The time is now pizzle denizens, for the third time in a year, I'm preparing to disconnent my PC and pile my little life into a bunch of boxes (that's always a bit sobering, fitting one's entire life into a few pieces of cardboard).
In a couple of days I will leave the friendly confines of the great state of Texas for who knows what in San Diego. Of course I've left "home" before (I pretty much do that constantly), but this time it feels different. I'll be gone for a longer period of time than before, and for the first time, I feel like I'm not really leaving anything behind. Not in the sense that I won't miss my friends and family, but there's a sense of newness and possibility to this move that I've never felt before. It's exciting, no more pining for home, no more worrying about unfinished business ("I settled all family business today"). A whole new chapter in the Life of Shlep. I'm a blank slate, just like when I first went to Singapore, expecting everything and nothing at the same time. New job, new roommates, sunny skies, and the next time you hear from the pizzle, it will be from my new digs in La Jolla. Until then, be safe, love one another, and remember, no matter what the stripper says, there's no sex in the champagne room, oh there's champagne in the champagne room, but there's no sex.
**Note to all my homeboys and girls (especially those that live close by, Akash I'm looking in your direction)--Come to Cali Labor Day weekend, we are going to deflower San Diego for my birthday.
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Loyaltly Oaths? I ask you, how far away are we really from Facism?
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"Baby this town rips the bones from your back
It's a death trap, it's a suicide rap
We gotta get out while we're young
`Cause tramps like us, baby we were born to run....
The highway's jammed with broken heroes on a last chance power drive
Everybody's out on the run tonight
but there's no place left to hide
Together Wendy we'll live with the sadness
I'll love you with all the madness in my soul
Someday girl I don't know when
we're gonna get to that place
Where we really want to go
and we'll walk in the sun
But till then tramps like us
baby we were born to run"
----Bruce Springsteen from "Born to Run"
I don't remember exactly when it was that I started to think about the "These Women" episode of The West Wing in relation to the women I work with but once I started, I couldn't stop. It was perfect. For about 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, I'm surrounded by five women, who while they couldn't be more different from each other, somehow band together day after day to make mine and everyone else's life better with that indefinable mix of empathy and nurture that males can't begin to fathom.
So, even though I hestiate to do it, just because it's like an amateur boxer beginning his training by fighting Ali in his prime, I'm using Aaron Sorkin's writing as a starting point. Here's my tribute to the women on the Finance team at Cardinal Health's Consulting and Services.
Helen - "like a 50's movie star, so capable, loving and energetic." Helen is the glue of our group. With a soft, polite yet firm voice she serves as the only buffer between the rest of us and utter chaos. Sometimes it's not more than once a day, but her "Are you doin' ok?" goes a long, long way. It makes everyone feel better and keeps us all going.
Samantha and Jo - "going to toe-to-toe with men in a world that tells women to sit down and shut up." These two couldn't be more different, the small town white girl and the single black mother from the city, but trust me, you do not want to go up against either of them. Their resilience and ability to stand their ground is, at the risk of hyperbole, inspiring. They not only take it to the men they have to deal with professionally, but they do it while overcoming the hurt that men have caused them personally, Jo continuing to singlehandedly create the best possible life for little Jania even after Jania's father left, and Samantha putting up with a negligent boyfriend because she wants so much to start a family of her own. For the record, you deserve much, much better Sam.
Judy - The transplanted New Yourican. The salt of the earth. Day after day, she comes early and stays late and grinds out another honest day's work. She keeps things together and moving and while on paper she may seem to be the least educated, she's a testament to the fact that if you show up, work hard and "always do the right thing" (Helen's mantra), that's a reward in and of itself. I especially love the fact that no matter what, even if they just hung up and are calling back to mention something they forgot to say two seconds ago, she ends every single call with her son or her husband with "Love You".
Cheryl - If my mother were white, with blond hair and blue eyes and born and raised in Texas, she would be Cheryl. It never ceases to amaze how two people with such disparate backgrounds can find themselves to be the exact same person, at least to me.
