On my one day trip back home to teach my class, I ran into a lot of people...
For example, when I was walking to a bank branch, I ran into the (black) artist friend of my one hippie friend from Michigan, and he was telling me how the previous day at this one festival he has a booth at these high winds came in, and as he was breaking down his tent so that it wouldn't get blown away, a tent that got picked up by the high winds (one of two!) fell on him from high up and knocked him out for a second, and destroyed his booth to the point where the festival organizers loaned him one for the weekend.
He also was telling me how his one friend was taking her 5 year-old daughter to the doctor, and as they were walking along and holding hands, the little girl actually got picked up off the ground as if she'd be blown away.
Anyhow, when I was in the train station killing time before my train left so I could head back to the Latin program, I stopped through a store in the station to get a little something to eat since I was hungry, and so I got me a bag of crackerjack (not a box, they didn't have one, it was like a small bag of chips-type bag).
"How you doing?", I asked the slightly older and on the thin side (black) woman cashier.
"Good," she was like, "How are you?"
"Better after I tear into this crackerjack," I was like. "For the life of me, I am hungry!"
At that, she smiled and laughed, and I realized that I don't have the same rapport with (black) women in Milwaukee, though I do try.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
How young are my roommates?
One asked me if Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was still alive, and when I told him no, that she died quite a few years ago, he was like, "Oh, you mean back in the 90s?"
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Milwaukee and Me.
It's so funny about Milwaukee...
Oldies are playing everywhere - coffee shops, bars where young people hang out - and so it's no wonder that that was my formative music growing up... My one roommate from the summer who's this cool 40-something guy from Vancouver noticed it and *hates* it, but I love it.
Also, some of the people I meet here who are from northern Wisconsin have accents with features very similar to mine - e.g. they say the /ir/ in "bird" as one rhotacized vowel rather than as a vowel sliding into the /r/ - and so when I talk with them, I hear myself.
Oldies are playing everywhere - coffee shops, bars where young people hang out - and so it's no wonder that that was my formative music growing up... My one roommate from the summer who's this cool 40-something guy from Vancouver noticed it and *hates* it, but I love it.
Also, some of the people I meet here who are from northern Wisconsin have accents with features very similar to mine - e.g. they say the /ir/ in "bird" as one rhotacized vowel rather than as a vowel sliding into the /r/ - and so when I talk with them, I hear myself.
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Exorcisms, jpii and parkinson's.
The priest who runs my Latin class is appalled at how there's a conference on exorcisms going on in Rome right now.
"But then again, I don't think the Devil exists," he said.
He also said that instead of getting an exorcism, everyone who wants would should be forced to get an enema instead.
He also also said that for the last 5 years of his papacy jpii was really bad, to the point where the papers were given to him at the beginning of one day and returned signed the next, but you don't know if a secretary was guiding his hand or what.
He also also also said that jpii's Parkinson's Disease got pretty bad, and that his brother has it and starts uncontrollably howling sometimes, which is typical of people who have the disease, and that once when jpii was at the window blessing the crowds he started to do the same thing and they had to pull him back into his chair and out of the public's sight.
"But then again, I don't think the Devil exists," he said.
He also said that instead of getting an exorcism, everyone who wants would should be forced to get an enema instead.
He also also said that for the last 5 years of his papacy jpii was really bad, to the point where the papers were given to him at the beginning of one day and returned signed the next, but you don't know if a secretary was guiding his hand or what.
He also also also said that jpii's Parkinson's Disease got pretty bad, and that his brother has it and starts uncontrollably howling sometimes, which is typical of people who have the disease, and that once when jpii was at the window blessing the crowds he started to do the same thing and they had to pull him back into his chair and out of the public's sight.
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
Forgot.
I forgot, about that last conversation with the priest who runs my Latin class -
That weekend, I had been talking to my mother, and was telling her all the stuff about the Legionnaires etc., and she said that she's never paid much attention, but this one lawyer in my hometown was in that, and one year at a graduation party she ran into him and he was telling her about how he and his family was going to Rome for some Legionnaires, and she found out that the adults and children were required to travel on separate planes.
"I have never heard of anything stranger in my life," my mom said, "It made shivers run down my spine."
She also said that this one conservative catholic family was involved with them, and their daughter used to go to Mexico every year for some program with them, but she could never get a straight answer to what exactly she was doing there, until one day she found out that she was being a nanny for a rich Mexican family.
Anyhow, I was telling this to the priest, and he started going off on Legionnaires and ODei, and then the one guy who seems to be a conservative Catholic started saying that the only good priests he knew from the Legionnaires had left the order, but that there were some very spiritually sound priests in Opus, and he had been married by one, and at that the priest kind of bit his tongue a bit, but you could tell he didn't like it.
I started saying something about how the NY headquarters of ODei had not only separate entrances for men and women, but separate telephone switchboards, and the conservative Catholic guy (who has a mild Irish accent), started being all like, "Well, that is neither a good nor a bad thing, in itself."
It turns out, also, that all the kids he drags in (like anywhere from 3 to 5) are from the group he homeschools his kids with, though his own kids are away for the summer... A new kid just showed up, this high school kid who looks like a soccer jock, but with a bracelet of portraits of Mary and the name "Augustine".
