough to share.  I grabbed a latte, some markers, and poster board, and passed a pleasant couple of hours in the company of other mostly middle-aged, mostly-white women (and their children) gluing, glittering, and drawing.

Was it political activism or was it a "CRAFTER-noon"?

I'm going with: Yes.

I kind of don't see why it can't be both.  We're going to need every body in this fight--and some of us like glitter and gluesticks.  Plus, I keep thinking of my friend who, very recently, considered suicide in the face of losing Obamacare.  They are an artist, and they might have felt very comforted in such a positive, friendly, decidedly female space.  It would have been a chance for them to DO SOMETHING other than despair. It was easy, the room was filled with sunshine and glitter dust, and it was emotionally low-impact--SAFE.

Did I change the world today? No, but I did more than NOTHING and I met people who were like-minded, who want a better world than what we have, and with whom I could spend a couple of pleasant hours, chatting and squeaking away with our fat, Crayola markers on poster board.

Next up?  Stand up, Fight back!

Mad Eye Moody Gets Poltical

Shawn is home sick again. Our whole house has been attacked by the stomach flu. Mason got it first and then Shawn went down hard. I'm awaiting my turn with fingers crossed (and a lot of preemptive hand washing.) I've been staying away from people, too, which means I missed out on my usual social things--Tuesday with Naomi, Wednesdays with the women of Wyrdsmiths, Thursday afternoon with Nate, and this morning, Friday, volunteering at the Q Library.

But no one wants what this house has, and I don't want to be responsible for giving it to them.

Meanwhile, I just got off the phone with a staffer at Senator Franken's office because I'd seen this article go around the Stand Up Minnesota Facebook page that implied that he was "unsure" about his vote to confirm Sen. Sessions as Attorney General.  I was so flabbergasted at the idea of my outspokenly liberal senator even waffling for a second about a man with such an abysmal track record for civil rights that I dashed out a script for myself and punched the numbers.  I got through, "Hello, my name is Lyda Morehouse. I live in Saint Paul and I'm represented by Senator Franken. NPR reported that Senator Franken is waffling on his vote on whether or not to confirm Senator Sessions for Attorney General. Is that true?"

"NO," came the swift and determined answer on the other end. "It's absolutely not true. Senator Franken is very much opposed to the confirmation of Sessions."

Now off-script, I breath a loud, "OH THANK GOD."

Then, I babbled about how I only called because I could NOT believe it of Franken, of all people, but that I had to make 100% certain he heard from his constituents if it was in any way possible.  Then, I told the nice staff person to please, please tell Senator Franken how proud I have been that he's asked tough questions. I've been listening carefully to the committee proceedings and he has my support.

She seemed vaguely annoyed at this point that I was still talking to her (I'm sure phone are ringing there constantly) but thanked me and told me to have a nice day.

I feel a *little* foolish, but not enough to regret it.

I have no idea why I've been so focused on Session's confirmation of all the bullish*t happening right now, but there you have it.  If each of us picks a thing to follow closely, maybe all of us can keep track of the bread and circuses of shenanigans and evil-doings together.  I mean, I think maybe one of the reasons I am so honed in on this is that BOTH of my state senators: Franken and Klobuchar are on the Judiciary Committee and so I actually have people representing me in this particular fight.

I don't even know who is on the Committee for Foreign Relations (I just Googled, happy to see Kaine there as well as Booker, who freaking KICKED A$$ in his testimony to the Judiciary Committee on Wednesday, but I'm not represented by anyone on it, unless i wanted to pretend I was still from Wisconsin as Ron Johnson is.) But, Tilerson is just about as terrifying a pick as Sessions, so I hope people out there are on their committee members, too.

CONSTANT VIGILANCE!

I will say? I had never considered the importance of the various senate committees until this year.

Okay off to get more of the food stuffs on the BRATTY diet... since we ran out.

So, okay, about Sherlock

Because political news right now? Today has been an emotional roller coaster for me. I've been listening to AM950 in the mornings because I couldn't take NPR's normalizing. AM950 has a new show on, the Bradcast. On it, they played clips of the judiciary committee's interview with Senator Sessions. I had to be impressed with both Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken. They asked questions no one else did--although they were both much more polite about it than I could have been. I considered calling their office to thank them, but I ended up being lazy and tweeting my thanks. (Amy Klobuchar saw it, because she followed me back.)