"Sheelpi, you shouldn't be drivin' at night" (night, of course coming out more like naat , in her Texas accent); echoes into
"Sheelpi, rathre gari chalaish na"
It's like I enter some bizarro world every day when I walk into work, a world where my mother is now a white lady working at the desk next to me, still hounding me and giving me unsolicited advice, but ultimately, caring for me and making sure I'm happy and well and safe. Cheryl met and married the only man she ever loved at age 20 and never looked back. She raised two kids and now, for six months at least, she made the life of this world-weary 23-year-old ungrateful and jaded Bangladeshi-American a million times better. If it wasn't for her, my move to Houston amidst all the hurt and chaos in my personal life would've left me broken I'm sure, and, just by being there day after day with her smile and innocent, childlike questions about today's pop culture, she kept me sane and quieted the turmoil in my head even when I had to return to Austin to confront once again the greatest loss I've ever experienced. I don't really know what else to say except Thanks Cheryl.
"Everything will be okay Sheelpi, I promise"
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Some linkseses:
More reasons why Republicans suck
"On July 4th of this year, police say, the Secret Service directed them to arrest a couple for wearing anti-Bush T-shirts at a presidential speech in West Virginia -- despite the fact that the speech was open to the public."
Arrested for wearing a shirt? Are we still in America?
Finally, believe it or not, some positive stories from the Olympics.
The World's Fastest Man is American and NOT on drugs
They survived being tortured by Uday Hussein, and now they're kicking everyone's ass in soccer, I Love It (also another reason why Republicans suck, who does Bush think he is taking credit for this?)
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after Josh's therapy session with Stanley Keworth, Josh inquires why Leo is trying to help him
' This guy's walking down the street when he falls in a hole. The walls are so steep he can't get out. A doctor passes by, and the guy shouts up, "Hey, you, can you help me out?" The doctor writes a prescription, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a priest comes along, and the guy shouts up, "Father, I'm down in this hole. Can you help me out?" The priest writes a prayer, throws it down in the hole and moves on. Then a friend walks by. "Hey, Joe, it's me. Can you help me Out" And the friend jumps in the hole. Our guy says, "Are you nuts? Now we're both down here." The friend says, "Yeah, but I've been down here before - and I know the way out." '
NEW SIDEBAR: We've reached the stretch run of the election, and as my own meager contribution a new section of links has been added to the pizzle. Politrix covers a few of my very biased but still useful political websites. Visit them and peruse and think and consider and then click on the register to vote link and go vote in November, because really, what the fuck do you live in a Democracy for anyway?
I'm especially excited about the Muslim Wake Up link. Finally, a haven for all of my like minded pro-choice, anti-death penalty, pro-gay marriage Muslim friends. I really like the Sex and the Ummah section, where short pieces of fiction are posted periodically. It's honest, frank and open ("You just said three words that mean the same thing") about sexuality, Islam and any and all conflicts in between. Pullitzer-caliber literature its not, but you have to love a site that gives outlet to paragraphs like this:
"The night I have to bail him out of jail for public intoxication and battery, Shoshanna and Mona are crying: “Fuck this, Aida, let’s just go. You have to leave this asshole!” I want to explain to them that I need this, need to keep going to school and have a father for the kid, need to be able to tell the God, on the day of judgment when I crawl out of my grave and I’m all alone and shards of sky are crashing down on me, that look, dude, I tried."
Click Here for the whole story
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Impressions of San Diego: Love the big-little city feel, just like Austin...I'm so glad we found a place to live that didn't involve a crazy foot-condom lady...I really, really, really wish my car had a sunroof...I'm praying my work schedule doesn't interfere with my life-long (and by life-long I mean about 3 months) desire to learn to surf, if it does, I will probably be stuck in my room watching the Endless Summer DVD over and over again as the cool Pacific breeze wafts in through my window, carrying away my hookah smoke.
I can't stop listening to: The Killers - Hot Fuss (see Spins section). Catch them now before the hype blows them far, far away into a future of opening for Oasis on the 2015 BTSBG (Bands That Should Have Been Great) tour. Cheap Cure knock-offs? Yeah, but The Killers are damn good at it, and though I'm hoping for it, I'm just not sensing any staying power. Favorite song of the album, track 2 "Mr. Brightside". A perfectly poignant and uplifting ode to the pain of being the "other" guy. Over a impossibly catchy and soaring synth groove The Killers touch the heart of any of us who have ever been the odd man out in a love triangle ("I just can't look, its killing me"), but ultimately we are left, at least for me anyway, with a positive message,
"But it's just the price I pay, Destiny is calling me, Open up my eager eyes...."
Word.