Friday Roundup

Well I survived my first week of the spring semester.

I'm only taking two classes but they account for 10 credit hours and like a million contact hours... saying I'm only taking two classes is a bit stupid really. And of course they happen to be Anatomy and Chemistry. YUCK!

I actually think Anatomy will be a bit better this time around. I've got a better Prof (fingers crossed). There are a lot more opportunities for extra credit than just tests and they are 5 mentors that we can go to that are kinda like free tutors. They are students who have passed the class already and can help show us how to get a good grade. I'm aiming for at least a B this time. (But I only need a C+ to get into the program).

Chem... I don't know. I have hated chem every time I've encountered in other classes and I have a feeling this time won't be any different. I guess we'll see. Hopefully I can get along well enough with the Chem resource center and not have to hire a super expensive tutor. Sigh...

Anyway.. I'm not that excited about this semester overall. I really dislike science classes (hilarious I know.. since I have to take so many of them). But I'm just hoping I can buckle down and get through these two and then take Physiology this summer. Then I'll be ready to apply to the nursing program for fall. I'm probably completely insane for trying to take physio over the summer... you know in a condensed version. But I really don't want to wait until fall.

So this went fairly well except for wednesday when I wasn't feeling great from this stupid bladder infection/UTI thing I seem to have... That was kind of tortuous to sit in so many classes for so long. Especially since I stay in one lecture hall for like 3 hours. I thought I was gonna lose it sitting in the middle of a row in a giant lecture hall surrounded by annoying people. I don't know if it was just the fact that I was closed in or what.. But I made it through and even managed to stay for my beyond stupid recitation where some guy next to me proceeded to talk my ear off for the whole 50 minute period. I was trying to actually do the assigned problem but this guy would NOT SHUT UP. I swear... I'm really not there to make friends. Just there to take these stupid classes. Sheesh.

And yes, I'm usually this anti-social.. haha. Especially with random 35 year old guys who talk about their A.A. like its best thing ever.

I'm sure there are some chem problems I need to be working on and I really should be reading my anatomy book (doesn't that idea just make you cringe. WHO READS THEIR ANATOMY BOOK?).

Instead my plans for the weekend consist of:

- finishing the last two episodes of the first season of Downton Abbey.

- finish reading The Fault in our Stars. (John Green's new novel. IT'S SOOO GOOD SO FAR. Even though I'm afraid its going to be sad.)

- perhaps start watching Buffy on netflix instant.

- sleep

- sleep some more. (seriously I don't know if its because I'm sick or what.. but I love sleep a lot right now.)

Friday Funday aka Baby Madness

I spent probably 6 hours today reading adoption blogs when I wasn't taking care of my niece. Seriously.. I chatted with my friend Heather this morning (also probably the only one reading this) and she showed me some new ones. I mean I've already got a ton that I've read or continue to read but she showed me more. And huge families at that. with 5-9 kids. So jealous.

Seriously my dream is to have 4-6 kids. I know that this is insane and probably won't happen but we'll see.. My friend and I talked about how much we think about/read about/research kids/adoption/babies/sperm to buy (in my case only). She may have also called me crazier than her for shopping for sperm online. What??? That's normal for a 21 year old right?

I know, I know. That's not normal. But whatever.. I'll just look at all this time reading these blogs as great preparation for when I actually have/adopt kids. Mostly I just read them, look at their adorable kids and want to cry from jealousy over the pregnant women in the doctor's office yesterday. (Uh yeah.. kinda sucked being one of the only non-pregnant ones there).

But I took time away from my obsessive blog reading to take care of my 5 month old niece. Seriously I love that kid. Even when she refuses to sleep even though she's so tired. I also spent some time outside with her because she loves to be outside and it was a balmy 60 degrees here today! I talked with the neighbor girls next door about my dogs and then their mom. I also looked at my websites for my classes that start monday and my chem teacher has finally updated it and of course I need a book that I didn't really know I needed by wednesday. Gr. But I think that I can get it at the bookstore on Monday. BLEH. Stupid school, I am so over you.

