Author: Amy Batchelor

Not Funny

And maybe I’m just getting old and cranky, but I didn’t think The 40 Year Old Virgin was funny at all, even though lots of friends said it was, and it got generally good reviews.  Brad and I only watched about 20 minutes before giving up.  As much as I often get tired of how women are portrayed in movies and beer commercials, I get tired of how men are portrayed, too — as sex-crazed perpetual adolescents who are completely vulnerable to peer pressure and willing to run down streets chasing beer trucks.  Maybe the men I know are just putting on a good front and either I don’t see that side of them or they’re really not so testosterone-poisoned and simplistic.  I’d rather watch The Sopranos or 24 for representations of men..

Iditarod

One of the great Alaskan adventures is happening now — the Iditarod sled dog race is more than 1,000 miles long, crossing the Alaska Range and ending in Nome.  Here’s the official Iditarod website and an Iditablog, too, as well as the Anchorage Daily News coverage.  I’ve been to Nome when I was in the Arctic Chamber Orchestra in high school, and have a snapshot of the burled arch that forms the finish line of the race and some of the frozen Bering Sea.  Most of the time it seems like growing up in Alaska was much like growing up anywhere else, and then I look at the current weather forecast for Fairbanks and think perhaps it was slightly different.  I certainly remember going to lots of sled dog races.  Don’t you??

Scribbles: Cy Twombly

Last night, after a full day of writing work at my Spruce Street office with Brad, I was tired in that good way you get after really concentrated work.  We watched the first episode of the final season of The Sopranos.  After such a long hiatus between episodes, I had forgotten both how violent it is, and how sad.  Then we turned OFF the television and read books.  What a revolutionary concept!  I took one of the big art monographs off the top of one of several Unread Books piles on the coffee table and got lost in the world of Cy Twombly, who is one of my very favorite artists.  He has used similar motifs of writing and scribbles and letters and fragments of words throughout his long working life.  I like art that includes text and words and have been fortunate enough to see Twombly’s work in person in San Francisco and New York.  After a long day of writing by hand and typing, it was very restorative to slowly savor books of creative art that incorporates myth and language, too.

39 1/2

Today is my 39 1/2 birthday.  I’m celebrating by spending the day in my Spruce Street writing office, working on The North Side of Trees.  That’s the short version of a funny tale that involves Carribbean islands and apple orchards and boundaries.  In a long, far flung conversation over afternoon tea in Boston last October with Pamela Daniels, (who I am still stunned to have been fortunate enough to have as my college dean lo these many years ago), she asked me what I needed to be able to finish writing my book and I answered that I thought I needed to go away from my daily life for 6 weeks and leave obligation behind. 

I considered 3 different geographies:  a farm in north Texas belonging to my in-laws, a bed and breakfast in an apple orchard in western Colorado belonging to an extra-extended family member, and an oceanside house in the Bahamas belonging to a longtime Boulder friend, and eventually made all the arrangements to go stay in the Carribbean for 6 weeks, starting last Sunday, March 12th.  Toward the end of the week, Brad developed a bad cold (thought he might have strep throat, but didn’t) and didn’t want to fly all day on Sunday for fear his head might explode, so we delayed our departure date until today — and I noticed myself feeling relieved about being home the extra couple of days and thinking that I didn’t really want to go — so we didn’t.  Many big thanks to my friend Lindsey for offering her home as my writing place, and then for being her usual Buddhist calm and flexible self about me changing my mind!

I looked at all the great things about living here in Boulder, including my incredible husband, house, dogs, friends, family, landscape, town, bookstore, and my very own writing sanctuary full of books and music and calm and thought that I really need to figure out a way to do my work here, where my life is — so I’m going to do that for the next 6 weeks instead of taking a geographical cure.  I’m going to hibernate and let my obligations fend for themselves and just focus on doing my writing work.  My desk at home is already mostly buried in the daily papers of life, and I’m just going to let things keep piling up around me as I plow ahead toward finishing the first draft of this book.  I’m going away from my daily life, but I’m staying here in Boulder..

