Our former manager, who was removed from his post, has been doing little acts of vandalism around the building to try to make life harder for the new manager. He is a crazy, crazy man. Last week he broke the doorknob off the elevator door and left it sitting on the bench outside. Was I there to see him do it? Well, no. But I do believe it was him. Why? Well--the backing to the doorknob was missing, so whoever removed it took one of the parts away with him. Also, it had been removed by force, the new manager told me. And the person who removed it did not call to report the damage to the new manager (if anyone else had done it, accidentally, they would have called to tell him, I AM SURE).
Our new manager (who is nice, sane, and reliable) told us that there have been other acts of vandalism around the building, always occurring in the wee hours of the night/early morning. I do believe it is he, the crazy man, who is doing it. He has also been tearing down any notice the new manager posts in the lobby, so that the new manager has taken to printing out individual copies for every unit and slipping them under our doors, instead.
I never see him anymore-- not even standing up in his window, staring at the women in the street with his binoculars, the way I used to. In fact, I have only seen him once since he was deposed, but it was in a sort of creepy way. I saw him come RUNNING out of the front door, in a crazy and agitated sort of way. I don't know if this sort of thing translates verbally; maybe you have to see it to understand why it is creepy. Most people don't come running aggressively out of the front door. It really struck me, in that instantaneous kind of way you can detect sometimes when there's something wrong with someone by their nonverbal cues, something about the way they're moving or carrying themselves that is just... off, or wrong for the context, or something. After I saw him come running out, I hid in my car till I thought he might be gone. Then I went into the lobby. But, I was unlucky; he came back in, with the same air of being in an enormous, aggressive hurry, walked past me and the friend I was talking to, and smacked her four-year-old son in the side of the head as he walked by (the boy was wearing a plastic fireman's helmet, so it probably didn't hurt, but was still totally inappropriate, as this is the woman he was previously harrassing, who has since filed a police report against him). He didn't say one word to us.
Other people have had brief sightings of him. He ran into one of the other tenants and told him he planned to buy the building and evict us all. Fat chance, but still creepy.
Creepier still, our new manager told us of a recent incident in which he and his girlfriend were waiting for the elevator, which is an old-fashioned sort of elevator, a "lift," in which you can see through the chain-link fence around it the outline of the person who is coming down in it, as it comes. So they were standing, waiting, and down it comes, with The Crazy Man in it. When he lands, instead of opening the door normally, he KICKS it open. Violently. With his foot. So it narrowly misses the head of the new manager's girlfriend. If she had been standing a centimeter closer it would have given her a concussion. Or possibly injured a little kid, badly.
In case I haven't mentioned it before, The Crazy Man is tall and big and strong. And angry.
The good news is that everything he's doing is being reported to the owners, and apparently he's got one chance left and then they're going to try eviction; at least, this is what our new manager told me. Eviction is hard, and especially in this case, when, as I've been told, the Crazy Man is a Vietnam vet receiving government money to live in the building, which would make eviction harder.
So, we'll see.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Sad
It was hard going back to work today, and as I dragged myself into Lone Mountain (the building where my class takes place--a really gorgeous building, actually, with a great view of San Francisco), I had a sobering realization: I know the exact bathroom habits of all the other ladies who teach on Lone Mountain on Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Every Tuesday and Thursday morning, I visit the same bathroom and see the same ladies. I have never spoken to them, and we don't know each other's names, but there they are.
I even know which STALLS they like to use. I am not kidding.
I even know which STALLS they like to use. I am not kidding.
Monday, March 24, 2008
On the other hand
Daisy was literally a pain in the butt today. We were walking in Sutro Heights Park with my neighbor Robyn and her very cute son Eli. I was standing and talking to Robyn at one point, and Daisy was playing near a stone deer she particularly likes. I noticed she seemed to be getting kind of irritated by not having my undivided attention, but it was nothing too awful so I ignored her. Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my upper thigh and turned around expecting--I don't know what. A small dog, maybe. I honestly don't think I would have connected it with Daisy if Robyn hadn't said, "She just bit you in the butt!"
