Like this:

One big little thing that I love in my life right now is my kitten, Lena. For a few weeks, Lena hid from me: under my dresser, under the couch, behind the washer/dryer (her favorite, until I turned the machines on). But now she follows me around like a puppy and snuggles, and darts around the house like she’s on a race track. I have had to hide most of my rugs and plants or she will ruin them but it’s a small price to pay for her company. I wanted a kitten to keep my company but also to serve as the new host for the ongoing flea problem in my rental house. The fleas, it turns out, are not gone yet (3 months now), but they are few in number and living off of her more than me: that is a big small thing for which I am grateful (maybe that’s wrong, but don’t judge me until you have experienced 300 flea bites on your body).

Another big, small thing I am grateful for: two weekends ago, I attended the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear in Washington, D.C. I taught my 1:00 Friday class and then hopped in my car and drove 10 hours to a friend’s house in Arlington, VA, arriving at 12:30. My friend dropped me off on the mall the next morning and I settled in for the rally. Although I had friends on that mall, none of our cell phones worked (a great reminder of my life before 2000), and the crowds were too packed together to find anyone. As I mentioned briefly in a previous post, I have been researching the Tea Parties since the beginning, not easy for a liberal to do. I also recently moved from a more liberal to a more conservative state, also not easy for a liberal, even an activist like myself who believes that I can make a bigger difference here than in Eugene, Oregon. However, I haven’t been to a liberal rally in a long time, so it did, in fact, restore my somewhat precarious sanity.

The town I’m living in reminds me a lot of Zenica, Bosnia-Herzegovina: both are former industrial towns that are struggling to find their identity in a postwar, postindustrial era. The broken streets here are reminiscent of Bosnia too: riding my bike here feels like mountain biking on rough trails. The streets here weren’t shelled in a war, but the lack of care has the same effect.

In short, it was nice to go to D.C., where I lived 1997-1998, and to be surrounded by people who want to see a more just, less angry world, not one that would be established through extreme versions of neoliberal capitalism calling for personal responsibility, like the Tea Partiers. I haven’t been to a good old fashioned liberal rally in a while, so my sanity was restored, until the following Tuesday when the Dems lost so many hard won Congressional seats. Sigh.

More good things: autumn has not ended, winter has not yet arrived. I like winter, especially the beginning, after the first few soft, quiet snowfalls. But I’ll take a few more weeks of surprisingly warm, sunny, colorful weather.

Finally, I appreciate little parts of my day like doing the dishes, raking my lawn, watering my plants, and playing with my kitten (okay, and watching cable television). For years in grad school, I considered those activities procrastinating: anything that did not involve grad school-related work was guilt-ridden procrastinating. Now I live, I don’t just work: I take weekends and nights off (sometimes), and I do not feel guilty, which feels strange, and good. That will probably change as I accrue more responsibilities at my new job, but for now, I will enjoy my day.

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