I am definitely not looking forward to being on campus for 6-10 hours two days a week. How the heck am I going to pay attention for that long? Geeze. I also really need to get my school supplies together and get organized for this semester. I'm also pretty sure I'm supposed to read some stuff in my books for monday. Double bleh.

Who'd have thought it would be warm enough for bare feet in January in central Indiana?

Until next time..

New Year

I still mostly can't believe that its a new year. Its strange to have to write 2012 on everything. I've only got a few days left of winter break before I have to go back to school. :(

There's my wonderful schedule this semester. The only thing that would make it better is if I didn't have to retake anatomy or take chemistry (which I hate). But I'm retaking anatomy with the other teacher.. so hopefully I'll get the grade I want this time.

After this semester I only have to take physiology and then I can apply to nursing school (I could also take microbio and immunology to apple to another nursing school... we'll see).

I'm only volunteering at the hospital twice a week this semester.. so that'll probably be good. I really need to focus on school and studying my butt off. I applied for a job at a hospital as a patient support partner.. and actually got called to interview for it but I guess I didn't get it since they've never called back. It was full time nights, so 3 twelves per week. But oh well. Apparently it wasn't the right time/job.

It would be really nice to have a job because then I would actually be making some money (and saving for school) but I'm also not sure how it would work with my taking hard classes/sleeping, etc.

We went to florida last week but I managed to take absolutely NO pictures... haha. I don't know why I didn't.. but whatever. It was very nice. The weather was in the 60's and 70's everyday and we got to eat all of our favorite food we miss.

Mostly this winter break has consisted of watching tv/movies and reading a bunch of books. My kind of break! I hate that I don't have much time to read during the school year so I've got to make up for it somehow. I also challenged myself to read 50 books this year on goodreads... but we'll see if that happens. Because thats like a book a week! hahah.

Anywho... happy January!!

Female Chauvinist Pigs

I picked up Female Chauvinist Pigs at the library shortly after I got out of school for winter break. This is one of those books I've seen multiple times at the library/the bookstore/amazon etc. I've just never picked it up for some reason. Man am I glad I finally did. I devoured this book in two days and had to find my little sharpie page flags so that I could remember specific parts I loved (normally I just highlight them... but it was a library book).

Apparently some secret part of me misses writing papers about books that I read (for my undergrad women's studies degree) so I've decided just to write a blog post about some of my favorite parts of this book, and observations related to them.

Feminism as a whole loves to use "choice". Women have the right to choose what to do with their bodies, whether for reproductive uses or in the way they dress. I wrote an entire 10 page paper about the right to choose natural childbirth methods and if women can really "choose" when society is set up to tell them how to think. I think this can similarly be seen in Female Chauvinist Pigs.

But what of choice? In the first chapter Levy describes following the Girls Gone Wild crew around and how women were just throwing themselves at them, flashing the cameras with wild abandon. Of course the fact that these women had most likely consumed copious amounts of alcohol provides one possible reason. These woman are enlightened, they are owning their bodies and have the right to show off how sexy they look and feel. Right? So what's wrong with Girls Gone Wild? If it truly includes consenting adults (although I realize there have been cases of underage girls appearing), whats the problem with it? I guess maybe the better question is why do these girls want to flash the camera, get naked and make out with other girls?

Because society has told them that this is sexy, beautiful, alluring? That a woman's only value is her sexuality? I guess my point isn't that I think what these women are doing is wrong, in fact I fully support their choice to do what they want with their bodies... I'm more interested in the why. Why they think that flashing camera crews and making out with women is fun/good/exciting what have you. Is it our society? I'm inclined to think so.

I loved this quote from Erica Jong. She said,

"Let's not kid ourselves that this is liberation. The women who buy the idea that flaunting your breasts in sequins is power - I mean, I'm all for that stuff - but let's not get so into the tits and ass that we don't notice how far we haven't come. Let's not confuse that with real power. I don't like to see women fooled."

