bitterfig

Yesterday I had lunch with my sister, her husband and kids and my brother-in-law’s mother and sister at the Hancock building.  Traffic was light because of the holiday so I was able to bike in.  There are people I work with who regularly bike 20+ miles a day but for me the five miles from my place near Logan Square downtown and back was a pretty long ride, definitely the longest I’ve attempted this year and it left me pretty exhausted.  This may have been for the best because I was actually able to sleep last night despite the war zone like noise levels that go along with the 4^th of July. 

 

Still, I do think I might need to start adjusting my calorie intake a bit for my level of activity.  I’m riding my bike fairly regularly now and I know that burns more calories than my usual walking but I’m still eating the same amount (around 1800 calories per day which according to thedailyplate.com is a little less than maintenance level for a sedentary person of my size).  I’ve been quite tired the past couple of days but also restless, I can’t seem to concentrate on anything and I think it may have to do with this but I’m afraid to eat more.  Every time I do manage to eat 1850 or 1900 calories during the course of a day I usually counter it by doing extra exercise or eating less the next day.  

 

I find it very frustrating that it’s still so difficult for me to make these adjustments.

 

On a more positive note lunch went well.  Everything seemed okay with my sister and I talked and had a nice time without drinking (or really eating since we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory where about the only item that fits my caloric restrictions and vegetarian standards is a dry side salad). 

 

I don’t get downtown very often so following lunch I decided to pay a visit to the nearby MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art) and see the Jeff Koons exhibit.  When I got there, there was a sort of installation/performance piece called “Peace Salon” taking place out front on the plaza.  It was by Chicago based artist Genevieve Erin O’Brien and she was offering “free buzz cuts for peace.”

 

I picked up the handout that explained it, which I quote here:

 

“Participants who would like to make a commitment to peace are offered a free buzz cut.  By having their heads shaved, the artist believes that the participants are acknowledging their connection to a larger world around them.  In doing so, she believes that they are symbolizing their solidarity with out soldiers at war and honoring their sacrifices in their ongoing commitment to create peace.  Furthermore, my shaving one’s head O’Brien hopes that the individual is released from a physical attachment since she sees attachment—to ideas and things—as the source of war.  By shaving one’s head, the participant is choosing to be one step closer to peace.”

 

I thought this was a pretty interesting idea.  For me, cropped hair is associated not with soldiers but with holy people, monks and nuns.  It also inverts the 60’s notion of long hair as a symbol of rebellion and peace loving. 

 

An interesting idea.

 

And I’ve always been sort of curious about how I’d look with a shaved head.

 

So I decided to give it a go. 

 

I have to admit a big part of my motivation to go through with it comes from the fact that I’m going to visit the parents in Upstate New York on the 14^th.  “How Far Will You Go For Peace”, a sign near the installation asked.  I think I read it as “How far will you go to piss off your parents.”

 

I’m still trying to decide if what I did was very bold or very stupid.  I’ve never had my hair this short before so it’s going to take some getting used to.   If nothing else it'll be interesting to see how it effects my lesbo street cred. 

( more pictures of me with no hair )

First, congratulations to ozma914 on becoming a grandfather x2 (twins).

 

His post reminded me that I’d neglected to mention a rather important tidbit of news—on 06/13/08 my pervious employer Biff and his partner Jorge became the father’s of a little boy.

 

While part of me had hoped that Biff would completely lose it and name the infant something wildly inappropriate like Tardis however apparently sanity prevailed and the boy’s name is Julian.

 

Friday the 13^th Baby: Young Julian contemplates existence. 

 

It’s funny, but on an abstract and grandiose level I can’t help but equating Julian’s birth to two daddies with the recent legalization of gay marriage in California, almost as if the two events show—one on a personal and one on a public level-- the legitimacy of love and family that goes beyond the traditional definition. 

 

 I have to admit it’s been a long time since I’ve felt optimistic and hopeful about the capacity of the American people to accept and include.  The past decade or so seems to have been a downward slide into intolerance and polarization.  I think the approaching end of the Bush presidency and the possibility that Barack Obama could replace him has done a lot to brighten my outlook. 

 

I don’t talk about politics a lot (because if you haven’t noticed I’m kind of self obsessed) but I am behind Obama in the current campaign.  He’s from Chicago, which makes it really exciting that he might be president but it’s more than that.  I actually believe in him.  I believe he’s real and decent and has the nation’s best interest at heart as opposed to his own (something I’ve never believed about Hillary Clinton). 

 

While I’ve always had a great deal of respect for John McCain as a veteran, a former P.O.W. and as someone who has always bucked the system and gone against the party line he’s really disappointed me in this campaign by allying himself with religious extremists such John Hagee (known for the notorious statement that Hurricane Katrina occurred because God was displeased with an upcoming Pride Parade), taking an anti-diplomatic stance in international affairs, and for his support of using continued military action to deal with the situation in Iraq.  It just seems to me that someone like McCain should know how destructive and fruitless war can be.  About a year ago I had hopes that he would be at the forefront of finding a better way but apparently that isn’t going to be happening. 

 A poster of Obama by Shepard Fairey.

I must admit I’m feeling rather smugly satisfied about Al Gore winning the Noble Prize,   I always thought he was dismissed and denigrated in a very nasty way after the 2000 Election with so many people laughing at him and saying he’d become a crazy mountain man just because he grew a beard, put on a few pounds and continued to work for environmental awareness.  I think he’s quite vindicated now.  And you’ll notice no one is giving George W. Bush laurels for making the world a better place so maybe winning the 2000 Election wasn’t the be all and end all.  In fact it seems more and more like getting out of politics is the beginning rather than the end of making a contribution to positive change in the world.  Look at what Jimmy Carter has accomplished since his presidency.

 

Gore’s cause- environmentalism- is something that’s been of concern to me for a long time.  Even though I’m generally pretty down on my upbringing, I did grow up with an acute awareness of the beauty of the natural world and the ways in which it was threatened by human carelessness.  My parents, who are basically conservative, were always interested in history and the past and this brought them into uneasy contact with more liberal, sophisticated people who had moved to our rural area as part of the “back to the land” movement of the 1970’s.  I grew up knowing people who lived without electricity, had solar houses and lived in isometric domes.  Most of them eventually mainstreamed in the years to come but it made an impression to see people living a conservationist lifestyle.  I remember having “no electricity” days when I was little and being upset by the use of pesticides on roadside plants.  Things like that get into your character and combined with my general pessimism and apocalyptic imagination have resulted in me taking environmental issues very seriously.  I really never doubted the significance of the ozone hole or the reality of global warming even though these things are still denied by a lot of people. 

 

I’m not an activist, I do a few things.  I’ve been a vegetarian since 1994, motivated in part by moral issues- not wanting to kill or eat animals- in part by eating disorder neurosis and in part by environmental concerns.  You can produce much more food per acre by raising crops than by raising meat.  Vegetarian food sources are a much wiser use of land resources.  I recycle to the best of my ability given that Chicago’s recycling program is slipshod at best (the “blue bag” program was reveled as something of an unmitigated disaster and the new “blue bin” program is still being tested and isn’t available in my neighborhood yet.).  Working at Whole Foods has done a lot to rekindle my consciousness of environmental issues.  For the last year I’ve been bringing my own shopping bags to the grocery store and I consider it an accomplishment when I can get through a day without taking my car out.   

 

 I know I could do more, but the things I am doing have become firmly entrenched in my daily life, which is positive.  I think that positive change can come about from people incorporating environmentally sound habits into their lifestyles.  If it’s just something you do on a daily basis it’s not disruptive to you or your family and over time it can make a difference.