Purge

I'm finally updating - I know, it's been weeks. I have a lot to do at work right now, I am working on baby stuff for the niephew and I've got a gross of chocolate cookies to make! I'm crazy with the busy.

Michael's going out of town on Friday (camping with the boyz) and I have big plans for the time he's away. Primarily, purge! Now, in the past, that would involve sugar, starch items and other stuff that I'm not currently indulging in. So no actual throwing up...I know you wanted to hear that...

No. This purging is for stuff.

If I am going to move to a new place, I want to start off clean. I'm not saying I'm getting rid of everything, that would just be stupid and wasteful but I like the idea of having less than I need. I like the idea of FINALLY owning things I love rather than things that suffice.

For instance, the desk is staying behind. So is the dresser and the nightstand. I'm putting everything on Craigslist and people will come and pick up all of my stuff. If that means living out of boxes until I get a desk I love, so be it. I only have a few exceptions to my purge.

1) The Marthas. I just can't part with my Martha Stewart Livings. I actually do use them frequently and I really love having the reference.

2) My fabric stash. I love most of my fabric. Anything I don't love, definitely goes.

3) My yarn stash. I will be getting rid of some of it but overall...I can't seem to part with the yarn.

4) My books. I have pared down my books over the years. I no longer own any textbooks from college. I got rid of all of the coming out genre and donated them to a highschool library in Victorville that actually asked for GLBT themed books (!). I have gotten rid of all non-essential cookbooks that I will never in a million years use. The rest, for the most part are here to stay. I love my books.

These are the things that I'm not parting with. Otherwise, hear me now, you are possibly toast. Although, toast is not easy to throw up. Just sayin'.

The Word

In the style of Stephen Colbert, I bring you "THE WxRD"

Incipient Neocolonialism

Today is Day 5 of the International AIDS Conference held every other year in countries throughout the world. Oh, that's right, not ever in the U.S. because we have an idiotic law that states that if you have HIV you cannot gain entry to the United States, even if you are a tourist or business traveler.

We, along with Colombia, Eritrea, and Syria (A fine group of allies) are the only countries in the world to limit travelers with HIV from entering our borders. Over 150 countries have restrictions, ours and the countries above basically say, nope, not welcome here under any circumstances.

Is a woman with HIV coming to visit her family in this country going to increase our infection rates? No. Will keeping her out make ignorant Americans feel better about themselves? What do you think? See the UNAIDS Statement here.

In practice, no one is testing at our borders (hell, no one at our borders is doing much of anything useful). Plenty of HIV infected people travel in and out of this country every day for tourism, for business and for the White Party.

This may get more difficult as security gets tighter. Packing antiretrovirals (some of which come in gel capsules) in carry on luggage is going to be difficult, if not impossible. Sure, there are waivers but then you have to prove that the prescription is yours and if that prescription happens to be written to some damn Canadian or other foreign born soul...well, God help you.

Sure. You can pack them in your luggage and avoid the scrutiny all together. However, that means that when your luggage goes into airport purgatory and you are without your meds, that you MUST TAKE EVERY 12 HOURS, you're fucked.

Anyway, back to the conference. Stephen Lewis, the United Nations Special Envoy on AIDS in Africa, a man who seems, by all counts to know what the hell he's talking about, responded to our country's emphasis on ABC. Did you not know your ABCs?

Abstinence, Be Faithful, Use Condoms.

With a distinct emphasis on the A.

According to the Washington Post, "By law, at least one-third of HIV prevention funds countries receive through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief -- a $15 billion, five-year program -- must be used for abstinence-until-marriage and faithfulness programs"

Our U.S. AIDS Czar says that is untrue. He says that only 7% is going to abstinence programs. Hmmm. There seems to be an apples/oranges thing going on here. Or maybe a bowling balls/teapots.

So back to Stephen Lewis (thank you for saying the truth). This is his quote responding to our policies on stipulations for using U.S. aid.

"No government in the Western world has the right to dictate policy to African governments around the way in which they respond to the pandemic. That kind of insipient neocolonialism is unacceptable. ... We're saying to Africa: 'This is how you will respond to the pandemic,' and that's not appropriate because African governments are eminently capable of deciding what their priorities are and what the response should be."

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the Word.

Update n' stuff

Damn it's been a busy week! What with the cetuximab trial being all starting and stuff and the house hunting and the hey!

Our first weekend of house hunting turned out to be really amusing. We started at the house with the enormous load-bearing stripper pole right in the center of the living room (which also happened to be carpeted in burgundy shag) with what we have called a "tragic" fireplace and white leather couches and LaZ boy chairs. Yeesh. This is going to be very amusing blogging material!

The same house had the entire wall of the "bonus room" shelved. Displayed on those shelves - beers of the world. Seriously, if you want a fun weekend, go house shopping.

Then we went to a house that actually had an original livery stable. Could have been cute - actually was literally rotting in front of our eyes. When we went down to the cellar (in L.A.! I know!!!) the agent actually called us brave. Yeesh again!

The third house was just plain tragic. Nothing to write home about at all. Really, after the stripper pole, what else is there?

Anyway, I meant to write about this sometime last week but really, I've been so damned busy - I have to say that while the gas prices are mildly annoying, I actually have a paid off 1995 honda civic that sips gas. BP however has some mighty big balls to start threatening to close down the Alaska pipeline because they haven't done maintenance in a bazillion years.

Anyway, in my continuing proof that I have been to some very interesting places, not to mention newsworthy, this is me, laying and sitting actually on the Alaska pipeline. Hey! Maybe that's why it rotted!