This new brand of "feminism" or enlightened sexism (as I've been reading about in the book Englightened Sexism), tells woman that feminism isn't necessary. All of the battles have been won, so go out, wear short skirts and flash your boobs for Girls Gone Wild. After all, we've earned it! The problem that I see with this is that we're not past feminism, feminism is still very necessary and when it is implied that it isn't necessary... there is a big problem.

One chapter that particularly interested me was the one describing teenaged and pre-teen girls and their response to sex. I thought it was interesting how she describes talk of "rainbow parties" where many girls give oral sex to guys, receiving nothing in return. I'm pretty sure there was just a recent revival of these "rainbow parties" in the news recently with parents organizations clutching their metaphorical pearls exclaiming, "Not the children!" I thought it was amusing that these rainbow parties, or the rumors of such parties were not a new phenomenon considering Levy wrote this book in 2005. The media seems to just recycle stories every few years.

There was also a lot of good information from interviews with pre-teen and teenage girls about why they have sex. So many girls seemed to have no idea why other than that it was "what all girls did". They weren't doing it because it was fun or perhaps enjoyable for them, but because everyone else was and there was a lot of peer pressure to be like everyone else.

This seems to be another conundrum.. we tell girls every day through the media that they have to be sexy and "hot", they need to buy this makeup or this brand to be desirable. But then through abstinence only education we tell them that they MUST NOT HAVE SEX. They should save that for marriage. There's no discussion about hormones or legitimate reasons to want to have sex... JUST DON'T DO IT. And we wonder why this type of sex ed isn't effective?

I specifically remember the sex ed I had in 8th grade. They split the boys and girls up and discussed STDs, showing horrifying pictures of them (it just doesn't get any easier to look at those). They was a sort of strange analogy about girls being like ovens, they take a while to heat up and boys being like a flame, they're hot instantly. (I'm paraphrasing but it was very similar to this.) I still have no idea what they were trying to get across with that analogy... considering the overall message I got was "Don't have sex". There was no talk about condoms for protection against STDs or pregnancy nor any discussion about the Pill.

And yet... the number of girls I knew that were having sex in high school was pretty high. Did someone else teach them about condoms and the Pill? I can only hope so. (Although some of them obviously didn't given the fact that a handful of them got pregnant and had babies in high school).

So what happens when women are the ones perpetuating this idea of "raunch" culture stated in the book? Is it worse than when men perpetuate it? In my opinion, sort of. But it comes back to the overall need for education (regardless of one's gender).

When I decided to get my undergrad degree in Women's Studies I basically had to explain what feminism was to one of my friends. (The definition I gave her was something along the lines of believing in equal rights for women, equal pay, etc. I can't say I'm very proud of it. It wasn't very complete or well rounded). She also happened to be several years older than me. I shouldn't have to explain feminism to her should I??

The answer seems to be yes. And to everyone else out there who seems to have forgotten the feminist movement of the 60's and 70's or never cared what it was about to begin with.

Sometimes I'm truly frightened by the world we live in. But then I read awesome thought provoking books and I think maybe I have the strength to struggle against the tide.

Best of Children's Books

Okay, I'm seriously into books right now (well I'm always pretty into books...). But I've been thinking about them a lot lately and rereading some books I loved from my childhood. (My post about the best books I read this year is forthcoming! Once I finish all the books I'm gonna read this year.)

I recently read The Wilder Life which talks about the authors absolute love for every thing Laura Ingalls Wilder. She rediscovers the books when she's older and rereads them, researches them, reads every book about Laura and visits all of the homesites. Okay.. seriously guys I was the biggest Prairie nerd ever when I was young!

I mean I was Laura for Halloween like three years in a row.

I played Little House on the Prairie all the time. By myself, with friends, in my head. Whatever. I freaking loved that series of books. I read all of the spin off series' I could get my hands on too. The ones about Rose's childhood, Caroline's childhood, etc.

I watched the TV show fairly often although I always knew that it wasn't very faithful to the books. Oh well... it was still PRAIRIE! Which was the point.

Seriously we all know Pa didn't look like that...

