2.18.2011

Yet more misguided immigration policies that help no one: NYTimes: Crackdown in Virginia Strips a Legal Immigrant of His Livelihood.

Some cheaper wedding-attendee dress options from F21....: 1, 2, 3.

So, bum out: I hurt my ankle in soccer last night (a woman from the other team kicked it out from under me and I rolled it...I think. It's all sort of a blur. She was extremely apologetic.) Anyways, I'm VERY relieved that it's not serious - I can walk on it etc - but it may mean I can't do the half marathon tomorrow, which is a huge disappointment. We will see.

Ever since I posted yesterday about creating my own syllabi I have had fascinating comments from and conversations with friends about being life-long learners and all the things they are trying to learn about as adults (with full time jobs, families, etc competing for their attention). Specifically, I've been talking with a friend about the issue I brought up of wanting to learn more about increasing the sustainability and health of rural areas and small towns. There has been so much focus in the last decade or so on the potential for cities and urban areas to be economically and ecologically sustainable - this work is amazing, and something I'm interested in learning more about, but I'm still left with the question: what about the rest of the country? It's no longer shocking to say that cities are/can be "greener," healthier, etc than most rural areas, and having lived in both cities and small towns over the last decade I have seen that to be true. But do we just encourage Everyone to move to cities? How do we go about making small towns (and collections of small towns, like the area I live in) more enjoyable, profitable, healthy, sustainable places to live? I'm not finding much on this issue, or what I have found seems limited to "buy local," which seems like only one small part of the issue/solution...

This story on NPR about best friends who combined their familes when one of them deployed got me choked up: A Friend Calls, And A Best Friend Moves To Help: "Along with caring for her own children, Jihan Sanders takes care of the children of her best friend, operations specialist Petty Officer 1st Class Sheena Sullen, while Sullen is deployed with the guided missile destroyer USS Mahan."

1 comment:

Karla said...

i think i like the first F21 dress the best. i love that they tell you what size the model is wearing, i always find online shopping for clothes irritating b/c i'm sometimes a s and sometimes a m, and it's good to be able to compare a bit.