so i just got back from reno, where i was doing some canvassing for the obama campaign. stories and photos from that will be up soon, likely once i get an internet connection that will cooperate for longer than 2 minutes. highlights include many a terrorist fist jab, nearly getting the police called on us, chasing the best motorcycle in the world down reno's main drag, demonstrating time and time again that we were indeed from san francisco, and winning some money. oh, and seeing "change we can believe in" in person...
but, for now, the message of change that actually has me most captivated is from 30 years ago.
30 years ago, harvey milk, the first openly gay american elected official, was assassinated in san francisco, along with the mayor of sf. sean penn is starring in a movie about him, and there's also a fantastic (if dated) documentary about him. but, the reason harvey milk is on my mind right now is that it's 30 years after his assassination, 30 years after his message of change, and california is still on the verge of banning gay marriage. the vote on proposition 8 is shockingly close, and a lot of people in the city (myself included) are worried about it. the yes on 8 campaign has gotten a surge from their ads that include truth-stretching and blatant lies about the effect of the CA supreme court decision on gay marriage.
almost as a point of principle, i dislike political ads, regardless of whose side they're on. their partisanship usually means they're devoid of true content. i'm not sure whether to call currentTV's animation of harvey milk's most famous speech one of the very few exceptions to that rule, or to say that it's not really a political ad at all.
either way, it's not politics as usual--milk's speech is the closest thing the gay rights movement has ever had to an "i have a dream speech," and it's a travesty as well as a testament to our political climate most of the country has never heard it. and yes, prop 8 supporters, if i had my way, i'd teach it in schools.
"You Cannot Live on Hope Alone."
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Monday, September 1, 2008
from the mission, with love
i think i should have realized that moving across the country was going to be an adventure... the american value of manifest destiny instilled in me from a very young age made me somewhat aware of that fact, but i was far from prepared. while diptheria, a shortage of huntable game, and poor wagon caulking jobs haven't appeared on the scene (yet), i've faced some obstacles of my own...
after a very uneventful, even comfortable flight, i touched down in san francisco, grabbed my luggage, and stepped into the eucalyptus infused air to catch a cab. one friendly cab driver and one beautiful drive later, i found myself outside my apartment... having failed to get in touch with my flaky real estate guy, keith (otherwise known as keith the keeper of the keys). keith is... unreliable at best. he answers his cell at will, and when he suggested the plan for me to get keys was to call him when i got in, i got nervous... but, it was a step up from what i had previously conceived of him as. keith has made me nervous this entire time. he wears sunglasses no matter what, making it impossible to discern what his face actually looks like. the name of his company is "GoRealEstateAgent.com" (yes, it includes the .com). he doesn't answer his phone. he wants his security deposits in cashiers checks only. and the "Contact me!" link on his craigslist ad for his apartments is a link that tries to get you to download what has to be either spyware or a virus... in short, i woke up in the middle of the night a couple days before leaving for job training, having dreamt that i arrived in san francisco and keith the keeper of the keys was actually just keith the nondescript scam artist and i found myself homeless in san francisco. at three am, i ran every google search imaginable to determine if keith was legit. the answer was indeterminate at best...
so, back to being in san francisco, no keith, no keys, lots of luggage. i decided to go to the coffee shop just around the corner from my apartment, and enjoyed a pleasant cup of coffee surrounded by a mixture of hipsters in skinny jeans and trendy hats and old folks muttering to themselves. keith finally called back, said he'd be around in an hour, apologized for the inconvenience, and even carried one of my bags for me when he arrived (my messenger bag, the lightest of the four by far, but it's the thought that counts, no?) keys in hand, i stepped into my new abode, and remembered why i was excited about this place to begin with. it's small but lovely, with hardwood floors (complete with interesting detailing), a bay window with a sitting cushion, and a semi-spacious kitchen with room for a breakfast nook (and even a microwave in addition to the standard fridge and stove!). by this point, it was starting to get late, and dark so i went to hit the lights, and made an interesting discovery...
