Stereotype

I went to a "hoedown" yesterday. It was a party for a friend of mine who just turned 20. When I saw her on Thursday she singled me out to ask about square dancing. I know nothing about square dancing except that you have to have a partner and you stand in a square. I was not particularly bothered by this. When I went to the party EVERYONE was "dressed up" in what they though was cowboy/cowgirl/country clothing. That didn't bother me much either; what did bother me was that everyone expected me to be dressed up too. In the last, well as long as I can remember I have only owned one "cowgirl" shirt and never cowboy boots. I thought I got away from all that when I moved to Cali. I was quite mistaken. Another thing that really bothered me was that everyone was trying to speak with a country/hick accent. And while they were way, way off and I tried really hard, I could hear myself slip back into a true hick accent. This bothers me so much because I had to be very careful while I was in college to not have any hint of an accent other wise people would not listen to me. I felt like these people at this party were making fun of where I came from, making fun of me, without even knowing it. I'm glad the party was a lot more like a costume party than a barn dance because I don't think I could have taken watching people pretend to do things that they think I have actually done just because I came from a rural area.

Moving to LA

I'm four days out from moving to LA. I want to start a garden at the new place and my father was telling me to make sure no one outside can see it. He's worried that people would try to break in to get food. However I know that I can only put plants in the back of the parking lot and that I would have to make raised beds AND that if I put up a screen my plants might not get enough sunlight. I'm really looking forward to eating my own produce as well as sharing it with others.

Skat!

I was teaching my Big Kicks soccer class today and there happened to be a large brown cylinder of solid something rather. I just wrote it off as dirt from the soccer field since we recently aerated it.

But one of the moms decided it was poo and that it came from a deer! What I figure is that her thought process was this: large animals make large poo. How ever this poo looked more like the size for a mid to large sized dog. Deer poo is about the size of rabbit poo (which we see a lot of at the fields). I bit my tongue instead of correcting her and just told her I didn't think it was poo. If I had gone on about the lump being too hard (it hadn't flattened much nor had it disintegrated when it was smashed), having too much whole grass in it, or how it was too uniform she might have thought I spend a bit too much time looking at poo. It just can't be helped when you grow up around a lot of dogs and in a wild life area.

Pictures!

Food: Part 2

Pastrami. I love it! My friend mentioned that she sees it a lot out here (she's from Kansas too). Maybe it's just too expensive for Rural Kansas where we both lived. Anyway Pastrami is one of my favorite sandwich meats which I rediscovered when I worked at TOGO's for a short stint. There's just something about fatty, peppery, hot meat that is very yummy!

Rent

I've begun talking to a friend of mine from college who has recently moved back to Lawrence where we went to school. He was speaking of the cost of living and asking me about what it's like out here.

Lord have mercy! The cheapest rent I've found here is $220 without utilities. To achieve this very low (by SoCal standards) rent I lived with 5 other young women in a 1080 sq ft apartment and shared a 10x10 room with a roommate.

In Kansas where I went to school the rent for the same situation and size would be at the most $160. And that's just what I found searching for only a few minutes. If I ever plan on living in Kansas I should think to save as much money here as possible as it will stretch farther there than in SoCal.

Voting- Part 2

Since I talked about voting yesterday, I though I could throw this little bit in today.

I don't know about you but I do not like talking about politics. It breeds bad blood. So I was shocked that I was asked by at least 5 people who I voted for only a day or two after the election. I remember asking my mother who she voted for when I was in high school and she wouldn't tell me and said it was rude to ask. In college no one asked either. I inquired with a friend and native Californian to see if it was normal to be asked who you voted for and he simply told me "yes." I wonder why that is.

Voting

I am back from my holiday reprieve.

With the up coming inauguration I was thinking back to the presidential election. I could not believe when I went to vote in November that I was not asked anything except for my name and to sign the line. That's it! Talk about the chance to commit voter fraud! I had to explain again to the poll volunteers that Miss "Run Yow" was supposed to be me, Miss "Runyon," but was misspelled during registration and should be removed from the polls. I was registered twice thanks to this little mistake.