Voting, Halloween and the Importance of Tortillas
Uh, how awful. Why can’t voting be easy? I’m not talking about the process of choosing a candidate – which was hard enough – but the actual going down to the poll site. No, it has to be impossible. I can’t vote here because I’m from a foreign county. Come on! I’m from the same state! I really didn’t mean to be rude to the election judges, but I must have had my mad face on because they kept saying sorry and trying to get me out. They told me to go to the Justice Center, but guess what? The center is under construction and there is no close or cheap way to park. Of course. I will just have to call them and see what I should do, the election judges weren’t so clear on that since they were trying to get rid of me. This recent chain of events all falls in line pretty nicely with my disillusionment of political systems. Or maybe I shouldn’t extend this disappointment so far – after all, it’s only my PoliSci exam that I am upset about. I have never had a professor leave such personal and rude remarks on a test before. Basically, because I had to miss work and rearrange my schedule to make time for that test (it was a take-home) I was able to turn it in hours and hours before the deadline. I was very pleased with my efficiency at the time since I had many other projects to complete before flying home for Fall Break. Unfortunately, my professor may have construed that as a halfway job. I don’t even think he graded the whole thing since his comments mysteriously drop off somewhere around the midway point of the test. Needless to say, I have several things to discuss with him during his office hours. First of all I don’t think he was fair. Now, I could go on about this forever since it has been the bane of my weekend, but I don’t want to say anything I might regret.
On the lighter side, my Fall Break was really fun. I got to see all the crazy decorations my father put up. My mother refuses to take any credit for the decorations and says that she goes out of the house in disguise. Yes, the whole of the ornamentation is very…odd and eerie.
This thing is so cute I don't know how it could scare anyone!
This is a collection of fearsome objects: an amputated foot (far right), a ghoul and a skeleton (left).
I also got to see Baby's soccer game. Here he is looking tough (in the center).
Over here, Halloween plans have long been in effect even though Nancy and I have not purchased pumpkins for the balcony. I would be perfectly fine with a small set of pumpkins and gourds, but Nancy wants the 60lb pumpkin she saw at Central Market. I told her, as soon as she can lift it, we’ll bring it back to the dorm. She hasn’t taken me up on my offer yet.
We will be going Trick or Treating. Never would I have done something like this in high school; man, that would have been embarrassing. But here, lots of people do it. Trinity is in a very nice neighborhood and people give out high quality treats. Last year we each got a (real-size) Snickers® bar! The last two years I have been going un-dressed (no costume I mean), which meant I was usually taken for Nancy’s mom. Lovely…So, this year I actually have an idea. I am going to be a gypsy!! It is so perfect. If only I could dress like that everyday! But don’t worry I won’t, I only have one gypsy skirt.
For my Spanish class, we’re regularly assigned films. The last two have been so not my type. First there was Mar Adentro where Javier Bardem plays a quadriplegic that wants to die (seriously, the whole movie – let me die, let me die, pull the plug for me, let me die) and the latest was Soldados de Salamina. That one was all shot in scenes of black and grey tones and was about this writer trying to find out why this one act of humanity occurred during the Spanish civil war. This would have all been semi-okay if there hadn’t been the strange characters in her life – a lesbian tarot card reader who was constantly trying to seduce her and an overly amorous student. Really, not entertainment. I guess the good thing about it is that it makes me think that my decision not to go to Spain was a good one. I don’t think I could have gotten along too well in that culture - so much smoke and seriousness. Maybe Latin America would have been more my style.
I think it’s because I’m from a culture where funny things like tortillas are a big deal. I mean a really big deal. Right now in El Paso, chaos reigns since no vendor has agreed to supply the prison with its daily ration of tortillas for the prisoners. My dad was about to volunteer but was afraid his heretofore unknown cooking skills would have been discovered and capitalized upon and he would have never been allowed out of the kitchen. We told him, yes, that’s exactly what would have happened and that he should stay home and keep his fried and boiled pork skins to himself. So now, the prisoners have no tortillas. Maybe that’s okay. I think that would be one of the motivations for keeping crime on the low side – tell them they won’t have real food to look forward to in jail.
Honestly, sometimes I’m embarrassed about the things that go on in my hometown.