So, there it is: my verbally precocious daughter bit me in the butt today, instead of using her language skills to express herself to me. I reprimanded her, but I was kind of shocked, as well as embarrassed, so I didn't have a clear disciplinary tactic in mind. I'm going to have to come up with one, though, because I want to send a very clear message if something like this happens again. This is the first terribly naughty thing she has done, and I was unprepared! It hurt, too. Really a lot.
Another annoying habit she's developed is not liking foods she previously liked (such as PIZZA), spitting out the food we give her, and handing it to us, saying superciliously, "THANK you." I wish I could better describe the tone... it's so prim and haughty, exactly like the tone an adult would use if she wanted to thank someone insincerely, being polite on the surface but fully conveying the sarcasm at the same time. "THANK you!"
So, there it is: my verbally precocious daughter bit me in the butt today, instead of using her language skills to express herself to me. I reprimanded her, but I was kind of shocked, as well as embarrassed, so I didn't have a clear disciplinary tactic in mind. I'm going to have to come up with one, though, because I want to send a very clear message if something like this happens again. This is the first terribly naughty thing she has done, and I was unprepared! It hurt, too. Really a lot.
Another annoying habit she's developed is not liking foods she previously liked (such as PIZZA), spitting out the food we give her, and handing it to us, saying superciliously, "THANK you." I wish I could better describe the tone... it's so prim and haughty, exactly like the tone an adult would use if she wanted to thank someone insincerely, being polite on the surface but fully conveying the sarcasm at the same time. "THANK you!"
Obnoxiously braggy post
I read in a child development newsletter today that you can expect most two-year-olds to be able to put two words together, and that at three they start to put three and more words together. This CANNOT be true. My girl has been putting more than three words together since 18 months. I know she is on the precocious side verbally (just as she was slow to develop some of the gross motor skills), but she can't be that far ahead. Today I recorded her (finally, on camcorder), reciting "Baa baa Black Sheep"--every single word, with no prompting from me. Okay, I had more obnoxioius bragging, but I have to go change a diaper.
Saturday, March 22, 2008
How I know I'm out of touch with the younger generation
Today on the radio I heard Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend," and, just like the other times I've heard it, I felt shocked and embarrassed.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Philadelphia speech
I wanted to write to my blog today that I thought Barack Obama's speech today, in which he addressed the concerns people have over his association with Jeremiah Wright, was a great speech. I was wondering how he would deal with this potential obstacle to his campaign, and I was truly and deeply impressed by how he did. In fact, I think it may be the best speech I've heard him give yet. I admire the way he took the issue head on, trying to actually explain his reasoning for continuing to be in the church and for why he can't completely disavow Wright, instead of trying in a fake way to distance himself entirely from Wright or put some facile political spin on the whole thing. I thought it was brave. He spoke to his audience in a way that respected their intelligence--that assumed they could try to grapple with this difficult point in a real way, instead of needing some little bumpersticker answer to the whole thing, some simplified catch phrase to make the whole thing go away. He actually talked to us about what was going through his mind and how complex the issue is for him. As I was listening, I realized that I almost never feel this way listening to a mainstream political speech. He was saying yes, this is hard to understand, and not completely pretty on the surface, but let's look deeper and try to understand.
The speech was substantive and felt genuine to me. What he said about the contradictions and painful divisions within communities we're part of made sense to me. The things that make us up are not always comfortably unified, and sometimes the people most intimate to us say things that make us "cringe," as he put it, but it would be dishonest to say that they are not still a part of who we are, to pretend a total distance. I also liked the way he tried to show the context from which Wright's anger arises, instead of trying to write him off entirely as a nut case. He showed that that anger has reasons and justifications, even if he also needed to say he didn't agree with all the specific manifestations of it in Wright's sermons. The speech (the parts in which he remembered the struggles and injustices black people have faced in this country) was also an indirect answer to Geraldine Ferraro's insane comments about how lucky he is to be a black man in this campaign, or he wouldn't be where he is.
