clutter, class, pertussis still
Sunday, Mar. 21, 2010 - 16:21

I wouldn't wish pertussis on anyone. It's a terrible, violent motherfucker of a disease. I'm finally getting better, inch by inch - last week it was that I was waking up coughing only once a night instead of three or four times a night. And then this morning I didn't have a coughing fit until ten or fifteen minutes after I got up. Progress! But the coughing fits seem to be increasing in severity, even while decreasing in frequency. Still, I can tell I'm getting a little better. Doubt I'll be running this week but if things go well maybe I'll be able to run next Sunday.

I moved up to a new housesitting place yesterday. It's in the hills, view of the twinkling city at night, hottub and steam shower downstairs. Not as solidly nice as the last place I was at. It's got me thinking a lot about things, about consumerism (buying things we don't need that don't do anything for us, thinking we do need them and they do do things for us) and about classism.

At work I'm helping out with a committee revising the institutional diversity plan, helping out the EO/AA director, am on the staff subcommittee. I'm back to being staff now with my one job. Like many people, I've had many different roles on campus: student, faculty (albeit adjunct), and staff. And institutional classism is something I know about inherently but a woman at the meeting on Thursday articulated it so well that it almost completely floored me...

A few weeks ago we went to a labor film festival and saw The Philosopher Kings and the discussion afterwards pissed me off so much I almost had to... well actually I did get up and leave, I went to the bathroom. The discussion, led by a professor, was about how wonderful it was for the film to have given a voice to these "voiceless" people (someone did actually say, "They are voiceless") and basically how incredible it was that these low human beings, these custodians, were capable of higher thought. Who knew?!?

On Friday I had my BFFs over for dinner and we ended up watching some of The Breakfast Club and the custodian in that movie would have turned that professor's world upside down.

But let's compare that house where I was housesitting last week with this house. That house is beautiful and airy and solid and new and crafted by an artisan (the owner, a carpenter, designed and built it himself). The other owner is an administrator. This house is, I'm guessing, '80s, owned by an assistant professor. Sure there are windows but mostly there are walls to shut out the outside. Kitchen open to the dining room and living room, yes, but there's a big wall in the way to cut everything off. First thing I did when I got here was open up all the blinds and all the windows.

I still tell people the best job I ever had was working as a maid up at the ski hill. The supervisor was fantastic, which helps a lot, and I loved my coworkers, but I also really enjoyed the work, for a lot of reasons.

I'm responsible for my own snotty ideas and I'd like to think I'm flexible, but I have such a low tolerance for clutter and stuffy, close air. Does this mean I have to have a huge house with very high ceilings? I don't know, maybe it does.

I fell asleep on the couch listening to the dishwasher and had a bad dream about a prank caller. I just made some coffee. Making origami now, going to finish watching that film about Townes Van Zandt, tomorrow is Monday and I'll try to take the bus.