Intelligent design

This is just too good.

Abbondanza

The weekend has been eventful. Saturday night, Marc and I went to Bianca's and enjoyed their 7-course Abbondanza feast.

Appetizer - Roasted pumpkin in proscuitto
Salad - Roasted Red Pepper with corn
Pasta - Some sort of corkscrew things with clams
Fish - Mahi Mahi with lemon/lime crust in a pesto sauce
Sorbet - Lemon sorbet in some kind of liquer
Entree - Pork tenderloin and chicken with polenta
Dessert - Chocolate banana thingie

Hopefully I wrote down the official names of the last few items, because a few details are a bit blurred, courtesy of unlimited refills of wine - or, five to be exact. That aside, dinner was great and the atmosphere was very relaxing and romantic. Our booth had a faux cottage-style window, and the room was decorated with a touch of twinkling white lights on the wall.

Sunday I spent about 5 hours on an assignment for class that still is not finished, is due tomorrow, and I don't have any time to work on it between now and then.
*gulp*

Post office ponderings

So I'm trying to back out of my parking space, when this guy in the car parked next to me starts getting out of his car. I wave him on, trying to let him know I'm not going to hit him.

Well, hit on is what he decided to do. Knock-knock on the window. WTF? Well, I thought, I didn't get a good look at him and maybe he's a post office employee I joke around with sometimes. Nope, he isn't that guy. He proceeds to tell me his name and asks mine. He goes through the following lines:

"Don't I know you from somewhere? I know I seen you working out at the YMCA."
"I know your face - of course I'd remember such a pretty face."

And then, as I'm trying to close the window and drive away, he asks: "Hey, you wanna have coffee sometime?" to which I reply, "thank you, but I have a boyfriend."

I don't think coffee was what he had on his mind. But perhaps I am making racial judgments. It just so happened this man was black. I did not turn him down based on that. Let's pretend I'm not in a relationship for a second. The fact that this guy was a complete stranger and used such corny and obvious pickup lines, combined with pretending to know me, made me distrust him.

It just occurred to me maybe I shouldn't assume he had any intentions other than getting to know each other. It is entirely possible the following scenario occurred from his perspective: He sees a chick in the parking lot of the post office, waving at him. He thinks she is kind of cute, so he decides why not say hi. Then she seems a little nervous, so he thinks maybe this is another sign she likes him? And he has probably seen the "don't I know you from somewhere" line work, so he tries that out. And as she's starting to drive away, he thinks "what if she really is interested and we never see each other again and I don't make a move?" so he asks me out for coffee. This would not be such an unusual scenario, would it?

But I did not get that feeling from him. I felt creepy and wanted to shrivel up and run away. Would I have felt that way if he was white? I don't know. Probably, but I may have also assumed it was like in the "imaginary" scenario above and been flattered. How come it took me over an hour to even consider that scenario, and would I have thought of it sooner if he was white?

I am not a racist person, but most of us that do not consider ourselves racist still have the occassional reaction based on our conditioning. Still, I don't think I am less likely to trust a black man than a white man. If I am stopped at a light and see a male pedestrian on the sidewalk, I check the locks. It doesn't matter what color he is, the fact he is MALE makes me more likely to fear him. And I don't think all men are wild beasts who attack, but generally it is men who do such things, and as a woman in today's world, I am aware of that constantly. And I am aware from personal experience that a violation can happen with someone you know or are getting to know, with that person being of your own skin color. In fact, this is more likely to be the case. Still, I do not believe there wasn't some part of me who made assumptions about the intentions of the man at the post office because he was black.

We have been discussing racism a lot in one of my classes. As a result, we are really all trying to be aware of our subconcious racist thoughts and inadvertent racist actions and words. Whether we like it or not, we still make judgments about people based on skin color, as well as age, gender, sexual orientation, and religion. While discrimination is less obvious and things have improved greatly from a century ago (heck, even from 40-50 years ago), is it possible to ever banish racism from our lives?

Think progress

My scholarly duties this weekend are:

1. Read 2 chapters in biomedicine ethics book
2. 1-pg. paper on personal "vision" for field of counseling
3. Read Ch. 3 in Legal/Ethical text
4. Read two articles on racism and sexism
5. Rough draft of ethics code comparisons

It is 8pm on Friday evening. I have already knocked out item 1, and have a rough version of item 2. One could even say I am in the beginning stages of item 5. This means it is possible to get this done soon and still be able to enjoy the weekend.

Quackerpractor

Have I mentioned the people I work for are wonderful? My office manager recommended a chiropractor AND granted permission to leave a bit early and see this guy TODAY. Relief could be on the horizon. Yay!

Jumping through hoops

Okay, my back or some area connected to it has been hurting for several days. It began in my neck and moved down into my shoulders. Now those places are fine, but my middle back is having horrible burning sensations and aches. It is pretty consistent throughout the day. This morning, it was bad enough I actually stayed awake after the alarm went off, and even 800 mg of Ibuprofen does not touch this.

So...

I just called the chiropractic office and the earliest time available is Friday at 7am. She said I could pay $35 upfront or try to turn it in on my insurance, but if the insurance doesn’t pay, they’ll charge me extra fees in addition to the $35 because of all the “hoops” they have to go through with paperwork. (This would make my visit about $100 if the insurance denied it, which she insists it will.) I don’t think that’s right. And it doesn’t make sense to me that they charge the insurance company differently than me either. This clinic has always had "fishy" insurance tactics, and I have not trusted them since they told me my insurance would not pay for anymore visits, when my insurance company said otherwise.

So the chiropractor's wife said I could come in today if I can make it before 2:30 (which gives my bosses all of 20 minutes notice). And that if I plan on "making her do the insurance paperwork" (her polite choice of words) I better get there a little earlier.

This woman just irks me to no end. What a bitch! A very RUDE bitch. Yes, I realize there are more enlightened ways to respond, but I am quite angry about this. I’m not going back there. Ever again. EVER.