"How much for your women? I want to buy your women!"

Last night's presidential debate was awfully shouty but made for some good (worrisome) entertainment, at least for this female voter. Let's start with one that blew up the internet: The "binders full of women" quote from Mitt, which was his response to a question asking what each candidate would do to help close the pay gap between women and men.

"And I said: ‘Well, gosh, can't we find some women that are also qualified?’ And so we took a concerted effort to go out and find women who had backgrounds that could be qualified to become members of our cabinet. I went to a number of women's groups and said: ‘Can you help us find folks,’ and they brought us whole binders full of women."

 (Emphasis mine throughout.) More context and quotes can be found right here, including the very next breath when he went on to say: 

I recognized that if you're going to have women in the workforce that sometimes you need to be more flexible.

What is with the "if," Mittens? Women are in the workforce. And they're in the workforce not as some sort of runner-up to being moms, or because they don't have someone supporting them, but because they are humans who need jobs to live, just like most other American humans regardless of genitalia. 

Dear god. This reaction gif of women in the audience (from yet another priceless moment, in which he said that two [heterosexual, naturally] parent families are the way to stop gun violence)  pretty much sums up my feelings:

 

PS, the title of the post is, of course, from here.

Tuesday Project Roundup: Progress

Good crafty news: I finished the real knitting part on Skyler's sweater last night. Now I just need to sew up the hood seam at the top and figure out how I want to do the buttons. 

In other good news, I successfully dyed that sweatshirt dress to a more muted turquoise. Hooray for liquid Rit dye and my big kitchen sink!

Before

After! There's more of a difference in real life.

Hiking With Skyler!

I went up Millcreek Canyon with my brother and sister-in-law and Skyler (in the backpack) yesterday. It was a perfect fall day! 

 

Skyler thought nature was pretty delicious. 

Friday Unrelated Information

1. This tune has been in my head lately. Just remember it the next time you need to shake something off;


2. I start a new job Monday, whee! Let's keep this inspirational message in mind:

Happy Belated Birthday, Camille

Tuesday was the birthday of composer Camille Saint-Saens, the Frenchman who wrote such pieces as "The Carnival of the Animals" and the "Organ Sympony" (#3). Even though I played the Organ Symphony back in the day, I can never hear the last movement now without thinking of the movie Babe.

3+2 Things: The +1

I haven't been blogging about my 3 quantitative and 2 qualitative goals for the year of being 32 very much, but I've been working on them behind the scenes. Remember the first qualitative goal?

+1. Be happier in my work
This is qualitative for now because I don't know what it's going to take for me to be happier. Just an attitude adjustment? Some internal changes at my current job? A different ad gig? A radical career shift? I've been pondering this for a while now, but I'm still "living my way into the answer."

Well, Rilke will be happy to know that I finally found the answer: As of Monday I'm starting a new job as a writer. I'm leaving ad agency life and software clients (and downtown SLC) behind and going to work in-house at a craft company. It's a big change, but I think it was time to shake things up--and I'm pretty excited about it. 

Tuesday Project Roundup: Beat The Calendar

I'm trying to finish up the current projects so Skyler can have his sweater while he still fits in it and I can get a few more things sewn before it's too cold to wear anything but sweaters and boots.

For Skyler's sweater, there's a sleeve done now. I think I can get this wrapped up in the next couple of weeks.

For sewing, the rayon that was a pile of pieces is now a dress front and a somewhat reduced pile of pieces. It's looking really "Little House on the Prairie Maternity" right now but I have hopes that it will get better as I add more parts.

Camping For People Who Lie About Being The Outdoor Type (Or At Least Exaggerate It)

I can't even call this a day trip since we drove up Little Cottonwood in the morning to get a site, got breakfast on the way down the canyon and continued our day, and then came back at dark with soup and camping gear. City camping is the best! And my down bag is rated to at least 28 degrees, which was the low Sunday morning.

 

(Pictures from Sunday morning before we packed up and drove back to my place, where there was central heating.)

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Yesterday brother posted about my dad's latest balloon creation for Skyler (a fireman's hat!) and included this picture. If this doesn't make you happy, I think you're broken. 

2. I just discovered the Yummy Books blog, which takes foods from literature and cooks them. It's recipes and quotes--perfect!

Skyler Says

"It's Thursday! My grandpa makes me balloon animals! I'm eating tiny food!"

Enjoy.

Best Grandpa Ever

My little nephew Skyler loves balloons. This has inspired my dad to learn how to make balloon animals for him, thus earning the title of "Best Grandpa Ever."

Making balloon animals had come up in the past and I'd guessed that YouTube had some tutorials. But Dad found a local clown (literally; I'm not being mean) who teaches classes and got instruction first-hand. (He also got a red nose to wear while making the balloon animals.) Then Dad had to go to a place called House Of Chuckles (!) to get a supply of animal-making balloons. And now he's practicing every day so he can surprise Skyler with new animals every week.

I'm really resisting italics here because every part of this story delights me. You know what else is delightful? This monkey. And my dad. 