Bill Ritter for Governor

I just got off the phone with Bill Ritter, who is a Democratic candidate for governor of Colorado, and am happy to say that I am supporting his campaign and candidacy.  As a pro-choice voter, I had been concerned about his stance on reproductive issues — and am relieved that my concerns have been addressed in a direct, articulate, and convincing way. 

In advance of the call, I had told Brad that the only acceptable answer to the question, "What would you do if the South Dakota abortion legislation arrived on your desk as governor?" was "Veto" — which is exactly what Bill said.

In addition, he said that he would oppose the referendum which is likely to appear on the Colorado ballot this fall banning late term abortions and would restore funding to Planned Parenthood which was cut under the current Owens administration.

I am not a single issue voter, but I believe that a candidate’s stance on reproductive rights is a bellwether for other issues.  In our conversation today, Bill Ritter said that he supports civil marriages, which is another issue that is important to me and means that we are closer on the social issues spectrum than I would have thought prior to our conversation, which is a good thing.  I actually think that education is the most imporant issue to me, and I like everything I see on the Ritter for Governor website about his plans for strenthening education in Colorado. 

I appreciate Bill’s willingness to take the time to speak with Brad and me today and to discuss a complex and difficult issue directly. 

Ski Bunny

I’ve been loving living in Colorado while skiing at Bachelor Gulch in Beaver Creek for the past few days.  Brad, Seth, Chris, and any number of Mobius entrepreneurs were at the Venture Capital in the Rockies conference and I took the opportunity to play while they worked (actually had great fun skiing with Chris on Friday, and with Seth, too).  Every time I get out on the slopes I have a great time — it just doesn’t happen very often, which is kind of ridiculous since Vail is 100 miles away.  I end up in these looping conversations with myself about buying a ski place, or at least renting one for a long stretch in the winter, and then I remember that I’m married to a person who doesn’t ski or snowboard.  I still think that next winter might be about Amy being a ski bunny..

When I Say I Love Horses

I don’t mean I love them as food.

I just read an article on the New West Network, which is where I read about what’s happening in the region where I live, and found a fascinating/horrifying/disgusting tidbit (punny, yes?) about USDA approval of the slaughter of horses for human consumption at three foreign-owned meat plants in the U.S. 

Lovely.

And that got me to wondering about how many foreign-owned meat plants there are in the U.S. and why they don’t have to follow U.S. rules.

I’m currently reading Eclipse Award winning jockey Jerry Bailey’s life story, and just finished reading two other "horsey" books in preparation for Triple Crown season.  I really do love horses, and have taken some English equitation and dressage lessons, and would like to take more. 

This whole thing reminds me of a scene in Michael Moore’s movie Roger and Me, which is about what happens to Flint, Michigan after the GM auto plant closes.  In one scene a woman is raising rabbits and has a big sign saying "Pets or Meat."  Food for thought.  (Even more punny, yes?)

And there is a popular bumper sticker here in The People’s Republic of Boulder that says something like, "Why do we call some animals food and eat them, and call other animals pets and feed them?"  Good question.

I’m an erratic, essentially hypocritical vegetarian.  I don’t eat or prepare any meat at home, except for the very occasional smoked salmon for bagels; but I’ll sometimes have mad cravings for chicken or even beef and will eat them if someone else does all the dirty work and serves them to me on a platter in their home or in a restaurant.  Yes, this is hypocrisy.  If I think about what I’m really eating, and how it got to my plate, I can’t eat it.  I eat a ton of seafood (LOVE sushi, had sushi for lunch today!), especially when we’re in Homer; but I can’t cook it myself.  But I can’t seem to quite give it up entirely.  This article about human consumption of horses will likely push me further into the vegetarian part of the spectrum along which I eat.