Where have I been? I've been no where, really. Working hard. Taking classes towards my masters in Geographic Information Systems. Working as a contractor for F.E.M.A. doing work with the NFIP. Living life with a pair of smelly cats and a furry boyfriend outside of Baltimore. Let's see if I can get this blog going again.

I'm taking a break from some difficult homework after having a breakthrough. My homework assignment this week was to find 12 errors in the data sets given to me. It only took 24 hours to find mistake number 12. And now that I have... some music for you.

Clap your hands if you're working too hard...

And then

dance :)

This post will be mostly inspired by other blog posts I've read.

http://msmagazine.com/blog/blog/2010/05/20/bad-shoes-and-the-author-who-takes-them-on/

I own very few pairs and wear them infrequently. Job interviews and deaths. And if I can avoid them for even those occasions.... I will. That being said, I've known women who only wear heels. When I was a sophomore in college, I worked at a coffee bar. My boss was this little Russian thing who never wore anything but crazy heels. Leopard print stilletos and things like that. And man, she got around. She was constantly having to run back and forth between the restaurant and the coffee bar, both of which she managed in the student union. She clearly loved heels and got around easily in them.

Is she less of a woman because she was fashionable? Am I less of a woman because I've already stated that I will refuse to wear heels on my wedding day? This is the type of bullshit that shouldn't even enter the conversation. The equation. What really got me thinking were the comments on the blog post. One person wrote about "Women are colonized. Some women may be convinced there is nothing wrong with the accoutrements of that colonization, but that just speaks to the power of social conditioning. There is nothing innocuous about societal expectations of women. They are meant to keep women subservient, our health and well-being be damned."

My question is then, what happens when social conditioning changes? The norm becomes to not wear heels. Women are telling other women it is wrong to wear heels because men WANT us to. Heel oppression! Does the opposite then become true?

Another interesting article about the option to have or not to have children: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/keli-goff/contrary-to-the-myth-abor_b_569544.html

I guess my point is... wanting or not wanting to wear high heels.... wanting or not wanting to have children... IS COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT TO WHO YOU ARE AS A PERSON. People who want those things are not necessarily socially conditioned to want them. People who don't want to fuck with either of those things, well so be it. People have the freedom to choose, and some women just want to wear leopard print stilletos while working 10 hour shifts. Some women want to have a baby for reasons not advertised in a diaper commercial. Personally I hope all high heels spontaneously catch on fire, and then I give birth to 5 babies all at once.Everyone is different. All WOMEN are different. We've been encouraged to be that way in this country (Lady Gaga is proof. The link for an article titled "Come Party with Lady Gaga" is no longer working. But in the article, the author suggests that a whole new type of girl exists now that pop stars shoot fire out of their tits on stage).

Feminism was born from women who wanted to love one another, commiserate, and relate in a world run by and catering to men. Love your fellow sister. It's now become this like... man-hating, judgmental, cliquey, bullshit idea. A club of a certain type of women. And I think all of it is a load of shit.

It is very hard as a woman myself to not fall prey to this. I judge people, especially other women, who I don't think behave how they should or act like I want. A book that completely made me realize that I even did this was Cunt by Inga Muscio. It was an amazing read. I didn't get a judgmental vibe from her. She complained about how so many women, especially feminists, are. How cliquey some have become as feminists.

I think it is important to love ALL people, especially women. I don't know that I'd call myself a feminist. Maybe a humanist... trying to live the best possible life and love as many people as possible in the process.

I don't know that I could ever love Sarah Palin, though... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/28/AR2010052802263.html

I doubt that I'll have the time to revive this journal the way I'd like to, but I'd really like to begin updating somewhat regularly again. Life has been incredibly busy lately... leaving me little time for anything else. I feel like I haven't hung out with friends in months. A lot of this is due to the house hunt, purchase, etc. that have been completely consuming my life. On the upside, however, the house is nearly finished. Pictures have been hung and walls have been painted. There's only a little bit left to do.

Our housewarming is this Saturday. It will be nice to have all of our friends and family together to collectively breathe out and let life begin in our new house.

For me, that breath doesn't come that easy. Life is in a weird state. I've been with a man for a year now. We now live together. I own a house. I'm going to grad school. I have a good job. But let me tell you, being an adult is scary. Don't get me wrong... I've never been more happy and more settled in life. Ever. But this is big stuff and I'm not so comfortable that I can just breathe out and relax all at once. My life has just changed in several huge ways all within the span of a single month and it will take some adjusting to get used to it all.

