Dr. Robin Bond, biogeochemist at a PUI 🧪

I used to laugh about the Erma Bombeck quote: "Cleaning the house while children are home is like shoveling while it's still snowing."

I did have to clean the house with children home, though, and now I'm about to go out and move snow in the middle of a storm...as one does.

It's kind of crazy, because all the Evangelicals I knew when we were younger went around saying that we are all sinners...i.e. we all did evil things, right? so how can they reconcile those words with this mindset?

I have put on a fair bit of weight since menopause, but it's a small price to pay considering what I no longer have to deal with, lol

But in a community that values connection, it's often the older women who hold the most institutional knowledge, who help guide younger women through milestones, etc.

So, here's to menopause!

I suspect it's because, in a patriarchal society that sees women primarily as childbearers, menopausal women are considered "useless" or "less than." Menopausal women also might be considered as...less attractive to some.

Their jaws dropped...you could see the wheels turning in their head...no one talks about menopause this way.

Why not? Yeah, there are unpleasant symptoms of menopause, but there are just as many unpleasant symptoms of menarche, which people celebrate.

To which I replied: "It's great! I don't have to worry about my period at all. If I had a partner I would no longer need t worry about birth control. And I no longer give a fuck what people think--it's very freeing!"

The other day in lab, someone complained about their period, and I said something like, "In a few decades you'll hit menopause, and you'll never have to worry about that again!"

All the ladies looked at me, shocked, and one of them said, "I've never heard anyone say anything good about menopause."

Yikes, Pez! Maybe you need weighted shoes!

if the tech bros were a little less delusional, they would be making so much money right now by offering to let us pay for the AI-free version of their programs

This has been a long week in which I have slept little. But somehow I need to push through and finish grading these tests tonight and also be at school at 8 am tomorrow.

UGH

Americans are about to learn one of the things I was yelling about during the campaign: the US cannot produce enough oil to keep us from feeling the global shocks of oil prices, because oil is produced by companies who will just charge us more money if the supply goes down elsewhere.

The idea that we can be “energy independent” while on fossil fuels by simply pumping more of them out of the ground is predicated on shutting your eyes and pretending that the global economy does not exist.

I had a genderqueer friend in my 20's & 30's: AFAB, presented as female, used she/her pronouns...but talked about how she felt like a man in a woman's body. Yes, we had some discussions about body dysphoria, but mostly it was random stuff dropped into everyday conversations that made me think.

I wish we had more opportunity to squee about cool happenings in ours/other peoples' lives. It makes us happy.

"[Another group member] helped me make my first D&D character!"

"I went thrifting with my mom and found a great outfit for Queer Prom!"

"I got to go to the aquarium and pet a jellyfish!"

...I got a grant.
...I published a paper.
...I successfully put on a well-attended campus event.

Which are all fine, of course.

But the Q&A Good of the Order blew me out of the water. It reminded me of being a mom of young kids. Things they brought up were along these lines:

Last night I *finally* went to our campus Queers & Allies meeting, after years of thinking I should go. (It's at an inconvenient time for me.)

Early in their agenda: "Good of the Order."

Now, we have "Good of the Order" on many academic meeting agendas, and what people bring up are things like:

One of the cool things about having young kids is that they get super excited about the smallest things, like a stick in a weird shape or a pretty flower. And that's infectious.

The general expectation is that people lose that by adulthood (or even earlier). But, y'all.

Also, right outside the doors to labs. Students put them down when going in & forget to pick them up again when they leave.

...and expecting abut 30" over the next three days, yikes.

Take it, please, Colorado.

I wish I could send some of the excess snow to you from here. We are about 50" above normal snowfall.

I drive past Target on my way to work, but I refuse to stop by...

You can't just end fifty years of collective bargaining with an email! #handsoffsjufaculty

Our union is real, and we won't back down! Solidarity forever!

Some folks treated me like a naive child for believing we had the money to cancel a portion of student loan debt

👇👇👇

As long as this remains unaddressed with the same force as AI?

As long as everyone keeps rushing to move to réification over solution.

As long as this is treated as “unplanned” and “unexpected” not grounded in a history

America will continue in this vein

The phrase “ parents have a legitimate concern about integration of races in schools and as a party, we haven’t done a very good job of listening to those concerns.” would shock and offend I would hope. A similar statement about trans kids should also shock and offend.

This is about twice NOAA’s annual budget.

I hear this...I've made so many typos etc. lately