So hi, y’all! Just checking in because I got the best email today from my Aunt Mary, who lives in Memphis, saying “Hi sweetheart. Whats with the harpies? I know you would never expect that I would read your blog regularly, but I do and have enjoyed the lively commentary.” Basically, she wanted to know where the fuck we’ve been, especially me, and to say that she would kinda like it if I would get back in the commenting, feminist caterwauling saddle.
I was completely psyched to hear from Aunt Mary, because she’s a seriously awesome lady—-warm, funny, caring, went from being a small business owner to changing careers and going to law school about 20 years later than most law students—and I had no idea that she liked our blog (especially since she’s a Republican and of a more traditional turn of mind than most of us). I definitely want to get back to the blogging and I know some of the other Harpies do too…we’re just having a whole shitload of life experiences at the moment. There’s a lot of grad school going on, plus some family obligations. I’m still working my butt off in my new job, and in a very happy relationship that’s consuming a lot of time (in a good way!). But the job should calm down somewhat this summer and I’m hoping to get back to blogging and spending more time with y’all. A lot of my feminist commentary of late has been limited to linking to articles on Facebook and going “Can you believe this shit?” and waiting for others to chime in that they cannot believe this shit or perhaps wanting to argue that it’s not really shit and maybe I just need to relax, which has led to some entertaining and combative Facebook threads. But I miss our commenters and our lively community here.
So there we are. Please let me know what, if anything, is new with y’all in the comments. And more to come…I promise.
I’m just going to be honest here. I have been on the cusp of giving up on Harpyness. I love the community of posters here, but there hasn’t been much to post about (though I love your posts Anna!) hence no community. Yesterday I was going to post and ask if Harpyness was ever going to become active again or not. But then I figured if you ladies wanted to be active you would be, and it’s not my place to demand.
I was excited to see this post! And am excited to see whatever will be posted next. ^_^ I have also not been participating in much online discourse (life experiences hahahaha what a tactful term)…
Yay, some harpyness action..
I’ve got a whole stack of half written things that are sitting in a folder labelled “harpyness”.. I’ll spend some time finishing them and sending them to the either of the harpyness email, once uni exams are over (for grad school as you call it, or post-grad here in Australia)..
Like Ms. M I miss the harpyness community as well. Looking forward to a winter filled with harpy goodness!
Well since you asked, I’ve been busy being long-term unemployed (massive sigh) and helping my mother move herself and her cats in with myself and my cats (good & bad days) AND sort through alllllll of her stuff (massive sigh take 2). But I have a sleeping kitty snuggled up on my pillow and I’m eating better now that she’s regularly cooking (cooking gene skips a generation in our family)…so that sort of help makes up for not being likely to date or get action here anytime soon. Right?
Thank goodness my mom went vegan years ago (I rubbed off on her), that makes things much more compatible with living together. But it is a total role-reversal – I don’t know how many of my fellow Harpies have parents or grandparents that moved in with them, instead of the other way around, but overall I’ve been the nagging adult more times than I care to admit.
Oh Harpies I gotta tell you, there have been times when this blog is the very top item in my address bar, and it has been a little sad to see that dwindle. I say that with hesitation, because on the one hand I want you to know that you are meaningful to me, and on the other because I don’t want to guilt anybody into anything.
veganmarcy I’ve been living with my elderly folks for about 9 years now. Only in 2012 has it gotten weird, because I am clearly the parent now. I took my father’s car keys away, and I made them sign up for meals on wheels. I have often mentioned to Mischief Manager that this blog could use some articles about aging and this issues of the aging. Round table?
(Another point of contact between me and you, veganmarcy: I try to eat vegetarian if not vegan 5 nights a week. My folks say: “that is pure hippy blabla growl grumble.” So needless to say, I can’t and won’t cook for them daily, for this reason, and for others too.)
@Rodriguez: have missed you too! And I’ve been contemplating a post on aging so yes! We shall roundtable it. Anyone else wants in, PM me on Facebook or at beckysharper AT harpyness.com.
@rodriguez funnily enough my mom wasn’t veg and was very against my veganism (“if you stop eating one more thing I’m never cooking for you again!”) just like she’d been very against my going veg. (Went veg when I was 13, went vegan before turning 16 – didn’t know any other vegans but I had been to a slaughterhouse downed cows rally as a childhood and that left a STRONG impression needless to say.) So I still chuckle sometimes that as of the last couple years she’s become a strident vegan. Life is truly funny sometimes. I think the universe has ways of evening out the weird comments I get on a pretty much daily basis about being a vegan, which is why I laughed so hard at your parents hippie food quote. So hard. Hee hee.
As for the role reversals, it reminds me of certain things I went through helping out my grandparents more and more as they aged. Often the males in the family would be in denial, or focus on their careers or travel instead of helping out their elders. As a single unmarried childless lady in this society, I note that pretty much guarantees caretaking expectations get put on me more than my brother (like, 100% basically). Le sigh. But I do love my mom. She and my gran turned me into the feminist I am today. It’s just really funny to be secretly organizing her stuff and trying to convince her not to put up with broken crap or accidentally hoard weird things.
PS MM is on vacay this week but I’m sure she’ll be very excited when she gets back.
we are sooo going to talk about allll of this (I hope!)
Just wanted to say how much I enjoy reading the blog. It’s fascinating, informative and reading it has given me a lot of foodfor thought.
So…I had this big long comment. and the interwebs ate it. however, I can read the words below now. So we’ll see if this one works.
Summary of disappeared comment: Yay! Harpyness is back! Yay! I’m back too! I had knee surgery a few weeks ago. I injured the knee in February, went to physical therapy, finally admitted it wasn’t working, had the surgery and now it doesn’t hurt. Bonus: the low grade pain that’s been dogging the knee for about 3 years is gone too. WOOT. Also, i have a JOB – an internship for the summer, and I’m studying for my oral exam in the fall. Yikes.
“a shit ton of life experiences” I really like that phrase. It perfectly describes my life since about mid-april. In fact, there has been such a shit ton that I haven’t even looked at Harpyness or any other of my fav blogs in weeks. Glad you harpies are back in the game and glad to be back in the stands