Sunday Night Live

It appears that I am on my way to a recovery. For future notice, here is my feel better recipe:

1) An upset--in basketball that is.
2) Wine+funny Mitch+slightly tipsy B-hawk
3) Realizing that I am not broke and do not have herpes...snaps for avoiding poverty and STD's!
4) The Senate--I've never heard happier, sweeter music, and more intense (at times) music in my life
5) Party planning--Save Darfur partay next quarter. Theme=70's...anything from disco to hippie to mod. I love that the best parties I've been at this year have been at my own house. I think most other people agree too. Seriously. We throw kick ass parties.
6) Tucker Max


And that is that.

I was realizing, though, that I am not that unique in my beliefs. Specifically, most of my opinions on big issues come from my parents. Is this a sign that I have not adequately thought things through and am just following the family bandwagon? I hope not.

My parents both hugely deviated from their families in terms of their political leanings and their tendency toward feminism. My dad moved to the US, so obviously the politics he developed opinions on were new to him, but my mom came from a staunch conservative background and did a complete 180. And somewhere in there, both of them developed these hyphenate-your-name, don't-shave-your-legs feminist viewpoints. The fact that they came to these conclusions pretty much of their own accord (like a lot of people I know and consider horribly smart) impresses me, because they must have thought so much more about what they believed and must really be committed to it.

I, on the other hand, fall neatly in line with my parents' said political opinions. I am liberal, fairly feminist (although I shave my legs, which my father views as a small failure at life...pshaw, I may be selling out, but he would too if he had gone to my middle school), a pacifist, and I don't do the flag salute. The only part of me that does not come directly from my upbringing is my acceptance of most Da Vinci Code-esque claims, and my resolute belief that homosexuality is not a sin (my parents aren't from the Dark Ages, and they do believe in completely equal rights under the laaw for homosexual couples, they are just literal-perhaps overly so-about the Bible...don't worry, they believe in evolution and everything!). This makes me slightly worried....I want to know that I would still come to my visciously liberal opinions all on my own. I'm actually not that worried that I'm right, just that I would have the intelligence to get there without the help of my parental unit.


Did you know that my father was once investigated by the FBI? Because he's South African, and there was an uprising going on when he came to the States. About this thing called apartheid, I don't know if you've heard about it. [insert sarcasm here]
Anyway, isn't that deliciously silly? Wait until they hear that he taught me to not salute the flag...shock and awe, they will send him right back to SA, and I will go too and get a brilliant tan.

I wonder if the reason that I feel so much more connected to South Africa than my sister is that I look more like my dad, and people treat me different because they recognize me as non-apple pie american. Tess actually looks light enough be the Olsen twins' little sister. But, it also could be that I am just more attached to family than her. Cancers (me) are supposedly more attached to family, and Scorpios (her) not in such exorbitant amounts. It's interesting, because I was reading that Scorpios are also supposed to be able to withstand pain more at a young age, and that was very true of her. I remember her splitting her chin on the tub at the age of two and not even crying...not even while they gave her stitches. And then, about year later, she stuck a sticker of Jesus right up her nose and had to go to the hospital to get it out. She said "But, mommy, I just wanted Jesus inside of me." Little shitter. Of course my mother couldn't blame her after that bit of adorable-ness, so she blamed me instead, because I gave her the sticker. Ohhh, I love that kid. I can't wait to see her at Spring Break when we go to the SOUTH!!!! I am very excited at the prospect of seeing plantations and shit. And, first, we are stopping off in Lynchburg, VA. Does anyone else think its amusing that Jerry Fallwell's university (Liberty University) is in a town called Lynchburg? In my opinion, that connection is right up there along with Strom Thurmond's familia owning Al Sharpton's great grandfather. Scandalous.






"It's important to remember that feminism is no longer a group of organizations or leaders. It's the expectations that parents have for their daughters, and their sons, too."
-Anna Quindlen