Take me out!

OK - last night was Stitch n' Pitch at Dodger stadium. Seriously.

"What do you mean Stitch n' Pitch?"

I mean 460 knitters and their 100 amused husbands and children all sitting in the stands working on socks, blankets, hats and other knitted, crocheted, embroidered and cross stitched paraphenalia. It was a freakin' blast. I found myself giggling at all of us constantly. I must have said, "This is so great!" about 100 times.

This photo is of only one section of the Stitch n' Pitch crowd.

The crowd seemed older than the every day SnB crowd - all the great ladies from Stitches from the Heart were there - but there were also your pink-haired tattooed freak knitters as well.

A huge group from WeHo went including Gwen, Lori, Sara 2, Ellen and lovely other half Larry who took tons and tons of photos, Mary Jo, Kathy, Abby and Jennifer. I know I'm forgetting people! Sorry!

From the Tuesday night "OG" group there was Allison, Jenny, Annalise, Teresa and her friend Bianca, Shannita, among others.

Everyone was so great. What a total trip.

The people who bought tickets around us, having no idea they were going to be surrounded by knitters, were understandably dumbfounded and most of them were mightily amused.

This is Stephanie - a Crazy Aunt Purl blogstalker. She recognized me from Laurie's blog. I'm famous! Stephanie knitted a cap with the Dodgers logo. Crafty Stephanie!!!








This photo is early - before the game started. I went to the bottom of the section we were in and had everyone yell "YARN!" I'm such a dork!


Oh and by the way the Dodgers played the Colorado Rockies and won 4-3.

This is in baseball.

My thoughts on Mel, Karl, Tom and other overly entitled Christian white men who say what they really mean even if they regret it when they’re sober

I have not seen Pocohontas.

I have not seen Braveheart.

I stopped putting money in Mel’s pocket after his 1992 interview in the Spanish magazine El Pais.

In the interview, when asked what he thought of gay people, he said, "They take it up the ass." (Brilliant, Mel.) Gibson then bent over and pointed to his buttocks, saying "This is only for taking a shit."

When the interviewer recalled that Gibson previously had expressed fear people would think he is gay because he's an actor, Gibson responded in saying "Do I sound like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them?" Gibson later defended his comments on Good Morning America, saying "I don't think there's an apology necessary, and I'm certainly not giving one. [Those remarks were a response] to a direct question. If someone wants my opinion, I'll give it. What, am I supposed to lie to them?"

Whether anyone wants my opinion or not, I’m not paying for him to have duck l’orange and a full body massage in his Malibu rehab facility. All y’all who are coming to this after his "Fucking Jews" comment are a little slow on the draw.

I do not eat Carl’s Jr. I don’t care how fucking good their fries may be. Carl Karcher has an exceptionally long history of funding and/or sitting on the boards of anti-choice, homophobic and racist organizations.

Tom Monaghan doesn’t own a bit of Domino’s Pizza now but when he did, I actively chose not to partake.

Richard Hayne deserves every bit of scorn you have. All the super-cute indie designers, all the Jesus is my Homeboy t-shirts, all the adorable glass doorknob pulls will have to be purchased by someone else. The owner of Urban Outfitters and Anthropologie, home of the hipsters, is a great big Republican who has contributed over $13,000 to Rick Santorum (he of the homosexuality=bestiality fame) and his political action committee. The thing that really gnaws at me over this one is that he knows his money is coming from a bunch of liberal hipsters that think the stores are supporting indie designers when he’s actually (allegedly) ripping them off.
Just for you red staters out there, I give all of these companies and their owners/presidents free reign to spend their hard earned money on any damn thing they please. I’m just not opening up my wallet for them.

People who choose to support Carl, Richard, Mel and their causes are welcome to boycott Barnes & Noble, Bed, Bath & Beyond, Jet Blue, CostCo and Netflix for their donations to causes I believe in. Or support indie stores like Supercrafty and A Mano Yarn Center for their politics n' stuff.

On a clear day, I can see forever.

There was a time when I could not see beyond today. "Helpless" and "hopeless" were on the tip of my tongue at every minute but I was afraid to say these words lest they be true, which I suppose is another way of saying, I had some hope. However, I was having an awful time getting to tomorrow, or even, tonight. Michael called me his "weepy wife" and that I was.


I believe the combination of 80 mg of Prozac, two years of very, very intensive therapy and one husband trying his damnedest to be as supportive as anyone can possibly be who doesn’t understand what the fuck is going on with his wife, brought me through to today.


Today, I can manage a hundred things at once. Today, these things include:

1. managing to get incredibly tedious regulatory work done for 8ish hours a day.
2. Getting phone calls from my darling sister who I adore more than I ever thought I could and looking up things like Braxton-Hicks contractions
3. Planning said sister’s baby shower
4. Making bedding for said sister’s baby
5. Going to therapy once a week
6. Keeping a blog (and fairly well, I might add!)
7. Keeping my wonderful husband in Oreos and beer
8. Going to Stitch n’ Bitch twice a week and involving the new member du jour in the festivities
9. Getting this damned secret present finished before a certain date
10. Putting up and managing the UCLA CARE Center website
11. Encouraging my friends in all of their joys
12. Trying desperately to comfort my friends in their heartbreaks
13. Getting ready to buy a house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (there aren’t enough exclamation points in the world)


Any one of these things might have sent me over the edge back then. They all (and a few more) seem to be fitting in with my life just smashingly.

Last night Michael and I had another serious discussion about home purchasing. I can reach out and touch it now. I am ecstatic. And I can see nearly forever.