I miss when "Breaks" were actually breaks. >_<

To do over Thanksgiving Break:

*Interview Mother for oral history project (find tape recorder/video camera somehow)
*Read relevant sections of "The Mommy Myth" for oral history project
*Write short paper on oral history project
*Read "Growing Up Mississippi" for Women in American History class
*Interview sister about Young Adult Literature
*Write paper for Young Adult literature
*Write a rough-draft of Greek history paper and e-mail to Dr. Rose ASAP
*Study for Japanese final Tuesday (What the FUCK!?!?!?!)

which means I'm not even going to have time to think about my Research paper. Why do all my professors thing they're the only ones who have work due? No relaxing break for me.

Obviously this isn't really anything new or anything people probably haven't said a million times already...

I had forgotten to mention a really fascinating conversation we had in our Women in American History class, about Miscegenation Laws. While the conversation started out as a reaction to the text within our textbook itself, it turned into a discussion of modern politics on gay marriage. We were discussing civil unions and "marriage" itself, and the right to property, making health desicions, etc. Because some of the stuff Miscegenation Laws said just came off as way.... way too familiar. Especially when we read a couple old religious sermons from when slavery was still legal  that gave biblical reasons for slavery as an institution, the white supremacy over other races, and why interracial marriages could not be allowed... it didn't seem all that much different than some of the debates the class as a whole had heard over gay marriage today.

From Peggy Pascoe's essay  "Ophelia Paquet, a Tillamook Indian Wife: Miscegenation Laws and the Privileges of Property"

"In American Law, marriage provided the glue which allowed for the transmission of property from husbands to wives and their chidlren; miscegenation law kept property within racial boundries by invalidating marraiges between white men and women of color..." 
Or people of any race states felt like, including Native American, Koreans, Chinese, Japanese, Hawaiin, Filipinos...

"Miscegenation law played on this connection [between the words 'property' and 'propriety'] by drawing a sharp line between 'legitimate marriage' on one hand and 'illicit sex' on the other, then defining all interracial relationships as illicit sex.'" 

I was interested to see that the author herself made this connection in her essay as well, after the similarities had struck me while reading it:
"More than a generation after the demise of miscegenation laws...the drawing of exclusionary lines around marriage [continues]... The most prominent-- though hardly the only-- victims are lesbian and gay couples, who point out that the sex classifications currently embedded  in marriage law operate in much the same way that the race classifications embedded in miscegenation laws once did: that is, they allow courts to categorize same-sex relationships as illicit sex rather than legitimate marriage and they allow courts to exclude same-sex couples from the property benefits of marraige, which now include everything from tax advantages to medical insurance coverage."

Either way, this is just some food for thought, because the conversation in class (which took up nearly the entire class period in that 'let's talk about issues and not homework way that I really love) really, really struck a chord in me somewhere. It leads back to my feelings that I feel that private religious institutions have a right to deny marriages to anybody they want-- but the government can't. Are racial classifications really that different from gender/sex classifications?
Anyway, this is not really to start up another gay marriage debate on lj, but I really couldn't get this essay out of my mind.

hmm, is it weird that my having to get allergy shots counts somehow as a disability? I'm always being referred to the disabilities coordinator. I just thought it interesting. Anyhow, because I had such a horrid reaction to my last shot (my arm had swollen up to magnificient size, mind you. For some reason, it never crossed my mind to take the allergy medicine I already had with anti-hystimine in it even if I did consider benedryl), I got a lower dose again this week along with a nice supply of anti-itch cream. Apparently I'm to contact the office if I have any troubles again so that they can contact my allergist. But I think that this time it's fine, it hardly even itches! whoot!

Some people on the quad are playing Beatles music constantly, and it makes me feel happy. Nothing like walking down the quad with the wind blowing in your hair on a beautiful day while "Let it Be" drifts over the quad. The Bolivian alpaca people are outside on the quad this week as promised! Whoot! I am definitely getting a scarf and a hat, we'll see how much money I otherwise want to spend on things. Of course, it's so BEAUTIFUL outside today taht I can't think of even trying on hats and scarves! I mean, it's effin GORGEOUS outside! IT's in the lower or mid 50's, there's a beautiful breeze, it's sunny and clear, and the trees are all red and orange! I mean, THIS is what they call fall. It's a bloody PERFECT day outside. COol and breezy without being cold, the wind just gives you this exhilerated feeling! Man, I love autumn so damn much. I could just go outside and sleep in teh grass forever.

I have all my Anna Karenina sketches and the explanation paper copied, printed, and ready to go. They're not great, but they'll do for a rough draft, I suppose. I should start working on the rest of the week's homework, considering I have a paper due Friday, a proposal for a large term paper due Friday, and a summentary due Thursday, along with the normal homework. Blarg. But at least I can enjoy the weather outside and relax knowing my Anna Karenina is full go.

meh, I am not feeling well tonight. I ahve a slight fever of 99.2, which is really nothing to worry about. I had a bit of a stomach ache earlier tonight (nothing new there either), and I'm exhausted. Also, when I went to get my allergy shot this afternoon, they were upping my dose, and apparently this shot was, in the nurse's own words, 1o times stronger than the last shot. So of course my arm is really swollen up. It also hurts, but I'm putting some anti-itch cream on it in hopes that if it stops itchign, maybe the swelling and the minor pain will go down as well. Blarg.