Then I watched Obama's farewell address and cried a lot.

Then social media gave me tidbits of Trump's press conference and I cried in a totally different way.

So, Sherlock... a much safer topic!Like I said in yesterday's post, I'm a sucker for drug addicts. I was pleased in early episodes when they made reference to Sherlock's addiction and am always happy when that storyline makes a reoccurrence. Shawn hated it. She hates manic, distracted Sherlock and found a lot of all that unnecessarily silly. I can see her point, but am blinded by my love for stories about druggies.

I was really, really pleased that John finally said that Mary sacrificed herself and I LOVED that Sherlock's guilt never wavered, as if he'd been aware all along that for him, the real issue was that, by exchanging her life for his, she'd conferred a price on his life he felt inadequate to repay. I liked that A LOT. Good character moment, and much more in keeping with the general tenor of Sherlock, IMHO.

The episode was also very 'shippy' as the kids say. I'm a funny shipper. My personal take on the question of JohnLock is that Holmes is asexual, but gay (or pan) romantic. John is... I guess I don't care what John is. He's at least perfunctorily straight, and I'm okay with that. I do think he's fond of Sherlock, but I'm super okay with them never coupling-up, as it were. I kind of like the dynamic in which everyone kind of figures out through whatever versions of gaydar they possess that Sherlock is gay/pan-romantic and so just kind of assume that John is his partner, while John is both clueless and/or vaguely affronted.

I think we see this on display in this particularly episode. In her tape, Mary overtly says to Holmes that John is "the man you and I love." No one disputes that. John meanwhile seems vaguely uneasy with the kind of affection that would allow Sherlock to put himself into real risk in order to 'save' John.

Also I think we see clues of Sherlock's asexuality in that he's still fluttering about with the domenatrix but only as 'sexts.'

So, for this fan, the episode satisfied a lot of things.

No Sherlock Fans, Apparently.

I was thinking I might write up my thoughts about last week's Sherlock, but, given the lack of response I got from my previous post, I'm going to guess that most of my friends aren't watching the show.

If you watched it and gave up, I'd be curious to know why.

Just in case yo were wondering, the second episode this season totally redeemed itself in my book. They even addressed, explicitly, my issue with Mary. Milage for other fans may vary; Shawn was not as pleased, though she thought the ending was worthwhile.  Thing is, I have this weird thing about drug addicts. For some unknown reason, I LOVE stories about them. When I was a kid th book Go Ask Alice was super popular. I remember finding it at my tiny little north branch library one summer and being so excited to start reading it that I did, on my way home--while riding my bike.

I hit a parked car.

Yes, kids, I'm here to tell you, bicycling and reading do NOT mix.

But, somehow none of that put me off either bicycling or reading about drug addicts.  I loved the cyberpunk movement in the 80s because there was always some junkie in the background.  Visual Mark in Pat Cadigan's Synners, one of my favorites, and his line, "Change for the machine."

In other news, I finally heard BACK from one of my pen pals!  A woman in Australia wrote back and told me all about her cat!  Also, the German woman who sent me glitter has written again. (I love her! She's super chatty and always includes something fun like a postcard!) And, out of the blue, ON THE SAME DAY, I also got another letter from a German also NOT on my list.  So, what the hey.  I think I'm probably in the running for about 30 pen pals. So, that's actually pretty cool.  I have no idea why I enjoy this so much, but I am rather fond of other people and I have always LOVED getting mail.

