The list is based on an exercise developed by Will Barratt, Meagan Cahill, Angie Carlen, Minnette Huck, Drew Lurker, Stacy Ploskonka at Illinois State University. The exercise developers ask that if you participate in this blog game, you acknowledge their copyright.
Father went to college
Father finished college
Mother went to college (for 1 year at a business college. I helped her with her homework. I was 14.)
Mother finished college
Have any relative who is an attorney, physician, or professor
Were the same or higher class than your high school teachers
Had more than 50 books in your childhood home
Had more than 500 books in your childhood home
Were read children's books by a parent
Had lessons of any kind before you turned 18
Had more than two kinds of lessons before you turned 18
The people in the media who dress and talk like me are portrayed positively (Talk like me? yes but only since my mother refused to let me adopt the rural Ohio accent that I was surrounded by. Dress like me? Nope, hence the italics.)
Had a credit card with your name on it before you turned 18
Your parents (or a trust) paid for the majority of your college costs
Your parents (or a trust) paid for all of your college costs
Went to a private high school
Went to summer camp
Had a private tutor before you turned 18
Family vacations involved staying at hotels
Your clothing was all bought new before you turned 18
Your parents bought you a car that was not a hand-me-down from them (I didn't get my driver's license until I was 21.)
There was original art in your house when you were a child
Had a phone in your room before you turned 18
You and your family lived in a single family house (sometimes, yes)
Your parent(s) owned their own house or apartment before you left home
You had your own room as a child (most of the time, yes)
Participated in an SAT/ACT prep course
Had your own TV in your room in High School
Owned a mutual fund or IRA in High School or College
Flew anywhere on a commercial airline before you turned 16 (but only because our dog saved my father's life and was Dog of the Year for 1976 so we got to fly from California to Atlanta.)
Went on a cruise with your family
Went on more than one cruise with your family
Your parents took you to museums and art galleries as you grew up (ha! I was happy to go to Murphy's Mart, which was a Kmart knockoff)
You were unaware of how much heating bills were for your family
I tell people I was poor growing up, but they don't believe me very often. I guess I didn't realize how unpriviliged I was compared to everyone else I've know who has done this meme. But I will say that a number of things are very urban-centered as points of privilege. Which is less privileged? Living in a condo? or living in a trailer? And I think having a car at all before you were 18 should be seen as a point of privilege and not just having a new one given to you. I mean if your parents can afford to give you a car at all that is privilege. Few of the kids I went to high school had access to a car, let alone a car of their own. But it is interesting to have some random list of things used to describe your economic class. And since many of the items that aren't bolded for my childhood are able to be bolded now, does that mean I still am unprivileged? Or does it just mean that I understand what it is like to lack privilege? And this only describes class, not sex or race which can affect your privilege as well.
As a member of a craft mafia, I get asked by other crafters how to create or join one in their area. I've been asked about this by a woman in Houston, a woman in Dallas, a woman in Clevland, and 3-4 women in LA every year for the last three years. II respond to each of them with a moderate amount of information and encouragement to start their own group, or their own craft show. I get grateful responses from everyone, except for the women in LA. I hate to generalize about people in cities that are so stereotyped, but I find it very interesting. And confusing. Why do I get such dramatic differences between people living in LA and people living in several other cities?
Last week I was chosen as one of three finalists in the Apartments.com Possession Obsession video contest, for my video about my extensive and alluring pin-up collection! Which means I have a chance of winning $20,000!!!
Here's where you come in:
- Go to the contest site, register with your email address. It's quick, painless and they won't do anything untoward with your address, I promise. Then... VOTE! You can watch my video too, but that's not a requirement for voting. But really, you should, it's cute.
- Today and every day from now through October 19th, go to my video page, log in, and VOTE VOTE VOTE! Yes, you can actually vote multiple times (this is Chicago, after all), limited to once a day.
- Subscribe to the RSS feed for my personal site for a daily reminder to vote. As a special thanks, I'll post a different pinup from my collection every day, one that didn't appear in the video!
- Forward my personal site's URL or my video page URL to your friends and ask them to vote for me. Everybody loves sexy babes, your friends will thank you. Ask them to forward it to their friends, and so on, and so on...
- If you have a blog, I would be ever so grateful if you would write a post about my video. I'm counting on my blogerati friends to help get me to first place. So go to it! (Did I mention I could win $20,000????!!!!)
- Dust off your party hat, because when I win the $20,000 grand prize, there will be merriment! And you're invited.
Thanks for your help! I couldn't spell pin-up without "U"!
I entered a video contest run by apartments.com called "Possession Obession". Right now the videos are on display, but next week the judges pick 3 finalists, and for about a month after that people vote for the winner. You can vote once a day then -- can you tell this company is in Chicago???
Go look at my video and leave me a juicy rating and flattering comment. It doesn't have any bearing on the final results, but it sure will make me feel good :) (the login is painless, I promise)
this is what happens when Richard Branson is allowed to design a "spaceport":
But I really feel like I captured the energy and intensity of the parade in this image. There is something fierce but fun-loving in the stance and I'm really happy that I grabbed it with pixels.
A few weeks ago I got my hair cut. Like seriously cut. I got 14 inches (it was past my waist) of hair removed from my head and it felt great. It still feels great, actually. It was dull and lifeless for quite a while and I'm glad to have a little body and bounce back to it.
But this creates a conundrum for me now. Now that I have hair that barely skims my shoulders, I can't put it in a bun. Which is what I've been doing during warm weather when I want it off my neck. It isn't even long enough to turn into a ponytail. So how am I keeping from getting heat rash on my neck this summer? Pigtails. For the first time in about 25 years I'm going to be wearing pigtails.
I think I need a whole new wardrobe that is far hipper than I have to go with my pigtails as well. Or I could rock the Japan-teen Loli look? Or I could just not give a flying fig what people think of me and go for comfort. Which is probably what will happen.