I wanted this post to be a lot better, but I am too tired now after my long day to do better, so I will leave it at that. I just wanted to record how surprised, in a good way, I felt listening to this speech-- that it wasn't what I had been expecting. I think I'd been expecting something less honest, more like a superficially indignant, politically necessary, total rejection of Wright (what most candidates would do). What actually happened, what Obama decided to do, was so much better than that. It was the kind of speech that asks that its listeners be nuanced thinkers whose minds can grasp complexities and make sometimes unexpected connections, and I am soooo not used to that after years of listening to dull, trite, talking-points oriented speeches that flatten and dilute issues and talk down to us like children.
The speech was substantive and felt genuine to me. What he said about the contradictions and painful divisions within communities we're part of made sense to me. The things that make us up are not always comfortably unified, and sometimes the people most intimate to us say things that make us "cringe," as he put it, but it would be dishonest to say that they are not still a part of who we are, to pretend a total distance. I also liked the way he tried to show the context from which Wright's anger arises, instead of trying to write him off entirely as a nut case. He showed that that anger has reasons and justifications, even if he also needed to say he didn't agree with all the specific manifestations of it in Wright's sermons. The speech (the parts in which he remembered the struggles and injustices black people have faced in this country) was also an indirect answer to Geraldine Ferraro's insane comments about how lucky he is to be a black man in this campaign, or he wouldn't be where he is.
I wanted this post to be a lot better, but I am too tired now after my long day to do better, so I will leave it at that. I just wanted to record how surprised, in a good way, I felt listening to this speech-- that it wasn't what I had been expecting. I think I'd been expecting something less honest, more like a superficially indignant, politically necessary, total rejection of Wright (what most candidates would do). What actually happened, what Obama decided to do, was so much better than that. It was the kind of speech that asks that its listeners be nuanced thinkers whose minds can grasp complexities and make sometimes unexpected connections, and I am soooo not used to that after years of listening to dull, trite, talking-points oriented speeches that flatten and dilute issues and talk down to us like children.
Monday, March 17, 2008
Tagged
I am not handy with technology so I'm not sure how to create a neat little link. I was tagged by the lovely friend who owns this blog:
http://waitingforatrain-linda.blogspot.com/
What were you doing 10 yrs ago?
Uhhh... let's see. I was in graduate school in Eugene at the University of Oregon, the program where I went on to get my Master's and PhD in English. I had been married to Mark for almost one year. I was so immature that it almost boggles the mind. I'm at a loss to capture said immaturity in a succinct way for this pithy meme entry, so please take my word for it.
Snacks I enjoy
Pickles
Olives
Yogurt
Japanese rice crackers
Green tea frappuccinos (are those a "snack," technically?)
Five things on my to-do list today
Go grocery shopping
Go running at the YMCA
Print out newly taken pictures of my daughter
Grade a few papers
Bore my reader(s) senseless with this particular meme entry. Sorry. I wish my day had been more exciting. Because this was so boring, I will share the possibly scintillating detail that I am a COMPULSIVE list-maker so this question was easy for me. I constantly make lists to stave off anxiety, but then the sheer length of the lists causes me more anxiety, plus the fear that there is some old list floating around that I never finished checking off, so then I end up writing lists that say things like, "Find old list and make sure you finished everything on it."
Things I would do if I became a billionaire
This is hard for me, because I don't really think about it. I have never felt like thinking about it, because it won't happen and all that. So I feel kind of sad and cheesy answering it. Here goes, anyway. I would immediately put away a big chunk for my daughter, into some kind of safe, secure account that would grow and grow and help her go to whatever college she wants to, someday. I would distribute money to my family and friends so that they could lead better lives and have safer futures. I would pay off my debts. I would probably buy a not obscenely big but still comfortably sized house; I might have to argue with Mark about where it would be. He would want it to be in San Francisco, I predict, but I would probably choose to live somewhere in Sonoma County, nearer to my parents, and where I could have a nice yard for my daughter to play in. I would put away some money for travel, because I have never traveled outside of the U.S., except to Canada a few times. (Okay, that sounds like I am disparaging Canada, but I don't mean to; I am just illustrating the extreme limitations of my traveling experience, though I have been in almost every state in the U.S. on road trips my family took since I was two years old.)
