Forgotten story from the student bar.

Like weeks ago, I was at the student bar and sitting next to this younger (black) woman around my age, and this person came through the bar handing out slips of paper, and she gives one to each of us, and we look and it's about auditions for that MTV Real World show.

"There is no way that I am doing that," the girl was like, "Because there is no way that they will make me into an angry black woman. There is one angry black woman in every show, they edit to make one."

"I can see that," I was like. "Heck, I didn't even know it was still on."

Then, continuing like she didn't even hear me, she was like, "But if there an ignorant person there, of course I gonna school them."

Got my hair cut the other day.

I got my hair cut again the other day.

Tennille was saying that her brother said that the swine flu is trying to kill off people to take care of the high unemployment rate, but she isn't convinced.

We were also talking about Lady Gaga. Tennille likes her and her music, but she's not sure about her fashion sense, and she was telling me about how she saw that she was wearing this hat with a three-foot wide brim, and it was blowing everywhere and she had to hold it up to see.

"I can like over-the-top," Tennille was like, "But if you go for over-the-top, you got to hit it, you know what I mean?"

Yet more soup (actually, stew).

I made some Hungarian stew the other day, as part of my attempts to cook more soups this winter.

(The rules - fresh produce and spices, nothing from a can; I hate cooking using processed foods if I can help it.)

I sauteed 3 sliced-up green peppers in olive oil with an onion, then cooked down 10lbs of plum tomatoes with a ton of paprika and a little chili powder, then I diced up like 8lbs of peeled potatoes. Later, I added a pack of hotdogs cut up, and a pack of Polish sausage.

Interestingly, meat is so expensive ($2.79 for the hotdogs and $4.39 for the Polish sausage), that that made up a disporportionate amount of the cost of the soup (tomatoes were $.99/lb, green peppers 3 for a dollar, and the potatoes $.99 for an 8-lb. bag).

The potatoes weren't that good, saddly, so I'm thinking now I should have sprung for the more expensive ones.

Tonight at least 2 friends are coming over to get some to take home. I'm stoked! It's fun feeding people when they're stressed out and living on junk food (it's midterm time here).

Mexican restaurant serving girl.

Last Friday after seeing Bob Dylan in concert, me and the (white) people I went with stopped by a 24-hour taqueria, since one of my friends was hungry and he likes the food there.

So, the place was crowded - this table of 8 had gotten in before us and it took them forever to set them up with waters and chips, only for them to tell the waitress when she came to take their order that like, "Uh, we want this to go," while one of the fatter young white women was like, loudly and sarcastically, "...while we eat the chips you gave us" - so this younger serving girl (like 15 or 16? her family must have owned the restaurant) came out to give us chips and menus and take our drink orders.

Then, later the waitress came, and one of my (white) friends order 2 tacos, and the other of my friends ordered a chicken burrito, and I ordered some beef soup.

Like 15 minutes later, the younger serving girl (not the waitress, things were busy) comes walking past with the soup, and I wave at her to signal it's for me, and she smiles and shakes her head and goes to this back table with 3 Mexicans that had come in just after us. I looked at my friends and I shrugged, but then she's right there putting the soup in front of me.

"Sorry!", she was like, brightly, "But I didn't think you would order that."

With that, she left to go back to the kitchen to get my friends's food, and when she got back, I asked her if it was because there was tripe in it or something.

"Oh no," she was like, very nicely, "It's just that you guys usually order stuff like chimichangas and burritos."

What a dick.

The other day I was in the undergrad activities building/cafeteria/coffee shop place on campus to use the basement ATM, and when I was coming up the stairs, this white guy with crazy hair and eyes and a sportsjacket with arm patches was coming through the door opposite and stopped me and asked very distinctly, "Pardon me, is there a restroom in this building?"

"Yeah," I was like, "You, like, go downstairs and turn left" - and at that I made a motion with my hands - "and it's like right there."

"'Like'", he was like, "Now were you using that as a simile?", and he stared in my eyes, crazily.

I didn't quite get what he was saying at first, but when I did, I made this confused, pissed-off face, and was like, "There's one upstairs, too," and I walked away

Now I wish I had been like, "I just trying to be nice, so, like, go fuck yourself."

Family Tragedy (times 4).

So, the other week when I was at a wedding, I ran into a friend from college, and she was telling me about this (black) girl from her office who's around our age (i.e., late 20s), and that she had heard through the grapevine that over the summer like three members of her family - I think her mom, her brother, and her aunt - all died in separate tragic incidents.

Anyhow, my friend didn't really know her that well, but when she found them alone in the breakroom, she was like, "Hey, I heard about what's been happening with your family, and I just want to say that I'm really sorry, and it must be a lot to go through."

"Thanks," the girl was like, touching my friend's hand thankfully, then she grimaced and was like, "You know, it all started with Michael this summer..."

Forgot --

I forgot --

The other day when I was slamming the Irish, I tried to tell the dude that other Americans caricaturize the Irish and act like they're these story-telling leprechauns who then get endearingly wistful and cry in their Guinness, but I take them seriously at least, even if my taking them seriously makes me go negative on them, and that he should respect me for that.