Mason has been home from school for the last two days. He got a wicked case of stomach flu.  The BRATTY diet to the rescue and he seems to finally be on the mend.  The hardest part about having a sick teenager is that he can basically take care of himself. He even cleaned up his own puke without prompting, leaving moms to just wring hands in worry wishing there was something more we could do.  I mean, I've been able to make food and whatnot (the R? Rice? A super cure in our house) but, otherwise... I kind of miss when he needed me a bit more.  :-(

Shawn ended up at home today, too. She wasn't sick, but the weather outside was "frightful" as the song says, and she got a late enough start by accident (alarm got turned off) that she just decided on a mental health day.  We did end up having to fight the slick roads and snow to get her to her neurology appointment for an annual check-in regarding her migraines. She still gets them on a regular basis, which *I* don't feel is managed, but...*shrugs* It's up to Shawn what she can tolerate. I do worry about her since her sense of pain is so skewed that the doctor that took out her gallbladder actually asked how tolerate she was to pain--he figured given the state of her gallbladder it must be pretty damn HIGH.

That's about all I know. How's by you?

The new Sherlock

I will put most of my comments below the cut, but I'm curious for those of you who did watch it last night, what did you think?

Things I can say above the cut.
I have never believed in Mary's backstory, so this episode was particularly suspender stretching.No matter how cool camera work is, it is no substitute for storytelling, IMHO.Neither are montages. (Unless they are training montages, I would much rather live all the moments, thank you very much. I am literally here for the story, so, like, story please?)I don't understand why people get mad when unreasonable promises get broken.
Okay on to the things I can't say without spoiling... Okay, seriously, what the fuck. I spent much of this episode wondering what the hell was even going on. I mean, yes, I understood the actual plot and stuff, but I honestly had no idea what the point of any of it was. I still don't. I guess the point was to kill off Mary and break-up JohnLock.

Misson accomplished.

But it was boring. And a big Moriarty tease, so screw you.

I don't understand John at the end either. Sherlock did not kill Mary. He can also not possibly be held responsible for her death in any way. She literally threw herself on a bullet. That was her choice. Her life as an assassin did not "catch up with her;" she literally went out a HERO, doing good for the right reasons, her own reasons, for the first time in her life.

So, what the fuck? Why is John mad at Sherlock? Yes, he sent John off in a different direction, on purpose. But so? Mary would have CHOSEN to sacrifice herself even if John was standing there, because she's that sort of person. She's the sort of person who has the reaction-time and skill set to actually take a bullet for someone else. John was not delayed so much that his medical skills could have saved her. No one could have "saved" her, because she didn't need rescuing from THE CHOICE SHE MADE.

It's kind of annoying actually, to blame the man she chose to save.

It not only makes her heroism into weakness, it literally makes it seem like Sherlock failed in some chivalric duty that really was stupid-ass sexism to begin with. How can a man like Sherlock be held accountable for a personal choice? He "kept" her safe; SHE CHOSE NOT TO BE SAFE. BECAUSE SHE'S A FUCKING HERO.

It's also a stupid vow. Sherlock is not a superhero. He's got an extraordinary mind and is a high functioning sociopath. None of those make him able to stop a bullet. Literally, Mary was the only legitimate superhero in the room and she acted in accordance of her abilities. She chose to save Sherlock's mind with her body.

Maybe John is mad about that, but that's not what got said. What got said was all that ridiculous stuff about promises and vows to keep people safe. I wish Sherlock had been more his old self. I wish he'd looked at John, helpless to understand this nuance, and just said, "The vow should be nullified when someone choses to die, John." And let that sit there, and let John be mad about that. Let us all be mad about that, if we want, because at least it's more honest and HONORS Mary's sacrifice.
So that's my rant. Thoughts?

2017 Has Begun

 I don't know if this is a good omen or what, but the cats let me sleep in this morning.  On the other hand, as I as taking down the porch ornaments, Buttercup found a fly--a living one.

Well, the fly seems like an obvious metaphor.  There's a giant, ugly, unexpected insect in our future in the form of the PEOTUS.  Hopefully, we can all be on it like Buttercup.  (I'm pretty sure he ate the fly. He certainly was only distracted once, and I helped him find the ugly thing again.)  With any luck, that will be another metaphor for all of us, too.  We're on this form the start. We might get momentarily distracted, but we'll get this.

Fingers crossed.

I also started out 2017 writing a review for BitterEmpire.  I finished WE ARE ANTS last night around 1 am.  I actually started the book as a way to stay awake until midnight and then ended up finishing it an hour into the new year.  I have two books in the queue at BE, this one and PLANETFALL.

