Various good things going on

Since I often use this blog to complain about the state of things in various parts of my world, I thought this morning I'd use it to recount some good things.

Nonny:  My mom, Maybelle's Nonny, was in town over the weekend, and she and Maybelle had the chance to connect in ways I think they both enjoyed.  Here's the trick to facilitate this connecting:  get out of the way!  I discovered that if I make my mom babysit Maybelle, then Maybelle settles in with her and enjoys her, whereas if I'm always in the room, Maybelle tends to lunge toward me rather than exploring her grandmother time.  I promise this is true and isn't just my means of justifying using my mother for free babysitting (although this is part of what grandmothers are for, right?)

Halloween:  I already posted about the great pumpkin-hunting we did with the enormous and capable Maybelle, but if you haven't been to our Flickr site, you haven't witnessed what a fetching Yoda Maybelle was for Halloween.  She was Yoda last year, too, because I loved the costume and decided that, until she has an opinion and picks her own Halloween costume, I get to dress her in ways that amuse and/or entertain me.  As we've done for the last three Halloweens, we went to a friend's house down the street from ours for a Halloween party, and then the gang of kids there (tons of them!) took to the streets in a massive trick or treating horde.  This was the first year that Maybelle was mobile enough and able to stay up late enough to take part in the trick or treating.  She doesn't like candy, but she loves people, and she quickly learned that she could convince other people--mostly Claire, Larry, and Conseula--to pick her up, swing her by the arms, carry her around, and then put her down.  In other words, they'd do pretty much anything she wanted.  So she was an active, happy participant in the trick or treating travel, although she only got me one piece of candy (and technically, I believe it was actually Larry who got me the piece of candy).  A very good evening.

Milledgeville, GA:  Not expecting that one, were you?  Yesterday I drove to Milledgeville, home of Georgia College and State University, where Susan Cumings, director of Women's Studies, had invited me to give a talk--the very first talk, I believe--from/about Girl Zines, and the 7th annual Begemann-Gordon Lecture in Women's Studies.  Right at this very moment, I'm sitting at the old-fashioned desk in the unbelievably gorgeous bed and breakfast where they've housed me.  The picture to the left is from my phone--I sent it to Biffle yesterday when I got here.  That's the huge, lush bed I slept in last night.  I just finished having breakfast that the owner of the place made for me--so good.  She set the timer on the coffee maker in the kitchen so that I had coffee as soon as I woke up this morning.  I'm ready to move in.  If GCSU houses all its campus speakers here, I recommend that all of you consider ways to get invited to give a talk at GCSU.

As for the talk itself, it was great fun.  Lots of good questions from the audience, and two undergraduate boys stayed after to ask me a number of questions--really thoughtful questions.  One of them, after talking to me for a minute, said, "Now, would you actually consider yourself a feminist?"  When I said, "Of course!", he seemed sort of shocked and impressed.  I guess he hasn't asked many people that question--I suspect he'd be surprised at how many feminists populate his campus, because I had dinner with a bunch of them later that night.  Here are the high points from dinner:  the students--a very cool group--recognized the importance of social support to allow them to tap into their own creativity and self expression, and the faculty members, based on my encouragement (harassment?) decided to form a writing group.  (And if you all are reading this and are looking for the post I mentioned, it's right here.)

Alright, that's it for good things in my world.  I'm going to pack up and head back to Charleston.  The rest of you:  go vote!