May 2017

Welcome Christopher!

The most important news of the month, for our household, is that this Saturday we brought home Christopher from the MSPCA Angell Animal Shelter here in Jamaica Plain. Christopher is a three-year-old grey cat whose previous caregivers surrendered him for adoption. He is shy around humans and was very overwhelmed at the shelter; we were glad to give him a quiet home with a kitty companion as he was used to in his previous home. 

We look forward to getting to know him better as he grows braver and is willing to give us a chance to cuddle him. 

#amsewing

I've been working on a variety of smaller stitching projects in the past month. Our local craft store, JP Knit & Stitch, was calling for crafty quilt squares for a banner of hope that they planned to carry in the local Wake Up the Earth! festival parade. Using bits and pieces from my stash, I started to make quilt squares using a combination of cross stitch and fabric scraps with the message "resist" and "persist" on them. My mom liked the pictures she saw on Twitter so much she requested two special order for herself and a friend. I'm making theirs into finished stand-alone hangings and am quite pleased with the emerging results!

#Persist in Resisting

April saw both the March for Science and People's Climate Mobilization, events with sister marches in Boston. I picked one of the two to be present at -- social energy being limited -- and went to the People's Climate Mobilization, in part because I value its environmental/climate justice framing. I joined a colleague, Genna, from Project ARCC (Archivists Responding to Climate Change) and we attended the rally on the Boston Common on Saturday, April 29th. 

My other ongoing commitment to activist accountability is writing to my three national representatives (Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey, and Representative Steve Lynch) on a weekly basis. While I was in Austin, I stopped in at BookPeople and bought myself a box of 100 postcards featuring women in science that inspire me to write short, weekly messages of thanks or request. I can't say much of eloquence on a postcard, but I feel like the physical act of weekly contact is a good starting place.

Books and BritBox

I really struggled to find reading time free of distraction and other responsibilities this month, which meant that most of my reading was for review assignments rather than pure personal pleasure and enrichment. (I used most of that time working on Grantchester fic...). Of the review assignments, Mark Regnerus' Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy (Oxford University Press, Sept. 2017) stands out for the dubious honor of being the first hate-read I indulged in this year. Regnerus, for those who don't know, is deeply socially conservative sociologist whose work has been cited in repeated attempts to discriminate against queer parents despite the fact his research doesn't actually study same-sex couples who parent. I live-tweeted my feels about Cheap Sex and those who wish to enjoy can find the Tweets on Storify: Anna Reads "Cheap Sex". 

On a much happier note, Hanna has finally -- finally! -- found a streaming service that provides back catalog access to old school Doctor Who and a dizzying array of other British television programmes. We've been feasting our eyes on many an episode of Miss Marple and Mapp and Lucia while crocheting and stitching away on our various projects.
 

#BostonSpring