Adventures · in · Feminist · Unschooling.......

I need a few pop culture references for my feminist homeschooling article but i don't watch tv very much. I know there is that family with, like, 17 kids who are fundamentalist christian homeschoolers...they had their own tv show right?

If someone could fill in the blanks for me, or point me to other examples that would be fabulous!

I am now almost done the first draft.

I want to scream.

Instead I am going to write a letter of complaint about the ice rink coordinator at the market.

(I don't usually ever try to get workers in trouble with their bosses but my simple questions were met with threats to get a security guard which I think is inappropriate for a PUBLIC space)

1.What is in the back seat of your car right now?
Don't have a car.

2. When was the last time you threw up?
during the fall when i was pregnant

3. What's your favorite curse word?
fuck

4. Name 3 people who made you smile today?
Karen, Inessa, Eli

5. What were you doing at 8 a.m. this morning?
I was in bed nursing my youngest

6. What were you doing 30 minutes ago?
Oh probably trying to calm the kids.

7. Where were you born?
Palmerston, ON

8. Have you ever been to a strip club?
yes, it was not good.

9. What is the last thing you said aloud?
Fiona, have you seen Rudolph before? with your mom?

10. What is the best ice cream flavor?
Chocolate

11. What was the last thing you had to drink?
Zapatista coffee

12. What are you wearing right now?
jeans, a red cowl-neck sweater, glasses

13. What was the last thing you ate?
pasta salad

14. Have you bought any new clothes this week?
Ummmm, yes, two pairs of tights (with feet).

15. Where were you last?
at home, in Eli's bedroom

16. What's the last sporting event you watched?
???

17. Who won?
-

18. Who is the last person you sent a comment/message on myspace?
never

19. Ever go camping?
Yes, in the summer. In July with the kids and some mama friends.

20. Where do you live?
London, ON, CANADA (not the UK!)

21. What song are you listening to?
None, listening to the Rudolph movie

22. Do you have a tan?
Nope

24. Do you drink your soda from a straw?
Nope

25. What did your last text message say?
I feel like such a Luddite! I don't text message

26. Who's your best friend?
Steve

27. What are you doing tomorrow?
hanging out with the kids and looking at my new books (thanks to Steve's mom who gave me the $$ for them)- "Look Both Ways: Bisexual Politics" and "A Dangerous Woman: A Graphic Biography of Emma Goldman"

28. Where is your mom right now?
She's probably on vacation so she's either at her condo in Guelph or at her boyfriend's house in Dundas.

29. Look to your right, what do you see?
A poster of local birds

30. What color is your watch?
grey and black

31. What do you think of when you think of Australia?
my friends from when I lived there who I would love to see again, the fun of Sydney, the years I was an activist there, beaches, xenophobia

32. Ever ridden on a roller coaster?
Yep. the last one was a kid's one at the Balloon Fest and it was TOO MUCH for me! Eli loved it.

33. What is your birthstone?
Emerald

34. Do you go in at a fast food place or just hit the drive through?
Neither

35. What is your favorite number?
12 - the day of the birthday

36. Do you have a dog?
Nope but I want one some day

37. Last person you talked to on the phone.
some guy who claimed to be from Bell Canada but i heard a tv in the background so I think he was trying to scam me!

38. Have you met anyone famous?
I've seen famous people, like Jerry Seinfeld, but I haven't really spoken to them. I did go to highschool with a member of Arcade Fire.  And I was friendly with the winner of Canada Writes on CBC Radio 1, who also went to my highschool. 

39. Any plans today?
Make plans for our solstice celebration tomorrow, hang out with the kids, go to a solstice party, do a littler personal solstice ritual

40. How many states have you lived in?
None

41. Ever go to college?
I'm in university right now. Almost done!

42. Where are you right now?
In my living room at home

43. Biggest annoyance in your life right now?
Uncertainty, my mom, Steve's mom

44. Last song listened to?
"Famous Raincoat" by Leonard Cohen

45. Are you in love with someone right now?
No and it's nice to be able to be honest about that.

46. Are you allergic to anything?
No

47. Favorite pair of shoes?
my red "bowling shoes" although I really want a sexy pair of boots

48. Are you jealous of anyone?
sometimes

49. Is anyone jealous of you?
probably not

51. Do you love anyone?
I love many people, most especially my children, also Steve, my friends, my family, Pete Seeger, etc, etc

52. Do any of your friends have children?
Yes, most of them do.

53. Do you eat healthy?
Yes, I think I do. Maybe a bit too much sugar.

54. What do you usually do during the day?
Depends on my kid days we play with friends, read books, go out and do fun stuff. On my uni days I am most likely working on schoolwork or reading. Either way, I spend time drinking coffee and on the internet.

