I got the following list from another blog I recently stumbled upon. Of course, as a "Master" of English Literature (I'm so witty...or nerdy...or conceited), I thought it looked like fun. As indicated on the aforementioned blog, they're not sure whose list this is or why some of these particular books are included. Of course, my feminist pedagogical slant notices immediately that the list is predominantly white, and predominantly male. I also noticed that neither of my favorite authors, William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, made the list. Hmmm...
Nonetheless, I was still fairly pleased (? surprised? not sure what word would be most appropriate here) by the fact that I've read more than half of the books on the list. I also have several in my "to read" pile, and there were quite a few that I felt ashamed to admit that I hadn't yet read. I guess despite my feminist slant, I still feel like I need to conform to the traditional "Canon" on some level.
So, if you're so inclined, let us know how many of these books you've read by doing the following:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you started but did not finish.
3) Reprint this list in your own blog so we can try and track down these people who’ve read 6 or less and force books upon them.
Also, be sure to leave a comment letting me know that you're taking this challenge. I'd love to see what others have or haven't read. :)
"THE" List
1. The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
2. The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
3. The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
4. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
5. Life of Pi - Yann Martel—in my “to read” pile
6. The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
7. The Color Purple - Alice Walker
8. Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
9. Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
10. To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
11. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
12. Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
13. His Dark Materials (trilogy) - Philip Pullman (am currently reading)
14. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
15. Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
16. The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolkien
17. Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
18. Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
19. Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
20. Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
21. Chronicles of Narnia - C.S. Lewis
22. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe – C.S. Lewis
23. Winnie the Pooh - A.A. Milne
24. Animal Farm - George Orwell
25. Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
26. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
27. On The Road - Jack Kerouac
28. Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
29. Charlotte’s Web - E.B. White
30. Hamlet - William Shakespeare
31. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
32. Complete Works of Shakespeare---ummmm, not sure why 'Hamlet' is separate from this listing. Perhaps the anonymous list creators thought it was written by a separate Shakespeare?? lol
33. Ulysses - James Joyce
34. Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
35. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
36. Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
37. The Bible
38. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
39. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
40. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
41. Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
42. The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
43. One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
45. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
46. Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
47. The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
48. A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
49. The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
50. Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
51. Little Women - Louisa M. Alcott
52. Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
53. Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
54. Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
55. Middlemarch - George Eliot—in my “to read” pile
56. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
57. Bleak House - Charles Dickens
58. The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
59. David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
60. Emma - Jane Austen
61. Persuasion - Jane Austen
62. Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
63. Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
64. The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
65. A Prayer for Owen Meaney - John Irving
66. The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
67. Anne of Green Gables – L.M. Montgomery
68. Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
69. Atonement - Ian McEwan
70. Dune - Frank Herbert
71. Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons—am reading right now
72. A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
73. The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
74. A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
75. Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez—in my “to read” pile
76. The Secret History - Donna Tartt
77. The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
78. Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
79. Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
80. Bridget Jones’ Diary - Helen Fielding
81. Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
82. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
83. Dracula - Bram Stoker
84. Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
85. The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath—in my “to read” pile
86. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
87. Germinal - Emile Zola
88. Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
89. Possession - A.S. Byatt
90. A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
91. Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
92. The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
93. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
94. A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
95. The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
96. The Faraway Tree Collection - Enid Blyton
97. The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
98. Watership Down – Richard Adams
99. A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
100. The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
Friday, July 18, 2008
Wednesday, July 16, 2008
Trivializing Truth?
Yet another post about an article link...
I love the Washington Post. When I was in college we got a sweet deal for a student rate for the paper. I think we paid something crazy like $100 for the paper to be delivered every day for an ENTIRE YEAR. How I miss those days! There's nothing better than a nice warm drink and bagel and the Sunday (or really anyday) Post. When we had our current local paper delivered we ended up paying more than that, and let's just say the local paper isn't quite the Washington Post...
Anyways, all that to say I miss the Post and have to console myself with surfing the paper's web page for articles, one of which I'm writing in response to so now I'll get back to what I was intending to post about...
