Feb 2005

a dose of february reality

2005 Feb 28

well the weather went back to normal finally. the grey cloudy stuff is back. it's not real cold but i think the skimpy clothes i've been seeing around town will disappear for a little while longer. it's just as well. a break is nice but all these blooming trees are gonna be sorry for all their foolish exuberance. this warm spell kinda took us all for a ride that we knew would end.

and today it has.

real quiet at work today. did everything in my power to avoid being sent home before noon, and managed to last until 3pm, which was fine. easier to go to the bank when they're actually open.

brian talked to the landlord so maybe things will get better. i sure hope some of the craziness stops because not getting enough sleep makes us some cranky working stiffs. shoot, last night the guy came home and walked the floor all night long from 2am until I woke up. He finally quit moving around so much but i could hear him coughing, so i guess he's sick.

got a nice note from rebecca and my grandmother. wonder what i'll do tomorrow? kinda broke so it's not going to be anything too wild, but having the day off, i should definitely make the most of it. and that does NOT mean housecleaning all day, although lord knows this place needs that sort of activity. but it can wait.

basically the opposite

2005 Feb 27

my life has turned into opposite day. my weekends are on weekdays and my weekdays are on weekends. at least i'm not working third shift, although i can't imagine very many situations where i'd be willing to go there.

on the other opposite note, the loud neighbors were quiet all weekend, when i thought for sure they'd be having some loud wild orgy drug extravaganza. but i wouldn't get too excited by this change of pace, i think they just went somewhere else for the weekend, probably to do all of those things they normallly do here on weekdays...i'll try not to do too much further complaining about them, lest this turns into the "bitch about your neighbors blog".

i'm starting to get a feel for my new job, and am liking it quite a lot. good thing since i spend so much time there. it's pretty relaxing and low stress...there's not usually many situations where plants are likely to cause someone trauma.

bowling and rollerskates

2005 Feb 25

i love bowling, except when it's on my ceiling. I love rollerskates, except when they're upstairs. these people have got to be some of the worst neighbors ever...i'm sorry to keep bitching about this, but what else can i do to keep from going insane?

i just watched one of the silliest movies ever...not that i was expecting a quality film. if you ever want to see something that feels like one big bad pun that's so bad it'll make you grown, i'm sure kung phooey is at your local blockbuster just waiting to be checked out.

had a real life run in with a bus character this morning. not really in a bad crusty way, it's just been awhile since i've run into someone that's talkative. i actually kinda miss it. nobody around here is likely to start telling your their life story in the checkout line they way they do back in memphis. i'm pretty indulgent in that sort of thing actually. i find it fascinating.

the first chance i get i'm gonna have to get some opera music to serenade the neighbors with when they're being obnoxious. they don't look like the type who'd be puccini fans.

work's been fun so far. i'm starting to get into it. that's a nice feeling.

this whole week has been really warm. most days i can dispense with the jacket after about noon and don't need it until the sun sets. i'm just waiting for things to go back to normal. but for now, balmy days are a nice treat in february.

i'm sure in march, it'll rain daily.

for now though, it's a real treat.

if it weren't for having really annoying and inconsiderate neighbors life would be pretty good right now. i guess you gotta have a turd in the punch bowl to keep it real.

i got hoes

2005 Feb 23

when i got home from work there was some seriously loud shit going on upstairs. brian said that I missed the best part though...the people upstairs had some kind of wall shaking/window rattling orgy during the afternoon. oy! so our current theory is the woman who moved in upstairs is a welfare hoe (since she doesn't seem to have any obvious employment) and the guys that keep hanging around...well you can figure that one out for yourselves.

they definitely take the cake. this is the craziest thing ever...

the days are getting a little longer

2005 Feb 22

for a full moon day it's been pretty quiet and non-crazy.

Pretty nice outside, warm and sunny. I still had to wear some layers but the winter coat was dispensed with for the afternoon.

I saw this article on yahoo news, boy this puts my neighbor problems into perspective...

