The seven items of interest meme.........
Oct. 17th, 2007 03:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
osodecanelaFogbear selected these 7 items of interest from my list for me to expound on. If you post a comment here, I will select 7 items from your list of interests for you to post about.
bay area - I've come to the promised land!! Seriously, there is so many reasons for me to be here, it's difficult for me to think of living anywhere else. The climate is temperate, and when it comes to weather I'm not fond of extremes. I'm currently in remission from psoriatic arthritis, and don't do extreme cold well. What's extreme? If it snows, in my book that's extreme. Having grown up in the snow belt, I'm only too happy to not have to deal with it. Also as a bear, I'm all too well insulated, so marked heat and I don't get along well either. The social awareness here, the plethora of progressive politics, the reality that being queer is no big deal for the most part and the sheer physical beauty of this place has made me love it and why the Bay Area is my home.
biking- pedal type, not motorized. I'm not a competitive sport type. Riding a bicycle is something that has both given me a workout and gotten me from point A to point B. I've had several times in my life when I've actually been a bicycle commuter. The opportunity to be out in nature and moving, giving me a chance to see the environs and a slower pace than driving affords is something I enjoy Sadly, I've fallen off the band wagon after a hemorrhage not quite 3 years ago.
peace movement- I'm a Quaker, a religious pacifist. I did draft counseling with American Friends Service Committee during the Viet Nam war, and remain committed to the non-violent tactics of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King. It is only one of the reasons why I remain both ashamed of and horrified at the current administration.
queer politics- I'm tired of sitting at the back of the bus. That I can be who I am, here in this larger society, has come both from a social evolution and from our political movement, and each could not happen without the other. The organizing that first put Harvey Milk into both the local and the national limelight made it clear that we're here, and we will demand and fight for our rights. Stonewall happened in the neighborhood where I went to high school, the summer between my freshman and sophomore years. That today, marriage is legal for us in Mass., my 26 year relationship has at least some legal recognition along with both some rights and responsibility, and that marriage will likely become a reality at some point in my lifetime to me is amazing. It's a c-note change from my childhood.
spinning- this is the zen of handcrafts. For me, when I'm sitting at the wheel, cranking away and producing yarn, I am often at peace. (That is of course unless I'm spinning cotton, in which case all bets are off!) I'm descended of fiber workers and garment makers, and working at all levels of clothing production are things simply in my blood. Of all of them, the one that is the most soothing, and frees my mind to both calm itself and enter meditation is spinning. For me to sit at my spinning wheel is to assume an asana. To spin is akin to walking the labyrinth or swinging a rosary. Frankly, I don't do it enough.
travel- speaking of things I don't do enough. I love to see things, and experience, but rarely take the time to do so. My last major trips happened 4 years ago, and the memories of both trips often dance in my dreams as though they happened yesterday. Still so much more to go and see.
weight loss- a love-hate relationship here. Love good food, and love to cook and entertain. Have been an exercise junkie at one point in my life, which took me way down the scale. Unfortunately, time constraints, bad habits and the hemorhage I had the beginning of 2005 broke the exercise routine I had and its meant a major regain of weight. It was 6 months before I had the energy to make it up a flight of steps w/o being exhausted and I have just not been able to re-start that exercise habit again. I love being bear identified, but it does not mean I like being obese. Being a bear for me means self-acceptance - accepting my fur, both facial and otherwise, and not trying to shoe-horn myself in something that is un-natural to me (like a 28 inch waist, or choosing to not eat when I'm hungry). It does not mean glorification of being obese, at least not for me.
bay area - I've come to the promised land!! Seriously, there is so many reasons for me to be here, it's difficult for me to think of living anywhere else. The climate is temperate, and when it comes to weather I'm not fond of extremes. I'm currently in remission from psoriatic arthritis, and don't do extreme cold well. What's extreme? If it snows, in my book that's extreme. Having grown up in the snow belt, I'm only too happy to not have to deal with it. Also as a bear, I'm all too well insulated, so marked heat and I don't get along well either. The social awareness here, the plethora of progressive politics, the reality that being queer is no big deal for the most part and the sheer physical beauty of this place has made me love it and why the Bay Area is my home.
biking- pedal type, not motorized. I'm not a competitive sport type. Riding a bicycle is something that has both given me a workout and gotten me from point A to point B. I've had several times in my life when I've actually been a bicycle commuter. The opportunity to be out in nature and moving, giving me a chance to see the environs and a slower pace than driving affords is something I enjoy Sadly, I've fallen off the band wagon after a hemorrhage not quite 3 years ago.
peace movement- I'm a Quaker, a religious pacifist. I did draft counseling with American Friends Service Committee during the Viet Nam war, and remain committed to the non-violent tactics of Mohandas Gandhi and Martin Luther King. It is only one of the reasons why I remain both ashamed of and horrified at the current administration.
queer politics- I'm tired of sitting at the back of the bus. That I can be who I am, here in this larger society, has come both from a social evolution and from our political movement, and each could not happen without the other. The organizing that first put Harvey Milk into both the local and the national limelight made it clear that we're here, and we will demand and fight for our rights. Stonewall happened in the neighborhood where I went to high school, the summer between my freshman and sophomore years. That today, marriage is legal for us in Mass., my 26 year relationship has at least some legal recognition along with both some rights and responsibility, and that marriage will likely become a reality at some point in my lifetime to me is amazing. It's a c-note change from my childhood.
spinning- this is the zen of handcrafts. For me, when I'm sitting at the wheel, cranking away and producing yarn, I am often at peace. (That is of course unless I'm spinning cotton, in which case all bets are off!) I'm descended of fiber workers and garment makers, and working at all levels of clothing production are things simply in my blood. Of all of them, the one that is the most soothing, and frees my mind to both calm itself and enter meditation is spinning. For me to sit at my spinning wheel is to assume an asana. To spin is akin to walking the labyrinth or swinging a rosary. Frankly, I don't do it enough.
travel- speaking of things I don't do enough. I love to see things, and experience, but rarely take the time to do so. My last major trips happened 4 years ago, and the memories of both trips often dance in my dreams as though they happened yesterday. Still so much more to go and see.
weight loss- a love-hate relationship here. Love good food, and love to cook and entertain. Have been an exercise junkie at one point in my life, which took me way down the scale. Unfortunately, time constraints, bad habits and the hemorhage I had the beginning of 2005 broke the exercise routine I had and its meant a major regain of weight. It was 6 months before I had the energy to make it up a flight of steps w/o being exhausted and I have just not been able to re-start that exercise habit again. I love being bear identified, but it does not mean I like being obese. Being a bear for me means self-acceptance - accepting my fur, both facial and otherwise, and not trying to shoe-horn myself in something that is un-natural to me (like a 28 inch waist, or choosing to not eat when I'm hungry). It does not mean glorification of being obese, at least not for me.
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no subject
Date: 2007-10-18 02:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-18 05:20 pm (UTC)dachshunds
long hair
bloom county
haulover
chili
bourbon
titanium
Gotta say, I am curious.......
no subject
Date: 2007-10-19 01:03 pm (UTC)If you post a comment here, I will select 7 items from your list of interests for you to post about.
Damn! I'm going to have to read the fine print a little better!
Well, it's about time that I said something about me and not this whole dreary Dominic story. Gimme a few days. I'm working 12 hour shifts at night and I'm behind in my sleeping. But, I will do it. I promise.
Qa pla!
Date: 2007-10-21 04:48 pm (UTC)