Nothing good.

I've got nothing good to say today. Had bad dreams last night, have been in a bad mood all morning, and it's not going away.

One of the books I'm reading talks about how men tend to think the world is their oyster, while women tend to think (regardless of culture or career success) that you can't get blood from a turnip- you should make do with what you have.

I think a lot of my problems lately stem from this clash between what society assumes about women and that I don't fit with that stereotype.

I had a discussion yesterday with MrPhD about how most people think it's okay that there are not many women constructions workers, because they assume women don't want to be construction workers.

I would have liked to be a construction worker. But I was always told I'm too female, and partly because of that I'm not physically built to argue the point.

But in most ways, contrary to what you might think from this blog, I was always an oyster person. My mom is funny, she thinks I got that from watching too much Mr. Rogers and Sesame Street as a kid, where you can always be anything you want to be.

But the things I have experienced since I started grad school have turned me into a turnip person. You can squeeze a lot of beets, as it were, but you're never going to get anything other than beet juice.