Lawsuit Alleges Sean Connery Is a Bully Tue Feb 22

A downstairs neighbor of debonaire James Bond actor Sean Connery has filed a $30 million lawsuit alleging he's a bully who's trying to force the family out of the townhouse they share.

he "ignores norms of neighborliness and decency"

his neighbor in the downstairs of the townhouse, an opthamologist, says he they've been doing construction renovations upstairs (for like 4 years-I thought the month or so i had to put up with construction was bad), and plays loud music at all hours and stomps about." On April 7, 2002, one of the Sultans' daughters knocked on Connery's door and requested quiet. "Cursing and otherwise using indecent language Connery demeaned Marla's father, refused to lower the noise and slammed the door in her face."

I feel better already.

i'm ashamed of how much kanji i've forgotten so i'm making an effort to work on it again. boy, you dont' use it for a few years, and whoosh, it's all gone.

finches under the roof, somebody dancing on mine

2005 Feb 21

started my first day at work. it wasn't too bad. just spent most of my time getting familiar with a register. it's not as hard as i thought it would be.

i'm gonna have to get used to a different schedule than i've been on thus far. and working on weekends. it's not a fave, but i'll live.

the people upstairs are fucking loud. they moved in awhile we were gone, and with all the banging around, I guess they're still moving in. now that we're back, it sounds like we have a bowling alley upstairs. considering there's no insulation between their floor and our ceiling, they might as well be doing whatever the fuck it is that they're doing right in our living room. unfortunately they also seem to be more musically inclined than the last tenants were. i'm gonna start picking up opera cd's at the library and playing them at 6am if this shit keeps up.

it's stuff like this that reminds me why i hate living in apartments. it's ridiculous. you never get any peace and quiet. inshallah, i'll never do it again if i can help it.

i saw in the paper that hunter s thompson died last night. apparently he committed suicide by shooting himself. i'm sure the guy had his reasons, but i'm sad nonetheless. he was quite the brilliant one. i'll miss his pithy commentary.

heh heh, i bet everyone hates paris hilton now. i think it's funny that someone hacked her cellphone, but i feel sorry for some of the people who were in her phone book...but not others.

can you believe it didn't rain?

2005 Feb 20

Spent a lot of time just taking in the sights. We went over to Powell's which is the ultimate bookstore (thank god I'm broke, I could have added another 50 lbs to the bag I've been carrying around). We ended up back at the theater to see Deep Blue around 4pm. Kinda like watching a national geographic special on the ocean, but without a whole lot of narration, just a lot of music and eyecandy. (who doesn't get a kick out of watching dolphins jumping in the waves?) Just to keep things from getting too Free Willy-happy-feely, they had plenty of footage of killer whales attacking sea lion pups and baby whales, and polar bears trying to get seals. I saw a lot of stuff I've never seen before, and I thought I knew a thing or two about the ocean...

We went to todai and ate way too much sushi, then hit Hong Kong Hustle at 9pm, and had to sit out in the cold for about an hour to get in. That movie was hilarious! I laughed so hard. It's unique...but I like this sort of thing. Stephen Chow is good at what he does.

nihon rashii koto

2005 Feb 20

started the day off by checking out PCC, then we went over to the Japanese Gardens. The views from up there are pretty amazing in and of themselves, but the Japanese gardens were awesome...even in February. Definitely a 4 seasons kinda place...lots of things to see in the spring summer and fall too, I'm sure. That would be my dream wedding location but I'm sure I couldn't afford it in a million years.

We got back just in time to grab something to eat and go hit Yoshino's barbershop (don't look now but a Japanese theme is emerging). Japanese movies often make me feel really nostalgic because I remember a lot of things about those days very vividly...and have memories and associations with almost everything that turns up in the background in movies...if nothing else, I just miss hearing Japanese spoken around me.

