• My second ‘unmade bed’ photo of the week. This from a girl who is a bedmaker. Like clockwork. But I show you this so that you can compare it to yesterday’s photo. Yes, the ugly mattress-turned-wallpaper is gone. I had a brief break during the day and came back to the apartment. Soon there was a knock on the door and it was the Company Manager, her assistant and a nice guy with a ladder. The guy with the ladder was there to rehang my curtain rod. Oh, didn’t I tell you? During my life as an I Love Lucy episode, I pulled on the curtains to close them and the rod came tumbling down, barely missing my head, the result of screws pulling out of the dry wall. They have now been secured with anchors. And the company manager didn’t mind at all that I had grabbed the other mattress. They moved the bad, cement-like mattress to the other apartment and then called my friend Bruce, who is an actor in the play. He likes a hard mattress. Indeed, he likes a hard mattress so much that he had been sleeping on the floor because he considered his mattress too soft. So he came upstairs, tried out the mattress and declared it just right. Into the elevator it went, on its way to Bruce’s apartment. See? Everybody is happy.
I slept much better last night. But then again, I was exhausted.
• I hardly ever buy new clothes; we are on a tight budget. The two items I did buy before I left were a pair of sneakers and new jeans. Do you remember the jeans I bought that smelled musty? I washed those suckers countless times. I soaked them in vinegar. I hung them outside. They reminded me of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry can’t get the body odor smell (from a valet parking attendant) out of his car. The musty smell never left my jeans. It hung on for dear life.
I had to have a pair of jeans without holes in them, which is the pathetic state of most of my jean attire. I trotted off to Kohl’s. Don came along because I insisted that he assist me in a sniff test of all jeans I might be considering. So there we were, pulling out jeans in my size, sniffing them and putting them in a yay or nay pile. I’m sure we looked rather strange and somewhat questionable. Nevertheless, I discovered that Lee jeans seemed to have a musty smell and Levis did not. Levis passed the smell test. So, Levis it is.
And, in the continuing strange saga of getting older, my shoe size has changed. My feet are a half to a whole size larger than they were. Great. Just what I wanted. So, none of my shoes fit. Hence, the new pair of sneakers.
It’s a sad state of affairs when a non-musty pair of jeans and a new pair of sneakers are exciting.
• When did the words feminist or feminism become something bad? I have been reading a few posts around blogland that seem to be saying just that. Perhaps from a religious perspective? Is this something leftover from the days of bra burning? Something about women being subservient to men? Hmmm. So I looked up the dictionary definitions. As an adjective:
Advocating social, political, legal and economic rights for women equal to those of men.
The theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes.
As a noun:
An advocate of such rights.
Sounds good and fair and right to me. There doesn’t seem to be anything outrageous in those words. Aren’t we supposed to have equal rights in this country of ours? Forget the use of the word men in the Constitution – that’s a product of the time in which it was written. Women couldn’t even exercise their right to vote then. Feminism is a positive thing. And I’ll take it even further: the equal rights of all our citizens are good and fair and right to me. I’m no more special than anyone else. Neither am I less than. Neither is anybody else. With all due respect to those of you that might disagree with me and I do respect you, I’m a proud feminist.
I have a feeling this could be a blog post in itself. Who knows what controversy I’m stirring up!
• My future projects:
Finishing the hand quilting on that quilt and binding it.
Starting my new quilt with the fabrics on the top shelf, except for the bark cloth on the right – that’s for a pillow cover.
Okay. I’ve rambled on enough.
Happy Friday.
Oh Claudia, I was excited when I could afford a new pair of work tennis shoes and new underwear!! OMGosh!
I’ll be back to check out the feminism debate. My mother was a single mother raising two daughters during the 1950’s. I thank her for her strength and attitude. I try to honor her personal struggle for equal rights.Those life lessons continue to help me, even now at almost 70 years old. Yes, age-ism has reared it’s ugly head a time or two, also.
