Friday afternoon it was dry, surprisingly. I took the 6 or so small things I'd packed to the post office and then deposited my check in the bank - my accounting and theirs agreed to the penny - yay!
I went to Whole Foods and looked over what was in the hot bar today. No meatballs, but "barbecue meatloaf". Like, meatloaf with some barbecue sauce dumped on top. I muttered a bit about whether the world needs meatloaf with barbecue sauce, and when I moved away, a gal moved in, and asked, I thought to me, "Is this beef? What kind of beef?" So I said something about it being beef - lips and assholes and anything that will fit in the grinder. She got all insulted and went on how I'm rude and why am I even talking to her, etc. It did not go well. She went away then came back and said, "Just because you're a vegetarian doesn't mean everyone else has to be!" and took off again.
I picked out my food (barbecue meatloaf and some broccoli) and a can of beer and sat at a table outside to eat. I started to wonder if the lady would pass by or had already left. She passed by, and I realized she's one of the homeless characters the area has so many of. She sat some distance away, then moved and sat even further away, by the planter that's by the edge of the sidewalk.
OK then, at least she's not bugging me. Then as I finished my food she passed by, to throw her trash in the cans or something, and I called out, "I apologize!". She was like, Whut? And I said a apologize, that the thing about lips and assholes is a standard one about how things like baloney is made, and it'd come out wrong, that I was only trying to be funny, and so on.
My apology was accepted, and now I got to hear her story. How she used to work for Whole Foods but now she can't. She's homeless living in her car, which won't pass smog so she's not sure how much longer she'll have the car at all. Does she play any musical instrument, I asked, because I could probably fix her up with something. No. I went through a number of possibilities, thing she could do to help herself, and there were all these Reasons. Reasons she can't get back on at Whole Foods, reasons she can't do any of the things I came up with. But it doesn't matter, she said, because she's smart and will figure it out!
"So does everyone think," I thought, as she strutted off. Yeah, it helps to be clever, but cleverness, even a lot of it, is a poor substitute for getting yourself born onto one of the good squares on the race/class matrix, having a big family with good connections, etc. Don't think being smart will keep you from crashing and burning, lady.
Pretty soon it was time to go, and I had bought what I was going to buy, the things in the bike bags being in no danger because it's like a big refrigerator outside. It was seriously cold, and windy. I rode over to the temple and the few people waiting outside were complaining about the cold too. Brr!
The service went OK other than, even sitting in the 2nd from front row, I was still not able to see the screen that well, so I really need to dig up some glasses. At the food and socialization thing after the service, I was able to learn that the classes I want to take, adult Hebrew and Ulpan, tend to start around October so I have several months of just doing the things everyone does until then.
The classes will be over the winter, which of course means bad weather so I may be hotel'ing it some more if it makes the difference between being to class fresh and ready to study, or arriving drenched and shivering. Some of the things are in Los Gatos and Palo Alto and such places, easy to get to by car, but will take more logistics for me.
I'm likening what I have planned for myself with getting a college degree, although it's actually less time-consuming and a lot less expensive. But most college degrees don't give the option of escaping the United States, and at least in the US, having a college degree just means you're still poor, with the addition of tons of debt. So instead of ruining my life, this course of study may give me life.
I rode back here, had a nice dinner and some wine, watched some YouTube (Dara Horn lectures) and off to bed.
I woke up, read a while, went back for a nap, read some more, and that was my nice relaxing time. After it was well dark, like 8PM, I did things like dig things out to pack and ship, and put things away that I'd listed and after a week, had boxes and boxes of in the office. Now the boxes are there but they're empty.
No comments:
Post a Comment