I'll admit it (and I think I have before), I'm a reality TV fiend. I love bad TV. Love. Recently, a new show started. The third episode just aired in which all of the girls go to the prom with the guy (assuming most of the women had such horrible high school years that they didn't get to attend). The concept of the show is basically that fat people are capable of the emotion of love. So there is one fat dude, and a herd of fat girls. The fat girls compete for the fat guy. Hopefully it'll end in marriage (at least that's how they make it seem it will end).

This is a song I heard just the other day from the new Matisyahu album. It comes out sometime next month. I'm pretty excited for it. I'll post the youtube video of the song here but if you'd like to see the actual video you'll have to go HERE (they disabled embedding.... booooo).

Jeez, I'm lazy. I've just had so much going on. The last post I made was before I started my job. I suppose I made another after starting but decided to make it private so that Chinese spies wouldn't mine the information (thank you again to the wonderful Shannon for reminding me to not be a doofus.

Work is still going well. I'm learning a lot, classifying storms, and catching on quickly. I've already worked my first set of midnights. It was... interesting. The shift work isn't horrible but let's hope that shift lengths remain 10 hours. There has been discussion that they won't. I've been thinking about what will happen in the future. I really can't see myself being pregnant and doing shift work. But that's a ways off.

Over 4th of July weekend I went to Steve and Sarah's wedding. That I CAN post pictures of :) It was a beautiful ceremony, and the weather was perfect. Everyone had a great time I think and I am so incredibly happy for the both of them.

Life is exactly as it should be lately...

This song is catchy as hell and apparently was in the Twilight soundtrack? I don't remember hearing it during the movie and was surprised that a band like Mute Math was on there. I always considered them a band that only the really indie folks would discover and love. I'm glad to see them making it though. Enjoy the song, I've been playing it on loop. You know how I roll.

I'm done. Doneeeee! Here are some pictures from the event... my favorites.

Life is crazy right now. Within the last week I turned 23, I interviewed for and then landed a job working as a Satellite Analyst contractor for NOAA (with potential to go government), took two final exams and have now received all my final grades (2 B's and a C which I in all seriousness couldn't be happier with haha), and today I graduate. I'm going to walk across a stage and shake hands with someone I do not really know and will receive in all likelihood an empty diploma folder to be filled later. I guess all of this hasn't quite hit home yet. I'm excited and kind of nervous. I'm wondering how successful I'll be in real life and realizing that I've been in school (to at least some extent) for about 18 years now. That blows my mind. Completely blows my mind.

This Sunday is my graduation party. All of my wonderful girl friends are coming to town to meet my family and the place that had a huge part in making me who I am. I'm ridiculously excited about it. It'll also be fun to have the entire family together (for the most part anyway).

I'm proud to have made it here. There were times where I seriously doubted I could... times where I wondered why I even bothered to come here. Now I couldn't be happier to have started, endured, and now completed this crazy journey. I'm kind of sad it's coming to an end. Only a little, though. I'm ecstatic to be starting my career.

The rest of my life is starting.

Life has been busy. Crazy. It's been kind of all over the place, too. I have bought my cap and gown, picked up graduation tickets for the ceremony on the 22nd (and I have also been told they will in fact say Joanna Marie Birch when I receive my "diploma"). So there's that. I'm pretty nervous about it all. I'm playing it down quite a bit. I don't really want a huge fuss made. I almost don't even want to deal with the whole thing just because it's another thing to add to my ever growing check-list of crap that needs to be done.

Besides all of that, the job hunt is going as can be expected I guess. I went and met with a recruiter last Tuesday and then received a phone call on Friday that he was no longer with the company. So that's good. I sure am glad I sat down with him in person and made a lasting impression on a human being who no longer matters in any capacity. I'll likely start applying like crazy again once graduation and finals are over.

I'm really looking forward to not being in school anymore. This will definitely allow me the opportunity to go to more shows and do more at night (knitting, where have you been!?). Gogol Bordello is coming in June. Jenny Lewis (if she isn't already sold out). I'm also considering Bonnaroo. Passion Pit is about to drop a new album. I've listened to a leak AND heard their first single on the radio last night. It's amazing. I'll post the video the guys put up on YouTube so you can check it out. I actually never got to mention this...

So here is my Passion Pit story. My cousin Scott got married on Easter weekend and used to jam with the drummer and is still really close to him. Anyway, he was at the wedding. I got to meet him. I hugged him. Had a groupie picture taken with him. I still feel like an ass because I said NOTHING about his amazing music to him. At that point I just found out they got added to Bonnaroo. They were about to drop the new album. There was tons I could've said but didn't because I was hard core blushing and my uncle made me feel like a goober. Anyway, it was cool to meet him. Hopefully I'll get the chance to redeem myself at some point in the future.

Enjoy this new single. Then go enjoy this sunny, warm Mother's Day. I know I will.