A Mississippienne in Yankeeland
Tuesday, April 27, 2004
I swear, Maryland has some of the horniest people ever. The other day we were working at the Loading Dock when a random man walked up to me and said "How ya doing?"
"Hi!" I replied, as I had never seen him before. "No, no," he scolded, "you're supposed to say I'm fine."
"Oh," I said, somewhat perplexed. "I'm fine."
"I know you are," he said, cocking an eyebrow and nodding. I stared at him blankly for a moment, then turned and walked away. I made it behind a wall of paint cans before seeing my teamie Jacque, and we burst into laughter simultaneously.
Seriously though, Sasha's had at least one gnarly old dude try to pick her up, Rose was hit on by an 11-year-old at Chuck E Cheese, and one day while outreaching, Sara and I were woo-woo'd by some guy driving past in his car. "...the hell?" I said. "Did that guy just woo-woo us?" Sure enough, a few minutes later, another car drove past and the driver yelled out: "OW! White women!"
It must be the man-getting pants.
Monday, April 26, 2004
So yesterday I awoke at 8:00 am and joined my friends Andrea and Wanda. Along with some other Americorps folks, we were all set to go to the March for Women's Lives in Washington D.C. At 8:30 sharp we were loading up to leave when we discovered one of the cars had a flat tire. Fortunately, we were able to borrow someone else's car and set out at 9:00. There were 2 cars crammed with Americorps folks; our car held me, Wanda, Andrea, Becky, and Kevin.
We arrived in D.C. at 11:00, and waited in line at the Metro for an hour for tickets. It was nuts! People came flooding in off the buses, from as far away as California and Ohio, and everyone was carrying signs and chanting. Finally we got our Metro tickets (I'd bought one earlier, the others had to purchase theirs) and boarded our train. We hopped off at the Archives stop, then followed the other marchers down 17th Street towards the Mall. It was like a human sea pushing us along, a huge flood of humanity of every color and shape imaginable. Almost immediately we enountered Pro-Lifers; one called me a pervert and a lady shouted at us through a bullhorn: "Why do you want to kill your babies?!"
We pushed through the Pro-Life barricade and made it to the Mall. Wanda and Andrea decided to split off and see D.C. but I chose to stay with the March. I was given a Planned Parenthood banner and began singing and chanting along with the other marchers. The Gay & Lesbian Choir performed and a helicopter circled overhead. I was so excited just to be there as part of the incredible event. A lady folksinger came out (Ashley Judd, Susan Sarandon, and Whoopi Goldberg were also there, but I didn't see them) and sang "Remember Rose":
Don't plan my family, I'll plan my own
Remember liberty, remember Rose.
Then we marched down out of the Mall and down the streets, past the White House and police in riot gear and Pro-Lifers with pictures of aborted fetuses. It was truely insane, there were almost a million people there, and the crowd stretched on and on and on, coiling around blocks like an endless serpent. Around 2:30 I was tired and hungry and needed to pee really badly, so I split off from the main group, got a sandwich, used the bathroom, and hopped the Metro again. I made it back to the Greenbelt at 4:20 and we headed home at 5:00. Oh, when we got ready to leave, we discovered the other car wouldn't start! Fortunately we managed to jump-start it and drove in safely. Whew!
And that's what I did this weekend.
Sunday, April 18, 2004
Yesterday was a service day for the Clean Up Baltimore campaign. Me and some other Americorps folks watched Major O'Malley make a speech (Sara thinks he has a nice ass) and then we drove to a poverty-stricken neighborhood to clean up an alley. We found several hypodermic needles, four dead rats, four live rats, two dead cats, and one live cat. Those Baltimore rats are monstrous, I'm pretty sure they actually killed the cats. Today we went to the Tri-State Bird Rescue in Delaware and helped them do maintance. While there we saw what can only be described as a frog orgy taking place in a pond. A light grey frog was sandwiched between a dark grey frog and a black frog, and another dark grey frog made several determined attempts to join in, but got kicked in the face for his trouble. Rejected! Btw, my bestest buddy Varuni (hi, girly!) is having a birthday in August, so I'm planning a Blowout Birthday Bash in New Orleans for her. Yay!
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
So while we were driving home today from grocery shopping, Chris and I were arguing over who could eat the most pizza. Chris, who is prone to making grand declarations which he has no hope of backing up, loudly declared, "Jessica, I could eat you out any day of the week!"
I burst into hysterical laughter. Chris was all "Huh? What's so funny?" So Travis, poor long-suffering Travis, took it upon himself to explain to Chris why eating someone out has nothing to do with pizza!
As a side note, we finally learned what our new project is to be. We're leaving at the end of April for Hartford, Connectcut, where we'll be working with the local Habitat for Humanity.
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
Okay, so me, Joshue, Rose, and Jacque went Sunday to see "Hellboy", which I thought was terribly cute and a lot of fun. My trip to Baltimore on Monday was a no-go because I woke up an hour too late to catch the only train there.
So onto today's events. A phone call from Sasha punctuated the tedium of taxes for me, Marcos, and Sara. It seems Sasha and Travis, on the way to picking us up, got into a little accident involving two others cars that completely totalled our van, Bessie. No serious injuries, thankfully. Sasha got a trip to the hospital and we're getting a new van, Sally.
I have 3 things that I'm a complete fanatic about and try my hardest to convert everyone I meet into a fellow fanatic about. These 3 things are:
1) Garth Ennis' Preacher, the BEST COMIC SERIES EVER.
2) HBO's OZ, the BEST TV SERIES EVER.
3) George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire, the BEST FANTASY SERIES EVER.
My total conversion count so far is Preacher: 4 (Leslie, Jacque, Gabe, and Travis), OZ: 1 (my buddy Jennifer from college), and ASOIAF: 1 (my ex Chris; tried and failed with Varuni). I'm working on it, I'm working on it.
Sunday, April 11, 2004
Very uneventful week, unless you consider the bacterial infection I got on Wednesday "exciting". I was talking to Rose yesterday and we agreed that there's something psychological that happened when we joined Americorps. Before, when I was living without health insurance, I just did not get sick. Didn't happen. Then I joined and got health insurance, and my body felt free to break. Eurgh!
So I've got a bacterial infection, Rose has mono, Travis' firefighter boot ate his toe, Chris broke two fingers on his left hand, and Sarah had some sort of bizarre rash in reaction to poison sumac.
Last night me and Aisha hung out with some of her buddies (they're planning a house party for sometime next week) and later today me, Jacque, Joshue, and Drea are going to see "Hellboy". Also, on Monday I'm planning a little sojourn into Baltimore in search of my passport.
Sunday, April 04, 2004
We returned from D.C. on Wednesday. The rest of the week was fairly boring, then Saturday came at last. Yay! Last night I made some totally kicking jambalaya, then me and lots of the other Americorps folks went to a local hotspot's karoake night. I kicked it off with my breathy rendition of the Divinyl's "When I think about you I touch myself" before joining Jacque and Aisha on Metallica's "Turn the page".
The dance music kicked in, and we all got down and buggied. According to Lior, I was on some "higher plane of enjoyment". Jacque said I "radiate sex". Hmm.
Anyway, me and Andrea and California and some others are hitting D.C. again tomorrow! And Aisha invited me and Jacque to vacation with her in her hometown of New Orleans. Awesome!