The main topic of this film is conformity which is something Japan grapples with for many reasons. In this case, the "conformity" in question is conformity of appearance...a "revered tradition is the common haircut all the schoolboys are required to sport, a bowl cut that makes them look like they're wearing black lacquer helmets". An uppity new kid from Tokyo arrives and shakes things up with his "city slicker hairstyle". After being shunned by everyone for awhile, the rebellious streak catches on and things start happening...it's a fun movie, and makes me feel all nostalgic...aww yeah.

Then we walked up the street and stood in a really long line, but managed to get in to see KONTROLL which was worth the wait. Kontroll is set in the Budapest subway system. The story is about "a band of (scruffy) scorned, rag-tag subway ticket-control officers (nobody's ever happy to see the ticket guys) who patrol a subterranean world populated by every sort of troublesome (frustrating) individual". Along with putting up with an uncooperative subway clientelle, they also have a bunch of suicides on their hands...or are they? It's a great movie full of plot twists and dark imagery and the surrealism of a world lived in entirely underground. Reminds me of the documentary we were watching once about the people who were living underneath grand central station in an abandoned amtrak tunnel.

on the road again

2005 Feb 17

Got up early as shit and started driving north. Unfortunately I was so out of it, that I left one of the food bags at home, which kinda sucked. The drive was pretty uneventful, although I kept trippin' out on the number of llamas people have.

Couldn't remember nothing about Portland from going past it last fall, but I was relieved that it has it's own mountains and rivers. Spring seems to come earlier there too. The plum trees were in bloom, and even some daffodils and such. Here it's still pretty early for that sort of thing.

I was an hour early for my appointment so I started walking around trying to figure out where things were. PSU's a lot bigger than I expected. That's fine though. I had so much time to kill that I went over to the Vietnamese restaurant and got some lunch before heading over to advising.

I got some good news and some bad news. Pretty much what I expected, I guess. Went over to the library, and then to financial aid, then finally the exhausting round of appointments were over and I was free.

We sure lucked out on the hotel, it was right on the train line, so getting around was super easy. Didn't have to drive the whole time were in town, which I couldn't be happier about. There's no free parking in portland from what I can tell. So we went and got ourselves some Chinese food and went to the film festival and watched Four Shades of Brown which turned out to be a 3 hour movie...oy!

FOUR SHADES OF BROWN opens with lots of gorgeous scenery shots and classical music so naturally you start thinking it's going to go somewhere very different than where you end up. Parts of it are very disturbing...it's supposed to be a dark comedy, but they went more for dark than for comedy. Considering that Sweden is home to more death metal bands than any country on earth, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised by this. There are "four interwoven stories" that aren't reallly interwoven...the people don't cross paths with each other, so the whole time you keep wondering when they will...and they don't which is a let down. Parts of it are great, and parts of it make you wonder if the director shouldn't have just picked one plot thread and stuck with that. But in terms of having the weirdest characters, and most bizarre situations, this film definitely takes the cake.

preparing for the future

2005 Feb 16

tomorrow i'm going to portland.

today i'm listening to bessie smith and trying to figure out how to get to all these advising appointments in a town i've never been to by using equally unfamiliar combinations of public transportation.

it's nice outside but i'm resisting distractions and trying to pretend i'm immune to the charms of sun in the month of february.

i'm having an adult responsibility day...i don't enjoy it, but this stuff catches up with me even when i try to avoid it. today i'm surrendering, but preparing a comeback at a later time. just call me peter pan, cos i don't want to grow up. but today i have to pretend to.

inevitable

2005 Feb 16

things happen for a reason.

the wind blows us all in different directions. who knows where those seeds will land and grow up out of the cracks?

a chance encounter with you could change my life in ways i can't even imagine.

you can light a candle in even the darkest of places.

tomorrow is the beginning of new things. rejection letters make me think of what i should have done, and i can find no answers. i hope the road will take my in the direction i need to go. will my sense of direction be enough to save me from unfamiliar places? how will these expenditures of time and energy lead to good results?

all i can do now is head north, and listen to the advice of bessie smith. i reckon if she don't know, ain't nobody goin' to.

