i bleed once a month, and i use alternative products.

sometime around this time last year, i had lost my job and was eagerly anticipating my financial aid. i had also learned about menstrual cups (use that link so i don't need to explain). adam and i had set out to purchase the diva cup at a co-op at earlham college in richmond, indiana. everything has been fine and dandy, and i've also saved a ton of money. not to mention the fact that i'm saving a lot more toilet paper from not having to wrap my goods up to throw in the trash. the cost of my cup ran about $30. you can find them on various alternative menstrual sites via google.

i had never been a fan of pads, nor will i probably ever be. however, there is a coupon code on glad rags for a set of 1-day day pads for $7. They're normally between $10-$13-ish on any normal day. i decided to go ahead and buy 3 sets of colored organic cotton (as per jess). hopefully i'll get them in time for my next period to try out. i do love my cup, but sometimes it isn't very comfortable to wear while i'm asleep, and i had a spell of having habitual yeast infections that were later treated with yogurt.

happy tmi, from yours truely!

Picketers protest at governor's residence

Anti-abortionists say property's use by Planned Parenthood is inappropriate.

Planned Parenthood protested at governor's residence

this was brought up in a livejournal community that i maintain (indy women for choice). it's not geared toward being a pro-choice community. it's merely pointing out choices that being taken away from indianapolis women (e.g. family planning, proper sex educaiton, access to contraceptives, etc.)

i'm pretty pissed that anti-abortionists would think that planned parenthood volunteers don't have the right to use a public building for a meeting.

How many did you say?

I've had several "toll free calls" show up on my caller ID for the past couple of weeks. since adam's gone and i'm bored, i've been daring enough to answer the phone. normally, i try to get as far away from the phone as possible, but waking me up at 7 am this morning kind of irked me. every call that i've answered today was in regards to loan consolidation. of course, they ask me when i'll be graduating from school (if i hadn't already), and i kindly respond with "2010". i then get, "oh, thanks! have a nice day!" *click*. yeah, i didn't figure you'd want to deal with a student who's been in school for a while and hasn't graduated. sheesh.

other than that, i've been blanching tomatoes this morning like a mad-woman. there were about 30 in the garden that i had picked last night. i gave the neighbor half of those, but when i took madison out for her last potty break, they were in a grocery bag on my porch table. odd. very odd. maybe she thinks i have cooties, or maybe she already has enough. fine by me. more to make chili with this winter. i also made homemade pickles from the cucumbers we bought tuesday night. they're marinating now. yum!

i've been pretty bored lately, and adam's only been gone for a day. good thing he's not gone for weeks at a time like he has been in the past. it just seems like nobody wants to hang out with me or even bother answering their phone. i probably couldn't even bother bribing people over with my pickles. blah.

School Books

i recently ordered most of my books for school from bookbyte. i ordered them monday afternoon, and i've already received one of them. yay! i had also ordered ball blue book of preserving yesterday from amazon. i'm really hoping it gets here by saturday so i have it when my mom comes here to help me can my tomatoes. i need to find a recipe for canning mangoes without them being too saturated in sugar. mangoes are probably one of my favorite fruits (aside from green bananas), but they're so darn expensive in the winter. fifty cents a piece during the summer hiked up to $1.50 in the winter. guh!

i think madison's already missing adam. everytime she's heard the gate in the front yard shut today, she runs up to the door. poor thing. maybe i'll do something fun with her this week if the weather permits.

sometimes, i really wish i didn't have the usgs earthquakes feed saved in my bookmarks on firefox. for the past week i've seen a dozen or so earthquakes off of the coast of honshu (japan), which is where adam is right now.

i made a comment last week in a comments section of the local paper. it was a discussion on emergency contraception and how it should be spoken about in local hospitals here. a man actually had the gull to compare women's rights to the americans "imposing" on the germans during ww2. i made a kind of inappropriate comment, and thus it was never added. i playfully said that "perhaps you have basic biology confused with a progressed case of syphillis". i'm not sure if the writer of the article has control over what comments are added, but that initial comment was taken away, and mine was never posted. it's just as well, but the guy is still pissing me off saying that pro-choice people shouldn't push their morals off on those who are anti-choice. i hate this state, and i can't believe the women who actually commented to that article could be so insincere about their reproductive rights. then again, maybe i'm just getting entirely too worked up from reading the war on choice: the right-wing attack on women's rights and how to fight back. this is an issue i'm very compassionate about. i try to do what i can in regards of keeping reproductive rights and family planning alive in indianapolis, but i have a feeling just signing petitions just isn't helping.

third time's a charm? not likely

prior to fuse-in, i had dyed my hair hot pink. since then, i had dyed my hair medium brown, ash blonde (which just made my hair dookie brown), and i attempted to get it back blonde via a bleaching kit. the pink color is still in my hair. maybe once it dries it won't look so bad.

this morning, i shipped adam off to tokyo, jpn. i can't say that i'm not jealous, because i am. oh well. there is a tentative (very tentative at this point) gig in croatia for new years eve. i wonder what the weather's like in croatia that time of year?

none the less, i finally broke down and bought a pressure cooker. i need to get to canning on some of my tomatoes that i have already blanched and frozen. my mom is going to try to come up saturday to help me. i certainly don't want to blow myself up being unsupervised. i doubt madison would be able to dial 911 since her paws are so big.

my sister-out-law, lori, found a great deal on mason jars for me at menards something to the effect of only paying approximately $1 for a case of 12 (quarts or pints) after MIR.

it looks like it's starting to rain. this is good since all of my plants (garden included) desperately need rain.

so long LJ?

I've decided to stay away from LJ for a while. I'll at least be maintaining the many communities I started, and I will also be checking my friends page. Juju seems to be doing the same, and I can't blame her.

While I was initially going to use this as a photo blog, most people on my LJ friends list don't really give any input in regards to my posts and photos. So, here I am, venting all out here.