reesesWeb

I am now in DC, where it is entirely too cold. I went from SF at 60F to DC at 32F. Why???

I've noticed two significant partitionings of people here in DC so far. One is unfortunate, and one is disturbing.

There are a huge number of wonderful people here. I really, really like them. They are the people, probably natives, who actually respond when you greet them on the street, in stores, or whatever. Your "Hi," or even your silly remark on the weather, will be met with a smile and a pleasant response. Having lived in Seattle for ten years, this is fantastic.

The group on the other side of this particular partition are the people who couldn't be effed to notice you, even if you're standing in the same elevator, in your apartment building. We live together, I say hello, and you look at me, and then away?

These people are almost always "well dressed", although that mostly means Banana Republic Garanimals, professional looking, and presumably affiliated with Important Government Business. These are the people whom I feared interacting when coming to DC. I don't like it when my prejudices bear out.

Speaking of prejudice, that brings us to the next partition.

The west coast, or the blessed coast, is really sheltered when it comes to racism. Everyone agrees it's wrong, and when someone mutters some bit of racism with evil intent, it's always met with disfavor. That doesn't count giving each other garbage, but I wouldn't let a stranger hear the things I say to my chinese, japanese, indian, or arabic "friends".

But I've noticed the farther east you go in the US, with the notable exception of NYC, that the races are separated by the blue collar/white collar line. Minorities are workers or labor. In Starbucks, the barristas are black, the managers and customers are all white. In my building, all of the residents and building managers I've seen so far are white, the security guards, the custodial staff, the receptionists, are not.

Someone else mentioned elsewhere that geeks are especially bad sexists because they know they're too smart to be sexist, that only dumb, uneducated, irrational people are sexist. I charge that "enlightened" people are especially bad racists because they are "above racism".

I'm not sure what needs to be done with this, other than asking questions, as I've never known just how ridiculous the situation is.

That aside, I had a long phone conversation with my sister tonight. During the conversation, her four-year-old daughter (who is easily the coolest little human being on the planet) was running around talking about random four-year-old-girl things. At one point, she said something that caused her mother to say,"We're going to amputate your tummy if you keep sticking it out like that."

"No! You can't do that, because then all my blood will run out!"

What the heck kind of four-year-old talks like that? A) that she knows what "amputate" means, and B) that having a large quantity of blood inside is important?

Of course, that started a bout of "kids say the darnedest things", wherein it was reported that Mia (the aforementioned four-year-old troublemaker) was told by her mother that she was going to be taken to the middle of the desert and left if some forgotten misbehavior was repeated. Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, does it Dad?

A few days later,"Is the desert far from here?"

Forgetting the context, her mother answered,"A bit. Why?"

"Good. I want to know when you're driving me out there to leave me."