orientation and eye crud

2005 Feb 15

went to SOU for an interview, but nobody over there had their shit together. it's okay though, rather than being irritated about it, i was just amused...it seems like they're not ready to hire anybody, but i told them to keep me in mind in the future. they live in a closet over there but there's other benefits to that gig.

so i went over to valley view, filled out paper work, looked around, got issued work gear, and am looking forward to never having a weekend day off again ever. well for 6 months it ain't gonna kill me, but I will miss camping and stuff like that. oh well, there's other times i suppose. i suspect i'll like this in spite of not having weekends off...i end up liking most things more than i think i will at the time. an unexpected benefit to being cynical? perhaps.

just about the minute i got home, it was time to turn right around and get on the bus to go to medford. i ran out the door in such a hurry that i left my homework sitting on the table which at my age is kind of embarrasing.

mason was locked out and it just so happened that his mom was at the tutoring center which was on the way to my class, so i rallied him to the bus stop and took him with me. had a pretty good time talking to him, usually i see him around, but he seems like kind of a shy kid so we don't really chat much around here. the guy across the aisle wearing mardi gras beads a week later reeked of alcoholism. it's a familiar stench (i've known many of these types) and never fails to depress me.

in spite of the homework faux paus, i had a decent time in class. sat next to the 14 year old who reminds me of myself in some ways...she usually struggles with the speaking part of class, but did pretty well today. turns out two people in my class are going to japan to become kyoshi, so we're having a going away party at sensei's otaku. turns out she lives in this town so all i gotta do is hike up the hill to her house. hope i don't get stuck working because i'm intrigued at the prospect of a party. let's just say i don't get out much...

something made my eyes swell up and itch so i had a hell of a time trying to watch "ray". kinda ironic that my eyes were going berserk during a movie about a blind person...so reading or anything else like practicing writing in arabic was out of the question. i had to cut the day pretty short.

lost in the crowd

2005 Feb 15

This is a response to a post on a friend's blog about a guy who waves at strangers, and perhaps why we don't all do it more often.

A big part of this perception of being "disconnected" is caused the fact that we live in a state of utter unreality, far removed from the basic sources of life from which we come.

Humanity does not exist in a void unto itself as much as we like to pretend to. I don't think we were fundamentally designed to live in this world as severed beings. To use that DNA image, we are part of a chain of life that is more complex than we can comprehend by ourselves. Other "beings" also belong to it of course, whether we acknowledge their "value" or not. By breaking the links, the chain collapses, and becomes something mutant and changed.

To go off on another tangent, when you are in the countryside or small towns, you will notice that people wave at each other. Sometimes it's because they know each other, but that's not always a requirement. People wave at me all the time who do not "know" me.

On a deeper level, I think it's a gesture of goodwill, a way of reconnecting with humanity, and acknowledging your interdependent nature. Communication is both simple and complex. It is a natural response to a spiritual desire to belong to each other on a level that transcends family or even society.

Fear is what always gets in the way. We are a fearful bunch running amok. Fear is what keeps us from saying hello to strangers, telling those we love how we feel about them, etc. Ironically one of the biggest impacts of globalization is not that we are better at bringing people together, but rather are finding more things to be afraid of. Rather than being more aware of the interconnected nature of our world, many of us are getting lost on the paths of fear.

In cities, anonymity is more possible, thus the feeling of being lost in the crowd. As most of us know, to understand each other, it takes much more than just being around lots of people. You have to also be openminded, and able to pay attention as well. But with the convenience of fear to hide behind, you can't learn from people or appreciate them. In fear we choose isolation, and the spirit withers.

Fears makes us run from love and intimacy, and hides us from ever experiencing the very things we say we most want. Fear patterns begin early in life and affect every relationship we have. Living with fear wastes a lot of energy, in repeating the same mistakes over and over. We can only see the world in black and white. And live life in a numbness that blocks out not only pain and failure but also beauty and joy.

To be open to the world, you must rely on compassion instead of fear, and choose solidarity instead of isolation.

