Miranda Lambert

We were supposed to go to the concert in Lexington scheduled in January, but it was one of the concerts rescheduled after her father-in-law passed away.

Because the reschedule also involved a day change (Friday to Sunday) I was faced with a difficult decision - cancel the trip with my three non-LDS teenaged cousins for whom I bought the tickets as a Christmas present so that I could be letter-of-the-law sabbath worthy, or suck it up and realize that sometimes there are more important things and that imposing my beliefs on them would be not only unproductive but probably detrimental. We came up with a compromise: originally the plan was to drive down the day before, spend the night and do lots of ice cream and pasta eating, movie watching, and running around UK campus with my cousin who's a student there, then go to the concert. Instead, we drove down and back in the same day so that I could still teach my 12- and 13-year-old kids.

The girls met me at my aunt's house after I was done at church so that we could drive down to the concert last night, and we had an absolute blast! I LOVE Miranda Lambert. She's honest about who she is, she doesn't ascribe to the I'm-gonna-be-anorexic-to-reach-size 2 philosophy that's so prevalent, she plays the guitar for most of her songs (and they're in multiple keys, unlike another twit of a country pop-tart), and she sings songs that speak to my heart. And she says things like "Where I come from, it is never okay for a man to beat up on a woman" in response to our society's rewarding of Chris Brown and his escapades (why on earth do we give him prizes and money for singing about such doings? It is incomprehensible to me). I love that she's outspoken about it.

And no, she's not a man-hater. Last night at the concert she must've mentioned her (extremely handsome - that's my addition, though I think she said it too) husband that she's just cute-newlywed-in-love with 15 times. It was adorable. A lot of her songs are really strong in terms of the way they respond to the idea of men who mistreat women, but she also sings really sweet, lovey songs. This one in particular I could sing to Ben and it's pretty spot-on explanation of how I feel about him - especially the "I'll always call YOU home" part. I like the balance between "stand up for yourself" and "a good relationship can be really satisfying". Her music makes me happy! And it's great for running hills, but that's an entirely different element. :-)

I had three favorite parts about the night. The first was my sweet 13-year-old cousin that hadn't ever been to a concert before - the other two dressed her up, we went out to eat at a fun pizza place, and she just had a great time - I don't think I've ever seen her so excited about anything! The second was talking in the car on the way down and back with my 18-year-old cousin....she and I aren't the closest from the group. It was fun.

The third though, had to have been the all-time best. We had all been sort of wishful-thinking-hoping that she'd have the Pistol Annies along, but there was nothing on the concert site about it so we didn't think it would actually happen. Surprise surprise, they came! We all screamed. Better harmonies than I've heard in years. I like Ashley Monroe's voice a whole lot. The three of them together, though......so old school.

Pretty much the best time I've had in years, totally worth the sleep deprivation leftovers today. :-)

'Nuther trail race

I'm starting to be an addict, I think. Like seeking out bigger and better highs kind of addict. At least it's naturally produced, though......all from in my body.

Anyway.

I've not run a trail race this long since September of 2010. So it felt good to do it. The course was really nice - single-track loop - though the weather was ridiculous! We've had weather in the 50s all week long, until last night when it got cold and freezie enough to snow about a 1/2 inch. Today it was 30 with a decent wind - I regretted forgetting my chapstick and clean socks but when I realized I didn't have them I was already 10 minutes from home. With an hour-long drive, it just wasn't practical to back-track.

I surprised myself with my finish today. I was just going for a "completed it"-type finish, and I did a lot better than that. This race was a full mile longer than my previous trail half PR, but I kept the same pace. That surprised me, because I was running much more consistently then than I am now. I guess there's something to being trained up and then maintaining, rather than working up to a distance. And I beat everyone in my age group but one - which is always a validating feeling. You totally can't see it in the picture, but we were all completely mud-covered. Mostly up the back, of course, but still respectably dirty. If I weren't so tired I'd post a picture of my socks....they tell the whole story!

The coolest thing I saw today was a 12-year-old boy that ran with his Dad. They passed me at mile 9-ish and I was pretty sure they were going to beat me. I ended up catching them again in the last mile or so though. He was a super-cool kid, and running behind him for a while made me wish for 12-year-old balance and ankles....he FLEW through little up-down ravine dips, despite mud. It was awesome. Bee is really interested in running (at almost-6 she can run an 11-minute mile, not bad at all), I would love to the the 38-year-old dad running with his son - only me and Bee. It would be awesome. So seeing them gave me some hope for fun to come, even when I'm old!

You keep using that word....

.....I do not think it means what you think it means.

IN Rep. Bob Morris has issued a statement condemning the Girl Scouts of America because of their attempts to "sexualize" young girls. And maybe he's onto something - this girl is pretty tarted up, after all.

Though there is a mingled mixture of indecision in his statement where he can't seem to completely say that the GSA is an awful organization (at one point he says that "The Girl Scouts of America stand in a strong tradition that reflects with fidelity the traditional values of our homes and our families. The tradition extends from coast-to-coast and back through the past one hundred years."), the overwhelming majority of the statement casts GSA as attempting to turn good little girls into "feminists, lesbians, and communists."

Now, when I think of sexualizing young girls, I think of problematic things like this. Or this. Or this. Or this. Or this.

Get the idea? Surprised by all the examples? Frightened? Worried? Appalled?

Anyway.

Based on what I read in Rep. Morris' statement, his concerns about the GSA don't have anything to do with actual sexualization of young girls, though he uses the word repeatedly. He's worried that the GSA is *gasp* teaching girls about sex! And even including references to that ever-so-threatening-to-conservatives-bunch-of-baby-killers Planned Parenthood. Rep. Morris is concerned that your little girls might have sex because of what they learn in Girl Scouts.

Can I point out that they're likely to have friends pandering much worse messages than anything GSA says about sex? Friends that encourage them to have sex with boys because that's the way that girls have power over boys? Or friends that encourage them to have unprotected sex because it's "cooler" and "real"? Or friends that convince them that the sex they're having (ie oral sex) isn't real sex because it's not vaginal penetration?

I'm way more worried about the future Queen Bee girls in my little one's life, than I am about what Rep. Morris calls the GSA's sexualization of American girls and young women. In fact, I think that the sex ed my kids get at home will have more common points with the GSA version of things than the "Sex is bad", "gays are evil", abstinence-only approach that Rep. Morris is calling for.