Labor Day

I think the last time I had a Monday holiday it felt interminably long, but today felt like a good relaxing day off.

***

Both today and Saturday I'd been up for like an hour when I felt like I really needed to get out of the house and walk some.  Saturday I went and got groceries -- so about an hour walking roundrip (and another trip to get a gallon of milk from the corner store, so maybe twenty minutes roundtrip for that).

Today, I walked to the Fells.  I went the way that looked easiest on the map, Governors Ave. to South Border Rd., so it took me about a half hour to get there (about five minutes past the hospital), so I only walked about 15 minutes into the Fells -- because I was cognizant that I'd have to walk back.  Possibly next time I'll turn on Lawrence Rd. and see if there's an entrance to the Fells around there.

Looking at the map, I'm also curious to walk to the West Medford commuter rail station -- not that I would have any need to get to and from there (being able to walk to and from Alewife would be much more potentially useful) but just because.  I still know barely anything in Medford, despite having lived here for 2 years, which is fine by me, but exploring is nice.

Back to the topic of "non-workdays, I do not walk enough"... I may take to walking to CWM again -- especially if we move the starting time (in which case the bus will get me there either a few minutes late or really early).  Walking to and from morning church is about a 40-minute roundtrip, which is only about as much walking as my work commute one way (and I've been walking all the way home more often recently, which adds ~30 minutes of walking).

***

It took facebook to remind me that my dad's birthday was yesterday.  In my defense, he has never been big into celebrating his birthday.  I also totally failed to notice that it was his 60th birthday.  (I think we also mostly failed to celebrate my mom's 50th last year.)

***

This morning I dreamt I was at MML, talking to Beth, and I was behind the circulation desk, and she kept asking me to help, in that way that you do when someone is working with you, and I did what she asked me, but I felt hedgey, and when something came up that was gonna involve a patron's record, I said something like, "I'm gonna go shelve some stuff because this involves the computer and I don't work here anymore."  (I was telling Cate the story recently of being at MML one time after I'd left, and how I'd gone behind the circulation desk to check out a book and Irene told me I couldn't do that because I didn't work there anymore.)  Later, I was kind of hanging out and Jeanie, Tina, Hope, and Margot(?) were all there and they all acted like it was just fine that I was hanging out there, behind the circulation desk, as if I worked there.

I was gonna say that it's weird to me that all my reconciliation dreams take the form of the other party acting as if things are fine (rather than my taking the initiative, getting to demand anything from them, etc.) but then it occurred to me that oh yeah, I'm the recipient of the silent peace offering model rather a lot.  *cough*  Also, my waking brain has difficulty imagining how any of those confrontational conversations would go, so I'm not really sure what my dream brain would do.

The other night, I dreamt that a whole bunch of folks from MML were leaving work and I sort of caught up with Michele to talk to her/ask if we could get together sometime, and Beth passed me by and sort of greeted me and I wanted to accept her implicit invitation to conversation, but it was more important to me to get to talk to Michele.

***

At Coffee Hour yesterday, Matt M. said they're thinking of having a before-service Sunday School, with sort of rotating leadership, and my name had come up as someone who might be interested -- this made much more sense once I clarified that he meant Adult Bible Study/Adult Education.

I feel torn, because SCBC Adult Ed will (I assume) start up soon, and I want to continue to attend that -- I value that community, plus I think my voice is (more) valuable there.

Also, I am much better at being That Girl who interrupts (who critiques and problematizes and sometimes just bitches) than I am at developing and leading programming (yes, I know, one of the things church is about is growing us -- see also, "hospitality team").

Heh, lol irony, from an article seen via facebook:

But there's another less talked about advantage to these schools. Said Madeline Albright in a commencement speech at Wellesley, "...We sometimes misunderstand what leadership really is. We expect it to come from the outside. And so we wait and listen for the sound of some mighty voice coming out of a loud speaker. But real leadership comes from the quiet nudging of an inner voice. It comes from realizing...that the time has come to move beyond preparing to doing."

Albright scratches at what is perhaps the most important aspect of a single sex education: self agency. Social psychologists refer to this as one's "locus on control," or the extent to which we believe we can affect the forces around us. Girls are largely reared to believe that their locus of control sits outside of them (think "Someday your prince will come"), while boys are typically taught that their locus of control resides within them. Consider the commonalities in stories like Cinderella, Rapunzel, and Snow White. You'll find that all of these stories depict women facing dire straits from which they can't save themselves. Men dash in, rescuing these women from harm, which is the key to the women's lives moving happily forward.

When one studies in an all female environment, there is less reliance on someone sailing in and fixing everything. Women are not waiting to be saved, believing that outer forces will help them, rather they are steering the ship, making cause and effect moves that actively sculpt their lives. Is it any wonder then that women's college graduates have developed a self reliance that serves them time and again in their careers?

-from "Are Women's Colleges Still Needed?" (by Selena Rezvani, Washington Post)