Not to trust in your doubts and fears as being greater than the truth that moves around you just out of sight.

It is also important to cultivate joy and beauty, We need beauty to thrive. To be merely alive is stagnation. To be surrounded by ugliness wears the soul down.

The other day a man who couldn't speak, "told" me he was happy because the radiant sun that was shining. I was able to shared that moment of his joy because I was open minded enough to acknowledge his presence (however brief) in my small universe.

Sometimes you should wave.

Tell everyone on the bus that the sun is beautiful in February.

Or give flowers to strangers.

job?

2005 Feb 12

valley view called me this morning. apparently they've decided to hire me after all. i was pretty convinced that they weren't going to do anything of the sort after all this time. hard to know what to think at this point, but i'm looking forward to being less broke in the near future.

found a farsi phrasebook in the library so i may finally be able to write a letter to wida (although it's gonna be pretty basic by default-hi, how are you, goodbye). i'm working on figuring out how this impenetrable looking language works. from what i can tell so far, you write it from right to left (backwards), there's generally no vowels, and the letters change shape based on where they are in a string. inputing arabic on a keyboard is pretty hard but i'm getting the hang of it. khoda hafez! (! ze-fe-a-he a-de-ke-he)

what a difference a day makes...

2005 Feb 10

"What a difference a day makes, twenty-four little hours, brought the sun and the flowers, where there used to be rain"

Walking down the street I'm starting to see crocuses popping up out of the earth, and here and there even a few violets. It's nice to have the sun out to banish the cold. February and march are usually pretty gloomy months. It's nice to have a break from them once in awhile.

"My yesterday was blue, dear"

Sure felt a lot better today. I walked over to the park (haven't done that in quite awhile since the weather hasn't been too conducive to that sort of thing) and swung on the swings and sat on the rocks and took a nap in the treenest.

"What a diff'rence a day makes, there's a rainbow before me, skies above can't be stormy"

It seems like I'm a day late again, but I filled out the application anyway. The way I figure is they can't get rid of me that easily. Maybe they'll take a hint...

I was way too early to my job interview this morning. Who knew the bus would be so fast all of a sudden? Couldn't even go hang out in the library that early in the morning, so I went over to RCC and sat around over there until it was the right time to mosey on down the street.

I think that interview went alright. "I just may be the lunatic you're looking for." At any rate, I'd love it if I could just get down to doing something, at this point, I'm sure anything would be perfectly fine...or you know, maybe I'm not taking the "aluminum acquisition subcontractor" field as seriously as I might...for real though, I'm about to go crazy from sitting at home all the time. It's just not as much fun as it is during the summer, when unemployment is downright giddy.

"What a difference a day makes, there's a rainbow before me" walking along the creek, I finally saw the "swimming" birds again. they're not usually around when I look for them, but today they were out diving and swimming under the currents. They're so cute.

I heard a guy playing the banjo in the park, and it reminded me of tim. I miss hearing tim play the banjo on the porch. That was the best. Nobody plays the banjo for me these days...but I do have someone who sings me silly songs and is darn cute in a goofy sort of way. "What a diffirence a day makes, And the difference is you".

chicken bus

2005 Feb 08

when i got on the bus to go to Medford, i was greeted by something straight outta the third world. people were packed inside like sardines (usually there's nobody at this time of day), and there were 2 bikes in the front rack and a bike inside. not to mention that it was already minutes late. yo, this bus put the "public" in some really "public" transportation. i wonder where all these people even came from...it was everybody and their mama, and their grandma-sista-cousin and wouldn't you know it, the driver still kept letting people on including another guy and his bike. the bus was totally late...not that it matters in my case, all i had to do was walk a block and a half to class. i was right on time.

that was one of the weirdest bus rides i've ever had.

the trip home was less hype, but i was treated to the stimulating conversation of highschool boys. yep, we covered such illuminating topics as hoes, smoking' da herb, the merits of whatever rehab program some guy was in, different techniques for bangin' da hoes, and a round of "i got hoes". yep, pretty profound stuff. i realize it's just a white guy thing. in 60 years they'll be talking about their hemorrhoids, triple bypasses and viagra. wee.

