Holy moses bit the pharoah

I hear the weirdest songs on the radio here.  They probably exist in the States, but I think we've removed them from our history in an attempt to pretend they didn't happen.

I met Kristie's aussie doppelganger this morning.  She had a ridiculous accent; Kelvin thinks she's an American pretending to be Australian because no Australian could butcher their own accent like that.

We've had an eventful few days!  Our real estate agent grabbed Kelvin by the shirt and pushed him out of the office when Kelvin asked why our house was in such bad condition.  I double-checked with Kelvin - this is not normal Australian business practice :)  Our nephew has just been put in a motorized wheelchair - it's nicer than any of our vehicles, except possibly Mary Ann's miata.  A remarkable feat of engineering.  I'm thinking about getting one through the end of my pregnancy.

There's a woman I've become connected with who does some unorganized DV work in the communities around where we live.  We actually met by accident; she came to admire Alhena and asked questions when I revealed my foreign accent.  We haven't spent a lot of time together at this point, but we have plans to have me around as she does some of her work.  We've talked a lot about support for immigrants/refugees/non-whites.  In the informal network she works within, she has a lot of flexibility in what and how she works with these populations, but she has talked about a lot of similar frustrations that we face.  Australia doesn't have a lot of undocumented individuals, but there are huge populations who aren't even thought about (according to her) in the more organized DV agencies in Queensland. 

I'm meeting with her this afternoon, as it's Valentine's Day, and she and her comrades have a history of getting together on Valentine's Day to discuss women's issues and the construction of heterosexual relationships.  She hasn't talked yet at all about non-heterosexual relationships, or about male victims of violence, so I'm not sure how those pieces fit into what she does.  Talking with her makes me feel blessed that a whole agency exists (DVIP) that tries to attack the many prongs of violence and can help support each of us as individuals as we try to come together to work within the anti-violence movement.  I'm interested to learn from her how she and her connections deal with racism as it impacts survivors.  While she can name that those who are marginalized are in dire need of services, she doesn't speak of it in the direct conversation of racism that we might.  But it's hard to know context, since PC language and anti-racism work isn't something that has the history in Australia that it has in the US.

Enough of work-related thoughts :)  I just was feeling very proud of DVIP for the complex and intense role it plays in advancing the anti-violence and anti-racism movements!

The heat remains, although Kelvin has made a lot of headway in cutting our grass which has reduced some of the humidity.  It was long and thick, and kept Alhena and I inside due to my paranoia about being eaten by aggressive brown snakes.

Alhena loves the watermelon here, but insists on having her own adult-sized piece with rind and all.  Anything else gets immediately thrown, with disgust, to the floor.  I have a pic of her eating it, but haven't put it onto my computer yet, so will get that up next time.  She also pulls herself up to standing all the time, and is ready to walk.  She's just waiting for her leg muscles to catch up with her expectations.

The McDonald's I'm sitting in (as the ONLY place for free wi-fi in an entire city of more than 2 million people) is about 18 degrees Fahrenheit.  Which you would think would be a relief, except that we are of course dressed for 110 degree weather and humidity, so it's a bit like talking a cold shower outside in Alaska in January.  But at least we're in the 21st century.

This is suddenly very long, and all of you should be working rather than reading my ramblings :)  After all of the many hours I have spent at DVIP, I think of you all often.  I hope things are going well and you are taking care of yourselves and each other!

A~