the past three days i've been stuck in 5 o'clock traffic. this is a good thing. it is a very good thing in that it means i am once again gainfully employed. sadly i'm not teaching this year, but i still feel that my new job is just as meaningful. i'm working as an intake specialist for the state's abuse line. i'll be fielding abuse and neglect reports for CPS, APS and AFC. today i sat in on calls on the floor and realized just how painfully important the work is. people do horrific things to one another in this world. the things i heard baffle the mind...and it's just the first day of calls. it's nice to know that i'll help make a difference in the lives of those who need it the most, but i just hope that what i hear doesn't darken my view of the world.
kinky's coming under fire from his opponents over things he's said in the past. what i love about him is that he doesn't back down or back step. he simply says that they're playing partisan games that are beneath him. he has a great response statement on his webpage, but i found an article in the back issues of texas monthly that i think really sums him up much better. an exerpt:
"In my bright college days we pretty much took for granted that Austin was far more progressive than the outlying provinces. Looking back, I’m not so sure that was entirely true. In the early sixties there was a place called the Plantation Restaurant at the corner of the Drag and what was then Nineteenth Street. It was open 24 hours, many of which were spent by me and my friends drinking endless cups of blue coffee and solving the problems of the world as we knew it—and I think that, at times, we very possibly knew the world better then than we know it now. One thing that didn’t really seem to register at the ol’ Plantation, however, was that, among the bikers, fraternity boys, and square-dance clubs, there were no black patrons. It took me awhile, but as a card-carrying member of Students for a Democratic Society, I finally lamped upon this inequity. With my fellow SDSers, we picketed night after night, at last forcing the restaurant to change its policies. Today the Plantation, which I both loved and protested against, is gone, and the street where it used to be is no longer known as Nineteenth Street. It is now called Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. In a world of shopping malls and glass towers, that, my friends, is real progress."
i had the strangest thing happen to me today at the grocery store. this is not saying much because strange things generally do not happen to me on my trips to the grocery star. my standard shopping trip consists of baskets and avacados and dora the explorer yogurt and bagels. however today after i gather my items i found myself in line behind a very odd man. he wasn't odd in any of the normal austin ways like that he was wearing a tiger suit or rocking back and forth violently or even speaking some unique combination of farsi and pig latin. he was just odd in that general sense, you know, the serial killer/child molester sense. so there i was, in the 10 items or less line at my local HEB trying to avoid eye contact with this man. i carefully placed my products about two feet away from his on the conveyor belt AND placed the handy plastic divider between our groceries. none of that man's creepiness was going to sneak its way through the solid barrier i had erected. so i continued staring at trash magazines and wondering WHY on earth anyone cares if brad and angelina are going to randomly run into jen and vince at some hollywood party and WHERE on earth the inquirer found the batchildvampire. i casually glanced up to check the progress of mr creepy's purchase when i noticed that MY nilla wafers had been scanned and were awaiting bagging along with his latex gloves and blood stain remover and 20 mr goodyear bars. at first i thought it was a mistake and was about to politely point it out to the cashier when i suddenly remembered my strategery ( to borrow a word from mr. W). there is no way the cashier mistook MY nilla wafers for one of mr creepy's items unless he actuallly picked them up and moved them to the other side of the plastic barrier thingy. MY NILLA WAFERS! HE STOLE THEM*. WHO STEALS OTHER SHOPPERS' GROCERIES? better yet, WHO STEALS NILLA WAFERS? i was shocked and felt violated and icky. then i laughed, took it as a sign that i did not need calories from nilla wafers and drove home. but still, it's strange and strangely entertaining.
*i realize that this action does not technically constitute stealing since i had not yet purchased them. but they were clearly mine and i was clearly planning on paying good money and then enjoying their scrumptiousness for days on end. and have you eaten nilla wafers lately because they are amazing and will fill your heart with joy and make you feel like a 3 year old again. besides, it was still a crap move on his part.