Tuesday Project Roundup: Of Course This Is Going To End Well

I've been pulling fall and winter clothes out of storage and assessing what to hold on to for another season and what I'm really not going to wear any more. I found this sweatshirt dress I made last year and realized I never wore it very much because of the color.

I have a clown-like love of bright colors but in this case it made me feel like a great big cyan color swatch (it's considerably brighter in person than in the photo). So this is happening: 

I don't have a particularly successful track record of dyeing things, but I figure that if it doesn't turn out well I'll just have a dress I don't wear, which is pretty much the current situation anyway.  Stay tuned!

Bravery

I haven't had an inspirational hippie quote to start off the week in a while. Here's one for today (source):

The truth is that meaningful change is a process. It can be uncomfortable and is often risky, especially when we’re talking about embracing our imperfections, cultivating authenticity, and looking the world in the eye and saying, "I am enough."

However afraid we are of change, the question that we must ultimately answer is this: What the greater risk? Letting go of what people think or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?

Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It’s about cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, "No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough."

OK. Let's do this.  

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Fall is in full swing, with September ending and full moons happening and who knows what else going on. Good thing I have a light-up alarm clock and a hippie website to sustain me. 

2. Get ready to party: Next Saturday, October 5, is Plaidurday, "the 2nd annual Worldwide Celebration of Plaid"

3. If  you've ever wanted to see Mitt Romney's face appear on posters for popular romantic comedies, check out RomCom 2012. The Photoshop work is good but the captions are brilliant.

Should Have Bought This Years Ago

Part of what makes winter so hard for me is getting up in the dark. Last year I discovered that there is such a thing as a "dawn simulating alarm clock" that gradually gets lighter and lighter to wake you up to an already-lit room. 

I didn't buy it last year because it was a little expensive and apparently I hated myself and wanted to be sad for another season. But not this year! Meet my new best friend:

I've only had this since Monday but I already love it. (Toby, however, has still not figured out how I am turning on the light while still in bed--I need to explain timers and sleep science to him.) This is totally me in the mornings now:

If you buy it, your bedroom will glow with the light of the sun and you'll wake up with perfect hair and makeup, too

I got mine at a little bit of a discount on Amazon. Check it out right here.

Happy Birthday, Tom Eliot

The Writer's Almanac tells me it's the birthday of T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot today, Anglicized American poet extraordinaire and writer of what I think I would like on a gravestone if I end up on a ranch and get to be buried there:

Under a juniper-tree the bones sang, scattered and shining
We are glad to be scattered, we did little good to each other,
Under a tree in the cool of the day, with the blessing of sand,
Forgetting themselves and each other, united
In the quiet of the desert. This is the land which ye
Shall divide by lot. And neither division nor unity
Matters. This is the land. We have our inheritance. 

(From "Ash Wednesday," of course.) 

Tuesday Project Roundup: Forging Ahead

This past week I started a sewing project and a sleeve on the nephew's sweater. Things are getting wild over here!

For sewing, I cut out the rayon from the fall fabric pile--it wants to be a Wiksten "Tova" dress to wear with leggings and boots. Considering the last thing I sewed was the long dress in July, I think this is good progress. 

In sweater news, the body is finished, I have one sleeve started, and I bought buttons. I think this can go pretty quickly to the end now (which is good, because Skyler isn't getting any smaller). 

The F Word

I went back to White Pine Lake in Little Cottonwood yesterday to help me get my head around the beginning of fall. Of course, the lake at 10,000 feet was well into fall and moving on to winter, so that pushed me a little further along in my acceptance. Thanks, nature.

 

(The lake was so low--compare it to three months ago when I was there last.) 

 

At least fall is orange. It could be worse.

Friday Unrelated Information

1. Somewhat related to Wednesday's post about "the 47%" of Americans "who are dependent on the government": CNN featured a wrenching essay by John Scalzi about growing up poor. Just....go read it. It made me so ashamed of throwing around the term "the poor" without any real thought behind it.

2. It's the autumnal equinox tomorrow, and while one could be sad about the state of the world and the start of the long slide into darkness and everything else fall will bring, the hippies are telling us to take heart

Give the world ALL the LIGHT, LOVE and COMPASSION you have! Send your HEART out to humanity, the planet, and all life. Send your knowingness that paradise is here right now, and BE in the world as you want it to be. Use your highest, purest intentions, and remember that the truth is not out there; it is within YOU…GATHER TOGETHER and celebrate this beginning wave of your great transformation. Equinox will bring a much needed balance in your world

OK then. I love the caps; it's like a Dr. Bronner's soap label. 

Happy Birthday To My Brother!

It's my only sibling's birthday today and I hope he has a great one. From pulling me around on the sled (age 5) to threatening to kick some boy's ass for me (ages 15 - present), he's always been there for me if I  needed him--and now that he's a daddy I get to see that all over again.

So many people depend on him for stuff ranging from any mechanical repair to snow removal to making delicious dinners, so I know I'm not alone when I say: Thanks for all you do and happy birthday!