Look, I was so obsessed with these books that I used to bring a sunbonnet to school in third grade and play with it with my best friend. Uh yeah, and I wonder why I was seen as a bit of a freak. I also had the best lace up boots that I imagined looked a lot like Laura's. (When she actually wore shoes.)

They were a lot like these except they didn't have the zipper on the side and they were a lighter brown. But oh man I loved those shoes. I don't know where they came from but they were the perfect Little House shoes in my mind.

Anyway I've recently read Alison Arngrim's biography Confessions of a Prairie Bitch which I found fascinating and I'm currently reading Melissa Gilbert's memoir Prairie Tale. I'm just reveling in all of it. Little House was such a big part of my childhood.

Another series I especially loved reading that I was just thinking about today is the Betsy-Tacy books. I loved this series when I was younger. I still remember going to the library downtown when I was younger to borrow a bunch of the books from the series. So now my goal is to own the whole box set soon. I'm just going to have to find one I like. I already have the Little House box set.

I'm not sure what it is about these books (and many others I read in childhood like Nancy Drew, The Boxcar Kids, etc.). I just feel such a desire to possess them all. I'm not sure I'd reread all of them again. Although I have been working my way through the Little House books this winter break. I guess I just feel like an obsessive need to collect books. Which I already do a lot of... but I want so many children's books lately. I know that it will be great to have them for my kids to read eventually. And I want to be able to share the books I loved so much with them.

When the heck did I get so sentimental about books??

Favorite Books of 2011

Here's a rundown of the favorite books I read this year. This is by no way an exhaustive list. I'm on goodreads if you really care what I've read. But these are the ones I liked best!

Starting at the beginning of the year:

Enlightened Sexism

I actually read this for my voices of oppression class but I really enjoyed it. Its sort of a trip through pop culture through the lens of sexism and feminism.

Recommended for: feminists, feminist minded pop culture junkies

Ina May's Guide to Childbirth

I loved this book. Ina May Gaskin is an incredibly well known midwife who works on "The Farm" in Tennesee. Reading this book made me want to go there to have all of my babies. This book is part guide to childbirth (as the name implies) covering all kinds of FAQ's about childbirth in general and home birth in particular. There are also a good number of personal birth stories that Ina May attended including some at "The Farm".

Recommended for: women planning home births, anyone interested in childbirth/homebirth, midwives, future midwives, anyone interested in the natural birth movement

(I'm pretty sure I got some weird looks reading this book on the airplane home from spring break since i look about 12 and was obviously not pregnant)

The Last Little Blue Envelope

I ordered this book from Amazon so I got it the day it came out and I finished it later that afternoon. I LOVE Maureen Johnson and all of her books. This one is no exception. I loved the first, 13 Little Blue Envelopes, and this one was just as good! I highly suggest you check out these and all of MJ's books.

Recommended for: YA junkies (actual young adults and otherwise), teens, anyone who likes reading about international travel

Bossypants

I love Tina Fey and this book was HILARIOUS. She writes about everything from her childhood to motherhood and deciding to have a second child.

Recommended for: fans of Tina Fey, comedy lovers, people who love Hollywood and are interested in behind the scenes culture

Divergent

My dad told me about this book and how it was written by a 22 year old who just graduated college and it has already been optioned for a movie trilogy. Okay, I was intrigued. I bought it soon after it came out and actually had my bff read some of it to me after I had my wisdom teeth out (what are best friends for? :p)

We both finished this book as quickly as our little eyes could read it. What can I say about this book? Its a YA dystopia where you have to choose a faction based on personality traits. It involves controlling governments, jumping off of buildings, fighting, a deadly chasm and so much more. All I can say is do yourself a favor and READ THIS BOOK.

Recommended for: YA junkies, fans of dystopia fics, teens, anyone who can read! (seriously.. read it!)

The Hunger Games Trilogy

Okay I know I'm like a million years behind everyone else on this series. But like everyone else, it's totally awesome! I'm actually sort of glad I read this so late after they came out because I got to read them one right after another rather than having to wait until the next one came out.

