June 30th, June 30th

I always think of Richard Brautigan on this day.

Land of the Rising Sun
sayonara

Flying from Japanese night,
we left Haneda Airport in Tokyo
four hours ago at 9:30 P.M.
June 30th
and now we are flying into the sunrise
over the Pacific that is on its way
to Japan
where darkness lies upon the land
and the sun is hours away.
I greet the sunrise of July 1st
for my Japanese friends,
wishing them a pleasant day.
The sun is on its
way.

Tokyo
June 30th again
above the Pacific
across the international date line
heading home to America
with part of my heart
in Japan

[shout out to divinentd.com]

Pro-Life is Anti-Woman

RIP George Carlin

I so love this headline: Female Partners to Marry After 55 Years Together

Del Martin, 87, left, and Phyllis Lyon, 84, who have been a couple for 55 years, were among the first same-sex partners to legally exchange marriage vows in California Monday. Marriage licenses for gay couples were officially issued after the state supreme court overturned a ban on such unions.

[disclaimer: marriage being a patriarchal institution and therefore inherently oppressive, it nonetheless in this patriarchy serves as validation of humans who love each other and provides not-inconsequential legal rights otherwise not available to partners. Until marriage is a forgotten quaintness, I get to think it's sweet and lovely and righteous that these two women get the same respect and acknowledgment of their commitment as any two random heteros who decide to get a license and a couple of rings]

Why I'm Voting Republican

Jessica Valenti: pay attention, people.

It's not just feminists and feministing writers who get this treatment. It's all girls and women on the internet, no matter what we do or say, getting verbally assaulted by internet misogyny.

I'm loving her shirt, btw.

people, they get all grown up and stuff

I just joined linkedin.com, a professional networking website, and have found pages for people I went to college with. Nice to see where people have landed and send them a friendly nod, even if we weren't all that tight twenty years ago.

What has blown my mind, however, is the profiles of two of the biggest druggies on campus in my day, who are now functional, employed, respected individuals with PhDs and thriving careers. I mean, these guys - who I certainly shall not name - were the kind of guys who would walk around campus in their bathrobes singing the Oompa Loompa song while tripping on mushrooms. It seemed to me that they would do any drug they ran across, in excess, and though they were brilliant and charming and funny, I would've never expected them to end up with Titles and Real Jobs.

Granted, one of them took 16 years to finish his MA, but now he's a professor. Both of them got their PhD's in the same field, even.

I mean, okay, people grow up and get married and become responsible adult parental employed people. It happens. But in the case of these guys, it blows my effin mind. I'd like to think it speaks to the high quality of students at Trinity somehow. Even the dudes who were wasted every weekend were high-level intellects who would become functional, successful members of society.

I will pass over in silence the profile page of the dude who was the biggest drug dealer on campus. Hm. Wonder what *he's* selling now.