Vacation Day 2

Today I skyped. All day. And it was awesome. My friend Lauren and I have enjoyed long skype sessions (more hang-out less telephone call) since we've been living in different countries for the past year, but in 20 days we will find ourselves reunited! For two weeks anyway, which is long for a vacation, but short given the year's worth of hanging out we'll have to fit in.

I feel like every married couple needs another couple, a Fred and Ethel to their Ricky and Lucy, and the Hunters are definitely our better half. And most importantly, when we see them we'll get to see Ira! If only I could hold his attention on skype for longer than a screen grab..soon enough though!

sounds

Usher has been such a consistent musical presence in our lives―think about it! He's had hit songs in each of the last three decades, and just keeps getting better. Here's two songs off his new album, Looking 4 Myself, that I've been playing ad nauseam.
People in the comments have been making fun of Rick Ross because they're youtube commenters and that's what they do, and also because it's not often you see a big guy without a shirt. I think he looks pretty good for a big guy, though. And the two of them in those coordinated turquoise and white outfits, YUP.

Does youtube keep track of how many times you watch a video? If so, my count must be pretty embarrassing by now, because I can't stop watching this video. Can't stop, won't stop. Speaking of which..

'Vacation' Day 1

SUMMER VACATION STARTS TODAY! Well, more like summer under-employment, but free time just the same! Unfortunately, Paul's off at summer camp until next weekend so I'll be spending the first week of freedom on my own.

When I was first dreaming of all this free time, I thought I'd go to the lake every day, but the weather seems intent on ruining those plans. So, instead I'll be working on some projects, and my first project  was trying to do something with my hair...

Looks like I had everything a girl could need: a comb, a brush, hairspray, bobby pins, youtube. But alas, my hair is just not meant to be teased, beehived, big, or fancy in any way. It just won't hold a tease. It collapses into a sad tangle no matter how hard I try to give it some height. If there's anything I've learned from crafting, though, it's to throw a bow on it when times get tough, and in that spirit — hello new summer hairstyle!

A beautiful belated birthday gift...

from my mother-in-law ♥

words

I just started reading Michelle Alexander's new book, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, this morning and wish I could spend the whole day with it because it's already so interesting! The author is careful in presenting her ideas because it's always difficult to discuss race in America and especially to express the idea that our institutions and laws are racist, but there is so much evidence that the facts are really hard to ignore or dispute. A lot of the things the book will discuss, like black exceptionalism and the shift from overt racism to more subtle or institutionalized racism, are things that I have been thinking about for awhile now but much less eloquently, so I am excited to have all of this information right in front of me. If you are at all interested in race in America then I definitely recommend the book and so does Tavis Smiley, and at least one of us is a reliable source (it's Tavis Smiley...)

What is completely missed in the rare public debates today about the plight of African Americans is that a huge percentage of them are not free to move up at all. It is not just that they lack opportunity, attend poor schools, or are plagued by poverty. They are barred by law from doing so. And the major institutions with which they come into contact are designed to prevent their mobility. To put the matter starkly: The current system of control permanently locks a huge percentage of the African American community out of the mainstream society and economy. The system operates through our criminal justice institutions, but it functions more like a caste system than a system of crime control. Viewed from this perspective, the so-called underclass is better understood as an undercaste—a lower caste of individuals who are permanently barred by law and custom from mainstream society. Although this new system of racialized social control purports to be colorblind, it creates and maintains racial hierarchy much as earlier systems of control did. Like Jim Crow (and slavery), mass incarceration operates as a tightly networked system of laws, policies, customs, and institutions that operate collectively to ensure the subordinate status of a group defined largely by race.

From Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

as seen on tv

Not a lot of cute outfits on New Girl this week, but Jess did run a marathon in style:

 And, as usual, successfully mixed two colors I wouldn't have though of mixing.

We were treated to some milk maid braids in a flashback:

And some mixed patterns:

eat

 Sweetmeal Digestive Biscuits & Black Tea

Tea time all the time!