Contents Under Pressure

Some things about being a modern woman give me pause. I thought about this today while on the Delta Shuttle. Across the aisle, a woman in a pantsuit was wearing very high heels. Who travels in heels? Personally, I wear them when I am in the office or at a club; otherwise, I am in transit in flipflops or Puma-lookalike sneakers. The thought of dragging a rollaboard and a laptop bag or hoofing it to the subway in stilettos or anything with greater than an inch heel disturbs me.
To my left, a woman who appeared to be in her early to mid-thirties was reviewing her IVF handbook and highlighting relevant sections. Perhaps my maternal instincts have not gone into overdrive yet, but why would a woman pump herself full of carcinogenic drugs (needles - OW!) and then have eggs extracted(double OW!), on top of the general aches and pains of pregnancy, for the sake of having a child? One of my friends underwent this procedure, more so because her husband was snipped during his first marriage, and had such a miserable time. She had to undergo two cycles, and losing the first baby really destroyed her mental health for a few months. Plus, the progesterone she had to ingest during the first trimester made her hip joints hurt. To me, this sounds spookily like a woman's body becoming little more than a babymaking factory. Is having a "perfect family" worth it? I ask myself if I would be willing to undergo this if God forbid I ever have fertility issues. At this point, my answer would be an emphatic NO, that I would rather roll someone else's genetic dice and adopt or even just be everyone favorite "auntie" than endure this, and I have profound respect and befuddlement for those who do.
The underlying question is then, after over thirty years of feminism and women's lib, must we still be valued by our ability to look good in uncomfortable shoes and pop out babies? Has the movement to emancipate women from the chains of the "feminine mystique" simply encaged us in a new prison? Selfishly, is this what I have to look forward to?!

Book(tape)worm

I have gotten a lot of reading done lately, which is good since I have umpteen million books sitting on shelves at home and in my parents' place, waiting to be read and then sold or given back to their owners.

Since my last post, I have read 7 books. Woo woo. Here is my take in 5 words or less:

Chocolat - more colorful than the movie
Christ the Lord - Young Jewish Jesus, fast read
French Women Don't Get Fat - good recipes, slightly too Francophile
Persepolis 2 - Iranian teen in Europe, illustrated
Veronica - NYTimes Bestseller for good reason
Smashed: A Drunken Girlhood - reminds me of some friends (and/or their significant others)
Influence - psych take on manipulation
Star Struck - Pam Anderson roman a clef, take 2

The Influence book says that to take a public vow is very effective for sticking to goals, so let's see if this works. As of today, I will not be purchasing any more books or taking any out of the library until I have read through at least all the ones on my apartment shelf.

Happy Passover/Easter

Ahh the joys of interfaith couplehood. One main benefit is two sets of holidays. Another is not fighting over whose mother to visit for the holidays, since each mom takes care of a separate holiday.

Yesterday I baked the NYT's sesame Passover cookies. They came out quite good, although I learned not to grind sesame seeds that are still hot from being toasted. I did not kasher my kitchen, but I did use matzoh cake meal, which took trips to two stores to find, in Forest Hills no less.

Jason's family's Seder was significantly shorter than the Passoutover (i.e., thank-God-there-is-no-hell-in-Judaism irreverent Seder) my friend James holds. Not that I am complaining. The homemade matzoh ball soup hit the spot after a long day of dealing with getting signature files faxed to the accountant. I also discovered that gefilte fish can taste good, if you buy the right kind - Manischevitz Gold is quite good. The flourless chocolate cake was the pinnacle, and the lead sinker, of the meal. It was so good I didn't mind the feeling of a dessert that rich impeding my digestion. J's mom sent us home with a care package - yeay!

Low-Carb and Loathing It

I have not eaten carbs in eight days. However, I have a feeling that will go out the window this week, what with the holidays....

Sisterly Love

My sorority celebrates Founder's Day today, our 111th anniversary. Rah rah. I guess I'm ambivalent about the experience, since I was considered an alcoholic slut in a house half-full of stuck-up boring prisses, and we spent half our time worrying about recruiting pledges to try to avoid the inevitable shut-down. Now a scummy frat took over our house.

A great paraphrased quote from Koren Zailckas: "Anything that needs a concept-word such as sisterhood to define it is bullshit." (Note: the sorority she joined at SU is really Kappa Alpha Theta. Guess she wasn't as vindictive as that psycho at Sam Houston who posted "ritual" on the Internet and spouted a bunch of Bible-thumping True Love Waits crap.)

Cooking Do's and Dont's

Tip #456,760 - do not cook kofta on a stove-top grill without an exhaust fan. Unless of course you enjoy filling small spaces with beef-scented smoke.

Since my mom insists that I not cook for holidays, I took my folks out to Uncle George's for their wedding anniversary. It was empty, which is highly unusual, but totally fine since we didn't have to wait.

F-f-f-foolin'

Was very tempted to call J and "come out" as a lesbian or a dominatrix, but thought it could backfire; either he'd break up with me or ask for a demonstration.