Wiggity warm weather.

Let's mix things up a bit! I wanted this blog to be mostly a way for me to get things off my chest. But truthfully, that has become a bit overwhelming to me. I don't really want to focus on all the heavy things since there are tons of fun things happening - and I'd like to focus on those things since they make me feel lighter. I can only take on so much. Choose my battles. For now I choose fun. And that's what I've been having.

The weather has been warming up and my bike has been calling me. I can't deny a pretty lady. Especially my beautiful Nora!


Nora.

I've been going on some pretty epic bike rides lately. I just moved to this island a couple months ago and I've been taking any chance I have to explore it. I live a mere 10 minute bike ride from the beach. There is a perfect view of San Francisco, I'm pretty sure I'll end up here quite a bit as summer approaches. Last week my friend Janine, my girlfriend Brittany, and I all rode to the abandoned Navy base on the other side of the island. Our goal was to creep ourselves out by hanging around empty buildings and take a picture or two. What I didn't expect was all the AWESOME things we would find. There were a bunch of signs all around that said "bike shop" and pointed whichever way. We finally decided to check out this bike shop. We found this building with signs made out of old bike parts. It was the strangest thing. We walked inside and it was this bike MECCA in the middle of no where! A bunch of kids were being taught about their bikes and a guy came out of no where and gave us a tour. Apparently the place was to help homeless people get bikes.. and while you were at it, you could work towards getting your own bike. Pretty awesome. There was a spot to fix your own bike or get cheap help. I'm pretty sure I'll be going back a whole lot. So far I'm totally digging all the bike places in my community. Every one I've been to so far has been filled with ultra nice people that are actually helpful and don't make me feel so dumb not knowing everything about my bike (yet.) The guy that gave us a tour insisted that we keep riding down the road and find the distillery. A distillery? Who knew! So we did! We rode on down the road. We passed a skate park (what?) and some basketball courts and kept going until we found Hanger One. I really didn't expect any of this. We went in and found out they did alcohol tasting. Um, yes!

I'm not a huge liquor fan, I'm mostly a beer girl but we were here, we were queer, so why not? The entire wall behind the bar was windows that faced San Francisco.. it was pretty awesome. We tasted pear vodka, raspberry brandy, whiskies of all sorts, and this tea alcohol that tasted like honey. To top things off, we had absinthe. Although a lot of it made me cringe (you know, alcohol face) it was pretty good. While sipping one of our many drinks, Janine was telling me about a hula hoop class that goes on every week and is only 2 bucks! I totally want to go. I think the bartender girl overheard us because she opened the giant door to the distillery and said "Hey, you guys wanna hula hoop?" What? YES! There were all these hula hoops just hanging on the wall so we each grabbed one and started hula hooping all over the place. So much fun!









Along with fun bike rides have come a couple new friends, an awesome show and the roller derby. More on this soon enough.

Roseanne on Riot Grrrl!

A friend of mine wrote an awesome post a couple weeks ago about calling out a man who was sexually harassing her and asking much too personal questions. She just got me thinking about how awesome it is that women are calling out men in these types of situations. I mean really, it's just AWESOME because not only is she writing to this man's employer about how uncomfortable he made her feel.. but she's probably voicing the opinion of many other women who are too nervous to say anything because we've been taught to be polite to the point of not knowing if saying NO is okay or not. I've thought about this before because it has happened to me so many times. One time that comes to mind was when I was on MUNI pretending to sleep and the man next to me started rubbing my leg. Then he moved his hand closer and closer to my crotch, and while I was completely frozen in fear.. I couldn't speak up because I wasn't SURE that he was doing what he was doing on purpose (he so totally WAS) and I didn't want to be impolite. I ended up unfreezing when he finally got off MUNI. I don't even know what he looked like because I couldn't move enough to look up. As soon as he was gone, I had a giant panic attack and started crying gallons of tears out of anger (at him and myself for not being able to say anything) and resentment. I later learned to be less hard on myself since this was my body's natural reaction to someone causing me pain.. curl up in a ball and it will all be over soon. Unfortunately, I'm TIRED of reacting this way.. I love my body but I am ready for it to LET LOOSE AND SCREAM. I think young girls especially should be taught that there is a difference between being polite and knowing boundaries. They need to learn when it is okay to not only speak up, but be aggressive. I think that if I had learned these things, I could have gotten myself out of a TON of really bad situations because boundaries would be crystal clear and not fuzzy like they have been in many situations in the past.

This is why my friend speaking up is a HUGE deal. This is why any woman speaking up is a HUGE deal. This is how feminism and riot grrrl saved my life. The fact that the riot grrrl movement has allowed women to not only speak up but YELL and SCREAM and MOVE and LET LOOSE instead of stand quietly with our hands clasped tightly and our mouths doing the same is re-training our bodies and brains to know when to say NO. I for one know I wouldn't be as strong or as empowered in my skin, especially after all the abuse my body has gone through. Especially after I've called the police on multiple occasions to come save my beautiful lady friends from being raped, abused, harassed, and assaulted by men.. or sometimes calling too late to have them pick up the broken pieces while I held their hands and let them scream. I don't know about some people, but if there's one thing riot grrrl has taught me, it's to be LOUD! For this, I am THANKFUL.

For those of you who have no idea what riot grrrl is, I would highly suggest reading THIS as it's pretty spot on. It changed my life. Also, in the midst of research, I was lucky enough to find this LOVELY LADY'S blog Soul Ponies. Her entry on Why 2010 will be the year of the riot grrrl revival if we want it to be got me super amped. I left her a comment and now we're on our way to starting something HUGE. I'M SO EXCITED!!!! I want to scream!

Today I was shown something SO AWESOME! I think I've seen every episode of Roseanne ever made (talk about a feminist!) but I don't remember ever seeing this episode about RIOT GRRRL! Crazy right?! Thanks to the lovely Amber for posting this on her facebook.



RIOT GRRRL!

Pride 2009

Watch in HQ!!!

This is what I've been up to lately...
(Pride Edition!)

I've been having so much fun lately, and this past weekend was no exception. In fact, i would go so far as to say it was probably my favorite weekend so far in 2009. The feeling of how lucky I am to live where I live pumps through my veins when I am surrounded by San Francisco coming together as a community. I'm extremely lucky.



Side note, a friend's dad saw this video and wants me to do freelance work for him! Amazing!