No Justice! No Peace!

Today I took part in a march for the SEIU representing security workers in the San Francisco Bay Area. The city went so far as to announce it Security Worker's Day in San Francisco. Apparently, the security workers' union contract is up for renewal and heated negotiations have begun. Listening in on speeches, wearing the purple shirt, and blocking traffic. I feel like it was an experience all about learning. The past victory of the janitor's union. The now daunting task for the security workers. The profit-only motivation of large business owners. The idea that free health care is a right. Freedom from poverty is a right. Those silent slumbering towers of the city that watch the streets, unmoved and unchanged while its human contents foment and churn and their streets teem with business people and protesters and the homeless who call their steps home.
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In other news, I'm leaving Berkeley. Hmm, I think I'll still keep the same name for this blog too, considering it is what brought me to CA and is what is compelling me to stay, this obligation to county child welfare. But, I'm moving to...Oakland. Ok, not that far away really. This weekend I'm moving into a studio on Lake Merritt. My apartment is pretty petite, but it charming with it many windows and lake view. It also has a fantastic New York-esque roof that makes me want to go Spiderman jumping from building to building. Oakland is beautiful, and the kind of urban environ that Berkeley is not. It is also dark and scary at night the way that urban environs are. I'll post pics once I take some and have done more settling into the place. Still very mixed feelings about moving. Very mixed. But life trudges on apace.

blathering blatherskipes!

So I think I'll write this post backwards through time. Went to Vegas this weekend for the first time. This pic off a Jose Cuervo table encapsulates much of the experience quite well. Had more to drink in two days than I typically have in half a year. I think by the end my body was begging me to be a little more boring. But I must say, I had a blast.
There really is nothing like walking for miles down the strip, lights, lush hotels, everything is brighter and more real than the real thing. Paris Paris was like a super concentrated dose of Paris. New York New York the same. I'm not sure I can describe that any better. Any concept of what a hotel is has been jacked up exponentially. The extreme of luxury and consumerism.
And crazy hot there too. It was consistently 110 degrees. Oh, I don't have any pics to go along with this, but picture three ppl, all in their twenties, zipping around a golf course in a red golf cart, getting pulled over by a golf court marshal, who just happened to be a retired California Highway Patrolman. He's convinced we are driving his golf cart and proceeds to inspect under the hood, the batteries and even sit in the thing to confirm that we hadn't jacked his cart. Tells us he's been chasing us down the court. And not so kindly indicates that we need to beat it. Man, why drive little carts if you can't enjoy them a bit. Alas. Las Vegas was a blast.
Oh, here's a neat little comics exhibit in the Oakland Airport. Got to the airport so late that we were the last ppl on the plane. And in the process of running to our gate I took a nice spill and ate carpet. Lovely.
Took a nice hike a few weeks before up in Point Reyes, Marin, where cliffs meet the ocean. Gorgeous. And the trail head was signaled not by a sign with a map but with Wonder Woman.
And one day took myself to the Berkeley Marina for some kite flying. I love the stringing out, but need a reel of something to bring the kite back in. That alone took like half an hour.
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And...no pics for this either...I didn't get a job with San Francisco County. I was quite devastated considering I really thought I would get the job. But, reality and rationality is kicking me back and I'm now in the throes of completing applications for every other bay area county, like I should have to begin with. Here's hoping I get a job. Here's hoping this MSW turns into something. Here's hoping I can pay next month's rent. Beooooooooo.

V

This may come out as a weird post but its common thread is vaginas.

I had a dream a few nights ago that there were three of us women/girls (not sure what age I was but other girl someone from my past but looked like she was 12) who were at some carnival or festival or something. In order to participate or be able to enter some right of passage we had to undergo female circumcision. I remember panicking and thinking, "This isn't right! This can't be happening! Stop! Why am I still standing here in this line like I'm waiting." But the other girl--the one I recognized from church and whom I remember as very nice, docile, and Christian--kept saying, "It's ok. I'll go first." And she was standing there naked and had this very young prepubescent body and she walked off with the man who told us that we had to have our vaginas sewed up. And I kept picturing it and feeling terribly frightened. And that was all of that dream that I could remember. All three of us girls were Chinese American, I think. I have some suspicion of where this all came from but it still struck me as very weird.

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Last night I went to a drag king show at my neighborhood gay bar. My first. Very fun. Apparently, it is a regular occurrence on Wednesdays that a group of lesbians does a drag/lip sync show. Some country, some alternative rock, some hip hop belted out by some very appealingly masculine guys. The only incongruity really appears when they speak and their voice seems completely at variance with their finely drawn facial hair. What makes us so different in terms of features, men and women. It's only a few hormones away it seems. Add the broad shoulders, narrow hips, a slight bulge in the crotch, a weighty step and the distinctions get a bit murky. Where did the vagina go anyway; hidden it seems.