My Meow

How do I love the Meow? Let me count the ways:

1. Smart (or clevah as we like to say in Boston)
2. Hilarious (you'll see for yourself below)
3. Beautiful (ohhhh, I had such a crush on her in high school!)
4. Creative (like her mommy, with the art and such)
5. Lover of Meows (who else is gonna leave me messages saying "hey meow, it's your meow"?!?)

Basically Torrance is one of my all time faves. Like not even in the top 10, or 5, in the top 3. She is family, like the hot hot sister I never had...and in high school I got her HIGH for the first time! My love for the Meow is eternal.

How do you know the meow?
I met the meow during our freshman year in high school through a mutual friend named Megan. A more ugly time I cannot remember, so I was thrilled and a little scared that somebody new wanted to be my friend. I think the first time I hung out with Mel was at he birthday party in January. Or maybe it was one of your scary movie parties, it’s all a little fuzzy.

We bonded quickly over our hatred of puberty, dads, being sober and our love of/for women. The S.C.U.M. Manifesto wouldn’t have been as sweet without my meow.

Where did you grow up, where do you live now and where have you lived in between?
I grew up in Brookline, MA. Currently I live in Portland, OR. I lived in Bryn Mawr, PA for about a year in 99-00. I am trying to figure out where to go next. Any thoughts?

(Note: The proprietress of this blog does have some thoughts on the matter.)

Where is the best place you have ever lived?
You know, I was feeling Philiadelphia even though I didn’t actually live there. And Boston looks damn good from 3000 miles away.

Where do you go to school and what do you study?
I am currently taking a break from Portland State University. I was working on a double major in Women’s/Gender Studies and Public Health.

Why did you choose this area of focus and particular university?
Well getting a degree in women’s studies was not a hard sell. “Women’s” issues and cats are pretty much the only thing I have cared about consistently throughout my life (and if cats could be my major it would be). The health aspect came in as I started to become sexually active and without health insurance spent a lot of time surfing women’s clinics and planned parenthoods for check-up’s and various other things. To say I am appalled at the way I was treated at most of the places I went to is a MASSIVE understatement. So my interest in public health was about me wanting to try to make sure that people would never have to have shitty experiences while they were trying to advocate for their health. Which,without health insurance is hard enough to do.

Will you have to write a thesis?
Fuck no! If I stick with PSU I will have to do 2 internships, 1 for each major. But PSU is wearin’ me out! I don’t know if I want to sell out my brain any longer.

What do you most enjoy learning about ?
I took a class last term “Chronic and Communicable Disease”. My teacher was the hotness; big wrinkley brain, great sense of humor. We learned all about the immune system, disease and sickness. And as a total germ freak I learned that I can totally rely on my body to handle gross germs. My new mantra for when I am on the bus and everyone is coughing and the person sitting near me smells of urine is, “My immune system can handle this.” It feels way healthier than running off the bus screaming, convinced I have Syphillis and TB.

Back to the question, I love learning about how my body works and how I can help it to work better. We are in this together!

What do you want to do with your degree?
Right now I would be happy if I got to work at my bookstore forever. I’m having a bit of a crisis about life plans and such, so I don’t know how to answer that one right now. Stay tuned…

Who do you for work?
I work at Powell’s. The biggest, independent, new and used bookstore in the world!

Why did you move to PDX?
Once apon a time I had a girlfriend. She picked Portland, still unclear as to why or how. We came out for a visit and liked it. It’s been almost 7 years.

How do you identify politically?
Liberal. An angry, fed-up, disgusted, bleeding heart liberal.

If you could have any job, what would it be?
I just finished watching season 1 of Ugly Betty so right now I want to be Hilda, Mark or Amanda. They are so god damn fabulous. Can being Fabulous be my dream job? Otherwise it would be kitten trainer.

Why is feminism important to you personally?
It’s important for me because I see sexism everywhere I go. And sometimes it is so thick and vile that I feel like all I want to do is hide. Feminism helps me get out of my house and deal with the bullshit. It helps me have a dialogue with people about the fucked up shit I see and it helps give me strength so that I can interrupt the fucked up shit that happens.

I know feminism doesn’t work for everybody and that a lot of feminist thought has hurt people. I like to think of Feminism as my mother. She is human and flawed. But she does the best that she can under difficult circumstances. She inspires me, she kicks my ass and she gives me a reason to get out of bed every morning.

How do you feel about gender?
Depends on the kind of day I am having. Sometimes I think gender is fun to play with and manipulate. Lee press-on nails anyone? But sometimes I don’t want to play, I just want to live my life, you know?

Books?
Fuck yea! One of the best things about my job is that I can check books out. We have over 1 million titles and it’s like my own personal library. I have so many books that I ran out of shelf space a while ago. At work I am building a wall of books around my desk. My boss makes fun of me and uses me as an example about the dangers of working around so many books for the new hires.

I am really into graphic novels right now cuz they are great for reading while in school. And you can find one about anything! There are graphic novel’s about Tupac, Emma Goldman, Malcom X. There are ones about baseball and Jim Crow laws, sexy vampires, cancer and there is even one about the history of freakin’ Cup-a-noodle!

How has your gender expression changed over the years and what has that process been like for you?
I’ve had job interviews with less questions…I used to hate my body, my breasts in particular. So I did everything short of wearing a burplap sack to hide the shape of my body. Breasts are obviously gendered, but having big breasts hyper-sexualizes your body. I think b/c I hated my breasts I shunned my feminine side for a long time. But I have been working on enjoying “the jerks” and my femme side for a couple years. It is still a struggle. I still wish boobs were like Velcro shoulder pads.

Do you have any pets?
Not only do I have a cat but I happen to have the softest, most wonderful meow of all time. Sometimes when I pet her I think that my hands are too pedestrian to understand the greatness of her fur. She is also an amazing jumper and I trained her (more like broke her down) to let me hold her like a baby. I don’t know if you know this people, but cats don’t really enjoy that position. Also, they are not huge fans of getting stuffed into Cabbage Patch Kid clothing. Sorry Biscuit, may kitty heaven be free of children.

Why are cats the greatest animals ever?
So glad you asked. I think it is true what they say about how people are like their pets. Ultimately I don’t like being pawed. I can’t be depended on all the time and I need lots of space.

I can’t handle how dog’s won’t give you a moments peace. I love how Sophia keeps me wanting more. I could stay home all day playing with her and she might reward me by sleeping on my lap for a few minutes. And it would all be worth it. Also I can make her hang out with me by feeding her chips, she loves cool ranch. So we are kinda like spirit sisters.

Are you ready for the revolution?
You know what meow? I would like to postpone the revolution till I feel more equipped to handle it. But sadly the revolution waits for no meow. So, if it’s now or never, I say “Let’s do this!”

How do you navigate having politics/being a feminist with liking to party and enjoying fashion and pop culture?
My simple answers is that being an unhappy fashion nightmare didn’t make me a better feminist or more politically aware. I will say that it is hard sometimes to make the right choices around fashion consumption and making sure your money is going to the right places. And being a pop culture nut helps me to keep my fingers on the pulse. It lets me know where we are at as a collective society. I need to know what the kids are into these days. I need to know what the conservative/Christian community is frothing at the mouth about. If I was only informed by my specific surroundings I would think our biggest problems were PBR or microbrew and whether or not coke is the new black.

Where do you most want to travel next?
I have got to get my ass out of this country.