Adventures

Things i observed today

I went to a job interview this morning (more on that if i get the job), and on the way back i encountered a couple of people that i thought were worth noting.

The first was a man on the number 7 bus. He got on the bus in the southern end of downtown, and he only travelled a few blocks, but during that time, we had this conversation:

Man: Do you have the time?

Me: Ten o'clock.

Man: Oh man.... Is your watch on time?

Me: Pretty much. Sorry.

Man: See this here?

He pulls up his right pants leg. At this point i'm thinking, 'God, please don't show me some festering wound or gross deformation.' He points to a rectangular shape under his sock.

Man: Electronic house arrest. I'm supposed to be back at ten.

I frown and try to look sympathetic.

Man: I hope they give you five minutes leeway or something.

I nod, continuing my sympathetic face. He gets up to get off the bus.

Man: Have a nice day.

Me: You too. Good luck.

Five minutes later i got off the bus and decided to stop in Bed Bath & Beyond. As i walked toward the door, a young man scooted past me. I say 'scooted' because he was moving quickly but not picking up his feet. The reason he wasn't picking up his feet was that he was wearing slippers. Red Betty Boop slippers. Bright red, clean-looking, Betty Boop slippers that coordinated with his red backpack.

I saw him again later as i waited for the number 16.

Later i saw a transvestite in Fremont, but that's not very interesting.

Hi; remember me?

toothpastefordinner.com

I'm getting around to it. Let's just say i'm in Seattle, trying to settle in to an apartment that is too small and full of too many living things (1 dog, 3 cats, 1 child, 2 adults). The wedding is a month from today, and we don't actually have a cake lined up yet. Oh, and i'm housebound waiting for two suitcases i had shipped from Glasgow. And i'm kind of weirded out by the fact that now i'm behind everyone in time instead of ahead. That's all. More later. I'm not committing to a time frame though.

Finished!

I have finished, printed, bound, and turned in my dissertation! In honor of this occasion, i bring you some down home hilarity Andy sent me the other day:

Life is never simple

Today was supposed to be very simple.

Debbie and i had planned to go see The Dark Knight at 3:00 this afternoon. We got to Byres Road at about 2:00, and we went to the closest ATMs (the two at Lloyds Bank). I pushed my Barclays card into the slot of the one on the left, and the machine merrily took it. Unfortunately, the ATM didn't seem to think a card had been put in, since after displaying a 'Temporarily out of service message' for a few moments it went back to asking me to 'Please insert your card'. We tried pressing the cancel button to no avail.

The homeless man that hangs out at those ATMs told us the same thing had happened to another woman earlier. Indeed, he had tried to warn me before i put my card in, but a slurry shouting Glaswegian homeless man is not the type of person i usually turn to for applicable advice (lesson learned, i suppose).

I phoned the number that occasionally displayed on the screen, and a nice man told me i needed to speak to someone at Barclays rather than someone at Lloyds, despite the fact that it was a Lloyds machine that had eaten my card. Frustrated, i hung up and proceeded to use the other ATM to withdraw £20 from another account.

This being dealt with (as far as possible at the time), Debbie and i walked down to the cinema. We asked for tickets for the 3:00 show, and the man behind the counter told us there were only front seats left available. We looked at each other and decided to buy tickets for a matinee later this week.

Now at a loose end, we thought i needed a drink (Debbie was driving, so no drinking for her). The rest of the afternoon passed quite nicely, sitting outside, drinking white wine, and chatting about people. This evening, however, i looked at my calendar to find a rather mysterious notation on it for tomorrow: 'Holiday (Scotland)'. Monday, it turns out, is a bank holiday in Scotland, so the banks are closed. This means i cannot get any money or browbeat the Lloyds employees about their defective ATM. Arrrrrgh.

Add to this the fact that i am leaving Scotland (possibly forever) a week on Tuesday, and things start to look a little tight. I phoned Barclays tonight, and the woman i spoke with assured me i would receive my new card before i leave. We'll see. First thing this Tuesday morning, though, i will be at Barclays with my checkbook in hand to get some cash.

I just wanted to see a movie.

We Don't Shoot Up Your Churches: A Liberal Response

Following is a piece written by a good friend of mine; i thought it was worth passing along.

We Don't Shoot Up Your Churches: A Liberal Response

We don't shoot up your churches that discriminate, please stay out of our churches and synagogues and other sacred spaces that are welcoming.

Maybe there's no good place to say it. Maybe everywhere is a good place to say it, but it's terrible and painful and disgusting to think that a man with a deep feeling that liberals and GLBT folks were harming the world has entered a place of worship with guns blazing to right some terrible wrong that we have perpetrated on the world.

