Happy birthday, marvelous beautiful Moya!
A piece of string walks into a bar.
The bartender says “we don’t serve string here.”
The string walks out, works itself into a frenzy and ties itself up.
The string goes back into the bar.
Bartender says “aren’t you that piece of string?”
String says, “I’m a frayed knot.”
Giggle. The kind of joke that is much better heard than read.
And just the kind of humor that Moya passes around. Sweet gal. Here’s to your beautiful self.
pat benatar
after arguing pointlessly and confusingly with the most unhelpful USAA car insurance agent i have ever had the misfortune to be assigned (“i can tell you right now, there’s no way your deductible will be waived in time even if you aren’t at fault”; “if Ryder’s insured doesn’t accept 100% blame, you’ll have to take them to small claims court to recoup the rental car fees; there’s nothing we will do about it” and additional doom and unfriendliness about how they might never contact their insured, thankyouverymuch for your help), i unexpectedly cheered myself up by taking home a pat benatar cd yesterday. it wasn’t enough to have seen her live (on september 10, 2001, speaking of yesterdays), but two years later as she’s still turning out new cds, i get to still take a new pat benatar cd home. i understand she’s got a ‘real’ new album out with an all new, different sound, however i took home more of the yesterday stuff yesterday: the double-cd/dvd called best shots. on the included dvd, you can see pat and her husband watching the old videos (back when music videos were so revolutionary!) along with you, and commenting about their hair and makeup and corny video stories the whole way through. it really brightened my day —– and i have no idea why. perhaps it’s because, along the lines of everything old is new again, i have a crush on pat benatar, again! maybe crushes on pat benatar make me happy. or probably, it’s the hair.
or maybe it’s because of leanne. she calls and she writes and she sleeps on only one side of the strange bed, as do i… leanne sends me greeting cards when she’s gone and makes silly rhymes. hmm. leanne pat benatar. hmm …
| pat benatar | leanne |
| small | small |
| prodigy at 12 | prodigy at 12 |
| makes silly rhymes | makes silly rhymes |
| occasional bad hair (in the eighties!) | occasional bad hair (in the eighties!) |
| tight jeans | tight jeans |
| flair for the dramatic | drama queen |
| makes moya happy | makes moya happy |
| makes millions | … makes moya happy |
that settles it. leanne is pat benatar. leanne, come home!
women
yesterday, leanne and i went to the mayor’s summit for women at the moscone center and heard an impressive lineup of women speak. very little said directly about breast cancer, though molly ivins herself is a survivor. health care and child care, confusion about hormones, being a leader and being a mother, and running for office were all emphasized. the war continues to disrupt the world, and most made passing but not pointed reference to it – except for maxine waters. i like leanne’s post to noend about it so much that i’m just going to reproduce it here:
yesterday i went to moscone with my gf moya for the mayor's summit for women and felt overwhelmingly humanized.
not being a very big fan of willie, myself, i was impressed that all these kickass speakers consider him to be one of their good friends -- ann richards, molly ivins, marian wright edelman, jocelyn elders, patricia ireland, oral lee brown, maxine waters, and others gave fiery impassioned speeches and sometimes modest accounts of some of the really inspiring things they've done (oral lee brown adopted a class in a poor school in oakland and has helped them all graduate from high school and college and some have gone on to grad school)
maxine waters talked (that seems like too soft of a word -- she was ablaze) about what a warhog george bush is and how the new tax cuts he is proposing will kill head start and other programs that help children -- particularly poor children ... and someone else mentioned that dietrich bonhoefer's test of the morality of a society is in how they treat their children and the u.s. fails that test appallingly easily.
several of the speakers mentioned how the u.s. does not provide healthcare or decent education to most poor children but is happy to lock them up in jail (where they can get healthcare) when they become an errant teenager.
marian wright edelman (founder of children's defense fund and author of a few books) was particularly smart and passionate while she sailed and pounded through statistics about poverty and children and the devastating effects on children and adults and our society. i wish i could invite her to dinner.
about 4000 women were there. the food was just awful. the demographics were refreshingly different from most (tech) conferences that i go to. yesterday there were mostly women -- and a pretty equal mix of black, asian, white, hispanic, latino ...
there was a most excellent war protest out front in the morning and then a 'save our neighborhood schools -- don't ship our children out of the neighborhood' coalition in the late afternoon.
ann richards rocks. she told stories and jokes and gave health advice and political advice and bemoaned the current state of the u.s.
molly ivins surprised me by spending her entire speech encouraging women to run for public office and get involved in politics and pass campaign finance reforms (i thought she'd tell funny stories and jokes about bush). she seemed a bit weary and tired of the current state of the u.s. and the world.
i was surprised that catholic healthcare -- who i've heard doesn't allow abortions and takes over hmo's and limits access to birth control -- was a major sponsor when most of the speakers were pro-choice.
dr. jocelyn elders made me feel so good that my hands hurt from clapping. i wish she was surgeon general instead of the doofus we currently have.
then i walked to work this morning to the peaceful rumble of my neighborhood without the roar of the fell street exit. i know it's causing traffic hell for a lot of people, but, for me, it's bringing me closer to my community and neighborhood.
now i've gotta go home for the day .... here's to meeting and mingling with people we don't usually see in our daily lives. i feel completely inspired.
leanne - skipping - to - from - hayes - valley - lower - haight
Moya Watson 