That weekend, I had been talking to my mother, and was telling her all the stuff about the Legionnaires etc., and she said that she's never paid much attention, but this one lawyer in my hometown was in that, and one year at a graduation party she ran into him and he was telling her about how he and his family was going to Rome for some Legionnaires, and she found out that the adults and children were required to travel on separate planes.
"I have never heard of anything stranger in my life," my mom said, "It made shivers run down my spine."
She also said that this one conservative catholic family was involved with them, and their daughter used to go to Mexico every year for some program with them, but she could never get a straight answer to what exactly she was doing there, until one day she found out that she was being a nanny for a rich Mexican family.
Anyhow, I was telling this to the priest, and he started going off on Legionnaires and ODei, and then the one guy who seems to be a conservative Catholic started saying that the only good priests he knew from the Legionnaires had left the order, but that there were some very spiritually sound priests in Opus, and he had been married by one, and at that the priest kind of bit his tongue a bit, but you could tell he didn't like it.
I started saying something about how the NY headquarters of ODei had not only separate entrances for men and women, but separate telephone switchboards, and the conservative Catholic guy (who has a mild Irish accent), started being all like, "Well, that is neither a good nor a bad thing, in itself."
It turns out, also, that all the kids he drags in (like anywhere from 3 to 5) are from the group he homeschools his kids with, though his own kids are away for the summer... A new kid just showed up, this high school kid who looks like a soccer jock, but with a bracelet of portraits of Mary and the name "Augustine".
Monday, June 21, 2010
More from the Latin class priest...
More from the priest who runs my Latin class -
A few years ago when he taught the class in Rome had had a lot of ODei members in it, who used to arrive in a big van every morning for class. One day on a field trip that the members couldn't make, someone from the class told him how tiresome it was to always be asked about the last time they went to confession, said the rosary, etc., and when he looked into things more, he found out that each ODei member had been assigned 3 other people from class to convert (to catholicism if they weren't catholic, and to ODei catholicism if they were already catholic).
So, he forbade them from coming to class anymore.
And, during his classes during the year thereafter, he would give each ODei member a two-page letter (in Latin) outlining expected behaviors, including that they should never bring in potato chips and soda on his birthday as they had been doing to curry favor.
A few years ago when he taught the class in Rome had had a lot of ODei members in it, who used to arrive in a big van every morning for class. One day on a field trip that the members couldn't make, someone from the class told him how tiresome it was to always be asked about the last time they went to confession, said the rosary, etc., and when he looked into things more, he found out that each ODei member had been assigned 3 other people from class to convert (to catholicism if they weren't catholic, and to ODei catholicism if they were already catholic).
So, he forbade them from coming to class anymore.
And, during his classes during the year thereafter, he would give each ODei member a two-page letter (in Latin) outlining expected behaviors, including that they should never bring in potato chips and soda on his birthday as they had been doing to curry favor.
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Milwaukee reflections.
Milwaukee is a great city. It is Midwest like where I live, but it is more northern Midwest, and people are friendlier, and much more open to fun, which reminds me of myself.
For example, when people here are asked to go for another drink, they're like, "Why not?", and they do it... I think to a large degree that captures my attitude towards life and fun.
One notable thing about bar culture here is how a lot of bars seem to have dice, and so if people are hanging around and bored, they ask the bartender to pull out dice, and they play this game where you have to count 6s and if you get a 1 you can roll again (someone explained it to me, I didn't get it), and the loser buys shots.
A lot of the time people play this with the bartenders, too... In where I live the bartenders only very rarely allow people to buy them shots, but here I see them doing them all the time.
And, people are friendly, but there's always this suspicion that underlies it... I don't know what to think of it.
And, the other night when I was at an all-night diner to get a bit to eat and it was flooded with (black) people - I had crossed the color line 2 or 3 blocks west of my apartment - the (white) waitress waited on me before some (black) people who were there before me... I was pretty shocked.
And, the (black) community here doesn't seem as vibrant as where I live.
Just some thoughts.... Also also, people have potbellies here, and you always see them eating cheese or fried foods and drinking beer.
For example, when people here are asked to go for another drink, they're like, "Why not?", and they do it... I think to a large degree that captures my attitude towards life and fun.
One notable thing about bar culture here is how a lot of bars seem to have dice, and so if people are hanging around and bored, they ask the bartender to pull out dice, and they play this game where you have to count 6s and if you get a 1 you can roll again (someone explained it to me, I didn't get it), and the loser buys shots.
A lot of the time people play this with the bartenders, too... In where I live the bartenders only very rarely allow people to buy them shots, but here I see them doing them all the time.
And, people are friendly, but there's always this suspicion that underlies it... I don't know what to think of it.
And, the other night when I was at an all-night diner to get a bit to eat and it was flooded with (black) people - I had crossed the color line 2 or 3 blocks west of my apartment - the (white) waitress waited on me before some (black) people who were there before me... I was pretty shocked.
And, the (black) community here doesn't seem as vibrant as where I live.
Just some thoughts.... Also also, people have potbellies here, and you always see them eating cheese or fried foods and drinking beer.
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