2002-02-16 - 10:04 a.m.
Well, our anniversary was Thursday. Four years. That is such a long time (and yet really short). It's so funny how people take Vero at face value and assume she has no romance in her. Nothing could be further from the truth. We went to eat at our favorite restaurant (along with all the folks on their Valentine's Day dates) where there was a lesbian band playing CCR songs, a belly dancer, and fabulous Thai food (reading that list over makes the place sound strange, but it really isn't - it's a quiet little family owned place). We saw a lesbian couple throw a fit and storm out of the restaurant, then come back in and argue with the owner's daughter, then leave, then come back in and eat. Strange. When I storm out, I don't come back. It ruins the effect. When we left, the owner gave us roses. Oh, and when we came in there were people waiting for tables, and thoughwe had no reservation, they whisked us in past unpleasant looking straight couples who were waiting. It's good to be a regular somewhere. Anyway, Vero gave me another ring and a cross stitch she had done framed with a photo she took of the sky. She always says she isn't artistic, but I think she is. I sent her a big bouquet of roses at work and she had to fend off excited, interested questions all day.
I watched the beginning of the Olympics with my parents. It was funny listening to my dad mock George W. He has never forgiven him for beating Ann Richards here in Texas. My family is yellow dog Democrat - they'd rather cut off their hands then vote Republican. How much of that is left over from the Civil War, I don't know. I like to think it is their basic goodness and tolerance but, while this may be true of some of them (my parents, my great aunt), it is far more likely to be distrust of the rich. My dad's side is a bunch of teachers from the Panhandle and my mom's side is oil field workers who lived on company land in East Texas. Hence the dislike for the monied classes.
Getting back to the Olympics, I did like the pow wow dances and the animal puppets, but the "settlers" and the trains left me cold. It's hard to get into that stuff knowing the bloody history of the American west. And I put "" around the word settlers because the term perpetuates the idea that there was this vast, unsettled area that was free for the taking --- it totally glosses over the fact that the west had been settled for centuries by the Native Americans.
Yesterday at school we had a drug bust. I don't understand why kids would smoke marijuana and then come to school. The people I've known who smoke do so at home and then they sit around and wax philosophical for hours or watch TV. Why come to school?
Every time I get up, the cat steals my chair.
Tuesday we have the writing TAAS - my last one. I'm so glad. I've been prepping kids for it for 6 years and I'm done. If they've been listening for the last month and a half, they'll pass it. That's all I can do.
Opal