guess what i don't have! gas and electric... so that's the current quest. right now i'm charging my computer and cell phone at the local coffee shop (this place has been way handy so far), and trying to figure out how to get service started over labor day weekend... chances are i'm not going to have electricity and gas until sometime next week. i also couldn't find a place to buy an aerobed, but found that i fit rather comfortably on the cushion for the bay window couch... so that's where i slept last night, using a pillow i stole from united airlines. turns out when you sleep right in front of drafty windows, it gets pretty damn cold, so by the end of the night, i had a hooded sweatshirt on the way you're supposed to wear them, another on my legs and feet (thank goodness for having the foresight to bring two!) and was wrapped in my blanket... as well as my towel.
but, on the positive side of things, i do have hot water, so i took a long shower to warm up this morning. and, while i can't really buy any food, since i can neither cook nor refrigerate it (gas stove, electric fridge! yay for modern convenience!), i do have a decent number of friends in the area (at least three different people) i can probably bother to get dinner with until i have electricity.
at this point, i'm just laughing at the sheer absurdity of all of this. try asking me mid-week whether my amusement has worn off, i'm not sure what the answer will be. and the discussion at work...
steph to boss: hi, um, i was wondering if i could get thursday afternoon off to let the gas & electric folks into my building to start service?
boss: yes, of course, but how long have you been living there already!?
steph: uh, a week and a half...
boss: (utter consternation at choosing to hire this crazy/disorganized individual)
but, i have more important things to worry about now. like the fact that i decided socks would be irrelevant to my life for the next week, and packed them all in boxes for the movers, rather than bringing any with me. socks are a good thing writ large, but are even more important when you've resorted to wearing sweatshirts on your feet to stay warm while sleeping on the bay window cushion of your gas/electric-less apartment. frankly, i don't know how i didn't account for that. the movers should show up sometime this week and when the movers arrive, socks galore! as well as a bunch of things that require electricity that i can't use, a mattress for a bed frame i don't have, cooking equipment for the stove that can't turn on...
time to go find socks.
after a very uneventful, even comfortable flight, i touched down in san francisco, grabbed my luggage, and stepped into the eucalyptus infused air to catch a cab. one friendly cab driver and one beautiful drive later, i found myself outside my apartment... having failed to get in touch with my flaky real estate guy, keith (otherwise known as keith the keeper of the keys). keith is... unreliable at best. he answers his cell at will, and when he suggested the plan for me to get keys was to call him when i got in, i got nervous... but, it was a step up from what i had previously conceived of him as. keith has made me nervous this entire time. he wears sunglasses no matter what, making it impossible to discern what his face actually looks like. the name of his company is "GoRealEstateAgent.com" (yes, it includes the .com). he doesn't answer his phone. he wants his security deposits in cashiers checks only. and the "Contact me!" link on his craigslist ad for his apartments is a link that tries to get you to download what has to be either spyware or a virus... in short, i woke up in the middle of the night a couple days before leaving for job training, having dreamt that i arrived in san francisco and keith the keeper of the keys was actually just keith the nondescript scam artist and i found myself homeless in san francisco. at three am, i ran every google search imaginable to determine if keith was legit. the answer was indeterminate at best...
so, back to being in san francisco, no keith, no keys, lots of luggage. i decided to go to the coffee shop just around the corner from my apartment, and enjoyed a pleasant cup of coffee surrounded by a mixture of hipsters in skinny jeans and trendy hats and old folks muttering to themselves. keith finally called back, said he'd be around in an hour, apologized for the inconvenience, and even carried one of my bags for me when he arrived (my messenger bag, the lightest of the four by far, but it's the thought that counts, no?) keys in hand, i stepped into my new abode, and remembered why i was excited about this place to begin with. it's small but lovely, with hardwood floors (complete with interesting detailing), a bay window with a sitting cushion, and a semi-spacious kitchen with room for a breakfast nook (and even a microwave in addition to the standard fridge and stove!). by this point, it was starting to get late, and dark so i went to hit the lights, and made an interesting discovery...