I thought the above article was fantastic. "Mr. Loretta" and I get into all kinds of debates about Wikipedia. He is a HUGE fan and always using it to find information about whatever has captured his interest at that point in time. The English teacher in me is absolutely appalled by it. I don't let my students use it as a source. There's too much of a chance for error. It is too unreliable. I'm one of those "weird" teachers that are mentioned in the article. You know, one of the ones who makes students actually go to the library to do research for their research papers. I guess I find it ironic that my husband, who is a physicist because he thinks physics is fundamental, because it is the closest thing to "truth" that he believes there is, loves Wikipedia and the internet's ability to provide answers. He is constantly talking about how much he wants a cell phone that will enable him to access Wikipedia at any time in order to find an answer to a question he has or in order to resolve any pending arguments he may have. I guess it just seems illogical (bizarre? surreal?) to me that he goes to Wikipedia to provide him with the truth. It's almost as if "truth" has become so commodified in our society that we are desensitized to the fact that "truth" is, well, not always true or correct, and Mr. Loretta (or Optimus, as he requested I call him when I informed him of his bloggy pseudonym--someone *still* loves Transformers a little bit too much) and his adoration of and devotion to Wikipedia is the perfect example of this desensitization.
The internet has made so many things easier in our society. It's wonderful that, although we live so very far away from our families, we can share photographs and videos with one another (although that means I should update the family blog more often...). It's great to be able to email and message those distant family members and friends in order to keep in touch, just as it's a great tool for getting in touch with those friends here in town to arrange various get-togethers or to discuss different things uninterrupted by the important smaller people in our lives.
But at the same time, the internet has made things so much more difficult. I think about the many many email forwards my grandmother sends me vilifying the candidate I'm most likely to support in the presidential election: He's a Muslim! He took his oath of office on the Koran! He doesn't say the Pledge of Allegiance or put his hand over his heart or look at the flag while doing so! He won't wear that damn flag lapel pin. The list could go on and on. It's become so easy for anyone and everyone to publish their own version of the "truth" that reality often is obscured behind layers and layers of inaccuracies.
And, therein lies the problem with Wikipedia. Anyone can go in and edit a subject to have it say whatever they want it to say. Granted, there are moderators and editors who review the entries and flag or remove inaccurate information, but the fact of the matter is that the sheer volume of entries makes it impossible for said editors or moderators to remove the faulty information in a timely fashion unless they are already keeping a close eye on that particular entry at that particular time. In fact, when I was in graduate school, one of my professors altered the entry on a famous poet with false information. It was up for nearly a week before it was flagged or taken down.
So, taking all of this into consideration, one has to wonder whether Wikipedia, and the Internet for that matter, are beneficial for our society or if they are actually contributing to the trivialization and commodification of truth.
I, for one, certainly don't have an answer.
I love the Washington Post. When I was in college we got a sweet deal for a student rate for the paper. I think we paid something crazy like $100 for the paper to be delivered every day for an ENTIRE YEAR. How I miss those days! There's nothing better than a nice warm drink and bagel and the Sunday (or really anyday) Post. When we had our current local paper delivered we ended up paying more than that, and let's just say the local paper isn't quite the Washington Post...
Anyways, all that to say I miss the Post and have to console myself with surfing the paper's web page for articles, one of which I'm writing in response to so now I'll get back to what I was intending to post about...
I thought the above article was fantastic. "Mr. Loretta" and I get into all kinds of debates about Wikipedia. He is a HUGE fan and always using it to find information about whatever has captured his interest at that point in time. The English teacher in me is absolutely appalled by it. I don't let my students use it as a source. There's too much of a chance for error. It is too unreliable. I'm one of those "weird" teachers that are mentioned in the article. You know, one of the ones who makes students actually go to the library to do research for their research papers. I guess I find it ironic that my husband, who is a physicist because he thinks physics is fundamental, because it is the closest thing to "truth" that he believes there is, loves Wikipedia and the internet's ability to provide answers. He is constantly talking about how much he wants a cell phone that will enable him to access Wikipedia at any time in order to find an answer to a question he has or in order to resolve any pending arguments he may have. I guess it just seems illogical (bizarre? surreal?) to me that he goes to Wikipedia to provide him with the truth. It's almost as if "truth" has become so commodified in our society that we are desensitized to the fact that "truth" is, well, not always true or correct, and Mr. Loretta (or Optimus, as he requested I call him when I informed him of his bloggy pseudonym--someone *still* loves Transformers a little bit too much) and his adoration of and devotion to Wikipedia is the perfect example of this desensitization.