I would definitely donate a good portion of it to charitable causes, but I don't want to speak hastily about which ones because I'd have to sit and think very carefully about that first. There would be so many candidates; it wouldn't be an easy decision. I guess if I'm really a billionaire, though, I could have the option of giving a ton of money to a few specific causes, or spreading it out very widely across many causes! What a shame we'll never find out what my philanthropy would have done for the world... since I can't remember the last time an adjunct college writing teacher became a billionaire.
I would buy Mark whatever electronic/musical equipment he's always dreamed of having. I would buy myself some new clothes and shoes, because I desperately need them and it's really pathetic. I would buy myself a bed frame and a new couch, because we still have the one we bought in EUGENE for SIX DOLLARS.
3 bad habits
Procrastinating
Obsessing over things I can't control
Going to bed too late
I have many, many, many other bad habits, but I am limited to three so I'll stop now.
5 places I have lived
Northport, NY (ages 0-18)
Claremont, CA (ages 18-21)
Eugene, OR (ages 21-27)
San Francisco, CA (ages 27 to the present)
There you have it. I have not lived in five places--just four. Unless you count the town I was born in: Syosset, NY. I guess I lived there for a day or two.
Jobs I have had
Babysitter
Candy striper/delivered food and fed people/waitress at hospital coffee shop
Landscapers' assistant (I did very little; I remember posing decoratively on a rich person's lawn with a hose, aiming it at a tree. I think, in retrospect, the boss was trying to sleep with me and that was why he hired me)
Library page
Server of food to big alumni events at college
Computer lab consultant in college
Annoying person who calls you on the phone to raise $ for her college annual fund
Writing Center consultant at 3 colleges
Graduate teaching assistant of various courses at several colleges
Copy editor
College writing teacher
I must have had other jobs but those are the ones I can think of right now.
Things people don’t know about me
My family owned a wolf when I was a child
I always wanted to play the bad guy in childhood games
I am afraid of flying (some people probably know that)
I feel very insecure about my ability to use a lot of technology, even, like, the SLIDE projector at school, so I still write everything on the chalkboard
I got a 5 on the AP Calculus exam in high school (that will shock people!) but I consider myself very weak in math
I was a spelling bee champion
I have to work very hard not to let sad thoughts get me down, because I tend to be sad and sort of negative about things generally (I think that will surprise some people)
As a child I had an obsessive fear of vampires (some people probably know that)
I really like miniature things and, oh, if I come into millions of dollars, as the previous question mentioned, I will buy a beautiful Victorian dollhouse and fill it with wonderful miniature things
I have a terrible anxiety about being made to tag people by memes.
That leads beautifully into my final comment: I think I am supposed to tag people, but I am going to have to let people be self-tagged, if they so desire!
http://waitingforatrain-linda.blogspot.com/
What were you doing 10 yrs ago?
Uhhh... let's see. I was in graduate school in Eugene at the University of Oregon, the program where I went on to get my Master's and PhD in English. I had been married to Mark for almost one year. I was so immature that it almost boggles the mind. I'm at a loss to capture said immaturity in a succinct way for this pithy meme entry, so please take my word for it.
Snacks I enjoy
Pickles
Olives
Yogurt
Japanese rice crackers
Green tea frappuccinos (are those a "snack," technically?)
Five things on my to-do list today
Go grocery shopping
Go running at the YMCA
Print out newly taken pictures of my daughter
Grade a few papers
Bore my reader(s) senseless with this particular meme entry. Sorry. I wish my day had been more exciting. Because this was so boring, I will share the possibly scintillating detail that I am a COMPULSIVE list-maker so this question was easy for me. I constantly make lists to stave off anxiety, but then the sheer length of the lists causes me more anxiety, plus the fear that there is some old list floating around that I never finished checking off, so then I end up writing lists that say things like, "Find old list and make sure you finished everything on it."
