Lots of Driving and a Tale of Two Cities

Last week, I got to go to Philadelphia for a week long trip that was kind of an Alternative Spring Break for grown ups. It was hosted by the Sisters of Mercy, who are really cool nuns, and so all of the service we did was at Mercy ministries in Philly. I really didn't know what I had signed up for, but figured it would be a cool chance to see a new city, get a break from Detroit and my super stressful job, and tack on a trip to NYC while I was out East.
First, I had to go to my co-worker's wedding, because we are work friends and I got a real grown-up invitation and everything. I couldn't get drunk though, because I had to leave early and drive overnight to get to South Philly by Sunday morning. I napped in a parking lot in Pennsylvania, and it's the closest I've ever come to pulling an all-nighter, which is an experience I don't really recommend.
The trip was super fun, and I learned a lot about poverty and service and the intersections between government assistance and private charity work. These are all things that I get to learn about in Detroit, too, but it was a quick crash course and definitely a different setting with different issues and challenges. Detroit is very different from Philadelphia (and New York) and I think I prefer a city with a few less people and a little more open space and air. But cheesesteaks are really good.

I also got to learn that Philadelphia is across the Delaware River from Camden, NJ! Who knew? Unfortunately, I learned this too late to plan a visit to Kathleen, who lives in Camden. I did stop for gas in Princeton, NJ, though, and was fairly underwhelmed by the small part of campus I saw. Michigan is better.
After being in Philly Sunday-Friday, I packed up my dad's car Saturday morning and drove to Mary Walle in Harlem. I got to take the bridge that has been causing Chris Christie so many problems and learned that Harlem is part of Manhattan which is one of the bouroughs and also an island. This blog post is very educational for all the readers out there who might be as geographically inept as myself.
Mary has a roof deck where we got to skype call Amy Ketner, who is the CART-ay blog's favorite reader. We also had a view of Yankee Stadium (located in the Bronx across the river from Manhattan), and this would have been more exciting if the Yankees weren't the absolute worst.
Walle and I walked through Central Park

and across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Also it is apparently a thing in NYC/grown up life to have boozey brunch. By the name, we can tell that this is a wonderful thing, complete with botomless mimosas! The restaurant we went to had terrible service, but a great view of Times Square. Probably Tina Fey is somewhere down in that mass of people.

All in all, I had a really fun 10 days, but maybe I won't drive that far alone for a while. The radio stations kept changing and every time I found a new one it just played the same three songs the last station had played.
Soon, I will be visiting my cousins in Virginia, and hopefully when I figure out those times I can also plan a quick trip to see R+Z in Crystal Dizzle! Who knew I'm such a world (country) traveler?

Who Run the World?

I've recently had an epiphany (not to be confused with an Epiph-a-party, which can be enjoyed on or around January 6) about the role of women in Detroit and probably the whole world. Actually epiphany is probably not the right word, but I'm trying to make Epiph-a-party happen so I had to throw that in there. Anyway, in another post that will not be focused on the bachelor, I'm just gonna ramble to you about some feminist thoughts and complaints. I apologize for the rambling, but not for the feminism.

Beyoncé knows the answer to this blog title

I'll start with last weekend, when I made the decision to depress myself by watching the 2-part-4-hour documentary Half the Sky (available on Netflix, in case you also want to be really sad). The reason that this was so depressing was because the movie is about a book that is about gender inequality and the abuse and suffering of women around the world. It's actually a pretty well done documentary, although I won't pretend to be as much of an expert as Taylor and Rachael who frequently study this genre of film. They take 6 actresses to 6 different African and Asian countries where they focus on 6 issues like maternal mortality, human trafficking, prostitution, and other cheerful facets of the human experience. Basically me and George Clooney got our feminist on together and I cried periodically with my chocolate milk in a freezing basement.

The movie is a little uplifting, see they are smiling

So I started my week with these gender issues in my head, and I started to put together some things that I've realized over the past 22 (almost 23!!) years of my life. We shall begin with Detroit: there are a lot of women here. Seriously, I feel confused by where all the men are, because theoretically there should be equal male/female births but everywhere I go it seems like a bunch of ladies. My house is all women, and actually most of the service corps that we have met here are most/all female. My office is like 90% women, which is pretty typical for a social service agency and social work profession. When I go to do outreach visits at Head Start or other pre-schools, the teachers are all women. At foster care agencies when I go to talk to staff meetings, there might be one man in the room, and he's usually a supervisor. I have literally never seen a male receptionist or nurse at the doctors' offices when I go to talk to them about referring patients to us for mental health services (look, as a bonus I just explained 75% of what I do at my job!). I think the only place in Detroit where I see men are at gas stations and hanging out on the side walk where they usually ask for my name/number or make lewd comments to me that start with "Hey white girl!" Because who doesn't want a little sexual harassment while she's pumping gas?

This is how I feel about that.

So there's all these women around me basically running the city by working in all these service positions and then going home and taking care of their children. Here are some statistics I looked up: 61.7% of Detroit households are run by a single parent, with about 16,000 single dads and over 125,000 single moms. Still, every mayor Detroit's ever had has been a man, just like every president of the US and every CEO of a major auto company until now. What's up with that?

Probably how Mary Barra feels about that

So I change my mind pretty regularly on which diseases I am going to study (and probably cure) once I go back to school next fall, but lately I've been thinking I should probably focus on women's health, maybe maternal/infant health, because women are the best and I hate men. Not really, but women are really great and I think we should all just celebrate how much they do for our communities and our world. Like, besides bringing life into this world, we also get shit done.

I also should mention that I am reading Bossypants (finally after I got it a year ago for my birthday), and Tina Fey, besides being a hilarious woman and strong feminist, doesn't care for dogs. So take that all you people who think I'm heartless. Really, I'm just the next Tina Fey.

Here's one lady I'd like to brunch with