I love living in North Portland.
It is the first time I have been in a neighborhood where white people are not the only ones you see.
I love that everyone talks to you, no matter how bitchy you look.
Today on my way home from work I transferred to the MLK bus to get home, and a girl walked up to me and just started talking about her life: she is 18 and her boyfriend is 16 but its ok with his mom and he is in jail for a month for breaking probation and yesterday her mom kicked her out for not cleaning up after her mom's boyfriend's mess so she went and stayed at her boyfriend's mom's house and got drunk and fucked his brother and now she doesn't know what to do but she has written him a letter (remember he is in jail). This is where she hands me the letter to read. I begin to read it and come to the sad realization that I have just encountered a girl who the public school systems have failed. The poor thing couldn't write a grammatically correct sentence for the life of her, and her spelling was shit. (I could go off on the whole Ebonics thing, but that would turn into a terrible rant that would take pages, and I am too happy to think about it now.) But I got the jist of the letter, gave her advice on what I would do in that situation, and she got off at the next stop. I told her that I hope everything works out for her.
Now I am home typing this up. I have told some of my dear readers before that this type of thing happens to me a lot. Strangers just open right up to me and tell me about their life. I am not talking 'oh, I work at blah blah blah...' I am talking about serious shit! I was at the liquor store once and the girl handing out samples ended up telling that she had just gotten fired from some cosmetics company where she made $60,000 a year... and so on... we spoke for about ten minutes! At the liquor store while she was working! Strange.
Earlier this morning while waiting for the MLK bus an older man walks right up to me and says 'hello there young lady, how are you this fine day?' I took out my earphones and we chatted about how he worked for the public school systems for 20 years and is retired now at age 49 because he had a brain aneurysm in 1998... and so on and so forth.
I cannot go outside my work for a cigarette without at least one person either hitting on me, asking for a cigarette, some crazy dude yelling at me, or someone coming up and telling me a story about how he just got out of jail! Not one break can I have a peaceful cigarette! Why can't people just ignore me sometimes? I need an invisibility cloak
Well, I shall leave you trusty readers with good news:
I actually feel happy for the first time in 3 years! Not just a quick bout of happiness, it has lasted at least two days now. I am so excited. Things are finally going my way these days... I GOT A RAISE! I MAY GET A PROMOTION = ANOTHER RAISE! money is not everything, obviously, but I haven't had enough to live on until recently, so I am excited. Plus the promotion would mean that the bane of my existence would not be working with me anymore, so that is HUGELY GREAT NEWS!
adieu,
Elle
*************************EDIT TIME*********************************FOR PICTURES***********************
So Rendo and Danika have this dog named yoda, and I am obsessed with him. So I wanted to show all of my friends that are not his as well how cute his dog is, in an ugly ass way, and how they are crazy about dressing him up. To be honest, he really needs to wear some clothes or else he gets really cold.
ok, pictures
this is cowboy yoda
my personal favorite: thug life yoda. check out the bling, yo!
and I do believe this was the family Christmas card
It is the first time I have been in a neighborhood where white people are not the only ones you see.
I love that everyone talks to you, no matter how bitchy you look.
Today on my way home from work I transferred to the MLK bus to get home, and a girl walked up to me and just started talking about her life: she is 18 and her boyfriend is 16 but its ok with his mom and he is in jail for a month for breaking probation and yesterday her mom kicked her out for not cleaning up after her mom's boyfriend's mess so she went and stayed at her boyfriend's mom's house and got drunk and fucked his brother and now she doesn't know what to do but she has written him a letter (remember he is in jail). This is where she hands me the letter to read. I begin to read it and come to the sad realization that I have just encountered a girl who the public school systems have failed. The poor thing couldn't write a grammatically correct sentence for the life of her, and her spelling was shit. (I could go off on the whole Ebonics thing, but that would turn into a terrible rant that would take pages, and I am too happy to think about it now.) But I got the jist of the letter, gave her advice on what I would do in that situation, and she got off at the next stop. I told her that I hope everything works out for her.
Now I am home typing this up. I have told some of my dear readers before that this type of thing happens to me a lot. Strangers just open right up to me and tell me about their life. I am not talking 'oh, I work at blah blah blah...' I am talking about serious shit! I was at the liquor store once and the girl handing out samples ended up telling that she had just gotten fired from some cosmetics company where she made $60,000 a year... and so on... we spoke for about ten minutes! At the liquor store while she was working! Strange.
Earlier this morning while waiting for the MLK bus an older man walks right up to me and says 'hello there young lady, how are you this fine day?' I took out my earphones and we chatted about how he worked for the public school systems for 20 years and is retired now at age 49 because he had a brain aneurysm in 1998... and so on and so forth.
I cannot go outside my work for a cigarette without at least one person either hitting on me, asking for a cigarette, some crazy dude yelling at me, or someone coming up and telling me a story about how he just got out of jail! Not one break can I have a peaceful cigarette! Why can't people just ignore me sometimes? I need an invisibility cloak
Well, I shall leave you trusty readers with good news:
I actually feel happy for the first time in 3 years! Not just a quick bout of happiness, it has lasted at least two days now. I am so excited. Things are finally going my way these days... I GOT A RAISE! I MAY GET A PROMOTION = ANOTHER RAISE! money is not everything, obviously, but I haven't had enough to live on until recently, so I am excited. Plus the promotion would mean that the bane of my existence would not be working with me anymore, so that is HUGELY GREAT NEWS!
adieu,
Elle
*************************EDIT TIME*********************************FOR PICTURES***********************
So Rendo and Danika have this dog named yoda, and I am obsessed with him. So I wanted to show all of my friends that are not his as well how cute his dog is, in an ugly ass way, and how they are crazy about dressing him up. To be honest, he really needs to wear some clothes or else he gets really cold.
ok, pictures
this is cowboy yoda
my personal favorite: thug life yoda. check out the bling, yo!
and I do believe this was the family Christmas card
VIEW 9 of 9 COMMENTS
And definitely coffee. Palo's planning to come, too. You should come watch the race!
a wink and a smile will get you sooo far in this world! --- meanwhile, I'm giving up work and going home!
had enough of my office chair for one day... meh-ness!
.p.