Michele Bachmann, you are a twit

Dear Michele Bachmann,

I would like to let you know that you are, to put it way nicer than I should, a twit. Why a twit? Because calling you a moron would be an insult to morons. First and foremost let me say that I’m not a Tea Partier, hell, I’m not a Republican. Yes, I’m that woman you hate – an independant, feminist Democrat. Not a bleeding heart liberal by any means, but still feet firmly on the left. I had to get that out there. My calling you a twit is not due to my Democratic Party leanings. No. My reasoning for calling you a twit is much more of a personal nature.

I knew better than to watch the debates live. However, you provide such… “interesting”… sound bites that I couldn’t miss this gem. You are criticizing Rick Perry’s stand on making sure that Gardasil, the HPV vaccine, available to all girls at a young age – NOT as you say, as a mandated vaccine, but as a choice for parents to have the vaccine administered to their daughters. You say that it’s because you’re a mom and you don’t want to take the risk for your girls. That’s all fine and good – but what if a parent wants to take that “risk”? What if a parent wants to ensure that their daughter doesn’t have to go through the pain and suffering of cervical cancer?! What then? You want to take away that right? Would you have opposed the polio vaccination when it was new? If you knew that it could prevent a lifetime of suffering? What about the MMR vaccination? Did you oppose that when your girls were entering school?

Let me tell you this – if that vaccination had been around when I was a teenager, I might be able to have kids today. No, I didn’t contract HPV at a young age, I was diagnosed at 25. My partner was someone I had been with for years. I was diagnosed with pre-cancerous cells ranging from levels 1 -4 . Yes, I had the whole gamut. And, luckily, I had a doctor who did everything she could to keep it from spreading any farther. Had there been something like this when I was a teenager, that might not have happened. A young woman of 25 wouldn’t have had to sit in her gynecologist’s office, sobbing, as her doctor tells her that for her to get pregnant and have kids naturally would be “a miracle.” All because of a virus. That could have been prevented long before I was struck with it. Luckily, I have a wonderful doctor who is a specialist in fertility. When the time comes (and as long as I have insurance), she will try and help, but the odds aren’t great.

Every parent has that choice to make – for their daughter. You can’t, shouldn’t, and won’t make that decision for them. If I had a daughter, I’d take her to the doctor and get her vaccinated. I know if that vaccination had been around when I was young that my mother would have taken me to get it.

Also? RU-486 (the “abortion pill”) is NOT the same as Plan B. Plan B is back up birth control, nothing more. It’s like taking a double dose of the birth control pill. It does help to prevent pregnancy, however, if an egg has been fertilized it will not terminate the pregnancy. Get your facts straight, twit. If you’re going to spout off facts on a national level, you should do your research first. Or have your speech writers and researchers do your research and drill the correct facts into your head.

Right now, I’m just waiting for you to make an even bigger fool of yourself on this national level. I think I’ll pop some popcorn and pour a glass of wine while waiting for that to happen.

Sincerely,

Klassy (and, Ms. Bachmann, if you want a real name, just contact me, I’ll be happy to give it)

Sometimes the simplest things bring me peace

It’s been a rough couple of weeks at work. I’ve been working on a project that has become my baby – the ownership of this project belongs to three people: myself, my boss and another director in the company. While this is awesome – and an awesome opportunity for me – it comes with some unique headaches. I know that it hasn’t made me easy to live with lately, but my fabulous friends seem to understand.

The personal life hasn’t been any better, really. I moved out of my apartment back in July – you know the one that inspired the second half of this post? Yeah, I’m not sad to see the back of them, however, I thought that it would be much easier to find a place than it has been. So, since July 17 I’ve been without a place to call my own. Or even half my own. I won’t use the term “homeless” because I’m really not homeless. I’m lucky enough to have grown up in the area, to have parents who still live in the house I grew up in – and asked me to come home while I look for a place. It’s definitely an adjustment. One thing I’ve had to get used to is that my parents will never see me as the 36 year old I am, but as the 16 year old I was. Happy, happy, joy, joy. Things with K haven’t been… well, much of anything. After he disappeared (no calls, emails, whatever) in November/December, I declared myself single and started dating. Wow. The dating pool has been interesting. The only one who has stuck around for longer than a date or two has been a much younger guy – very sweet, but definitely not the one. You know? (Damn you Hollywood and Disney for setting such unreasonable expectations on relationships and keeping little girls looking for a Prince Charming. We should start a class action lawsuit about that… but that’s a story for another post.) Well, at the beginning of the new year, K resurfaced. After he told me why, I understand why he disappeared, but let him know that it’s not going to be tolerated again. He, so far, has taken that to heart, which has resulted in some great conversations. He knows where I stand and that’s a start. He’s started telling me some of the things that I’ve wanted to hear for ages. So, we’ll see. However, I haven’t stopped dating the Young One. (Why? Well, it’s kind of nice to be adored by someone.)

With all the chaos that’s been my life since July, I’ve felt the need to find some order. Something that I can control. I’ve rediscovered my knitting mojo. It started with finishing off a couple of small projects that I brought over with me after packing the rest of my yarn and half-finished projects in storage. The problem was after those projects, I had nothing to work on. So, off to the yarn shops (both brick and mortar and online) I went. Soon there were shawls and socks coming off the needles. But with all that’s going on the past couple of weeks, I needed something simpler. Something that didn’t take a lot of brain power to work on… and the discovery of a love of garter stitch was born.

I know I don’t really talk about my knitting or other crafting on here. For years I had another blog, just for knitting, but when that started gathering dust, I deleted it. With the advent of sites like Ravelry and with blogging for the shop, I just didn’t see the need to have my own anymore. Maybe I’ll start a new one, but until then, you’re stuck with it here.

Who knew this would be therapeutic for me?

When a person learns to knit, they generally learn to cast-on their stitches – but the first stitch they learn is the knit stitch. Many times, a person’s first big project is a simple, garter stitch scarf – it’s the easiest thing to learn to do because it’s just one stitch, over and over into oblivion. There are some people who LOVE this, knitting miles and miles of the same thing. I am not one of those people. When I taught myself to knit, I knit exactly one garter stitch scarf before I got bored and moved on to another pattern. So, when I found a small shawlette/scarf knit in garter stitch, but on the bias with a lacy edging, I was intrigued. It proved to be exactly what I needed to calm myself. The simple act of sticking my needle in the loop on the other needle, wrapping the yarn around the first needle and pulling it back through the loop, over and over again, brought me an indescribable peace. Crazy, right? When that shawlette was finished, I needed to continue this. I hadn’t experienced that calmness in a long time and, like a junkie, I needed my fix. I needed more of this calm. So I pick another project that is a lot of garter stitch – a baby blanket. Let me say that I have never knit a baby blanket because of the time commitment and I hate knitting scarves – blankets are like big scarves to me. So I pick one with interest and color changes, which I hope will keep me interested. So far, so good. Perhaps I’ll actually get this done in time for the baby’s arrival? Heh. I’m not counting on it, but a girl can hope, right?