Grab a drink, grab a glass, after that...

Alright, I haven't written in a while, but what to write?!?! Each day here is much like the last... which is not to say I'm not enjoying myself. I'm tearing through fun books (like mysteries and chick lit and spy novels) that I never thought I'd have enough time to read again, I'm eating delicious, local, organic, incredibly fresh food for FREE, and I'm watching episodes of Lost and various great movies (like Singing in the Rain and Dr. No, most recently) every night with Jon Fagan, who is a darling.

Of course, I am also living with some of the most annoyingly conservative and ignorant people I've ever spent a great deal of time with (I'm sure there are much worse offenders, but I've never had to live and work with them).

For example, Lance, the older ex-Navy farm business manager, told me the other day that he had two international WWOOFer requests to work on our farm that he was considering: one from France, who "sounds good," and the other from some middle eastern country, who he would "definitely not be welcoming on our farm." I said that was too bad, since I'd like to work on my Arabic. We then went into a conversation about women's rights in Islam, and he said that women were degraded and oppressed in many parts of the world, which was "stupid" (i.e., we Americans are the only smart ones). Less than 24 hours later, he asked which one of "the boys" wanted to work the rototiller (a big, gas-powered, very heavy piece of equipment), and suggested that I could do some hand-weeding.

And then there's his son, Jason, who says "dude" and "bro" in every other sentence and with whom this conversation recently occurred:

Brittany: "Yeah, I think Eleanor Roosevelt went to Wellesley. And Hillary Clinton. It's a really good women's liberal arts college."

Jason: "In other words, its a school for dykes! Am I wrong?"

Oh, how I yearn for Earlham at these moments...

(I have my moments of retaliation, though: I rototilled 8 rows yesterday. So there!)