The internet has made so many things easier in our society. It's wonderful that, although we live so very far away from our families, we can share photographs and videos with one another (although that means I should update the family blog more often...). It's great to be able to email and message those distant family members and friends in order to keep in touch, just as it's a great tool for getting in touch with those friends here in town to arrange various get-togethers or to discuss different things uninterrupted by the important smaller people in our lives.
But at the same time, the internet has made things so much more difficult. I think about the many many email forwards my grandmother sends me vilifying the candidate I'm most likely to support in the presidential election: He's a Muslim! He took his oath of office on the Koran! He doesn't say the Pledge of Allegiance or put his hand over his heart or look at the flag while doing so! He won't wear that damn flag lapel pin. The list could go on and on. It's become so easy for anyone and everyone to publish their own version of the "truth" that reality often is obscured behind layers and layers of inaccuracies.
And, therein lies the problem with Wikipedia. Anyone can go in and edit a subject to have it say whatever they want it to say. Granted, there are moderators and editors who review the entries and flag or remove inaccurate information, but the fact of the matter is that the sheer volume of entries makes it impossible for said editors or moderators to remove the faulty information in a timely fashion unless they are already keeping a close eye on that particular entry at that particular time. In fact, when I was in graduate school, one of my professors altered the entry on a famous poet with false information. It was up for nearly a week before it was flagged or taken down.
So, taking all of this into consideration, one has to wonder whether Wikipedia, and the Internet for that matter, are beneficial for our society or if they are actually contributing to the trivialization and commodification of truth.
I, for one, certainly don't have an answer.
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Gun Gluttony
While the issue of guns and gun violence are often swirling around in my brain, I have been thinking about it almost constantly the past few days, and it is certainly at the forefront of my brain tonight as I sit here writing this post.
You see, a few weeks ago, I read this. This took place the town over from where I grew up, nestled in the "safe" foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. These reckless men/boys were shooting at cars along a highway I've traveled upon more times than I can count. A highway that those near and dear to me--my family, my best friends--drive upon with great frequency. And these men put their lives and the lives of many others at risk because guns are too accessible in our society, a society that is plagued by irresponsibility.
And today, today marks the one year anniversary of one of the events that will be a permanent part of my life, an anniversary that I won't ever forget, for it marks the day on which another reckless young man took the lives of 32 innocent and brilliant human beings before turning the gun on himself at my alma mater. I remember exactly what I was doing when I found out what had happened, how I spent the rest of the day glued to my computer screen, watching the events unfold, anxiously awaiting the emergence of more details on what had happened, waiting to hear from my family and friends to find out if they were okay. Like my parents before me who remembered where they were when JFK was shot, like my grandparents before them who remember what they were doing after the invasion of Pearl Harbor, this day, April 16th, what I was doing, what I was thinking, will be forever etched in my memory.
It is with fear and trepidation that I contemplate the world I have chosen to bring new life, the next generation, into. It is a world rife with violence and pain. Last year, on the morning of April 16th, I was thinking of how best to celebrate the one year anniversary of my son's birth two days later, but all that changed when I heard the first rumblings of what was happening in Blacksburg, the place I still consider to by my truest "home." During this time when I should have been reveling in the wonder of pregnancy, birth, the wonderful life my partner and I had created, and my son's transition from infancy to toddlerhood my mind was otherwise consumed with images of violence, pain, anguish, torment. It is hard to consider the beautiful elements of the world, of life, when confronted with the worst in such a dreadful manner.
Likewise, just one short month after the birth of my daughter, I found myself again faced with the same bleak mindset following another campus shooting, this time not at my alma mater, but perpetuated by a student enrolled at the university in my current hometown, a university where my partner is also a student. Again, a time when I should have been marveling at the perfect innocence in my arms, I was instead contemplating the cruelty of mankind.
Why? Why? Because many of our country's leaders are reluctant, if not outright opposed, to restricting access to guns. Guns are used to inflict harm, to kill people. They have no other purpose. Guns-rights proponents have taken the Second Amendment far, far beyond its intended scope. Much of the gun violence we see today in our society is due directly to the abundance of guns available and the ease with which people can obtain them. I find it appalling that in both campus shootings I referenced above, the gunmen obtained at least some of their weapons from an ONLINE dealer. Online! No face-to-face interaction, just a click of a button and the gun is yours.
