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Thursday, Jan. 24, 2002 / 11:47 a.m. ~Provincial Attitudes, a Spooky Commercial, Navajo Joe, Waiting for TV, and for the Stops~ Kukla yelled at someone who didn�t speak English. �What�s your date of birth? Your BIRTH DATE? The DAY YOU WERE BORN???!!!!! Your BIRTH DATE???!!!!!???!!!�. I said, �Kukla, Kukla, �nascimiento�, I think it�s �nascimiento�, try that�, but she kept yelling. Once she was off the phone I went to her with a post-it note, a little piece of fuschia paper on which I�d written �nascimiento�, showed it to her, she said she�d heard me, but it was too late, she said she asked the person when his birth date was, �Duh!�, she said. I said, well, he didn�t speak English. Latinos don�t understand that expression, �birth date�. �Day you were born�. But she treated him like he was stupid. How awful. I�ve had callers with heavy accents, usually it�s the Africans or Caribbeans who yell at me when I don�t understand them. Instead of gently repeating, making the effort to enunciate, they yell. It seems a lot of African Americans do that too, on the phone, when I don�t understand the street name or the city, can�t distinguish between �sixth� and �fifth�, �s� and �f�, �p� and �t� because of a crappy phone or a thick tongue, a mouth that doesn�t open when it speaks, they yell it back at me. I�ve been known to say, �You don�t need to yell at me�. Or, �Please, stop yelling at me�, especially when I have a headache. And they realize what they�re doing. Kukla was beyond reason. She said, �I�ll never remember that. I�ll put it here on my computer though.�, referring to the post-it I gave her. I doubt I have it right, �nascimiento�, but it�s worth a try. She thinks Hispanics/Latinos are stupid. I find a lot of racism amongst African Americans, especially directed at Hispanics�and it�s been evident for quite some time now that Kukla lacks compassion and concern for others. She is clearly the most selfish person I have ever known. I�ve just been perusing the Southwest Indian Foundation catalog for Winter 2002, and I have several pages dog-eared. There�s a beautiful �overdyed� shirt, a deep purple in the catalog, with Gecko lizards on it, three in a circle, multicolored, it�s very beautiful. The Gecko lizard is a fetish of mine. I think I have to buy this shirt. There is also a G I Joe: Navajo Code Talker! It comes with a �laminated list of over 200 authentic Code Words actually used by the original Navajo Code Talkers��G I Joe �speaks seven different phrases � in both Navajo and English!�. I�m really anti-military, but that sounds SO cool! I only had Barbie, as a child, never Ken, never G I Joe, never boy toys, yet I always wanted them. So now I could have the coolest G I Joe ever, the Navajo Joe. Wow� There are two pages of Code Talkers stuff in this catalog. Books, a bronze sculpture, the Joe, a framed art thing, a video (!). Just looking at this catalog reminds me of the strange affinity I feel with all things Southwestern, especially Native. Part of me still wants to end up there. Move there, live there, eventually, when it�s feasible. I know I�d miss the cultural opportunities that exist here, the new movie releases, especially independent and foreign, etc., but that can�t compare to the beauty of the desert, the sky, the people that are out there. Total change of subject. Last night on CBS, prime time, they showed a commercial for a Christmas sale at Kmart. Yeah. Sale ends 11/24, it said. So, this Thanksgiving shop at Kmart for sales throughout the store. Christmas trees, on sale, decorations, on sale. Shop �til you drop! Only�it�s January. And Kmart filed Chapter 11. What kind of sick joke was that? It was downright eerie. Yeah, spooky, and I was sitting there by myself wanting to elbow someone, say, �Did you see THAT?! That was fucked up!�. And the reason I was watching CBS in prime time was �A Perfect Murder� was on, and I hadn�t seen it before. I read the reviews when it was first released, and kind of wanted to see it, but some movies I simply wait for. It wasn�t hard. I thought I was developing a big crush on Viggo Mortensen, but in this movie he looked kind of�greasy. And he didn�t open his mouth when he spoke, so he was hard to understand. Mushmouth. And to think he�s so fetching in �Lord of the Rings�� But, and I do remember reading this, the apartment in the film, the setting for most of the action, is spectacularly beautiful, so it was a joy to sit and watch, to be there for a while. I LOVE set design. The story is a re-telling, so to speak, of Hitchcock�s �Dial M For Murder�, and it�s not bad, not bad at all. In fact, watching Gwyneth Paltrow stand erect (amazing posture) and Michael Douglas sneer, and this apartment look fabulous, was entertaining indeed. And the wacky Kmart commercial made it a complete happening. I�ve said it before, I�m not hard to please. Plus, sometimes one wants to watch a movie on one of the big four networks, with commercial interruptions and editing out the ass, just so there�s not that feeling of being tied down. I can get up, send email, go to the bathroom, pop popcorn, whatever, on commercial breaks. Nice change. Oh, tonight is my favorite show, �Temptation Island 2�! Can not wait! Well, have to wait. But you know what I mean. Hey, Lulu is not here today. D., the Supervisor, told me to put work on her desk, as if she�s coming in later�but not hearing her voice right now is so nice�so nice. And Sabrina is not here either. I think she is a no-show, but I won�t know �til tomorrow probably. Since I�m passing out our paperwork this month I have to know who�s here and who isn�t. Otherwise I wouldn�t even be allowed to ask. Crazy, I know. I really think this is the most comfortable I�ve felt here in a long time, if not ever, since the big Lulu/Laverne debacle. Yesterday Laverne wanted me to see Kathy�s Humane Society Wall Calendar��Joleen, Joleen, LOOK!�, so I did, and said, �Aw, kitties! And my voice got real high like it does when I�m looking at pictures of kitties, and I didn�t know what to think of Laverne initiating me in conversation, standing next to me as we paged through the months, saying �I like June!�, and �Look at September!�, things like that. One picture is of three Labs sitting next to each other outside, in the snow, two black ones with a white one in the center. They have these goofy expressions on their faces, so I said they look like The Three Stooges. Funny. Lulu took note of the fact that I was talking to Laverne, I could see her watching us. It wasn�t purposeful, my sudden opening of my mouth for conversation, I was addressed, directly, and I responded. Simple really. Still, today, it is so quiet, so calm, up to this point, 11:22 a.m., I feel relaxed. Listerine breaks out in a hum every so often, like now, but she stops, I wait for the stops. Cost of the War in Iraq
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