I am smiling about you doing the sniff test with Don in the store. LOL Oh, Claudia, I would love to have been a fly on the wall.
Glad your friend got the concrete mattress he desired and that you got some well deserved sleep.
I can’t believe the curtains fell down, too! Unbelievable. Are you sure you didn’t check into Green Acres??? I fully expect Ralph and Alph to surface.
I don’t understand people not being in favor of women’s rights, particularly when it comes to equal pay for equal work. As a former EEO Specialist, I can assure you that there is still work to do in that area. I don’t know the latest statistics, but while things have improved since I was in that field years ago, I would be willing to wager women still make less than men in jobs. But at least there is more opportunity for women to follow their dreams. What bothers me worse than that is the way that younger workmen (not all, but some) have treated me as I’ve aged. I was always taught to respect my elders, but I guess the ones to whom I’m referring don’t respect anyone, including themselves. And I’m not that old. It’s infuriating to have them patronize me, and the worst was an internet company. Oh, don’t even get me started!
XO,
Sheila
Sheila, I just had to comment on your comment.lol I still cannot get over the fact that I am 62 years old, and all of my kids and grand kids, and Their friends ALL call me by my first name! It makes me nuts. And that is just the tip of the iceberg as you know! Children seem to not be taught any courtesy, respect or manners of any kind!!
You said it, Judy!
I will never forget having someone my mother’s age tell me to call her by her first name and how shocked I was. I grew up in a world of “Yes M’am and No Sir”. When I would try to call this lady by her name, I would trip over myself saying “Mrs.” every single time before I said her name instead. Since she was married to a senior partner in my husband’s firm, I had to do as she requested, but it was so hard for me.. My husband and my BILs, all three, called my mother “Mrs.”, and she was the sweetest, friendliest person on earth. She was not their mother, and she did not want them to call her “Mama”. LOL She would have done anything in the world for them (and did, and they knew and appreciated that), but she felt she was deserving of a formal title or at least the respect she truly did deserve. So did they. So I hear you. :-)
I am in a volunteer group, and we always respected the older members when I was young. I’ve volunteered with the agency for over 30 years and could run it blindfolded! While I don’t care if they call me by my first name, I don’t like the fact that they think we are all daft. Newsflash, I’m not an antique yet, not by a long shot. As someone I know says, the spirit of slap comes over me at times, and it’s all I can do not to swat them cross-eyed or snatch some hair out of their smirking heads. LOL You have to laugh. It’s that or throttle them until you can shake two of their brain cells together to get enough friction to create a thought, but you’re liiable to be shaking till Kingdom Come or till your arm falls off, whichever comes first. ;-)
When it comes to workmen, we have done over more houses and dealt with more issues than some of these young whippesnappers (now, I am sounding OLD ) will ever see in two lifetimes, and they look at you like you’re from Mars when you make a reasonable request or offer a reasonable solution to a problem you’ve encourntered before. No, they have to go reinvent the wheel AND reinvent it on your dime. I actually had a young woman be so rude to me on the phone (in customer service) at an internet company that I decided to go to her boss’ boss and ended up going far FAR over her head. Her big supervisor ended up giving me the product in question. I wasn’t even hinting for that, and while it was certainly a generous gesture, a little common courtesy and common sense would have made everyone happy and not cost the company a dime. I mean, a business is in business to make a profit, and having worked to bring companies to Florida, I understand that better than most. Usually if I tell Mr. Magpie that a company won’t even be in business for six months, I’m correct. If they are doing it to you or me, they are doing it to others and good customer service is everything in business. When it boils down to it, I think what most people want is a little common courtesy, a little respect (Aretha has that right!), and those of us who have been in the service arena are particularly keyed into customer service. After working in economic development for some time, I can’t even fathom acting so disprectfully to a client. I worked in sales in college, same thing. It just didn’t cross my mind. So it’s shocking to me. I think it has to do with the anonymity of the internet, and people think they are online when they are standing face to face with you! And I have had them text while talking to me. ARGH. ;-)
Off my soapbox. LOL xoxoxo
There is a religious component there I believe, I know that some religions name the man as the” head of household”as traditionally he has been seen a provider, and usually stronger physically there for seen as a protector.HOWEVER, the woman is his partner and completely equal. I think some of these ideas get taken to another level. Not by a church but by people.Wanting to bring back what they see as tradition and taking a lower position(so to speak)) rather than an equal position in the family Hierarchy,thinking that is “Tradition.” When, at least in my faith that is a complete mis- interpretation and in no way doctrine.There is my two cents. For what it is worth. Great Post I just Love your blog! -Judy A-
Hi Claudia, I’m glad you wrote about feminism. Chloe, my 21yr old is heavily loading up on Women’s Studies in her third year CMNS degree studies. Good for her. I have high hopes that more young women like C will learn and understand and move the world over a little. Happy new sneakers. Hope you have loads of great walks in them. :)
New tennis shoes and jeans would be exciting to me, too…it’s so hard to find anything that fits or looks decent…and don’t even get me started about swimming suits…
Dearest Claudia
When I am visiting a city
I love to check out the local thrift stores.