55. Do you hate anyone right now?
Uhhh, other than right-wing world leaders who are fucking over people and the environment, no.

56. Do you use the word 'hello' daily?
I don't know

58. How old will you be turning on your next birthday?
30

59. Have you ever been to Six Flags?
Nope

60. How did you get one of your scars?
I was washing dishes and washed inside a glass that had broke and cut my baby finger on my right hand. I was 15 yrs old and got two stitches.

61. What do you want for Christmas?
a new tattoo

I just wrote this for one of my courses. It made me feel really emotional and I wanted to share it.

************************************

Elizabeth

            When we moved to a small townhouse complex in the Old South area of London we found ourselves living in a very different kind of neighborhood than the downtown high-rise neighborhood we had left behind. It was residential with a small strip of shops, cafes, and a library within 15 minutes walking distance. It felt much more like a neighborhood than the previous area in which we lived. It wasn’t until I met – and got to know – Elizabeth, the women who lived across the street from our small townhouse complex, that I learned what it really meant to have and be a good neighbor.

            Elizabeth sat on her front porch and talked to everyone who walked by. People walking their dogs would bring them up to her chair on the porch for a pat. She smoked her cigarettes and chatted with passersby – sometimes she came off her front porch to sweep the sidewalks. At first, I felt awkward when she chatted with us – I had become accustomed to an healthy type of big city, high-rise living in which you do not look your neighbors in the eye and you certainly don’t get too friendly with them. But Elizabeth persisted in talking to my son and I every time we walked by her little yellow house and, by this time, I was getting used to the generally friendlier atmosphere of the neighborhood. We chatted to Elizabeth almost every day.

It was few months after we first moved into the townhouse complex that I found out, from the person living right beside me, that Elizabeth had cancer and that she might be alive the following year. In fact, her lung cancer had gone into remission but then had come back again as brain cancer. We continued to say hello to Elizabeth and chat with her almost every day. She got sicker and sicker but almost every day she sat out on her porch, smoking her cigarettes and saying hello to all who walked past. Her partner and her suggested we turn our communal backyard into a garden. She sent him over to rototill it and they lent us their garden tools. Even though she was too sick to garden herself, she gave advice and came to enjoy the beauty of it. I remember sitting with her in the garden one hot summer night watching fireflies. She told my son how she used to catch fireflies and keep them in a jar overnight and then let them go in the morning – a living night light! She taught me how to properly wash greens, a skill very useful to an organic gardener.

            When my second child was born, she was one of the first people to congratulate us as we ventured out for our first family walk. That Christmas, I popped by Elizabeth’s house to drop off some homemade cookies. She asked me to come in for tea but I didn’t have time that day – my stepfather was in town to drive us to Guelph for our family holiday celebrations. Three weeks later, Elizabeth died.

There are lots of things I can do but I don't want to do them. On advice of a friend (Leia) I am looking up Kimya Dawson videos on youtube and liking her and her music a lot. I actually really love listening to music/watching music videos on youtube (yeah, duh, so does everybody!). My most listened to musicians on youtube are the Hidden Cameras, Feist, Regina Spektor, the Gossip, and Devendra Banhart. Sometimes I also watch Pete Seeger, Peter, Paul and Mary, and Johnny Cash videos. Occcasionally I look up ABBA, the Village People, etc, etc. And I sing and dance by myself in my bedroom. maybe I should do that now?

I feel some Gordon Lightfoot coming out "If you could read my mind, love, what a tale my thoughts would tell...."

I think we are going to try and work things out. We'll give ourselves 6 weeks to make things better and then, if that hasn't worked, we'll continue with the break-up thing. If it works, we'll have a much better relationship. Either way, things will be okay.