speaking up

It seems that the month of May will be a time during which I will have to become an adept public speaker.

On May 6, I'm presenting at the semi-annual meeting of the IWPR Board of Directors about two research projects coming out of IWPR's original survey data: one project on general economic insecurity and findings comparing data from 2007 and 2010 and another project (mine) on doubling up or cohabitation as a coping method in the face of recent financial difficulty.

On May 18, I'm speaking as a member of a three-person panel on Women and Social Security for the Women's Information Network (WIN) event "Week of WIN," their annual recruitment week. I'll be representing IWPR and our recently-formed Committee on Engaging Younger Women.

WOAH. Yes. I'm really, really, really nervous. This is the first time that I'll be presenting research in front of people in a context in which it doesn't affect just me, where I'll be representing an organization. I think it'll be an incredible experience, but I'm really quite nervous. Wish me luck!

nam june paik

I spent all of Saturday in my house. It was convenient that I scheduled my day this way as it happened to be monsoon-ing outside. I woke up at 8:30 am, deep-cleaned the bathroom (it was...horrific), vacuumed the whole house, and then spent the entire afternoon working on job applications. This was all motivated by my itinerary for Sunday.

On Sunday, it was sunny and rather warm, and I met Sara for a lovely day of activities in downtown DC. We began our day by making a trip to the National Gallery of Art, where we

spent time at the Gauguin exhibit - fascinating, though I still think that Gaugin was an asshole for abandoning his wife and five children while he went and contracted syphilis in Tahiti - and we also went to the Nam June Paik installation and exhibit. I am embarrassed to say that I didn't actually know who he was before I went to see the exhibit, even though I had seen his piece "Electronic Superhighway" at the National Portrait Gallery with Sara, Co, and Steph in January 2010 when we all got together over the winter at Sara's house.

Mr. Paik was an incredible artist. He was born in Seoul, studied music in Japan, was a member of the Fluxus movement in Germany, and was the first video artist ever. He passed away in 2006 after spending the last decade of his life in a wheelchair, the left half of his body paralyzed from a stroke. He was revolutionary in the way in which he combined sound and images, with video art as his medium of choice. He made this incredible "TV Cello" that would show images as his artistic partner, Charlotte Moorman, played it. This was just one of his many pieces that incorporated televisions as the focal point; he also made TV chairs, TV bras, and many other things.

He also said the most amazing thing about technology and humanity, which I wanted to share with you:

"Our life is half natural and half technological. Half and half is good. You cannot deny that high-tech is progress. We need it for jobs. Yet if you make only high-tech, you make war. So we must have a strong human element to keep modesty and natural life."

bullies and hypocrites

These past seven months in Washington, DC have been amazingly enriching. Amazing new friends, free museums, a challenging but interesting job, inspiring co-workers and new acquaintances, a great array of dining options, a delightfully nerdy environment perfect for a policy wonk and news addict like myself, and, of great importance: a wonderful (though very intense and incestuous) ultimate community.


However, there are a few things about this city that makes me want to move away as soon as possible: the hypocrisy and the bullying. Here are some examples:

• Environmentalists who take 30-minute showers and drive two blocks to the grocery store.


• Advocates for the impoverished who seem to think that they deserve an award for donating $10 to a local food bank.


• Senior staff at supposedly progressive organizations that treat their junior staff like indentured servants because they can.


• Meetings where we discuss supports for low-income workers but everyone at the table is from upper middle-class families and wearing pearls and carry Longchamp bags.


• Self-identified non-racists and proponents of diversity who get nervous and scared around people from certain racial/ethnic groups.


• People who pronounce mature as "muh-toor" and negotiation as "nego-cee-ation"

Okay, last one in the list? I kid. I KIDDING...though it does bother me. But seriously. I simultaneously love our nation's capital and want to run away screaming with nothing but a backpack containing cleats, a frisbee, my gifted copy of Middlesex, my journal, a picture of my family, and a few plaid shirts.
Oh, and polar bear. But he probably wouldn't fit in my backpack, so I would have to hold him in my arms, which would seriously restrict my ability to run as quickly and as dramatically away from this place as I would sometimes like to do.

The initial rage that I was feeling when I started writing this post has subsided. But maybe you get the gist of it all. Essentially - the one place where I would expect the idealists and do-gooders to convene, our nation's capital, is the the first place that I've been where I've been made to feel as though my idealism and hopes for the future have been stomped on. If anything, this stint in our nation's capital has taught me that it doesn't matter what you think or try to do, this is just how it is. Whoever's got the most money, whoever was brought up in the most comfortable of settings, whoever can yell the loudest, whoever sticks best to the latest trends...those are the people that our country repeatedly puts up on a pedestal to change things. And that's why nothing's changed.

look at that f*ckin' WHIPSTER

What is a "Whipster"?

Whiptail + Hipster = Whipster.

I spent a wonderful 3 days (April 1-3) in some random town in Virginia with old teammates and Whiptail alumnae for Fool's Fest, an annual reunion tournament. IT. WAS. AWESOME. Really embarrassing but not surprising? I cried a little in the parking lot after I said "bye" to JessKwan, LB, and Pnut. It's interesting - as someone who tends to get very involved in her current surroundings, I get rather used to the limited presence of some people in my life, whether it is because we have drifted apart or we are just simply not in the same place, and I don't feel like I miss them. But the second that I get the chance to be close to them and remember why I loved them so much in the first place, it makes me miss them terribly.

It was certainly a "fool"ish weekend, with all of us in our jeggings, plaid, ridiculous sunglasses, adhesive mustaches, fake sleeve tattoos, and hats. Even the way our tournament played out was silly: we were playing in the Division 2 finals and didn't know until 30 minutes into the game. The only reason we were there was because another team had forfeited and left for the weekend and had neglected to tell us. We then won the spirit award (definitely more exciting than winning the tournament or something), which consisted of a plaque and red plaid hats for the whole team, which happened to match our flannel/plaid gear quite perfectly!

I unfortunately sprained my right thumb/hand during the last game on Saturday while laying out on defense (yay for getting the D, boo for hurting myself), which has left me wearing a thumb splint for the past two weeks, but the weekend was a blast! I didn't know many of these people very well before this weekend, and to be quite honest, I still don't. But there's some sort of inexplicable guarantee that any reunion of Whiptails will result in a good time :)

the cherry blossoms!

The National Cherry Blossom Festival marks the arrival of Spring with a fanfare of beautiful white and pink cherry blossoms and an oppressive wave of weekend tourists in downtown Washington, DC. Last week, my boss sent me an email telling me that I should check out the cherry blossoms in their peak bloom period before Friday, April 1, the official end of the peak. He then came into my office 3 different times to talk to me about when I was going to see the blossoms and essentially forced me to re-arrange my work hours for Wednesday and Thursday so that I could see the blossom during a weekday; so I worked an extra 2 hours on Wednesday night so that I could come in late after a morning down by the tidal basin and the Jefferson Memorial the next morning. I took advantage of this bizarre opportunity and grabbed a quick breakfast with Christina and we went down to see the blossoms together. While it was a bit cold and the sky was gray, it was still beautiful!

After a lovely morning with the cherry blossoms, I headed back to the office to start my work day...with an exciting weekend with the Whiptail alumnae ahead of me! See my next blog post!