I love all three but the first is probably my favorite. Many other people have written reviews of them so I'll just leave you with the description from goodreads.

Recommended for: YA junkies, fans of dystopia fics, teens, adults

Baby Catcher: Chronicles of a Modern Midwife

This is the memoir of a California Midwife. She chronicles the many births she's witnessed and assisted in her time. She has quite a few unique stories and provides great information on what its like to be a midwife in the United States.

Recommended for: midwives, midwives to be, nursing students, anyone interested in chidbirth/homebirths

The Help

I read this book after seeing so many people say that it was good and I also heard it was going to be a movie so I wanted to read it first. I really enjoyed it even after initial reservations that parts of the book were written in dialect (which I don't really like) but I kept reading and I really enjoyed it. I lived in the south for 12 years and this book felt like a little taste of home even though I never had african american help and thankfully didn't live in Mississippi. I know there was a lot of controversy surrounding the fact that a white woman wrote as though she was two different african american maids.. but I still enjoyed it.

Recommended for: adults, history buffs, people who love reading about the south and race relations, people interested in the civil rights movement

Confessions of a Prairie Bitch

Alison Arngrim writes a wonderful memoir of her child star days in Hollywood playing Nellie Oleson on the Little House series. She talks about her messed up childhood, friendships onset with Melissa Gilbert and everything leading up to the present day.

Recommended for: adults, biography lovers, anyone interested in showbiz memoirs, fans of the Little House TV shows

Labor of Love: A Midwife's Memoir

This is the memory from the midwife Cara Muhlhahn who is featured in the documentary film The Business of Being Born that I watched in my Women's Health Issues class (its a really great film by the way!). She talks about her years as a labor and delivery nurse and her years as a home birth midwife in New York City.

Recommended for: midwives, midwives to be, anyone interested in childbirth/homebirths, nursing students

The Name of the Star

Another of Maureen Johnson's wonderful YA books. This one is a supernatural mystery/thriller about being able to "see dead people" It's set in London and I really enjoyed it even though supernatural thrillers are not my thing at all.

Recommended for: YA junkies, fans of supernatural thrillers, teens

Bunheads

Picked up this purely because I love any and all books about theatre, dance, ballet, etc. This is the story of a ballerina dancing for a fictional ballet company in New York City. The story is a bit thin... but there's lots of ballet and dance related fluff.

Recommended for: ballerinas, art enthusiasts, fans of dance, YA

The Night Circus

Probably my favorite book I read this year. I heard the buzz on this book and decided I need to check it out. I've always been fascinated by circuses and that was enough to make me pick it out at the bookstore. It's set in alternating time periods of the 1890's and early 1900's. This is the most fantastical circus ever, described in rich, wonderful detail. Some people have complained that it moved too slowly for them or that the dialogue wasn't great but I enjoyed every page and I didn't want to finish it.

Recommended for: adults, anyone obsessed with the circus, fans of historical fiction, anyone who likes magicians

Female Chauvinist Pigs

I borrowed this book from the library to read over winter break. I LOVED it. I've seen this book many times and never picked it up for some reason. I really enjoyed this book about the rise of raunch culture and how women are buying into it and claiming that by dressing provocatively they can be sexy and also feminists. This was a really thought provoking book.

Recommended for: feminists, feminist minded pop culture junkies

Winter Break AT LAST

It is finallyyyyy winter break. There is nothing so sweet as this. No studying to do until january! No classes to go to and all of my time to read!

On my reading list right now:

- The Wilder Life

- Rereading all of the Little House books. (I finished Little House in the Big Woods last night)

- My Year with Eleanor

- The Glimmer Palace

- The Vespertine

and probably a million more. I'm off to the library and Barnes and Noble today to pick up these.

I'm not doing much until christmas other than volunteering at the hospital after my 2 week break for finals week. Then we're heading to Florida after christmas! I'm so ready for warmer weather and FLIP FLOPS. Oh how I miss them.

Anyway, until later.