Why?

Because this church opened itself to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender folks. Because this church said we are all welcome and equal in the eyes of god/spirit/light, whatever you want to call it. Because this church was bold enough to speak against intolerance, critically minded enough to know that inequality does harm to our spirits. Because women are equal here.

Tonight I remember that this is not an isolated incident. And that we will hear calls from all sides that say "Oh, we all have our extremists."

But I beg to differ right now. It is your world that has created the cultural war that this gentleman is seeking. Intolerance creates hate. Discrimination creates disdain for "the other." Judgments about who is worthy, and which of your darling sins and rules are dealbreakers and which are ok because you indulge in them have created this world.

And liberal inaction, liberal silence, liberal prejudice, and liberal misogyny and race hatred and heterosexism and homophobia have been your friends, in fact we have often used your tools against those we say we love. But you need to know more about the history here. You need to know why and how your church has laid the path to attack mine.

You've killed our doctors, shunned us from your pulpit, fought against our families, and worked to enshrine discrimination against us.

You've turned the hoses on us, fired us from our jobs, taken our children from us, and beaten us in the streets.

You've used your bibles as weapons, burned our books, and forced us to conform to your narrow standards for how we should look, be, and act in the world.

You've hidden your pregnant daughters from view, fought to have your choices control women's bodies, worried endlessly about sex without supporting sexuality education. And still you say women have no valid path to spiritual leadership. Because they have a vagina.

You've demonized women who must choose between being sluts or virgins, twisted Jesus into a cult of acrobatic performance for one another instead of emulating the organizer for justice he was, you've asked us to be silent so you are comfortable, told us not to rock the boat because it is too hard for you to hear, and encouraged us to tone it down, back down, stay down.

You've forced us to dress according to your Code of Should, to take on fiction as a way of life, to embrace silence and lies so you can continue to discriminate.

You patronize us by loving us as your sinner kid, your sinner friend, your sinner relative, your sinner colleague despite the fact that we make bridges to love you anyway despite your loathing, disgust, inaction, and despite the luxury of your dirty privilege.

You've bombed us in Birmingham, left us for dead in Laramie, burned crosses in our yards, used rape as a weapon of war, built up oppressive regimes then pulled them down no matter how many civilians you killed, promoted a strong military then did nothing to lend effective psychological and transitional support to the people you sacrificed.

Your popes have crusaded against us, your troops have gassed us, and your leaders have sold you a bill of goods that hatred, violence, intolerance, discrimination, fear of others, closed doors, or segregation will serve you well. That Jesus loves you for it.

Your tools are exclusion, guns, bigotry, separation, inequality, and a mindset of fear. Your lack of concern for social justice is debilitating and you need to be reminded.

Just for the record:

We did not shoot your doctor.

We did not tell you that you are spiritually unworthy of the pulpit because the way we sin is more palatable than the way you sin. Or because you are women or different or anything.

We did not try to take your kids away in the name of Jesus.

We did not bomb your clinic, your federal building, or your bar.

We did not fight to keep your votes from counting or to keep you from voting.

We did not beat the living hell out of you and leave you for dead on a fence in Wyoming for being gay.

We did not spend millions of dollars trying to keep you from protecting your family.

We did not turn the hose on you.

We did not fire you for who you love.

We did not work diligently to resist self-critical thoughts about how our views and actions could make the world a harder place to be in for others.

We don't shoot up your churches that discriminate, please stay out of our churches that are welcoming.

And we will keep welcoming you while you make the world a harder place for us to be in.

And we will welcome you.

And we will welcome you.

If you do come to our churches, and synagogues, and temples, and spiritual homes, many of which were built as safe zones from your fear, or hatred, or disgust, leave your damn weapons at home.

And we will welcome you as you have shunned us and created a dirty landscape full of mines for us to negotiate on our way to work, our way home, our way to our peaceful spaces where we can celebrate the embracing of GLBT folks, the movement to end discrimination and inequality, the reclaiming of our earth beyond it's corporate purpose and the peace that we cherish.

We feel closer to one another, more connected to the world, some closer to god and spirit, some closer to Jesus, in these spaces.

Your weapons, be they the passive acceptance of discrimination, your actions to single us out for treatment less than your privilege allows you, your decisions that we have to live the way you live in order to be free, and your weapons that blow us up, kill our fathers and mothers, or our friends and loved ones, are not welcome here.

We don't shoot up your churches. And we don't lay the groundwork to do so.

"It is impossible to simultaneously prevent and plan for war." -Einstein

"Once you figure out they are lying to you about race, you start to question everything." - Molly Ivins