bies my mother knitted out of mesh netting or something, but they’re hard to make and we’ve run out. So we’ve been washing dishes with a thinnish sponge with scrubby stuff on one side. You can NOT tell me that everyone who doesn’t have a dishwashing machine washes their dishes with a SPONGE because that is worlds of wrong. Don’t they sell scrub cloths or something? There must be people reading this who can enlighten me.
I read Anita and Me by Meera Syal. *shrug* It got better as it went along because the girl, of course, grew up. The more grown up people are (and i don’t mean this in a necessarily lived-years sense) the better i like them.
Beauty & Main (?) took over part of what used to be the large Wordsworth in Harvard Square. The beauty industry encroaching on a bookstore? Wrongness.
The Network/La Red advertises in the T. I was reading the sign with my mom and noticed the gente transgenero [i know i’m missing an accent there] in the Spanish part and mentioned how annoying it is that languages like Spanish don’t have neuter forms so you have to give stuff like that a gender. My mother pointed out that you can mix the endings on a single referent, though, say stuff like “el mujer” and i agreed that that was quite cool and i hadn’t thought of that before.
I felt a lot like a Smith tranny boy (partly because i was wearing a grey t-shirt). I tend to think of myself as non-gendered because i don’t perform gender much and spend most of my time in places where that isn’t seen as actively subverting gender norms or anything, so this was really weird. Going into public women’s bathrooms feeling like that reminded me of the stuff i’ve read about butches and tranny folks. I’m growing increasingly tempted to use men’s bathrooms just to mess with people. I spilled my dinner on my shirt, so i changed into a dark purple v-neck shirt and often when looking in the mirror wearing saw a boy in drag. 
I’m reading Judith Halberstam’s Female Masculinities and near the beginning she mentions tomboyish girls being forced to (try to) fit into feminine roles during part of their [I almost said “formative years” here, which strikes me as a very strange phrase because it implies that only certain years in one’s years help to form one.] adolescence and this reminded me of a little boy at work on Wednesday being asked about his drawing. I am of the mind that you say “Tell me about what you drew” not “Tell me what you drew” (more commonly articulated as “And what is this?” or “What did you draw?”).
they repeat the question.
I started thinking (yet again) about how we put people into binary gender boxes all the time though it’s rarely relevant. The new library card applications put the gender box in the section we fill out, not in the section the applicant fills out, and i never check either box. When we sign kids up for the summer reading program we’re supposed to note the child’s gender because at the end we see how many kids from the different schools, of different ages, and of each sex, participated and how many met their goals, and all that. I’m glad i’m not working on that anymore, because i don’t think i could bring myself to mark down gender. I’m in an abolish gender markers phase.
On Wednesday the weather forecast was rain through until next Wednesday, but it only started raining late Saturday afternoon. Hooray.
Got my check from Smith. Appropriate thank you gift for Susan Zachary would be....? I will be sending her a thank you card and a postcard from England, but i would like to do something more, even though i know she was basically just doing her job (and neither flowers nor chocolates feel quite appropriate).
Miles and Donnamarie came for dinner Saturday night and had photos from my grandfather’s funeral. That was really good, and next weekend they’ll be back with the video of the funeral.
My grandfather had no use for the bureaucracy of the military, but he loved the people; the vets were really where his heart was, and he had done a lot with a group of motorcycle Vietnam vets, so they were the escort in the funeral procession. My grandmother said he was “orthodox in an unorthodox manner.” I come from stock, yo. :) Miles said he had the gift of being able to bring a lot of eclectic people together.
I think of my grandfather as not being a very nice person, but Miles had a lot of wonderful stories about him from people he talked to while they were up in Alaska. Makes me feel better about the world and humanity and all. Course then i was listening to Miles and my mother talk about Naomi being crazy and i was reminded of how much i prize being honest with people and making the effort to understand how other people operate, not just assuming you know how people will react to things.
The religion part of the Jehovah’s Witnesses frightens me, but they are good people. Like old school good people. 
In talking about my grandfather and his writing style and stuff, Hemingway got mentioned. I complained that everyone talks about how his so minimalist, but reading his stuff his writing style seems pretty to me. My father explained that when he was writing everyone wrote very elaborately, but then people imitated his style. See, that i can respect, but i hate that he’s presented as this paragon of minimalism when he really isn’t -- not in comparison to today’s literature.
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Got cute ankle boots at Payless. My current shoes are falling apart, and i’d really like black platform slip-ons like i usually get, but these will do. (I need to remember not to go shopping for shoes in the summer because all that’s sold is sandals.) Got a lovely photo album (read: future scrapbook) as well.
Today in my necklace wearing a light blue short-sleeved shirt with white flowers on it i look like my usual not particularly gendered self. No punk, no boy, just me.
Read The Buddha of Suburbia by Hanif Kureishi. 6 more books to go.
I liked strong bodies and the backs of boy’s necks.  But I liked cunts and breasts, all of women’s softness, long smooth legs and the way women dressed. I felt it would be heartbreaking to have to choose one or the other, like having to decide between the Beatles and the Rolling Stones.
Chekhov was Dad’s favourite all-time writer, and he always said Chekhov’s plays and stories reminded him of India. I never understood this until I realized he meant that his characters’ uselessness, indolence and longing were typical of the adults he knew when he was a child.
Starting in the 1940s and then accelerating in the 1980s, Raleigh developed as a suburban city. How should Raleigh’s development pattern change to respond to the 21st century challenges of housing choice and transportation mobility?
What does the private market want today?
What does the public sector need to do?
What examples are there of cities that have adapted to the new realities?
Christopher Leinberger, a land use strategist and developer, combines an understanding of business realities with a concern for our nation's social and environmental issues. Currently, Mr. Leinberger is a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution in Washington, DC. He focuses on research and practice that help transform traditional and suburban downtowns and other places that provide “walkable urbanism”, as well as research and practice that implements the Brookings’ Blueprint for American Prosperity initiative in metropolitan areas throughout the country. Please refer to www.brookings.edu/walkableurbanism.
Mr. Leinberger is also a Professor of Practice and Director of the Graduate Real Estate Development Program at the University of Michigan. This program trains the next generation of real estate developers in the building of sustainable walkable urban places. The Program is a joint venture of the Ross Business School, law school and the Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning, where it is housed. Please refer to www.tcaup.umich.edu/realestate.
See www.CLeinberger.com for Chris Leinberger’s articles, news, and his most recent book: The Option of Urbanism.
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Find directions to the Performing Arts Center and parking locations at www.progressenergycenter.com and click on “An Evening Out.” Find information on public transportation at www.triangletransit.org.
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