Friday five.

Five women who have inspired me, in honor of Women's History Month, in no particular order... to call this a top five list would be ridiculous because obviously there's Ella Baker, Barbara Kingsolver, Barbara Lee, Sarah Vowell, Kate Winslet, Alice Paul, Ellen DeGeneres, Jane Austen, Barbara Mikulski, Anne Frank, Ani DiFranco, Julianne Moore... oy vey could I go on for hours, but let me start with these five:

• My grandmother, who raised seven children during the depression (six of them BOYS! one of whom kept getting stuck in quicksand!) while her husband worked all day. In her quiet, subtle way, she taught me that despite any family oddities like, oh, say, one son marrying a woman and the other son marrying that woman's daughter - and all the weirdness that comes with THAT gnarled family tree - the family always eats together at the holidays. And that the best bread is homemade bread, hands down, no questions asked.
  
• Princess Leia, who never gave up and always reminded the boys that they were no better than her. She was the costume of choice for my fourth Halloween, and the subject of my freshman English paper on personal heroes in college.
• A good friend in college, who taught me that this world is truly fucked up, left and right inside and out, and that whatever I could do to make it a better place would be a good thing. She's doing her part and now I am hopefully doing mine.
  
• Roseanne Connor, who was never afraid to speak up for herself, had a great sense of humor, stuck by her family at all costs and proved to be an endless source of inspiration and support despite countless trials and tribulations. At least through season seven.
• My mom, who grew up with six brothers and lived to tell the tale. The older I get, the more I respect and learn from my mom.