guess what i don't have! gas and electric... so that's the current quest. right now i'm charging my computer and cell phone at the local coffee shop (this place has been way handy so far), and trying to figure out how to get service started over labor day weekend... chances are i'm not going to have electricity and gas until sometime next week. i also couldn't find a place to buy an aerobed, but found that i fit rather comfortably on the cushion for the bay window couch... so that's where i slept last night, using a pillow i stole from united airlines. turns out when you sleep right in front of drafty windows, it gets pretty damn cold, so by the end of the night, i had a hooded sweatshirt on the way you're supposed to wear them, another on my legs and feet (thank goodness for having the foresight to bring two!) and was wrapped in my blanket... as well as my towel.
but, on the positive side of things, i do have hot water, so i took a long shower to warm up this morning. and, while i can't really buy any food, since i can neither cook nor refrigerate it (gas stove, electric fridge! yay for modern convenience!), i do have a decent number of friends in the area (at least three different people) i can probably bother to get dinner with until i have electricity.
at this point, i'm just laughing at the sheer absurdity of all of this. try asking me mid-week whether my amusement has worn off, i'm not sure what the answer will be. and the discussion at work...
steph to boss: hi, um, i was wondering if i could get thursday afternoon off to let the gas & electric folks into my building to start service?
boss: yes, of course, but how long have you been living there already!?
steph: uh, a week and a half...
boss: (utter consternation at choosing to hire this crazy/disorganized individual)
but, i have more important things to worry about now. like the fact that i decided socks would be irrelevant to my life for the next week, and packed them all in boxes for the movers, rather than bringing any with me. socks are a good thing writ large, but are even more important when you've resorted to wearing sweatshirts on your feet to stay warm while sleeping on the bay window cushion of your gas/electric-less apartment. frankly, i don't know how i didn't account for that. the movers should show up sometime this week and when the movers arrive, socks galore! as well as a bunch of things that require electricity that i can't use, a mattress for a bed frame i don't have, cooking equipment for the stove that can't turn on...
time to go find socks.
Saturday, August 30, 2008
refresh.
so it’s been over a year since i’ve last posted, and it’s safe to say that things have changed a bit. some highlights:
-i left south africa in late September 2007, and went back to chicago, to live in a lovely apartment full of generous people.
-i went back to south africa at the beginning of 2008, sent some of you this blog link, promised to post, and… didn’t. sorry guys. the second go-round was also amazing, and i had the chance to meet some truly inspiring people over the course of doing fieldwork for my honors thesis.
-in june 2008, i graduated from college, went on a fantastic road trip through the western us, filled with generous parents, crazy geological formations, crazier friends, and a couple of citations for having “knowingly and unlawfully violating the peace and dignity of the state of wyoming,”
-the rest of the summer was filled with twilight swims in lake michigan, lengthy bike rides, lots of cooking, a few nights that actually ended the next morning, and farewells to chicago and the people i’d gotten to know there over the past four years.
that brings us to now… the start of my attempts to be a real person before i likely flee to the safety and security of “the Academy” for another couple (many?) years. how have those attempts been going? well, i suppose the purpose of this blog is to chronicle that answer. call it a pretty good beginning.
-i left south africa in late September 2007, and went back to chicago, to live in a lovely apartment full of generous people.
-i went back to south africa at the beginning of 2008, sent some of you this blog link, promised to post, and… didn’t. sorry guys. the second go-round was also amazing, and i had the chance to meet some truly inspiring people over the course of doing fieldwork for my honors thesis.
-in june 2008, i graduated from college, went on a fantastic road trip through the western us, filled with generous parents, crazy geological formations, crazier friends, and a couple of citations for having “knowingly and unlawfully violating the peace and dignity of the state of wyoming,”
-the rest of the summer was filled with twilight swims in lake michigan, lengthy bike rides, lots of cooking, a few nights that actually ended the next morning, and farewells to chicago and the people i’d gotten to know there over the past four years.
that brings us to now… the start of my attempts to be a real person before i likely flee to the safety and security of “the Academy” for another couple (many?) years. how have those attempts been going? well, i suppose the purpose of this blog is to chronicle that answer. call it a pretty good beginning.
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