I have no solution. I just needed to write about what I am feeling tonight/today. Gun violence has marred the lives of so many I love and many, many more whom I've never met. As I mentioned earlier, it's also irrevocably intertwined, in my own mind, with the nascent lives of my dear children. As a mother, I feel the need for gun control even more urgently. I do not want my children to feel the fear and pain their parents, especially their father, have felt because of gun violence. I want them to feel free, to enjoy life, to love, to be fulfilled and happy. Yet, I cannot help but be afraid of what the future holds for them, and their contemporaries, if we do not change things to make this a safer, better world for them.
You see, a few weeks ago, I read this. This took place the town over from where I grew up, nestled in the "safe" foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains. These reckless men/boys were shooting at cars along a highway I've traveled upon more times than I can count. A highway that those near and dear to me--my family, my best friends--drive upon with great frequency. And these men put their lives and the lives of many others at risk because guns are too accessible in our society, a society that is plagued by irresponsibility.
And today, today marks the one year anniversary of one of the events that will be a permanent part of my life, an anniversary that I won't ever forget, for it marks the day on which another reckless young man took the lives of 32 innocent and brilliant human beings before turning the gun on himself at my alma mater. I remember exactly what I was doing when I found out what had happened, how I spent the rest of the day glued to my computer screen, watching the events unfold, anxiously awaiting the emergence of more details on what had happened, waiting to hear from my family and friends to find out if they were okay. Like my parents before me who remembered where they were when JFK was shot, like my grandparents before them who remember what they were doing after the invasion of Pearl Harbor, this day, April 16th, what I was doing, what I was thinking, will be forever etched in my memory.
It is with fear and trepidation that I contemplate the world I have chosen to bring new life, the next generation, into. It is a world rife with violence and pain. Last year, on the morning of April 16th, I was thinking of how best to celebrate the one year anniversary of my son's birth two days later, but all that changed when I heard the first rumblings of what was happening in Blacksburg, the place I still consider to by my truest "home." During this time when I should have been reveling in the wonder of pregnancy, birth, the wonderful life my partner and I had created, and my son's transition from infancy to toddlerhood my mind was otherwise consumed with images of violence, pain, anguish, torment. It is hard to consider the beautiful elements of the world, of life, when confronted with the worst in such a dreadful manner.
Likewise, just one short month after the birth of my daughter, I found myself again faced with the same bleak mindset following another campus shooting, this time not at my alma mater, but perpetuated by a student enrolled at the university in my current hometown, a university where my partner is also a student. Again, a time when I should have been marveling at the perfect innocence in my arms, I was instead contemplating the cruelty of mankind.
Why? Why? Because many of our country's leaders are reluctant, if not outright opposed, to restricting access to guns. Guns are used to inflict harm, to kill people. They have no other purpose. Guns-rights proponents have taken the Second Amendment far, far beyond its intended scope. Much of the gun violence we see today in our society is due directly to the abundance of guns available and the ease with which people can obtain them. I find it appalling that in both campus shootings I referenced above, the gunmen obtained at least some of their weapons from an ONLINE dealer. Online! No face-to-face interaction, just a click of a button and the gun is yours.
I have no solution. I just needed to write about what I am feeling tonight/today. Gun violence has marred the lives of so many I love and many, many more whom I've never met. As I mentioned earlier, it's also irrevocably intertwined, in my own mind, with the nascent lives of my dear children. As a mother, I feel the need for gun control even more urgently. I do not want my children to feel the fear and pain their parents, especially their father, have felt because of gun violence. I want them to feel free, to enjoy life, to love, to be fulfilled and happy. Yet, I cannot help but be afraid of what the future holds for them, and their contemporaries, if we do not change things to make this a safer, better world for them.
Monday, April 14, 2008
Library Love?
So, I have this love/hate relationship with the new home of our local library. As a grad student desperately trying to finish writing my master's thesis (especially as one with two small children at home), I love the library. Its wide open spaces, the serenity I feel when I set up "shop" at a table in a corner on the second floor, the huge windows out of which I gaze upon some of the town's beautiful older buildings. I can focus, get work accomplished, all the while accompanied by the muted sounds emanating from the library's other patrons. The airy space is accentuated by the building's "green" elements--bamboo walls and floors (in select locations) and natural light, among others--and it is beautifully designed. As an adult, I love this library.
