tifi

The children found this turtle in our backyard on Friday morning. This area is so different from anywhere I’ve ever lived before in that it is not unusual to find wildlife on your lawn, in the supermarket parking lot, etc. Animals are everywhere. Anyway, there’s a creek behind our house and I guess this little guy must’ve come up from there. They decided to bring him inside and put him into one of my baking bowls with some water (lovely). Egged on by L, they spent the morning calling me at work asking if we could keep Spike. Yes, they named him. I told them it would probably be best to put Spike back where they found him, but they did “turtle sit” overnight. On Saturday morning, Spike was released back “into the wild”, heh. He was last seen crawling under the fence gate headed in the direction of the creek.

Every weekday morning before I step into my office, I take a deep breath. I work for a small business and the majority of the time, it’s just me and my co-worker. My office environment is extremely stressful. My co-worker constantly makes just plain ignorant remarks regarding everything from race to history. It’s gotten to the point where sometimes, the only way I can get through my day is to ignore her altogether.

Complaining to the owners of the business would not do any good. She is foolish, and therefore they consider her harmless. (They’re also passive/aggressive with her, a story for another day.) She’s nice enough, I’m just appalled that a person could reach the age of fourty and just be so…

At first, I tried to educate her. Not all brown people are immigrants. Having a foreign accent does not mean a person is not a United States Citizen. France and Italy are two different countries with different cultures and languages. (Seriously.) Eventually, I figured out that she was either too dense, or just not interested in gaining the kind of knowledge I was offering. I guess it’s easier to cling to stereotypes than to learn something true. :-/

The scariest thing is that she is raising children. And my children will grow up and maybe one day have to be around (but I hope not) kids raised in homes like this. That’s what bothers me most. Here is a woman, a mother, not interested in gaining knowledge and learning truths about the things in her daily life, so that she can pass that knowledge on to her own kids. It’s just not something I’ve ever encountered before.

I know this is somewhat of a mean rant, but being around someone like that really takes a toll. KWIM? It’s the first time I’ve truly experienced what huge gaps there can be when it comes to race, culture, and education in this country. Yes, I’ve experienced racism and have dealt with ignorance, but not like this. And definitely not in a work setting!

In a lot of ways, I find Virginia to be quite more Southern than Texas. That’s interesting to me. Why yes, sociocultural anthropology is an interest of mine. How did you know?

Since becoming a wohm, Fridays have taken on a whole new meaning. From the time I step into the office on Friday morning, I am counting down the hours, minutes, seconds until 5 pm. We usually head to the beach when I get home. The kids splash around and look for sand crabs and dolphins while I sit back in my chair knitting and talking to L. This beach is mostly locals so it’s pretty quiet and filled with other families doing the same thing. No matter how stressful my week has been, once my feet hit the beach, it’s officially the weekend.

Happy Friday everyone!

• Men who think they are funny and are confident about it. So annoying b/c I want to say “STF, no one likes your corny jokes!”, but I can’t.
• Rollercoasters - I just don’t like waiting (on line) for a long time knowing I’m about to do something that has the potential to scare me, scar me, and make me nauseous. Wait…I’ve gone through childbirth how many times?
• Store bought cards from my husband and kids. I just think about 1)How much it probably cost (b/c DH never looks at price tags) and how much more fun (and funny) a homemade card would be.
• GPS. Whenever I use it, I’m so worried about going the wrong way and having it yell at me that I can barely concentrate on the road.
• This rash I’ve had on my arms for weeks. I think I’m allergic to Virginia. Seriously.
• That I still have my eye condition. Virginia, did I offend you somehow?