Fair Warning

Hey. Fair warning: Imma start blogging.

Quick intro, basic demographics: I’m a single white woman from the northeast USA who’s turning 35 this year.

According to American society’s superficial criteria, I’m a loser. A lady loser. If I were a dude, it’d be more okay, I think–I could picture myself as the hapless but lovable anti-hero of some Judd Apatow-type flick. But I’d still be getting bombarded with messages that I’ve made all the wrong choices and am consequently of no use to society. I have almost no money, some debts (less than many), no spouse, no children, no house, and one beat-up old pickup truck that needs new tires. I live with my sister, trading room and board for child care of my niece, who’s nearly ten months old now.

What do I have going for me? Well, I’m reasonably intelligent. I’m not a genius, but I’m probably above average. I can speak French and some Hindi, and I thrive on cross-cultural exchanges, but that’s pretty useless to me while I’m stuck in low-income America. I can map things with ArcGIS like a pro, though my skills are growing rusty from disuse. Analysis, reporting, writing, public communication, design: my skills would be an asset to any company. Indeed, at one point I had two great job offers: one from a sure thing that wasn’t quite in my preferred field, and one from a company that did exactly what I want to do, but was slightly iffy, as the funding for their projects is dependent on decisions by state and federal legislatures. Well, I took a risk and it didn’t pan out. And by the time I heard that the second option had fallen through, the first one had of course filled the position. So here I am, half a year later: living with family, baby-sitting for my niece, not paying back my old landlord. I hate to sound like I’m whining, but I guess I kind of want to whine. It isn’t fair.

That said, I can’t say I hate my life. My sister and brother-in-law have taken me in and I spend half my week hanging out with my baby niece. Next weekend I’m going to visit my mom and help her clear and burn some brush. I’ll probably also play music with my dad, and I haven’t played music since I left my former abode in the Green Mountain State. I’ve got a small but growing network of online friends who are slowly becoming real-life friends as I venture out to events such as the Reason Rally to meet them. I’m meeting local activists and getting involved with the Occupy movement. I’m getting more copy-editing jobs. I go running fairly frequently and I often take my sister’s German shepherd mix along. She’s a sweet dog who can be something of an asshole sometimes. I’d prefer to run alone more often, but I feel bad for her being cooped up so much of the time since the birth of my niece, nearly ten months ago now. I guess I kind of identify with her: sweet, can be an asshole sometimes, a bit frustrated lately.

Okay, so here’s what to expect when reading this blog:  I’m a skeptic. I try to follow the evidence where it leads. As a result, I’m an atheist and a humanist. I’m a feminist, and my feminism is intersectional, as they say: I oppose transphobia, homophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry whenever I can. Being opposed to bigotry and following the evidence appears to put me on the left side of the political spectrum. I am a scientist, by degree, and I’d like to make it part of my profession. But until then I don’t feel comfortable calling myself a scientist. I love design, particularly landscape, urban, and regional design. I’ll be posting about all these things to start off with. The focus of the blog will become clearer as time goes on. But there’ll  probably be more stuff about feminism and politics initially. Just because that’s what’s foremost on my mind these days. Shout out to Tethys of Pharyngula especially, for praising my writing and encouraging me to get started with my own blog.

I do plan on swearing and possibly talking about sex.