Superbowl Sunday

2005 Feb 07

pretty normal sunday except of course the superbowl was on tv.

makes me wonder what i missed back in Memphis...Will and melissa always used to have superbowl chilli cookoff and i kinda miss that.

instead, i spent the whole day making a shepherd's pie. whew, that's a 12 step operation, but it turned out pretty well, so it was worth all the trouble.

otherwise, it was a pretty uneventful day. cloudy. cold. rainy at times. a great day to sit around and watch tv even thought that's not really my cup of tea.

started reading "silent spring". it's the sort of thing you'd think i would have read a long time ago, but oddly enough i haven't. now that i have more time on my hands i figured now was the time to get around to it. i realize now that this is one of "those things" where once i read it, there's no going back. kinda like the pathogen video back in 10th grade biology (made me want to go veg), and then "a peaceable kingdom" came along and finished the job. now i'll probably be even more anti-chem than i already was. but it's been a long time coming i guess. i've been aware of the effects of chemicals on my own health for a long time. i guess this is just a logical extension of that.

makes you just want to say fuck it all and go watch some tv. if only i could be satisfied by that kind of simplicity.

i guess that's just one of the things that makes me different than other people. like smokey (and my peers from the llc), i'm a freak and proud of it.

the law of averages

2005 Feb 04

been fairly uneventful the past couple of days. nothing too exciting has happened really. i've just been watching the garlic come up and the trees put out fuzzy leafbuds and yellow feathery flowers. don't know what those are, but they have an interesting smell to them.

i've noticed it's been warm enough to see some bees out and about. found a hornet hanging out by the light and took her back outside. that's not something i want loose around here. smoky would be dumb enough to try to eat it, I'm sure.

the grey clouds are rolling back over the spine of the mountains so that means the weather will probably be more winterlike again for awhile...rainy and cold and blah.

i've been busy working on wedding accessories. pretty weird to have all this frilly crap lying around the house, but it's either make this stuff myself--or pay someone $150 for something I can make for $5. The same goes for the dress. I already have a pretty reasonable white dress to use, I'm just gonna spiff it up a little bit. I've seen lots of satiny beaded stuff around town, but I can't imagine wearing anything like that outdoors in the blazing heat of the dirty south in July. And I'm morally opposed to spending $200 (or potentially a lot more) on some dress I'm going to wear for one day when I have to go to graduate school this year. so it goes...

today i was parked next to an almond tree that still had almonds on it, so i stopped and picked them. they're in pretty good shape, so i ate one. yummm. almonds are so good. and i've never had one off the tree before. wow.

i keep finding myself looking at the real estate postings when i walk up main to the library. they're all way way way outta my league of course...everything's at least 500,000 dollars and up, but man it would be nice to have a house of my own. i could be planning a garden right now instead of wondering what i can gank from the recycling center to plant all this sprouting garlic in. i can see it now...alas.

well i guess i'm at one of those points where i have an easier time thinking about the future than dealing with the mundane present. and so it goes...

J-Day

2005 Feb 01

Holy shit, it's 27 degrees outside! yeah, it was a frosty morning i woke up to...i wore tons of clothes but waiting for the bus in the cold was still pretty unpleasant. the frost patterns on the window were intriguing though. but i wasn't up at 7 am for my health...i had to show up for Jury Duty.

