2000-10-16 - 1:54pm

On the internal soundtrack: Blondie, "The Tide is High"

Poindexter shaved off his goatee. His face looks bald now. I am startled when I see him. I don't take too well to drastic changes in appearance, I think. I'm startled when he gets haircuts, too.

So now, I can kiss him repeatedly with no ill effects. Wonderful. But I did like how it looked, and how it felt on my neck. (Oops! TMI!) I'm torn. Which is more important? Look/feel, or comfortable kissing? It's tough.

Apparently one of our friends (the male half of R&R) also has the dark hair/red beard mix. When he grew a beard in college, his friends took to calling him Yukon Cornelius. That's funny.

Saturday we went to the skate clinic in Parking Lot #6 in Rock Creek Park. Poindexter learned a few balancing tricks. I learned three methods of transition (changing from skating forwards to backwards). My brain was taught how to skate backwards, but my feet didn't catch on. I'll practice.

There was some lunatic skating around the parking lot. He was wearing wraparound shades and some (short!) tiger-print shorts and just kept zooming around the parking lot in large figure eights. Was he waiting for someone? The whole road is closed! Go skate there! I'm trying to skate backwards and this lunatic is swooping around like a bat.

Sunday, I was going to go on the group skate, but between tie-ups at McDonald's and the women's march, I missed the beginning and couldn't find out where they went.

I went to McDonald's to get a quick protein fix so I'd have energy to skate. I don't generally keep eggs in the house so a McMuffin was in order. There were about seven people working in front, mostly just standing around looking lost. But there obviously weren't enough people in back, since every meal was being made to order. It was my understanding that the whole POINT of McDonalds is that you put up with mediocre food and few selections so that the food is READY even BEFORE you WALK IN, but perhaps I am wrong.

The march. Sigh. It was the "World March of Women". I am a woman, has you may have guessed. But this is not my kind of march. I went to the web site later to find out what their purpose was, and it was this:

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"To show the nation and the world that supporters of women's rights are the overwhelming majority. Thousands will rally to send an unmistakable message: We will not rest until justice is ours. We demand an end to poverty and violence against women as we march into the new millennium. And, we will take the power by electing a Congress and a president who will join feminists in our struggle for equality."

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Most of this is fine. I'm for equal rights for absolutely everyone, and that includes women. I'm against violence of all kinds, including the kind against women. It's good for the people in general to be aware of these ideas. So far, so good.

Have to give them credit that they intend to "take" the power. It's the only way to get it. People who have it aren't just going to say, "Oops, I've had the power for too long. I'll step down. Your turn."

However, it makes me laugh that they -- in bold, no less -- "demand an end to poverty". As though there is some magical switch that can be flipped, and someone has access to it, but they're just too mean to flip it.

There is more, in their mission statement, regarding distribution of wealth. I want to say more, but I have to gather my thoughts together and write it clearly. Maybe tomorrow.

Speaking of marches, the Million Family March is today. This is a march I might have liked to join. But it's being led by Louis Farrakahn. I don't agree with a lot of what he and the Nation of Islam have to say, so I wouldn't feel right joining their march.

If we had a "can't we all get along" kind of march, would anybody come? A march where the purpose was, say, "to promote the idea that we're all human beings and should stop letting petty things like race and religion get in the way of friendly social interaction"?

Not a march to demand that the government do anything. Not a march of one group to blast another group for their bad behavior. Just a way for those millions of people out there who AREN'T racist, homophobic, or misogynistic to hang out together for a day and show the world how many of us there are.

That would be my kind of march.

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