As a parent, however, I could not detest it more. Today was the most recent in a long list of times I have visited this, my, beautiful new library by myself with my two small children. Two small children under the age of two. While, as a student, I love the library, many of those same features that I adore foster loathing when I visit as a parent. The open space means many hiding spots for an active almost-two year old boy. There is no mom time when I'm at this library, not chance to chat with other adults who happen to be there with (or without) children. I can't sit down because assuredly as soon as I do, I will need to jump up in order to ascertain where my rambunctious child has gone. (It does not help that said child's father thinks it's fun to play "hiding" or "chase" in the library with said child--of course, he rarely takes both children to the library, and if he does, it is to bring the wee lass so she and I can nurse when I'm writing.)
Going to this library is perhaps the most tiring outing we undertake. Ever. After wrangling the boy, nursing (of course, I don't think we go anywhere without nursing at least once there) the girl, talking about sharing and curtail the number of non-sharing altercations, and chasing my ever-active almost-two year old in and out of all corners of the place, I am worn out. I don't think I feel more tired after an intense workout class at the gym than I do after a morning at the "peaceful" library.
And to think, it all could have been avoided if those architects who designed the multi-million dollar space had had the ingenuity to corral off the children's section. Like the other library in town, which coincidentally, is one of my favorite places to take my kids...but not my thesis.
As a parent, however, I could not detest it more. Today was the most recent in a long list of times I have visited this, my, beautiful new library by myself with my two small children. Two small children under the age of two. While, as a student, I love the library, many of those same features that I adore foster loathing when I visit as a parent. The open space means many hiding spots for an active almost-two year old boy. There is no mom time when I'm at this library, not chance to chat with other adults who happen to be there with (or without) children. I can't sit down because assuredly as soon as I do, I will need to jump up in order to ascertain where my rambunctious child has gone. (It does not help that said child's father thinks it's fun to play "hiding" or "chase" in the library with said child--of course, he rarely takes both children to the library, and if he does, it is to bring the wee lass so she and I can nurse when I'm writing.)
Going to this library is perhaps the most tiring outing we undertake. Ever. After wrangling the boy, nursing (of course, I don't think we go anywhere without nursing at least once there) the girl, talking about sharing and curtail the number of non-sharing altercations, and chasing my ever-active almost-two year old in and out of all corners of the place, I am worn out. I don't think I feel more tired after an intense workout class at the gym than I do after a morning at the "peaceful" library.
And to think, it all could have been avoided if those architects who designed the multi-million dollar space had had the ingenuity to corral off the children's section. Like the other library in town, which coincidentally, is one of my favorite places to take my kids...but not my thesis.
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Insidious Ignorance
Last night I was fuming. Fuming, I tell you. It was 11:50 p.m., and I was finally able to sit down and eat my dinner. 11:50! Oh, and the husband? He had been in bed for at least two hours.
Hmm...something strike you as not right about that whole situation? Especially considering that said husband considers himself to be a feminist?
Today I'm just in a pissy mood and frustrated with the whole thing.
I mean, seriously, I am home with the two children all day. By myself. I feed Kruf two entire meals and several snacks, I nurse Teuf on and off all day long, and I somehow never manage to make the mess that Husband makes when he's alone with the kids for three to four hours in the evening when I'm out of the house trying to FINISH MY THESIS.
Yet, after waking up at 6:30 a.m., taking care of the kids all day until 4:30 p.m., playing with them outside and attending to their needs, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, and then trying to switch gears and get into "academic" mode for a few hours to try to write, when I arrive home ready to eat, I find the house a disaster area, the wee one not in her pajamas, the older one about *thisfar* from having a meltdown because he's so tired, and Husband ready to go to bed.
Seriously? Seriously?? I had lunch at 12:30 p.m. and snacked on a few cookies before I headed to the library. It is now 9:30. The wee one wants to nurse, the older one needs to be in bed, oh, about an hour ago. Apparently Husband can't handle that when he has both of them. So, I sit for the next hour and a half nursing Teuf, trying to get her to sleep.
When she's finally down for the count at just a bit before 11, I finally get to put her into bed. Finally. I ask her father to come and help me clean up the house, which looks like one of our friendly springtime tornadoes has plowed through it--not one room is untouched, not even the laundry room, and HE asks ME if I'M serious. Seriously? He says it's not worth it for him to get up and help me since he'll only be helping for 10-15 minutes. WHAT??!!??
