STAND UP, FIGHT BACK!

All right. I've got my shoes off, my blog up, and an hour before I have to think about my next class. I believe I owe you a review of my weekend.

Here is the evidence from Friday night we have to go on: "Women's rights, sickness, Australians dress poorly."

Helpful, past Heather. Real helpful.

So on Friday night I had some fun with friends and wound up falling asleep while watching Hell's Kitchen with Ryan. It was just a great, endlessly fun night. The next day I had brunch with Sierra, Megan, and Ethan and then we all went to a women's rights rally and let me tell you....

That was one of the greatest afternoons I've spent. I had been to a march for Trayvon Martin last spring but this was my first rally with speakers and singing and signs. I had so much fun. We listened to people from both on and off campus talk about health care and the glass ceiling in academia and rape culture in the military and it was all so moving and inspiring. There was even a weird old dude off to the side with a sign about how abortion is murder and weirdly that made me even happier with this rally. If people are mad at you, you must be doing something!

After that we all grabbed signs, mine said "When women's rights are under attack STAND UP FIGHT BACK," and marched down main street to the market and back again. It was hot and my voice was soar and I hadn't used my diaphragm muscle that much in ages but it felt great to shout and wave my fist and brandish my sign and grin at people as they gave us signs of agreement. I even got to help lead some of the chants! It was kind of funny because I was marching towards the front with a young woman who was supposed to be in charge of coordinating the chants she had written on a piece of loose-leaf. But there was this man with a GIGANTIC voice who would sometimes just start them on his own or tweak the words a bit and since he was the loudest people would follow. Whenever this happened the woman and I would look at each other and shrug. I feel like this is probably a metaphor.

The rest of Saturday I spent napping and studying. I was kind of dehydrated because I had left my water bottle in the Suite the night before. It was pretty low key. Then Becky, Sierra, Megan, Jesse, Steve, and I went to a party and that was pretty dull. Becky and I kind of just stood there in the massive crowd of people. At one point a culinary student just started making hot dogs. When the heat started to get to Megan we jumped at the opportunity to walk her home and go back to our dorm. Parties like that are not our thing.

Sunday was mostly spent in study. I finished "Ragged Dick" for my Gilded Age class and wound up reading ahead in biology. Then I got dinner and played board games with Ryan and Josh while everyone else in the Suite watched football. I won my first game of Monopoly ever and didn't even steal from the bank once.

Now I just got back from a lunch with friends after a wonderful Gilded Age class. I feel like I'm cheating on my history classes back in high school by having such a great time in this one. But I really, really like it so far. Even if the professor did assign an 80+ page paper that he wrote himself to be read by Thursday.

So as you can see I've been busy. It's hard blogging everyday when you have school and rallies and your friends live within walking distance. But I'm trying. And I will succeed.

Until tomorrow, friends.