Sometimes a treasure is waiting ~ a momento
of the time I made that city “home” ~ if only for
a few days.
And, as an avid thrifter I would suggest
that you check out the jean section, now that
you know the brand and size that suits.
Best wishes ~ Brenda
I wore size 7 1/2 all my life… I’m in 8’s now. Go figure.
Shoes and jeans are the last things I buy for myself.
I am actually heading to Kohl’s today. When I wander through the Women’s area, I will be imagining the 2 of you sniffing the jeans. Wonder if there is camera footage of that in their archives?? Too funny. Hallelujah for your post today! As a person who grew up in the 60’s, I am bewildered that we are still talking about these things. Seriously. Still !!?? And when you throw religion into it,,,,,, well, it is totally then at the mercy of so many varied interpretations. How any one person sees themselves to be on any level higher than the next person is a concept I cannot grasp. After all these years we continue to ask when the corner will be turned.
Hope your weekend brings you some walking time in those bright new tennies!!
I got a chuckle out of your jeans story :) And AMEN to your comments on feminists and feminsim!
I love the bright sneakers..imagining the two of you sniffing jeans is so funny..I grew up at the time of the Women’s Liberation Movement and I assure you that we do not want to go backwards..Wishing you a much more pleasant weekend..
Ahh! New shoes! I love new shoes. It is so hard for me to find shoes that fit, with my very wide feet (that have also gone up a size and a half)!
I have never noticed a musty smell on jeans, but that might be because I usually buy my clothes at thrift or consignment stores, or at garage sales. I would have also tried putting the musty jeans in a plastic bag with a cup of baking soda and then washing them in baking soda as well.
Re: Feminism. I am an odd duck. I am an avid feminist, but I am pro-life. I am a member of Feminists For Lfe and Democrats For Life – not an easy or comfortable position to be in, these days. I am a Roman Catholic, but an avid feminist – also a paradox. Equal pay, equal opportunities, equal education, equal rights: I am definitely on that page! I remember when the word “feminist “was practically a synonym for “Militant Lesbian Separatist”. I’m glad those days are over and that women can make decisions about whether to work or not (if they have that luxury), and not face (as much) discrimination for going into previously male occupations, such as politics, law, engineering, mathematics or medicine and that men can feel free to be nurturing, loving and caring without fear of derision (for the most part; there are still a lot of macho jerks out there).
I also can’t take weird smells…so I would be sniffing the jeans with you. I get excited over a new/old shirt from the thrift shop never mind NEW clothes! Yippee!! Glad things are working out there. I don’t get the controversy about feminism either. I am proud to stand up for my rights as a human being that happens to be a woman!!
hugs, Linda
A new pair of sneakers and jeans spells excitement for me. feminism is about equal rights for everyone. It is definitely not about bra burning (although I have some I wouldn’t mind burning). i always feel sad when I see women who have been led to believe it is a bad thing.
