Geeky Talks
I’m like Lara Croft, minus the kicking ass, great boobs, and self confidence (I’m so not Lara)
I’m a huge fan of women kicking ass. I think that’s why I love being in computer science. I’m all about women as a minority and rising above the stereotypes. I’m all about listening to some rockin’ song while I work out and pretending I’m GI Jane doing my one arm push-ups like any other man. I like being “the tough one” when I fall off my mountain bike (as I’m wont to do) and take a bump like it ain’t nothin’.
I’m also very very much faking it most of the time.
My Mom, Grandma and I were in Scotland on 9/11. You’d think I knew someone in New York with the way I carried about. I was terrified. I was horrified. I fell to pieces like a little girl losing her balloon. I seriously flipped out. I think this is the single most tragic event I’ve lived through and it really hit me hard. Even if I wasn’t in the country at the time, or ever been to New York, or even knew anyone there. I flipped.
My Grandma, on the other hand, lived through Pearl Harbor, WWII, the depression, and a ton of other such political angst. My Grandma stayed married to a man she hooked up with because “he was nice enough” and “eventually you just hung in there because he was your husband. It wasn’t like it is nowadays.” The woman was a rock. She raised four children, worked, took care of a grumpy husband and did her makeup until she passed away at 79. I gave up makeup at 15. Already I’m 64 years behind.
I have friends who triumph over all kinds of bad things, both big and small. They juggle their career, they go back to work, they fight MS and degenerative diseases. They deal with loss, with being an only parent, with moving to nowhere to support their husband, and raising kids when the husband is deployed or support their kids even if they make horrible mistakes. In my life, I’ve been more than fortunate. I’ve been blessed. I’m fully aware of this. You know how some people say, “God will give you only as much as you can bear?” Then God must know I’m a huge pussy.
Is there a woman in your life you’d like to give a holla to? Someone who is a beacon in times of turmoil? Or triumphed in some way? We have mother’s day for the moms, we have father’s day for dads, where’s heroine day for people who beat the odds? Who wake up every morning and go to a shitty job because their child depends on them? Who fight to do the right thing?
Today I’m declaring heroine day. (Not the drug, silly.) Here’s to all those women kicking ass and not needing a video game to do it.
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Hear, hear! Fabulous post.
I’ll give props to my sister for deciding to work in a career that she loves even though it doesn’t pay very well. She’s made it work.
I nominate my best friend who fought and won against colon cancer 7 years ago. It came back in her liver and lungs and I’m so afraid she is going to lose this fight. But fight on she does, all the while caring for her family and friends, refusing to feel sorry for herself. Such courage I may never have.
I am so glad Amalah pointed me here. I like you
And I’m a CS gal too.
I would like to nominate my Granny for dealing with all she has been through in her life and keeping a sense of humor about it all.
Great, wonderful post! Bravo!
Favorite quote of all time on a blog:
“Then God must know I?m a huge pussy.
“
Me too! I feel like that often.
Your Grandma was awesome. I love her take on the whole marriage thing. and look here, you are probably a lot stronger than you think. There is a big difference between freaking out when bad things happen to OTHER people but DEALING with it when it happens to you.
I gotta give my sister the big props in this department. She is so strong and resilient, it amazes me. She has twins, a full time job, and a hubby who travels 500 miles away each week to his job, so she handles EVERYTHING! She keeps our family together, talks me down when I’m crazy (which is about 98% of the time), raises her daughters, volunteers, arranges all the social stuff, does all the financial stuff, has a very stressful job and still manages to stay beautiful, graceful, humble and caring.
When the Universe slaps her in the face, she slaps back and she’s my hero!
Id like to nominate my mom, she put her life on hold to be there for us and our stuff while we were home, didnt hesitate to take legal custody of my best friend in high school to get her out of a house with a crazy alcoholic mother and her con man boyfriend, then lost 60 pounds after we went to college, dropped everything(once again) when my dad had the stroke and open heart surgery, never once said “I told you so” while she was helping me pack up my apt to move back home after kicking out my alcoholic drug addicted divorced ex with an illegitimate child, living in pain for 5 years bc what we thought was back problems, dropping everything (including her doc appts to find out why she was in so much pain) when my dads gallbladder surgery went horribly wrong and he was in and out of the hospital for 3 months. Finally my dad gets better and we find out it wasnt her back, her hip was disentergrating and about to collapse and finally this Monday got a brand new hip and is already home and wants to go out to lunch. My mom rules!
I shall nominate all of my friends who cleaned my house inside and out, and, organized and served the luncheon after my mother’s funeral.
I must surround myself with lots of great women, because I can’t just narrow down to one or two. Let’s just say I’m bery proud of the women in my family/friend circle!
And songs? The main one that jumped in my mind was “I’m a survivor” by Destiny’s Child. Um. I don’t know about any others off the top of my head…
Great post, Les!
