Ithilien
More About Me
My Tagline:
Fire bad, tree pretty.
My Interests:
Books, Education, Travel, Politics
My Favorite Books, Authors, Musicians, Movies, Preachers, TV shows, etc:
Neil Gaiman, Tom Robbins, Anne Tyler, Barbara Kingsolver, Shakespeare, Chaucer, P.D. James, Fahrenheit 451, Molly Ivins, good mystery, political essay, smart humor. Tom Waits, Dead Can Dance, Joni Mitchell, Jethro Tull, White Stripes, Greg Brown, Steely Dan, Ethan Daniel Davidson, Utah Phillips, Fairport Convention, Richard Thompason, World, 60s & 70s music, Folk, Punk. Lord of the Rings, Love Actually, Casablanca, Excalibur, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Monty Python.
Who Inspires Me:
Tianenmen Tank Man. Miep Gies. Dalai Lama. Mahatma Gandhi. MLK. Abbie Hoffman. Teachers. Students. My husband.
My organizations and affiliations:
ACLU, Teach Tolerance, NPR, NEA.
My favorite spiritual activities:
Breathing air, walking in woods, swimming in natural water, petting a cat, holding a baby, digging my hands in my garden.
What's your spiritual type?:
Undefinable - These labels (and most labels) don't work for me.
About Me
I talk a lot.* Opinionated. Politically Liberal + Libertarian, hence I call myself Liberaltarian. Minnesotan. Swedish and English heritage so I like winter. A lot. Yes, I've seen Fargo. Yes, we do talk that way. I teach English to junior high and high school in a very small town on the Dear-God-It's-Ugly Prairie. No, I didn't grow up here. Yes, I like the people but I want to move back to civilization and topography.
I'm happily married to the best guy on earth--we just got married in '07, but we've been together nearly ten years, now. He's funny and kind and creative and smart and funny and works with teenagers in Drama and Speech programs, and also acts and directs community theatre. Oh, and he's hysterically funny, did I mention?
I'm adopted, an only child, raised Scandinavian Lutheran but it didn't take, and I adore my parents who are now elderly but fortunately still with me.
I like school and wish I could always be enrolled. I have a BA in English Lit and Religious Studies, and a BS in Secondary English Ed.
My hot button issues are First Amendment, animal treatment, and education. If I had unlimited resources (or at least something more than what a public school teacher makes in SW Minnesota, for cryin' out loud), I'd travel all the time. To everywhere. I'd go everywhere in the U.S. (well, most everywhere...), England, Scandinavia, Greece, Egypt, France, Germany, Romania, Scotland, Ireland, Iceland, Russia, China first. Then I'd repack and head to other places. 
* Don't let the low post count fool you. I've been on bnet since December of '01, and in 2004 I was the 8th most prolific poster of the year, I think, and the 11th most prolific of all time, or something like that. I've been mostly on hiatus or lurking for over a year now, but still. I'm not kidding when I say I can talk. And I type fast. Really fast.
Religions only look different if you get them from a retailer. If you go to a wholesaler, you'll find they all get it from the same distributor. --Stephen Gaskin
Religion in Schools?!?!?
Ray Bradbury's "Coda", one of the most beautiful pieces of writing ever
Molly Ivins's "The Fun's in the Fight," another of the most beautiful pieces of writing ever
My Basics
Location: Hinterlands, Minnesota, USA
Gender: Female
Occupation: English Teacher
Relationship Status: Married
Faiths:
Pagan
Faith Description: Individualistic, solitary, eclectic. Like a cat, I may play in boxes but don't close the lid and try to slap a label on it.
Ithilien's Journal
Posted: May 6, 2008 8:27 PM
Just got back from my obstetric endocrinologist--a 160-mile round trip--for followup in the surgery three weeks ago. Got the pathology... (more)
Posted: Apr 17, 2008 5:16 PM
The hysteroscopy went well, for the most part. Didn't find the polyp and/or fibroids they expected; instead, thickening of the... (more)
Unexpected Gifts in the Form of...
Posted: Apr 11, 2008 10:20 AM
Snow day today! Woot woot! Actually, half the state is home today. Yeah, okay, we'll have to make it up later on, but... (more)
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Friends: 41
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Guest Book
June 5, 2008 - 07:30 PM
I am so glad to meet a friend from Minnesota, and who knows where Scandinavia is! Thank you for the privilege to be your friend! :)