Hugs,
Laura
Hey Claudia – I love your little rant about feminism (rant isn’t a negative word here in Canada – just check out Rick Mercer). I never think of feminism. I grew up in a house with 2 brothers and 3 sisters, all quite a bit older than me. We were just always brought up to think we were smart, equal (or better than boys) and could do whatever we wanted. I’ve never been disabused of that notion throughout my life. I guess I’m lucky. I’ve also spent most of my working life with the Canadian government and equality of all has been a message that has been part of my working culture. It’s been drilled into us that prejudice and discrimination on any basis is not acceptable. I’m always dumbfounded when I hear anyone speaking out against another group of people for any reason. J
You can ramble and rant all you want, especially about injustice and feminism! I’ll be right there with you. Glad you got the mattress thing all straightened out..enjoy your weekend! ;)
I think the young women I know take their almost equal rights for granted. They have lived in a time where things are pretty good, not equal by any means but pretty good. I think they take offense to the word feminist because they truly do not understand what that is. I was shocked during the last election at the young women who chose not to vote, when I explained that there are people out there trying to take away their rights, the rights to make a choice about their bodies, and the right to make equal pay for equal work, they did not seem to get it. I am not sure I got it at the young age of 18 or 19. I was more worried about what my friends and I were doing on Friday night. But that is why we need people like us who are proud to be Feminist’s and will fight for our rights because a younger, ignorant generation needs all the help they can get until they do get it.
Love you sister,
Mere
I think I’ll be in the minority here. :-) Although I believe in feminism to the extent of equal pay for equal work, voting etc. and the fact that as a person I believe I’m equal to my husband in God’s eyes, I try to look to the BIble for the way I’m to live my life. Society and “man’s” rules, laws, etc. change on the whims of people and governments. I do submit to my husband, but I also know he would lay his life down for me if necessary. If two people are in charge, what happens when there is a disagreement? Who makes the final decision? 99.9 percent of the time we’re in complete agreement, but the rare times we’re not, I have absolute faith in his decision because I know he loves me and would never do anything to harm me. I know this isn’t the case in some relationships but that’s because they aren’t listening to God. In the New Testament it NEVER, EVER says a husband is to be harsh or abusive with his wife or children.
Colossions 3:18-19 “Wives, submit to your husbands as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them.”
I know this isn’t a popular thing in todays society, but it works if it is carried out as it is written. Too many men have taken the first verse literally and not the second and it has colored people’s view of submission.
My thoughts are not to offend anyone-but you asked Claudia! :-)
Have a lovely weekend! Will you get to see Don and Scot this weekend?
Blessings,
Betsy
Well I’m just glad you got the right mattress and Bruce got the right mattress and everyone is happy now! Feminism? It had to happen, we’d been kept down too long. I (along with you perhaps) was part of the 1970s-onward group who had to fight our way for equal wages for equal work, I’ll never forget it. I think religious people who take any one part of the Bible and made a religion out of it (e.g. women submit to men) are just sad, that was written in a time when that was *their* culture. But I never did burn my bra ;)
I’d be excited over new jeans (though I don’t sniff them, lol) and new shoes, too…I rarely buy myself any new clothes, as I’m a Goodwill shopper! :-)
New shoes are a good thing. New and non-stinky jeans are a good thing, too.
But, equal rights and respect are a must. I have been most frustrated dealing with age discrimination.
My sister and a friend have cleaned houses for a living for ages. They clear alot of money under the table.
SISTER has had holes in her jeans for ages due to her work.
A few years ago it seemed that holes in jeans became in style, which always struck me funny since I would think of my sister whose holes were created by work / lifestyle rather than fashion
Your feminism thoughts / questions : Yes I would imagine that what you have seen comes from a religious background. These things are up to interpretation and if it works for a family then it is fine :) What is the alternative, after all ….our society is very complacent about religion and morals ..and because of that we become more open to religions that will fill our void. I’d not want to see Islam fill our void…
I don’t shop much anymore for clothes because I hate trying on clothes. It’s so discouraging. So, I just don’t! Glad you got a good night’s rest.
