pockets

why don't they put pockets in women's clothes? personally, i think it's to keep us chained to carrying purses. san francisco has been unusually warm lately (global warming no doubt) and i've pretty much been living out of a backpack (couch surfing and storage spaces are a san francisco tradition, seems like--this is my second time around) and i didn't have any summer clothes with me.
seriously, if you don't know san francisco weather, you pretty much can need a winter coat at any moment. and if you don't need one where you are, well, just cross the street and you might. you think i'm joking...i'm not.
anyway, back to pockets.
so, it was warm. i went to the thrift store and bought a couple of skirts, then it got cold. duh. but then it got warm again and i put on one of my new skirts, grabbed my key, phone, cash...you know, the stuff you really need...and discovered i had no pockets.
i didn't think about pockets when i bought the skirts. none of them have pockets. no pockets! where the hell are you going to put your stuff if you don't have pockets? oh yeah, you have to carry a bag.
i hate carrying bags. for one thing, you're chained to it. you can't get up and dance without it swinging awkwardly on your shoulder, or leaving it at the table and worrying about it getting stolen. even if you're not a worrier, you RISK getting it stolen. blech.
for another thing, no matter what size bag you carry, you will fill it to capacity and beyond. i'm going to call this sara's axiom. then you see all these women walking around with mega-bags, overflowing with stuff, and one hunched up shoulder that's probably aching. again, blech.
then too, of course, the bag manufacturers want you to buy a bag to go with each outfit, each pair of shoes...it's all a plot to make you spend more money. (in the u.s.? would they do that?)
men's clothes have pockets. always. yet you see men carrying bags too. why? why, if you don't have to? i don't get it...
i mean, okay, if you're carrying your computer to work at a sunny cafe instead of holed up inside your house, fine. but for every time you want to leave the house and take your damn key and phone? really? fuck that. give me pockets.

russian lit--anna karenina

suddenly having a whole slew of russians in my life i've been a little obsessed with things russian lately. russian films, russian music, russian language...
so lately, i've been reading and rereading a lot of russian literature. to wit:

i reread Anna Karenina--last time was when i was about 13 i guess,  a previous russian lit phase. i was living in tehran, iran at the time and devoured Anna Karenina (tragic love stories and 13 year old girls are a natural mix), Brothers Karamazov (i must revisit that one, i don't think i understood most of it), Dr. Zhivago (who wouldn't want to read it after seeing the movie, recent at the time, and falling in 13 year old love with omar sharif, who incidentally, i met a couple of years ago--but that's another story) and of course War and Peace (nothing like a good epic novel to hold me entranced).

does We the Living by ayn rand count? i think so. it was a fictionalized account of rand's life in russia just after the 1917 revolution.

Anna Karenina is a rich novel of love and betrayal with so many layers i didn't get the first time around. as a mother now myself, anna's heartrending choices regarding her own happiness and continued contact with her son evoked thoughts and emotions that were non-existent for me at 13. her relationships with her husband and lover were complex and torn, her melancholy so deep.

when i fell under a train once (packing my baby sister off to school in toronto--again, another story) i imagined for an instant that i was anna. but the train i fell under was just starting to move and i scrambled out, unhurt. i wasn't anna.

if you've read it before, if you've never read it, if you've been a lover or a mother, been a mistress or had one, if you just like beautiful lyrical tales of life, i highly recommend Anna Karenina.