I have never before signed up for the Goodreads' challenge, but this year I've tasked myself with reading 30 books. That probably doesn't seem like a lot to most of you. I notice that most of my friends regularly sign up for a book a week, 52.  With my dyslexia, 52 seems wonderful, but a recipe for disappointment. Maybe, if I were more religious about including comic books, graphic novels, and manga, I could make it, but I think shooting for 30 novels seems like a reachable goal. Having started off the year already finishing one, seems like a good start, anyway.

My parents came up for a short visit.  That was really quite lovely.  We ended up having lunch in downtown St. Paul at Sawatdee.  Presents were opened and nice chats were had.  A good time for all.  One of the things my parents traditionally give me is a hundred dollars. Normally, I put the whole thing on a coffee card at Claddaugh. This year, I split the difference and put half on a coffee card and the other half on an Amazon.com card.  More books! Yay!

How has your first day of 2017 been?

Pen Friends and 2017 Reading

First, I have to do a little whining. It's not real complaining mind you, just a little bit of shoulder shrugging at the world. Remember when I signed up for the International Pen Friends? I got this enormous list of people to write to--about fourteen or so names. I've spent the last couple of months writing individual letters to each of the people on the list. This has been an enormous amount of fun, mind you, even though I found the idea of an introductory letter a bit daunting. I mean, writing to strangers? It's a little weird because you want to say something interesting, but you have no idea what the other person might like to hear about.

But, that's not the part that I want to talk about.

I guess I assumed since i paid for a package of 15 people that the people on my list were it. My full 15. But, twice now, I've gotten letters from people NOT on my list. (One from Germany and another from France.) This is not a bad thing, not at all (both letter writers were absolutely delightful!), it's just... confusing. Does this mean, potentially, I could end up with over 30 pen friends? Like, did my name go out on 15 other lists?

I mean, in a way, this makes a certain amount of sense, right? Out of thirty people SOME of them will write. A couple of them might even become regulars--people I really hit it off with. I, of course, quickly replied to both my pen pals. I'm sure the pen pal in Germany is a little stunned. She sent me a happy little note and I replied with a copy of Tall, Dark & Dead IN GERMAN. (What? She said she loved to read!?)

It's a funny, thing, too, because both of the people I received notes from had a very standardized sort of introduction. "Hello, I am ____, I got your name from the International Pen Friends." I suspect I was probably supposed to start my letters that way. Instead, I just launched into all sorts of weird things, including drawing a map of the North American continent with a tiny dot near St. Paul labeled "me." I probably seemed very odd.

Which might explain why I haven't heard back from anyone I've written to yet.

Who knows. It's all a grand adventure. I do so love getting mail, so I've been enjoying running to the box to see what's in it, like I'm fifteen years old again. Oh, and if you're reading this and thinking, "Damn, I wish Lyda would write to me!" I totally will. You just have to send me your address: lyda.morehouse@gmail.com

In other news, I've decided that in the up-coming year I'm only going to read All the Gay. I thought I'd follow along with Gay YA's book club as much as humanly possible as well as hunting down other queer books to read. 2017 is going to be the year of Teh Gay. Everything will be super-fabulous and queer af. I think that is one of the many ways in which I'm going to deal with the incoming administration from Hell.  

Speaking of the incoming administration, I really wish I could afford to go to the Women's March on Washington.  I ran into someone at the coffee shop the other day who said that there's a scholarship to help pay for the bus ride there and back again.  If I could afford it, that would be cool. I've heard that the march is likely not to be very well organized, but, you know, having marched with a bunch of people on Lake Street I'm kind of figuring that'd be okay.  Very likely, however, I'm going to end up at the Minnesota State Capitol with a handful of women.  I say that like it's a bad thing, which it isn't, but it feels very missing out on a potentially awesome, historical moment.

Thoughts? Anyone I know going?