Why isn't this week OVER yet? I still have my Queer Theory current event to write about, history reading to catch up on... and all I want to do is go to bed, as after working last night till 6 and getting up this morning for allergy shots, I had no nap. At least tomorrow is the Cake concert, but I'm really going to need to find a time to nap at some point or I'm not going to be able to hang out with my girls tomorrow night. I should get back to homework... man, I can barely keep my eyes open.

anyhow. back to work.

Thigns I've accomplished so far tonight:

1)Laughed and enjoyed Gentlemen Prefer Blondes immensly. Really, how have I not seen that movie before now?

2)Been assured by all three of my professors that my reccomendations were turned in by today. AM not sure I can believe them, and will check tomorrow. If it is so, then I can send in my application!

3)Had way too much soda/caffiene and some really yummy Soup at Hand

4) Made a pretty/mellow Beatles playlist on iTunes to burn a cd from. Am planning to use this cd for late night driving/stargazing purposes. It could be cut down a lot, though, I have too much Beatles (wait, that's not possible, I tell a lie!). Maybe just make 2 cd's. This also reminded me (Because honestly, it had a lot of Beatles and Dylan and Simon & Garfunkel on it) that I never did get around to burning my Ultimate Hippie Car Mix either. Must do this.

5)Found out that the Bolivian winter apparel sellers are coming back this year!!! Whoot! I despertly need another wonderfully soft and dorky looking alpaca hat since I can't find mine from last year. Maybe some gloves that aren't fingerless too, this time.

6)Talked to Denni on the phone (I'm so glad we've been chatting on the telephone lately, I miss her so!) and had a nice conversation with my mother as well.

7)Read some literature from the year 13th century about maidens laying around by springs despondently while the authors go on about Virgin Mary imagery or somewhat. And am now attempting to re-read Piers Plowman and Pearl and not think about how much I'm going to fail this midterm. Because I am.

I got stung by a bee this morning. Stupid bees taking refuge in our dorm because it's cold outside, they're EVERWHERE. I was just walking down the stairs, running my hand along the railing, and I guess my hand ran into a bee? I don't know, I wasn't looking, but it definitely hurt like a bitch and swelled up during history class so that my notes are now fairly illegible. Luckily it's just a dull ache and mostly gone away by this point, but damnit! I hate bees, and getting stung was really not a great way to start out my morning.

Also, I've learned that I should never attempt to make important appointments at 3:30 in the morning. I sent an e-mail to the financial aid office last night hoping to make an appointment about the study abroad stuff for next tuesday, asking that any time was good as long as it was before 4:30 (since I have a class). But apparently I was so tired taht I asked for an appointment on Tuesday, Oct. 12th. October 12th being today, which is a Wednesday, so I didnt' really get any part of that right. XD Also, they made it for 4:00, which is really cutting it a little short if you ask me, but maybe I'll go 10 minutes early just to see if they can squeeze me in, or I'll make another appointment if I have to. But after 2:00am, my mental skills obviously go downhill to the point where I'm incapable of using a calendar.

And now that I've lamented my pained index finger, I think I'm going to nap, because two of my classes were cancelled today so I have a bit of time before this phantom financial aid meeting. I'm also hoping that the girl I covered for at work a couple weeks ago who offered to take one of my Wednesday 1-6:00am shifts might do so tongiht so that I can work on my peer editing, presentation, Queer Theory midterm, and maybe that English paper of which I haven't quite decided if I'm going to do or skip yet. Mmmm. nap.

1) I can't stop listening to that "Mad World" cover from Donnie Darko. Like over and over and over again, to the point where it's on repeat on your playlist and you just can't stop listening to the words.

2)I've studied for this midterm a LOT. Unnaturally a lot for me especially. I paid attention HARDCORE in every single one of my classes and took extensive notes. I highlighted and wrote vocab words and filled out local government information while working the late night desk. I went outside and studied over the weekend. I made flashcards. I went to the hour-long study session tonight in Violette Hall. And yet I STILL don't know half the crap I need to for this stupid thing. I don't know whether to stop studying, give up, and get some sleep or continue to fight my brain into remembering what article and section the necessary and proper clause can be found in? Gaaah, I hate this. I'll never learn all these details and I'll never learn all the articles and clauses. I feel like a stupid American not being able to understand my government, and even MORE like a stupid American for just not caring anymore. It's a fascinating class, I love the lectures, I love learning about amendments and court cases and the hidden hillarities in the constitution, but test me on it and all the love is gone. I HATE this crap. Stupid articles.

3) I've made a little fort for myself under my bed now that I've rearranged my desk/furniture. And I can hang my pretty flowered throw from under my bed so that it hangs down and makes a REAL fort-like thing for privacy when my roomies are watching gross television shows. It's stupid, but it kinda harks back to the good old days of childhood when I used to make elaborate couch-forts with pillows with my sister.

4) On a completely random note: when I was a kid, I used to get Marshmallow man and the tire man mixed up.





...and now to attempt studying for a half-hour before I give up and go to bed. whoot.