Great post. Unfortunately, neither of my parents or my hubby’s parents get super kudos for parenting and sticking it out during the hard times. I would like to give a huge kudos to my hubby’s grandmother who raised her on a farm in Oklahoma during the dust bowl, made meals for all her hubby’s workers every day (and I thought I lived in the kitchen!), kept a sparkling house, and raised two children—all during the poorest of times in Oklahoma, when everyone else was moving to California to pick plums. Oh, and no laundry machines or dishwashers. They were made of tougher stuff back then. I would like to order some of that stuff, if anyone knows where to get it.
I’ve only begun to read your blog, but the very first sentence of this post made me weak in the knees.
By the second sentence, I was already in love.
I found you via “lostcheerios”, and wow! You are “my kind of people”. Or I think you are. That link to “not very good in public” could very well have been me.
Why is it that I cannot meet other Moms like you in REAL life? Are you hiding out somewhere?
Songs…“One Girl Revolution” by Superchic[k]. That group has a few songs that make me feel like I can conquer the world. IM me and I’ll share.
Also, Alanis Morrisette has some great “don’t eff with me” songs. “Bitch” by Meredith Brooks. I know there are many many more that I’m not thinking of.
I give props to my mother in law who was just diagnosed with fibromyalgia and has been suffering for the past 9 years with various pains.
She gets up everyday to work a shitty job as a gas station manager to support her husband and foster daughter.
I nominate my Grandmother. She is 84 years old married to my grandfather for 60 years. He died and her heart is broken. She has had full knee replacement, quadruple heart bypass surgery, colon cancer and a anorism in her heart.
Everyday she gets up says the Rosary goes to Catholic Mass every morning. Takes communion to the sick. Takes communion everyday to the nursing home. Takes her elderly neighbor for dialisis every friday and then takes her to the grocery store. Makes the vestments for the priests at church. Then she is committed to the adoration chapel every Sunday and Monday.
She is amazing and has never onced complained about anything.
My grandmother, without a doubt. She raised 9 children and went back to a nursing career after the youngest was in high school. She was married to my grandfather for 65 years until he died in 2002. She also helped raise most of her 20 grandchildren and can still keep up with her 3 great-grandchildren at the age of 80.
She amazes me every time I talk to her and she shares more and more details about her life.
I nominate…
My grandmothers - true homemakers that are my heroes, even though they’re long gone; I aspire to be like them all the time
My mom who was/is basically a single mom with an annoying guy (Dad) who happens to live with her
My aunt - who kicks ass with everything from banking to cooking for 15 hungry men to running a hotel
My sister - who’s fearless and travels all the time for school and fun) and
My best friend - who was finally diagnosed with fibromylagia a few years ago and she still insanely holds down 4 jobs while living down the street from her parents.
I have to give a shout out to my superhero mother-in-law who has been through the loss of a mother, a son, and a husband in addition to having broken her back, ruptured her appendix, and suffering from fibromyalsia for several years. Bad stuff happens to her all the time, and I don’t know how she pulls through, but she always does, and she’s still going strong. People like her amaze me.
I posted about my Grandma just a few weeks ago. She grew up amidst having WWII all around her. The bank she worked at was bombed and destroyed. Choosing which bomb shelter basically meant the difference between living and dying. She married my Grandfather. Came to America SEVEN MONTHS PREGNANT (with my Mama) on a ship. Made a long ass train trip from New York to the flats of West Texas. And in a breath, she had a small newborn, a new life in the US, no family besides her hubby and didn’t know a lick of english!! She would actually learn english by listening to the radio!
I asked her what that was like (cause I would be a basket case.) And she just shrugged her shoulders and in her little French accent said “I don’t know”. It was just what she had to do. I’m still amazed at what she did.
Y’all, you are giving me chills with these awesome stories. I love every one of ‘em. Adding songs to the iMix so we keep the spirit of kickin’ ass!
I just want to say something completely shallow. I heart the iMix idea. And also, I heart the title of this post. You do kick ass! Bloggy ass!
My nomination is another Amy in my town who is a single mom raising a one-year-old boy with CHARGE Syndrome (lots of developmental and medical issues—around the clock care). She is faithful and dedicated to her son. She has a honest, well-written blog here: http://www.maxupdate.blogspot.com/
Happy belated Heroine day!!
I nominate my best friend Teresa who got breast cancer and they took absolutely everything and were very aggresive with her treatment. It was hard to watch and go thru just from the sidelines, I never knew she had such strength. She is now 3 years cancer free and I’m so glad such a strong and vital woman is my daughter’s godmother, she a great example for her of a powerful woman.
I would nominate Carrie. She has twin two year old daughters. One of them was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor, inoperable. She’s doing a fabulous job of trying to hold it all together for both of her girls and she can use all the support she can get. You can view her site here: http://www.caringbridge.org/cb/inputSiteName.do?method=search&siteName=juliapinotti