I giggled at you and Don sniffing jeans!
Judy
I enjoyed your post today and it made me laugh. Love the jean sniffing incident! I never buy jeans unless I can get them on sale and use a coupon. That’s why I only buy them at kohls or old navy. Besides, Holey jeans are in style, so I’m always in Style. LOL.
It would be interesting to hear people’s thoughts on feminism who didn’t live or participate in the movement.
I have given this a lot of thought also. I was a rabid feminist in the 60s, 70s and 80s. Card carrying feminist. Feminist plays at UC Berkeley in Oakland and San Francisco with girl friends, some who were lesbian. I still loved them. Even my sister was gay at one point, but married 25 years to a man and has a daughter and granddaughter. My hubby’s sister is gay. We don’t condemn her lifestyle but we don’t agree with it either. That makes no difference; she is still loved by us. My husband and I have never ever disagreed on what I wanted to do. We had 2 kids early on. I got jobs when I wanted but mostly I stayed home with my kids. When I started working, their life changed and so did they. It wasn’t a question of what I wanted but what our family wanted and needed. My hubby has backed me in every single thing I do from 52 years ago to now. We are very religious and listen to our leaders tell us what is coming. I believe in the coming of Christ. I believe in the Scriptures. I believe our leaders are Godly men who mean well. Never, ever are we forced to do things. It is our choice to follow Christ and this family does. I have never been under my husband’s thumb so to speak. He listens to me and I certainly listen to him. Yes, some religions get a bad name but I’ve rarely seen or heard of anyone in our local area of our church act against a woman without being given a severe reprimand and even ex-communication by a board of 12 elders and the stake president and his 2 counselors. Hubs has sat in on them for both men and women and they are absolutely treated equally. I have love for all people in our church, actually the whole world. We are commanded to love everyone and I do. Our leaders preach to the men that we are one. The man and the woman are essential in the family. Look at all the families that are broken up. The kids usually are the ones to be hurt and don’t get out of the downward spiral. There is a rare incidence of divorce in our church, but it does happen. Hubs and I try to live a holy life and do what the Lord would have us do. I used to make fun of religion until about 20 years ago when a huge epiphany happened to me. I know it changed everything about how I lived and some of the things I thought.
Oh, and feminism? I got out of that within a few years. I saw the things that went on behind the doors so to speak. Hubs was also a city commissioner and he quit after a few years as he saw the corruption that went on. I can speak from experience. My family is the most important thing in my life to me. Nothing else matters in the scheme of things. Having been the highest paid woman in one of the largest Fortune 500 companies (about 59 in the 80s) and sure there was inequity. That didn’t affect me and I was hugely happy doing what I was doing.
I never ever put any woman down for what she does. If she wants to work, fine. If she stays home with her children, fine also. There is more equality than you think in this world. But one day it will all be equal and of that I have personal knowledge.
This is typed and said in a soft loving voice. I don’t mean to be mean or obnoxious but I’ve seen a lot more of the world at seventy than some of you. If you’re worth the job, you’ll get it. If not, you’ll get another job. Make your life happy. You’re the only one who can. That’s what I do and talk about on my blog. Religion has gotten a terribly bad rap in the last couple of decades and is getting worse. I hate to see it but it’s been prophesied for thousands of years.
I do NOT want to be flamed. I’ve said my piece and an not trashing anyone and was very hesitant to post because it is a hot ticket. I just enjoy what I do have and don’t gripe about what I don’t have. I’ve been truly happy and blessed in this life. I hope most of you feel the same. Nothing in this life is equal, NOTHING!!
XOXO TO ALL,
Connie
Oh, and feet?? Yep, they grow and spread as we age. Mine went from 7 1/2 – 8 and now are 9 1/2. Go figure.
With love to all of you,
Connie