I mutter "whatever" and head off to spend the next HOUR cleaning up HIS mess, or the mess that was made on his watch. (I'm not even going to get into our obvious differences in cleaning standards. I'll save that rant for another day.)
Finally, I get to eat at a bit before midnight.
What is it about men that they can't fathom this thing that so many women I know are proficient at--multitasking? If the husband is watching the kids, heaven forbid he have to do something else like, say, do a couple of loads of laundry or CLEAN UP THE TOYS WITH THE KIDDOS BEFORE DINNER.
For a while there I thought it was just my husband, but the more I've talked with other women who are married to men, the more I realize that it's something nearly all guys do. I'm sure it has nothing to do with patriarchal privilege, which often allows men to be raised without acknowledging the real work that goes into maintaining a clean, orderly household. You can bet that my son is going to understand that concept. If only I could retrain his father, or at least get through to him why I need his help. I have a feeling that's never going to happen.
And the really frustrating thing? How much you want to bet the same exact thing as last night will happen again this evening?
Sigh.
Hmm...something strike you as not right about that whole situation? Especially considering that said husband considers himself to be a feminist?
Today I'm just in a pissy mood and frustrated with the whole thing.
I mean, seriously, I am home with the two children all day. By myself. I feed Kruf two entire meals and several snacks, I nurse Teuf on and off all day long, and I somehow never manage to make the mess that Husband makes when he's alone with the kids for three to four hours in the evening when I'm out of the house trying to FINISH MY THESIS.
Yet, after waking up at 6:30 a.m., taking care of the kids all day until 4:30 p.m., playing with them outside and attending to their needs, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, and then trying to switch gears and get into "academic" mode for a few hours to try to write, when I arrive home ready to eat, I find the house a disaster area, the wee one not in her pajamas, the older one about *thisfar* from having a meltdown because he's so tired, and Husband ready to go to bed.
Seriously? Seriously?? I had lunch at 12:30 p.m. and snacked on a few cookies before I headed to the library. It is now 9:30. The wee one wants to nurse, the older one needs to be in bed, oh, about an hour ago. Apparently Husband can't handle that when he has both of them. So, I sit for the next hour and a half nursing Teuf, trying to get her to sleep.
When she's finally down for the count at just a bit before 11, I finally get to put her into bed. Finally. I ask her father to come and help me clean up the house, which looks like one of our friendly springtime tornadoes has plowed through it--not one room is untouched, not even the laundry room, and HE asks ME if I'M serious. Seriously? He says it's not worth it for him to get up and help me since he'll only be helping for 10-15 minutes. WHAT??!!??
I mutter "whatever" and head off to spend the next HOUR cleaning up HIS mess, or the mess that was made on his watch. (I'm not even going to get into our obvious differences in cleaning standards. I'll save that rant for another day.)
Finally, I get to eat at a bit before midnight.
What is it about men that they can't fathom this thing that so many women I know are proficient at--multitasking? If the husband is watching the kids, heaven forbid he have to do something else like, say, do a couple of loads of laundry or CLEAN UP THE TOYS WITH THE KIDDOS BEFORE DINNER.
For a while there I thought it was just my husband, but the more I've talked with other women who are married to men, the more I realize that it's something nearly all guys do. I'm sure it has nothing to do with patriarchal privilege, which often allows men to be raised without acknowledging the real work that goes into maintaining a clean, orderly household. You can bet that my son is going to understand that concept. If only I could retrain his father, or at least get through to him why I need his help. I have a feeling that's never going to happen.
And the really frustrating thing? How much you want to bet the same exact thing as last night will happen again this evening?
Sigh.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Initial Introduction
Welcome friends! You've found my newest cyberhome, the place where I hope to write down my musings, the minutiae that's flying around my brain throughout the day. I created this blog to try to get back into the habit of writing every day--whether it's a few sentences on some trivial details from my day or a more formal post on a more serious topic.
That being said, I hope you enjoy what my ruminations, and if not enjoy, I hope it at least makes you think, for as Lorraine Hansbury wrote, "Never be afraid to sit awhile and think."
That being said, I hope you enjoy what my ruminations, and if not enjoy, I hope it at least makes you think, for as Lorraine Hansbury wrote, "Never be afraid to sit awhile and think."
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