More Meat

November 4, 2007

Garsh, where does the time go?

I can’t believe I haven’t blogged all week (and I was doing so well!).

Anyway, to catch up we had a fun time at the Halloween party last Saturday– where Ted and I dressed up as a Scout Master and his Cub Scout.

Don’t we look cute?

Quick (but scary) story about getting these costumes: we went to the Scout Headquarters near Balboa Park in San Diego where they have a Scouting Store. The women (in full Scout regalia) working at the store were friendly, if a bit suspicious of why we were buying all of the pins and patches and stuff (we had bought the shirts at an Army/Navy thrift store). We were just about in the clear at the register purchasing everything when an older woman (probably in her 60s) came in and asked the women who ran the store where she could get a cub scout hat for her “friend’s Halloween costume.”

One of the women who ran the store curtly replied, “We don’t sell Halloween Costumes here.”

To which the customer said, “You don’t sell hats?”

“Not if you’re using the hat as a costume. The scout supplies are taken very seriously, and it’s disrespectful to think that you would be using it for a costume. We don’t sell to people who are using the items disrespectfully.”

O-M-G.

The woman’s jaw dropped.

“Well, what if I told you i’m buying it for a scout?” She said.

“You already told me you’re not, so I won’t sell it to you.”

Can you believe that!!??

The customer then stormed out of the store saying, “Well, I guess i’m not Christian enough for you people! God. Bless. You!”

In the meantime, i’m standing up at the counter with my credit card in hand, a drop of sweat rolling down the side of my forehead and the other saleswoman is looking at me through her beady, suspicious eyes.

“And why are you buying these?” She asked me.

Well, I had been talking to the woman as she was ringing me up, telling her that I had been a Cubscout, and Weblo, and Boy Scout, though I had stopped when I was about fourteen because I got into theater–true story, I really had been a scout.

But I was totally flustered when she asked me. After all, what could I say? I’m rejoining?

I’m thinking of being a scout master? So instead I told her that i’m working on an art project about the Scouts. Which, really, is not so far from the truth… I might incorporate some of these supplies, patches, stickers, into a collage.

She grunted, then seemed to be OK with the idea, muttering something about the fact that at least I had been a scout so I can appreciate the sacred-ness of the items.

Yikes! I’m going to Hell!

Anyway, I was so glad to get out of there. It made me feel so dirty and gross. Blechhh.

Long story short, we had a fun time at the party, you can check out the pictures from it on my flickr account (to the right) or by clicking on our photo above.

Anyway, besides that my week was fairly routine– teaching, taking my writing class–which is still going well.

I’m also currently making my way through Naeem Murr’s novel The Perfect Man– such amazing descriptions and detail. I was talking to the students in my Creative Writing class, and read a passage from Murr’s book to emphasize that Murr takes nothing for granted, he has no throwaway characters; he gives life to every character (no matter how minor, as in the following excerpt), every scene, with even the most minute details and intricacies.

an excerpt:

At last he got out of his truck and entered the store. Bennet stood at the counter with all his cronies: tall Magnus, who tipped his hat; Otto, Bennet’s foreman, a bitter raw-skinned knuckle of a man; Goldwin the barber, ever fussing with the fragile strands of hair he kept swept over his bald crown; Irish Finn, his mournful, deeply creviced face suspended between jug ears; and pregnant Sheriff Siggy, whose expression was that of a tough guy forced to walk his wife’s Chihuahua.

I wish I were a faster reader, though. I have so many books on the nightstand that I want to get to. Sigh.

And, finally, last night I got back to making some collages. Yay!

Here are the latest in my series entitled MEAT:

I call them (in order) “King Size Meat”, “Lorraine Meat”, “Quixote Meat”, and “Sunburned Meat.” Click on the cards to see them close up.

Now if only I had someone to send them to…