Things I would do if I became a billionaire
This is hard for me, because I don't really think about it. I have never felt like thinking about it, because it won't happen and all that. So I feel kind of sad and cheesy answering it. Here goes, anyway. I would immediately put away a big chunk for my daughter, into some kind of safe, secure account that would grow and grow and help her go to whatever college she wants to, someday. I would distribute money to my family and friends so that they could lead better lives and have safer futures. I would pay off my debts. I would probably buy a not obscenely big but still comfortably sized house; I might have to argue with Mark about where it would be. He would want it to be in San Francisco, I predict, but I would probably choose to live somewhere in Sonoma County, nearer to my parents, and where I could have a nice yard for my daughter to play in. I would put away some money for travel, because I have never traveled outside of the U.S., except to Canada a few times. (Okay, that sounds like I am disparaging Canada, but I don't mean to; I am just illustrating the extreme limitations of my traveling experience, though I have been in almost every state in the U.S. on road trips my family took since I was two years old.)
I would definitely donate a good portion of it to charitable causes, but I don't want to speak hastily about which ones because I'd have to sit and think very carefully about that first. There would be so many candidates; it wouldn't be an easy decision. I guess if I'm really a billionaire, though, I could have the option of giving a ton of money to a few specific causes, or spreading it out very widely across many causes! What a shame we'll never find out what my philanthropy would have done for the world... since I can't remember the last time an adjunct college writing teacher became a billionaire.
I would buy Mark whatever electronic/musical equipment he's always dreamed of having. I would buy myself some new clothes and shoes, because I desperately need them and it's really pathetic. I would buy myself a bed frame and a new couch, because we still have the one we bought in EUGENE for SIX DOLLARS.
3 bad habits
Procrastinating
Obsessing over things I can't control
Going to bed too late
I have many, many, many other bad habits, but I am limited to three so I'll stop now.
5 places I have lived
Northport, NY (ages 0-18)
Claremont, CA (ages 18-21)
Eugene, OR (ages 21-27)
San Francisco, CA (ages 27 to the present)
There you have it. I have not lived in five places--just four. Unless you count the town I was born in: Syosset, NY. I guess I lived there for a day or two.
Jobs I have had
Babysitter
Candy striper/delivered food and fed people/waitress at hospital coffee shop
Landscapers' assistant (I did very little; I remember posing decoratively on a rich person's lawn with a hose, aiming it at a tree. I think, in retrospect, the boss was trying to sleep with me and that was why he hired me)
Library page
Server of food to big alumni events at college
Computer lab consultant in college
Annoying person who calls you on the phone to raise $ for her college annual fund
Writing Center consultant at 3 colleges
Graduate teaching assistant of various courses at several colleges
Copy editor
College writing teacher
I must have had other jobs but those are the ones I can think of right now.
Things people don’t know about me
My family owned a wolf when I was a child
I always wanted to play the bad guy in childhood games
I am afraid of flying (some people probably know that)
I feel very insecure about my ability to use a lot of technology, even, like, the SLIDE projector at school, so I still write everything on the chalkboard
I got a 5 on the AP Calculus exam in high school (that will shock people!) but I consider myself very weak in math
I was a spelling bee champion
I have to work very hard not to let sad thoughts get me down, because I tend to be sad and sort of negative about things generally (I think that will surprise some people)
As a child I had an obsessive fear of vampires (some people probably know that)
I really like miniature things and, oh, if I come into millions of dollars, as the previous question mentioned, I will buy a beautiful Victorian dollhouse and fill it with wonderful miniature things
I have a terrible anxiety about being made to tag people by memes.
That leads beautifully into my final comment: I think I am supposed to tag people, but I am going to have to let people be self-tagged, if they so desire!
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