attending a redneck party

I still have not gone to the bingo palace...but I plan to do it soon. In lieu of bingo I thought it would be fun to check out a red-neck party. Which actually was a lot of fun. My friend J called me up and invited me, the guys are all friends of her husband...I don't think she is very proud of their behaviour, but like me, she does find it amusing. And as always, attending the party did prove to be a great anthropological study. I mean, where else would I be able to experience first hand, a bonfire over a patio, with Guns and Roses blaring, while watching a 30 something year old guy reach into said bonfire and pull out a burning wooden pallet, then stand on it and pee on the fire to put it out. I hate to admit it, the spectacle made me laugh almost until I cried...it was sadly the most amusing thing I had witnessed since returning home from my travels...And although the whole thing was very strange to see, I have admit, I would definately go out with them again...as they totally make me laugh...Which isn't a bad thing.

I joined a knitting circle...and other nonsense

So in following with my new pledge, that I will try something new every week until I move back to L.A., I have joined a knitting circle. Well, I don't know if I should really call it joining, as the group meets once a month, and I plan to move in January, giving me only 1 more opportunity to participate with the group...but regardless of actual attendance, the main thing is that i actually joined a group of 50-60 year old housewives, who gather for coffee, gossip, and knitting on the first friday of every month. I have to say, that even though I only know how to knit, and not perl...and I can only make squares and retangles, the whole idea of sitting around for a few hours with a mocha and a bit of gossip isn't so bad. In fact, i rather enjoyed it....I think that I might actually get along better with the almost retired set versus my own contemporaries...I mean, these ladies were so much fun, telling stories about how insane their children were and about their upcoming travel plans. It was a bit strange though, as i felt i shouldn't be relating to the women as much as I should be relating to the stories of their kids...maybe i've been in this retirement community for too long, maybe i have lost all perspective of how it is to be my own age...Oh my goodness.

And then yesterday, I was talking to my best friend on the phone...she and I were tossing around ideas of things I could try while I am living out here. She came up with the brilliant idea that I should write a will. I think its a fabulous idea, and so perfect for my current situation...the only thing is, is that I don't really own anything right now...having been on the move for so long, I've managed to get rid of all of my earthly possessions..except for my rather insane art collection...but, I'm not sure anyone besides myself would ever appreciate that, so maybe I will just write up a personal will then have a notary sign that, so i dont have to spend a lot of money on an actual lawyer, then have to hem and haw over who gets my designer bags and jewelry.

Next week, I hope to visit the bingo palace...

the battle of the open vs closed minds

It wasn't really a battle...more like a strange juxtaposition of events, from the beginning of the day to the end.

My morning began with a stop off at the car dealership. My car had a recalled part that needed to be fixed. It wasn't reallly a big deal, I only mention it because it explains why I had to sit for a few hours in the sales office, while typing on my computer. One of the younger sales guys came over to me and started chatting (it seems business isn't so great, and customers rarely stop by during the weekdays)...I asked him things like, "What's the most fun thing to do in this town?" Turns out the answer to that is either a) go to the bars or b) go to Bingo Alley (which I had thought was a bowling alley, but apparently is a bingo palace.) Since I have pledged to myself to do a crazy new thing every week until its time to move...It looks like Bingo Palace will be on the very top of my list.

Anyhow, as we continue to talk, he asks me about what I did before I lived in Japan. I told him in my vague manner, "I worked in Hollywood." He responded by asking me what I perceived to be ignorant homophobic questions, "Is it true that Hollywood is gayer than Disneyland?" What? I don't know how to answer that? What exactly is the question? Are you for real? Then he asked about black men dating white women...again, I just stared at him...what I should have said was, "what's so wrong with that...you are talking to the product of a relationship between a white woman and an asian man."
After that he went back to the previous discussion about the Bingo Palace, and about how his family probably has 50+ bingo markers in their house (they are avid fanatics of Bingo Alley) and why one needs a minimum of 2 different colors per game.

After a while I could only shake my head at him and roll my eyes...I had work to do and this guy would not shut up.

When my car finally was finished I headed into Denver to meet up with my childhood friend P. She was visiting for week and I hadn't seen her in at least 2 years. The great thing about seeing P is that our lives have run on relatively parallel courses. We came from the same small town in the midwest. We left town to see what else was out there. We've both traveled extensively, and neither of us will probably ever return to the small town we left...at least not permanently. Seeing her is always nice because its a bit of hometown comfort without actually having to go home. We spent lunch catching up on travels, family, and her upcoming wedding. Not a bad way to spend my afternoon and i left her feeling good about all of the decisions I had recently made.

Tonight I had the fantastic opportunity to meet Rita Gelman who is the author of one of my favorite books, Tales of a Female Nomad. This is the book that inspired me to chuck it all and move to Japan. I remember feeling unsatisfied with my job in LA and I read her book and began to question, "Isn't there another way to do things?" So that is why I left...a book...a really awesome book...but quite simply someone else's story. Listening to Rita was pretty cool, she recapped some of the stories from her book. Somehow hearing the stories being told by the actual person who lived them, makes it all so much better. And I am really glad that I got to meet her and listen to her speak. She has been one of my inspirations thru the last few years, so this trully was exciting for me.

The bummer of my evening was that I had to miss out on a reading by another influential writer in my life: Alan Say. His book, The Ink Keepers Apprentice, was something that I read when I first moved to Japan and found I was completely lost by the culture. The book gave me insight into the minds of the Japanese people or at least the characters he created. Unfortunately both book talks were happening at the same time and i had to chose the writer that was a greater influence to me.

you know you are really living in the country when...

Today, I had a dentist appointment, seeing as it was my first one since I left LA over a year and half ago, (Japanese dentists seem really scary to me, especially since the general population has some of the worst teeth ever seen) and knowing that I had a brown spot on my tooth which may be my FIRST ever cavity, I was pretty freaked out. However, after doing an exam and checking my x-rays I was told that the "cavity" was actually a stain (THANK GOD!!) and that all I needed was a simple cleaning and i could be on my way....

So I began to relax and check out the view across the street (the exam room has a giant window in it, so that the patient can watch the cars pass by)...first I noticed the passing semis, then I noticed a little brick house on the corner, then I noticed a couple of black cows, grazing in a pen....Why are there cows across the street from my dentist's office? I guess i didn't notice when I drove in, that the town ends on the other side of the building...and the dental office is on the back side of the building....how wierd is that. It's like being in an old western where they have one street and behind the row of shops is a wide open space....and there are cows!! real-live cows...that i can watch from my chair in the exam room....Does anyone else find this strange???

So after staring at the cows for about 45 minutes, I left the dentist's office and decided I was starving for a burger (I know, I'm sick.) As I go to Wendy's for the "super disgusting in a totally processed and coronary-inducing way" Mushroom, bacon melt thing...I sit in the corner and observe some of the local highschool kids on there lunch break. The boys were talking about an event that happened the night before, where one of their friends got pulled over by the cops (it was Halloween) and when they searched the car they found almost 500 empty shotgun shells. I was like, WHAT? but seeing as this is Ranchers' territory, it wasn't really an issue...and since the kid wasn't drinking nor did he have any sort of suspicious materials in his car, he was let go to tell the tale of his narrow escape from the cops. 500 shotgun shells...um does anyone else think that might be a tad suspicious?