Well, it's 2:44, which obviously means it's lunch time! So, assuming I still have any readers (since they may have given up checking my site since I've been so lazy about updating), I hope you'll keep the suggestions coming. Oh and by the way, I must say, for the third time on this site, the rain once again saved me from having to wash my car! Perfect timing, once again.
Anyways, I spent the morning watching television contemplating my lack of activity and wondering what to do with myself all summer. At noon I spent about two minutes of the phone with Tyler who is busy making me look bad by working in the morning at a basketball camp and then heading off for the afternoon and evening to ensure the safety of the town's children at the pool. So, somewhat inspired, or guilt tripped by Tyler's constant hard work, and also by the trash on tv, I pulled myself off of the couch. Then, after wandering the house for a few minutes feeling truly stupified by Dawson's Creek and mtv, I decided to pick up the book my dad got for me a month or so ago.
I had read a chapter in A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn a few weeks ago (about the racial issues plaguing America, which was very interesting), but today I thought I'd further educated myself of on the opression of women. We studied feminism earlier in the year and everyone agreed that men and women were equal, and we all were proud to read in the newspaper that Vermont was one of the best states for women to live in. So some people wondered what the point was of worrying about feminism and all that. But there obviously still is some inequality which you'll see if you look incomes. In Vermont, in 2000, the median income for a full time year round working male was $32,457, whereas for a year round full time working female it was $25,322. That's a pretty big difference.
Reading about all of this reminded me of a conversation I had with a few friends a while ago. I was commenting that in high school age sports and older you'll see a lot of men coaching girls, but not a lot of women coaching boys. The boys I was with justified this to me by saying that women don't understand mens sports because they're essentially different games. That's true in some circumstances, but surely if a man can coach a bunch of girls, then a woman could learn the game well enough to coach boys. To this they responded that the boys on the team probably wouldn't take the female coach seriously and would just make sexist comments. That's enough evidence right there to tell me that there obviously are still a lot of challenges for women even in a state like Vermont that's one of the best for women.
However, it's not really my nature to be pessimistic. I feel like all of the girls I'm friends with are very independent and outspoken. Likewise all the boys I hang out with see girls as completely equal. That can all be partly attributed I'm sure to the presence of all the very educated, strong willed and opinionated mothers (and fathers) in our lives. Sigh, I'm such a brown noser... But it is true.
By the way, school is almost over, yay!!