Sleaze Attacks!!!!!!

Hey everyone,

So today I woke up and got ready for work. It was nice, I got to wear sweatpants to work. :) Emily (one of the counsellors at LCC) and I went to the domestic violence shelter's class for this term. It was held at this Uniting Church - which excited me because everything inside was Methodist. Anyway, I am learning a mix of martial arts and knowledge to combat sketchy men and their dirtball moves on women. Skeeze bags.

Emily and I arrived a tad bit late because Emily locked her keys in the boot this morning. The boot is the trunk of the car. After that fiasco we arrived to find everyone else had already arrived. That was fine. I was introduced to the women in attendance and the lesson began.

First things first: The women in this class have gone through some form of domestic violence/abuse. This class is about teaching women how to stand up for themselves in positive ways while also helping them to change their lives at the same time. The instructor, Sharon, takes knowledge and applies it so that women can feel positive and in control of their lives.

Week 1: The first week they learned about walking. The way a women walks (or men too I guess) is how she/he is percieved by others. The women were taught to walk with their shoulders pulled down, back straight and head looking up and forward. Women told stories about how the walk has changed their perception of themselves and how others view them. One woman was able to wear a skirt and hasn't worn one since she was 18. Other women just commanded the room when they tried the walk.

Week 2: Here the women learned how to poke out a man's eyes, kick him in the groin correctly, jabs to the juggular and then the heel-of-your-hand thrust to the juggular or chin. They still continue their walking, but also learned how to say NO in an assertive way. One lady said she's been standing up for herself more now and that some people think that because she is saying NO more often now that she is a bitch. But she said they don't want her to change and therefore are viewing her as a bitch because they don't understand. Which is completely true. People (both men and women) mistake assertiveness for aggressiveness in situations. Get a dictionary and read the definition - I had to, but I don't have one here to look it up for you. Do it yourself.

This week: We learned how to be confident in who we are and the way we talk about ourselves. Today's lesson was on SLEAZE ATTACKS. And how to get out of those types of situations. You know the disgusting men that try to put their arm around you or touch your thighs? Yeah, those dirtballs. I learned how to get up and walk away from a situation. Sharon taught us voice tones to use to indicate what you want. "Take your hand off my shoulder!" "Remove your hand from my thigh." Then I learned how to dislocate someone's middle finger; then Sharon taught me how to dislocate the pointer finger. This is incase someone is trying to touch me inappropriately. I then learned how to crush someone's windpipe to escape and also how to hit them in the groin area with my fist.

I just have to say that the next time I go up to The Bottom's Up (this is a bar in my hometown for those who don't know) and Paulie tries to hit on me and I continue to tell him no let's just say that... he's gonna get one of these manuevers on him. And I am going to enjoy doing it to that poor bastard. He's older than my mom and is a family friend. Plus, his son is a year younger than me. Disgusting.

Anyway, this program is a holistic approach to educating women on abuse and how to protect themselves against it and the situations that may occur. It is a way of empowering women and letting them know it's okay to be who you are. There is no other program like this is all of Australia. I was talking to Sharon (the instructor) and we were comparing cultures. In Australian culture women are taught to be submissive and not stand out or up for themselves. I think that in America women are assertive and are taught to stand up for themselves, but that can also be looked down upon and most women are labeled as bitches for this. It can be looked at in many different ways, but this is just one of the aspects that Sharon and I discussed.

Some of the women asked about certain situations and if they have ever happened to me. I did discuss how in America I do get a lot of men that stare at my chest. I HATE THIS! And my response always is, "My eyes are up here. If you want to have a conversation, you look up here." The women were actually surprised and one lady said this doesn't happen much here. Another lady said thank you because she has this happen to her a lot and she didn't know what to say. Now she does.

After class, I went back to the office with a spring in my step and a smile on my face. I ate lunch in which Helen, Di, Helene basically presented their dissertation on the types of ants here and their conversations with them. Lunch is never dull around here. :) Later on I had a meeting with Helen in which we discussed what I want to do, how things are going, etc. I did some more work for Andrea and then I came back to HH.

WE HAD PIZZA AND STEAK FOR SUPPER! Yeah! No rice for me tonight.

We had a power outage right after supper. It was back on by midnight which was nice, because it was dark before that. And it doesn't help that when I went to the bathroom, Ellie started talking about bloody Mary! I ran out of that bathroom so quickly! I ended up calling Helene and asking if we could watch a movie that we had at her place. So Ellie and I (Helene probably thought we were crazy because we had this red sugar juice at supper and we were extremely hyper) watched Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa with Katarina, and then watched it again with Simon and Jeremy. So that blew my plan of going to bed at 10:30pm out of the water and I didn't get to bed until 12:30am. Which stinks cause I had to get up at 6am to be ready for Andrea to pick me up at 8:15am.

Well, I'm off to this meeting and will tell you about it when I get back!

Cheers!