I’ve started to get into 43 Things, which is a social goal-making site. You can make goals, share them with people, discuss them, look at others’ goals, help each other reach goals. They range from little things like “buy and ipod” to less concrete things like “be nicer” to big goals like “write a novel” to snarky things like “witness the demise of ie”. It’s strangely addicting. We will see how it works for me – I haven’t posted yet, just listed goals.
why come the guy sitting next to me on the T today was clipping his fingernails?
Here is a nice sentiment from the 43 Folders blog. The quote is from Anne Lamott’s book, Bird by Bird:
Try looking at your mind as a wayward puppy that you are trying to paper train. You don’t drop-kick a puppy into the neighbor’s yard every time it piddles on the floor. You just keep bringing it back to the newspaper.
This is definitely a nice perspective to have as life is getting crazy during the end of the semester.
Anne Lamott: Put the puppy back on the paper[43 folders]
Cool to see Woody in Bay Windows this week. She really is what we’d call local color around here, and for sure a cornerstone of the community. This article talks about some of the stuff she’s done, and the Theater Offensive’s skit of her.
Born To Be Wild[Bay Windows]
Ever since McDonald’s switched from their delicious fried apple pies to baked, I have been devastated. You can still get them fried overseas, and in stores here or there around the country. One of those stores is in Boston (Downtown Crossing, at the Corner Mall).
I don’t know of one in Nashville, but you never know.
Here is a site with a little more info, but I don’t think that it has been updated in a while:
I just saw this awesome recipe for a seared tuna, which calls for tamarind paste. Is there going to be fresh tuna and tamarind paste in Nashville?
Some figures from 2005 Guide to Nashville: Nashville Chamber of Commerce
In the year 2000, 67.8% of the population were White, 26.9% were Black/African American, and 2.5% were Asian/Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander. The rest of the “races” are confusing to explain. Something about everything adding up to more than 100% because there are mixed folk and whatnot. But you get the general picture.
For every $100 the average American spends, the same goods or services could be purchased in Boston for $137.70, in D.C. for $134.70, in L.A. for $138.20, in NYC for $219.00, and in Nashville for $91.70
The average annual temperature is 59.4°, avg January high is 45.9°, avg January low is 26.5°, avg annual snowfall is 9.9″.
Other info:
There are at least 2 gay bars to go to within Nashville (and others that are more for men):
The Lipstick Lounge, which seems pretty lesbian, although they don’t say so on their site. A Citysearch reviewer seemed to be pretty pleased with the atmosphere though…
Tribe caters to whomever, but it seems to be a really gay-friendly place.
I’ve found 2 gay publications:
Out and About in Nashville and Church Street Freedom Press
There is a nice “womyn’s” resource website (where I’ve found most of my information) called The Pink Flamingo Flash
Also there is a Nashville Women’s Rugby team, which is cool because I’ve been thinking about getting back into it lately.
All in all, these are encouraging finds. The transition will be difficult, but I have to keep an eye on the positives. At the same time I have to appreciate all I’ve got here in Boston and not waste these last few months. It’s a difficult balance, but I’m doing my best to live it up, no doubt.
I started this blog much after we first realized Nashville was going to happen, so I have to catch youall up on some of the research we have done, and other thought processes. First off, my gf (B, or The Little Red-Haired Girl) is excited to go. She is originally from the south, and loves it there. She is not afraid that there will be no gay community. At least, not as afraid as I am. She is stoked for a milder climate, friendlier people, a slower pace, and a lower cost of living. I am afraid to live so far from the ocean, from a liberal majority, from real public transportation, from an abundance of foie gras and good wine, and from a large, open, gay community.
Boston has been good to me as a young dyke. When I moved here I was all of 21, and had never even been to a real lesbian club before. (Partner’s and Gotham Citi in New Haven don’t really count). I was so excited to be out in a city where all kinds of queers gather and be queer together all the time. I was so excited, in fact, that I occasionally went out by myself (which is so not me). That year I started volunteering for Dykenight Productions, and got to meet a ton of people who were behind the scenes in Boston lesbian life. That really helped get me feeling comfortable in my own skin and comfortable talking to people. Kristen, who runs Dykenight, took me under her wing and let me into her life, which is a defining aspect of who I am now.
Back then it was Dykenight at the Midway Cafe, on Thursday nights. It was a small “cozy” bar, where the drinks were cheap and the dj played on milk crates and used a flashlight to see. I’d get there at 10 and start checking ID’s and taking cover, and stay until after closing to pass out flyers and to have one last half-Bass. Sadly, that venture ended recently. Now we do Dykenight Goes Retro at Toast on Friday nights, which is amazing – the capacity is at least 3 times that of the Midway, the dj gets her own booth, there are two bars and 4 rooms, and it’s on Friday, which means I get to sleep in the next day. But I sure will miss those days at the Midway.
Next time maybe I will share some of the research that B and I have done on Nashville.
So about two weeks ago I sent my acceptance acceptance to a certain university in Nashville, TN. Which means this little New England dyke is off to the South at the end of this summer! Stay tuned…