Unhealthy and anti-feminist

Last week was a bad, bad week at work. All the hope of stasis and control that I had felt previously left, and every little thing made me angry. I was so frustrated with the whole thing that I actually thought, "man, I wish I were smoking hot so somebody would just take care of me." Of course, I don't really believe this. The idea of not having my own money and my autonomy scares the bejesus out of me, but I know I am not the first woman who, in a fit of career induced rage, has wished for our simpler and more shackled time, if only for a moment. It is a natural step in the battle we are fighting to occasionally look back and lament the past, even though we know what we are doing is right.

I stumbled upon this article in the New York Times that says that women are getting unhappier while men are getting happier.

They attribute the fact to the idea that women, now faced with a full time job and all of the responsibilities that come with it, now spend more hours doing things they consider unpleasant. Men, on the other hand, are actually working less but don't seem to be sharing in the household work with their SOs. Consequently, they spend less hours doing tasks they consider unpleasant. Even non-labor tasks like spending time with family, show a large gap in the happiness index between the genders because men equate "spending time with family" to watching the game or having a few beers. Women equate that with helping family members with projects, assisting their aging parents, or cooking and cleaning in preparation of these visits.

I have seen this with every man I have encountered, from my father, to the men I babysat for, on down to my roommate. Even when we have parties, the girls always end up cooking and cleaning in the kitchen and the guys all end up out by the grill or on the couch drinking beers, considering the charing of animal flesh to be their only "job."

The article mentions that many women are torn between the wants of the older generation and the wants of the new generation. "Her mother’s goals in life, the student said, were to have a beautiful garden, a well-kept house and well-adjusted children who did well in school. “I sort of want all those things, too,” the student said, as Ms. Stevenson recalled, “but I also want to have a great career and have an impact on the broader world.”

I know this feeling. I enjoying cooking, baking, sewing, entertaining, and decorating, but I also want to feel like my life is interesting, important and not empty and shell-like, like Sandra Lee. It is hard to reconcile all of these conflicting wants and still be good at your job and do well in school. Sometimes, I am not sure what will make me happy. Maybe that is the real problem women face today?

And none for Gretchen Wieners

Between school and playing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on the XBOX 360, there hasn't been time for much else. Weak apology offered.

Took my baby prius to the body shop today. In its place, I am driving a ford focus that I hate. It smells like a motel room in a motel that had to go non-smoking to comply with state law and the room always smells like bathroom cleaner and generic carpet sanitizer. ICK.

Since upgrading to vista at work, I have been playing some chess titans. I feel like a lot of my personality defects could be cured by learning to play chess. Impatience, overconfidence, and the inability to treat many people as my equal have brought me down before and they bring me down in chess. Must learn myself out of this.

In other news, here are my boyfriends of the week.

Whenever I am on the elliptical at the gym and Flagpole Sitta comes on, I think of this guy and his bad ass lip-syncing.



And the other is Lupe Fiasco. I heart him.

Blanket

I love LOVE love cover songs. I don't get too crazy with my playlists, but I am super meticulous about my cover songs playlist. Until recently, the Stray Cats version of You Can't Hurry Love was probably my favorite, but I am really digging Tracy Bonham's cover of Crazy in Love.

Other stuff to write about, but I am so busy, it seems. Maybe later.

GAHHHHHHH

What a terrible fucking week! I'm at the point where something as small as there being no Pepsi in the fridge will probably cause a severe and permanent mental breakdown.

I'm taking it in stride, since my Prius had a far worse week. Hit twice in one week.

UPDATE: I should specify that the second attack on my car was perpetrated by a wall that I got into a fight with. I suffered light casualties, but the wall is toast.

Say wha?

I used the term ethnomethodology to refer to the investigation of the rational properties of indexical expressions and other practical actions as contingent ongoing accomplishments of organized artful practices of everyday life.

I are fucked.

Pet Peeves

1. Websites that resize your browser. Grrrrrr. Leave it alone.

Clean up on channel 4

I'll just start this post by saying, "youtube, you let me down."

I was trying to find a link to a Wal-mart commercial that has been bugging me, but oh well. There is a new Wal-mart commercial that opens with a frustrated woman standing at the gas pump. She is frowning in concern. "But what am I going to do about gas prices?" Then, they cut to several other earnest looking, hardworking Americans who talk about how now, more than ever, money is tight. These anypeople then go on to say that "paying too much for the stuff I use everyday, that's just crazy."

Which is Wal-Mart's way of indoctrinating the American people into dismissing the power of the activist dollar. It makes me so angry that Wal-Mart is essentially branding anyone who actively chooses to spend money at places other than Wal-Mart as foolish or crazy. I haven't set foot inside a Wal-Mart for more than 4 years (not counting the time I was an accomplice to a tennis racket purchase). Yes, if I shopped there, I could save money, but I prefer to spend my money in less evil places, and I want Wal-Mart to know that I do that. It's kind of a silly campaign, since the people who are boycotting Wal-Mart aren't going to be tricked into being a consumer at Wal-Mart, but it still makes me angry. How dare you, Wal-Mart. Don't you turn this around and make it about me. I may be crazy, but it isn't because I pay an extra $0.32 for canned tomatoes.