I got off the bus at the terminal and started walking towards the municipal plaza, but i really had no clue what building i was supposed to go to. You'd think as small as medford is, it would be totally obvious. i was able to eliminate the forest service building--one of the few that i've seen before, thanks to some nice tree hugger protest i went to last summer--but still there's like 5 more big courthouse-y looking buildings to choose from. then i saw the line.

yep, that's gotta be it.

so i went and stood in line with everybody else. there were like 300 of us standing out there in the cold. much to my annoyance more than half of those present were puffing away on the ol' cancer sticks. great, just what i need, an asthma attack to start the day off right. the people in front of me looked like something straight up outta jerry springer, and i'm sure there was a trailer park in the picture somewhere. a mother with 2 daughters, one seemed pretty normal, but the older kid was clutching a box of donuts and listening to some pretty vulgar music of some sort and felt the need to share with the rest of us, by singing along...i must be getting old or something, but there's nothing more trashy than watching a 15 year old singing proudly along with something that would make eminem blush. i bet the baby that her mom was lugging in the car seat was hers too. then they had some relative roll up in a wheelchair that they snidely pretended to ignore. they wouldn't even open the door for her, so some lady standing next to me had to go do it. weird.

the metal detector of course, detects any bit of metal larger than a staple. i had to go through several times. sigh. i had to pour out my coffee in a styrofoam cup (gross!) so they could be sure i wasn't hiding any ak47's in there...and then i was clear.

so along with 300 other people, i marched upstairs and sat in a room and listened to a judge talking about the responsibilities of jury duty. then we saw a video. then i went and hooked myself up with some coffee. then we were split up into 4 groups and taken into courtrooms.

i tell ya, nothing puts the fear of god in me like going in a court room...even though i'm not the one on trial. just something about it...i'd be quite happy if i got through the rest of my life without spending a minute in a court room in the defendant's chair.

the trial was for a a dui. i'm a little surprised that they have jury trials for dui's, but who knows what the deal is.

i didn't make the final cut though. probably because i checked the box stating "i have been the victim of a crime".

i had kinda planned on going straight from all of this to my japanese class a few blocks away but was done and outta there by 11am. so i had to go back to ashland. the guy sitting next to me on the bus was reading some classic of chinese literature and the guys across the isle were comparing and contrasting their assault and battery/probation experiences. reminds me of my greyhound days. on the way to the bank i ran into brian, so i got a ride home with him and had just enough time to grab a snack before hopping back on the bus for medford.

the bus was almost 20 minutes late. i woulda been early enough to go spend a little time in the library, but i was just right on time. class was fun even though i had a headache. i got home totally late though because the bus was super late again.

i picked up this book at the library "On Good Land" (to kill time on the bus) because it was about an urban farm, which reminds me of declerye, and read all of it in a couple of hours.

i can sure relate. we share a lot of the same scenarios. at declerye we used to have neighbors complain about our weeds all the time (kale, collard greens,jerusalem artichokes, etc) most people don't have a clue where their food comes from, not city folk at any rate. even the code enforcement guy had to be given a crash course on the subject. "i bet yo mama used to make you eat greens, right? well this is where they come from. i would take him around and show him what's what."

we didn't have a blade of grass because the whole yard was a big garden so the neighbors used to bug about it all the time, being the lawn addicts that they were. the neighborhood drunks shook their heads, we didn't have any obvious "easy" work for them to do, not having grass to mow. And we didn't want nobody bagging our leaves because we used the leaves for mulch.

kids found the place fascinating, so the ones that were brave enough to come by (most weren't--our house was "that house in the neighborhood where the weird people live") got to help with garden chores. most kids love the chance to do stuff that involves getting dirty or wet. city kids rarely have the opportunity to do that kind of stuff. i'd show them the mint and tell them to chew on it. then i'd show them the fish/tadpoles out in the pond (when the city wasn't killing them off by spraying the street with airborne insecticides, thus killing all the fish). show them butterfly catepillars (swallowtails found our fennel irresistable). and then let them pick flowers if there were any.

in general though, we were surrounded by people who didn't get what we were doing, although there was an old lady down the street who used to steal our tomatoes in the dark of night. sometimes though, people were curious and friendly and i'd show them around and explain that we grew our own food and so on.

my dream was to get a land trust set up, or even somehow change the zoning to agricultural use. so that we'd have more leeway with code enforcement. and that no matter what, nobody could ever cut down the trees and turn them into parking lots.