Rogue One

Things I can say above the spoiler cut:

I would say that Rogue One is one of those films that I left the theater feeling generally good about. Like, when I'm tossing away the remains of my popcorn bag, I'm saying, "Yeah, good film. Good film." But, the longer I think about it, the more I consider the missing bits. I still would rank this one of the better Star Wars films. I ADORED the way it dovetailed into Star Wars (known to you heathen children as "A New Hope.")
People were telling me that this film was a blueprint for fighting Fascism or that it was some kind of World War II film. It really isn't either of those things at all (though I wish it had been more of the latter, more about that under the cut). However, if this film saying anything political, it's that your liberal allies aren't revolutionary ENOUGH. If we're going to win at all, we need to say 'fuck 'em" TO OUR OWN PEOPLE. And that maybe, if we're already dying on the ground, they'll lend their ships. (Not sure this is a positive message. Might be accurate, but not at all positive. NOT the blueprint I was looking for.)
I didn't really like the two main characters (Jyne Erso, the daughter or Cassian Andor,he scruffy dude). My favorites were all side-characters, particularly the sassy K-2SO.
In comparison to The Force Awakens, I felt like 99.9% of the female cast was missing. Like, I just didn't see very many female faces among the rank-and-file, on the streets, or among the volunteers for the final mission. Ironically, some of the MIA women from Star Wars made cameos.
Okay, the stuff I'm going to say under the cut mostly revolve around two of my favorite side charters, affectionally known already in fandom as "the monk and the warrior." (character names: Chirrut Îmew and Baze Malbus, respectively.).There's a lot of debate right now in the social media sphere about "Are they or Aren't They? I fall very much in the camp of YES, they ARE gay. You absolutely don't have to read them this way, however. If you've been praying for an asexual gay-romantic couple, these two can totally be yours. The fact that they were both in a quasi-religous order together, certainly can be an indication that they're celibate by calling or by choice.  But, for me, there was just too much affectionate bickering and "I go where you go"-ness to them. Besides, you know what we never get for representation? Middle aged lovers.  I loved the idea that these two were a long-term married couple, just off adventuring. I was saying on a Star Wars FB group that I totally think that if my wife and I were in a Star Wars movie, this is just who we'd be. Me: "Look at me, honey! I used the force to survive the battle" Her: You call that surviving? Look at yourself! You do realize *I'm* the reason you survived. Me: Yeah, because the Force brought us together!  Her: *smacks me affectionately on the head.* Seriously, this is exactly what passes as love in our house.  Okay, there's a bit more smooching than what happened with Chirrut and Baze, but not when we're out doing things. And really probably not at all if we were trying not to, you know, die.

So, that's the biggest thing I wanted to say.

The other about the ending.  The ending was hard for a bunch of reasons.  For me, it was hard because as soon as we got the lingering close-up on the transmitter array, I remembered that the plans to the Death Star had been transmitted. I knew no one was getting off that planet alive. Besides, Shawn said to me, "Remember how they said in Star Wars that they got the plans at great personal cost? This movie is that personal cost." So, the tension died for me at the end. I knew everyone was doomed and that the transmission would get out.

What I think I wanted more of was that crew of volunteers.  I wish, in a way, that the move had been a WWII film and we would have gotten to know the people who were about to die for the cause. I loved the idea that the people who could not give up on the rebellion were the people who had done the dirtiest work for it.  But outside of scruffy assassin hero-dude, we didn't really know any of them. We didn't really know him either, for that matter, except that he was kind of an asshole and would kill his own wounded informant to escape detection/capture I wish we'd seen Fascism at work. I wanted to know why the Empire was evil, just a little bit, so that we could give a crap when people were being destroyed by the bucketful.

Shawn liked this movie better than The Force Awakens, but what happened for me in Force Awakens early on, with the introduction of Finn, is that the soldiers on the ground, every one of them, became real people.  Just by virtue that Finn was once FN, all those stormtroopers became human. That never entirely happened for me in the ending sequence of Rogue One.  I cared for all out named characters, but those nameless ones... I kind of wanted to know if, in the end, it was worth it for them. And because we didn't know their stories and the Empire's evilness was just kind of a given, I was never entirely sure.

Honestly? I cried more for the Google commercial at the start of the movie than I did for anyone at the end.
Maybe that seems like a lot of complaining, but I'm still processing, is all. I'd love to hear squee about this film. Like I said, when I left the theatre I was very much in love with Rogue One. Probably when I go see it again, I'll love it more.