Blog 2.0

So it's all official now (actually, it has been since Monday, I've just been that busy!), and I can tell you about the exciting job news. I have accepted a part-time position with a congregation in the city as their Synagogue Administrator and will be starting next week. I am excited about working in Jewish communal service again, and because it is a part-time position, I will still have time to work on other projects that are important to me, including other social justice projects and event planning work. 

I really enjoyed working in the green movement these past few years, but teaching Bible this past year or so made me realize how much I miss being in a religious environment on a regular basis.  I also miss being with people who are like me in some way.  The mainstream green movement is very white, and my particular segment of it was very protestant, so I felt like I stuck out sometimes.  I'm hoping that because of the part-time nature of the job I'm taking, I'll still be able to work on green issues and that I'll be able to enjoy all the parts of me, not just one or two.

Because the job is on the other end of town, and public transit takes more than one hour to get there, we (by we, I mean the hubby with the MBA) crunched some numbers and decided that it made economical sense for us to buy a second car so that I could drive to work.  It was a difficult decision because we really hate to expand our environmental footprint that way, but giving up 2+ hours each day several times per week was just not something we were willing to do.  The hubby did lots of hunting for the perfect car, and he found her.  Her name is Suzy, she is a 2006 VW Jetta TDI (turbo diesel injection), and she is a beautiful shade of blue-not light blue, not navy, but rather, like space, with sparkliness!  I will have to post a picture once I remember to take my car out to the car the next time I drive somewhere.  Suzy gets great gas mileage (she is a diesel, duh!) and is zippier than Bob (our first car, which is a 2005 VW Passat TDI), plus she feels more comfortable to drive, probably because she's smaller and is a better fit for me; whereas I always felt like Bob was a big car, Suzy seems more proportional to my stature.  Her previous owners put less than 20k miles on her, so we should have Suzy for a long time.

In other news, some of you may remember that the hubby is moving his home office from one of the upstairs bedrooms to the basement.  Well, we (again, when I say we, I mean the hubby who is handy) decided that we need to install better heating before he moved down there, and the best solution is radiant heating in the floor.  Luckily, there was a sale going on this week on exactly what we need, so we put in an order for the radiant part, and have begun the search for the floor part. 

Because we hadn't already spent enough money this week, we went clothes shopping for the hubby yesterday.  While I would like to buy almost an entire new wardrobe for him, I compromised and only bought as much as we could carry home.  I did also get new trouser socks, since I will be dressing like an adult at the new job.  Compared to everything else we've bought this week, the trouser socks seemed trivial. 

So in total, I feel like this week we have now spent my entire year's salary before I even start this job!  Ok, not really, but I am definitely feeling a little bit like a spendthrift right now.  On the one hand, I'm very excited about the new job, and that we're finally getting around to these projects that we've talked about forever, but on the other, I feel like, omg how much money can we spend in one week!  Plus, we still have to buy the actual floor, paint the basement, and once the hubby moves down there, he's taking my office furniture for his new assistant as well as his own furniture, so we'll have to buy me new office furniture.  And then of course, his old office will be calling out for us to do something with it, like turn it into a library!

You know what, though?  If these are the kinds of problems I have, I should live a long time with such problems.  I am a very lucky woman.  The hubby and I are both very lucky.

 

 Why are All The Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria?
Let's have a round–table discussion of this book by Beverly Daniel Tatum, Ph.D. First published in 1997, with additional material in 1999 and 2003, it still has a lot to say about racial identification and development of same. How does it speak to the discussions happening in WisCon and online, particularly about safer spaces and how to organize them?
M: LaShawn M. Wanak. Luke T. McGuff, Saira, Isabel Schechter   

To be totally frank, I don’t remember much of the details of the panel because it was so emotional for me that I was too involved to be able to remember to take notes or separate myself in any way from what was going on, so if anyone has actual notes, please let me know.  

I know that going into the panel, I was both confident and scared. I was confident that my co-panelists all took the topic seriously, had prepared appropriately, and were committed to the idea of creating safer space at WisCon. I was scared that there would be people in the audience who were opposed to the idea and that it might get ugly. I’m very glad that it didn’t get ugly, and instead turned out to be the highlight of the convention for me in that we made an impact and changed someone’s mind who had previously been opposed to a POC space at WisCon. The person whose mind we changed attended the panel and at the end, thanked us for sharing our personal stories and told us we made a difference. 

 WE MADE A DIFFERENCE. 

 THIS is what WisCon is about. Conversations, sharing, learning, understanding, growing. All of that and more.

 I’m still high off this. I may stay high for a while.

So back to the panel, as I commented in someone else’s journal, overall, I think it was a great panel. I enjoyed learning more about my fellow panelists and how brave they are, each in his/her own way. We each talked about how important it is to have a POC space, and we shared our personal stories about why we needed that space. In Luke’s case, he spoke as an ally, and while I don't want it to sound like I'm giving Luke a cookie (and I didn't feel like he was looking for one), I think it was brave of him to admit the he has experienced being uncomfortable, is still experiencing that in certain ways, and is actively working on it (my paraphrasing). I think that sometimes we POC want White enlightenment / transformation to happen immediately, and we forget that we ourselves are a work in progress. Given that the majority of the convention membership is not POC, I think it's great to have someone who is White model good behavior, and not good as in he's such a good ally, look at him, but as in, this kind of thoughtful behavior is good. Saira mentioned how she hosts people in her home for different salons; it’s not that she doesn’t ever host White people, it’s that sometimes, she needs to host people who have a similar experience so that they can all share that. In response to a question asked by someone in the audience, I mentioned that I realized that the more out I was about being a fan, the more it lead me to be out about other parts of my life, even though I hadn’t thought I was ‘hiding’ them. And as for the ones I knew I was hiding, like my accent, I’ve stopped hiding, and now when I hear myself talk, it almost sounds like I’m faking an accent because for so many years I didn’t sound like that (except when I was agitated or drunk and my control slipped). I also mentioned how intersectionality plays a part in the need for a POC space. For example, even at a feminst sf convention, it’s still difficult to explain some issues to a woman who shares my same gender, but not the same cultural background or expectations I have/had.

I’m sure there was lots more said, but I was too highstrung at the time to be clear-headed, and now I’m just high.

WE MADE A DIFFERENCE. 

I look forward to the POC space next year.