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Before I tell this story, I'd like to ask: Do any of my readers have an
archieved copy of my December 7th journal entry? I accidently saved over
it on the server, so if you try looking in my archieves you're only going
to get Dec 8th. It was the "Funky...oh, yeah!" entry. Please email me if you do.
Thanks! Today was just one of those days. I was supposed to get to sleep in, because the timing of my dentist's appointment (which I was looking forward to) made it impossible to do any work between when I get there and when I'd have to leave for the dentist. I even told my housemates the night before that I was sleeping in. Still, at 7:30am Aron decided to run the garbage disposal. Twice. By the second time I was banging on the wall and yelling, "Please don't run that in the morning!!!" Still, I was awake for the day. And not happy. There were a few other annoyances during the day to let me know it wasn't going to be a happy day. On the plus side, my dentist was very impressed with my improved dental hygiene: "It looks like a whole new mouth!" If you love your teeth, ask for a gum simulator. It's this little triangle rubber thing on a stick, and you can use it to scrape plaque off your teeth (you'll see it if you're doing it right). She (my dentist) pointed out how shiny my teeth were, "Plaque doesn't reflect light." On the other hand, my mouth didn't feel all that different after my professional cleaning; usually it feels incredibly clean. I suppose I should pat myself on the back, but I was looking forward to more of a boost than that. Anyway, the dentist chair somehow gave me a horrible cramp in my neck, which is still around. I decidedto go to yoga anyway, hoping to work out the crimp. Now, this yoga class is at 5:15, which means we all zoom into the Y already in our work-out gear, throw our bags along the wall in the back of the gym, grab a mat and go. Hardly anyone bothers to walk to the other side of the building to use the locker room for this class. About 20 minutes after class began, a man walked into the back of the class (where the doors are). I noticed him right away, as he didn't look like your yoga-type (but what do I know?). What really got to me was that he sat down between my bag and another one that was very close to it; there wasn't really room to sit between them, and there was blank wall just a little further down to sit... Does it sound fishy to you? Yeah, it was to me too. I turned my mat sideways so I could keep an eye on him. I always lock my backpack with my wallet and valuables in the trunk of my car, so I wasn't really afraid he'd take anything, and I couldn't quite tell if he was really doing anything at all.... He covered himself with his coat, and leaned over my bag a bit. I kept watching . . . this was really disruptive to my yoga meditation, and I was starting to get pissed. I had already decided I didn't like this new instuctor, and the fact that she stayed at the front of the class and didn't move around and reposition us just reaffirmed this dislike. Had it been Kalidasa's class, he would've been all over that gym, helping us, and this kid wouldn't have dared... At this point you're wondering, "Why the hell didn't you say something?" Well, I did, eventually. I made myself wait until 6pm, watching him the entire time. By 6 I was totally not into the yoga, and I stood up, grabbed all my stuff and ran downstairs to tattle. The guy at the desk had just come around the desk to go upstairs with me when this other woman from the class came up..."There's this guy in the yoga class..." "Yeah!" I said. They couldn't find him of course. The front desk dude started questioning me, and the first question summed up why I waited so long to say anything in the first place: "So, what nationality was he?" Uncomfortable silence. "Well, he was black." Front desk dude gave me a sympathetic nod. He knew I didn't want to say that. So, I've been thinking: How much of my reluctance to say anything to/about this suspicious guy had to do with his skin-color? I mean, he was back there for a good half an hour before I'd had enough, and the whole time I was watching him I felt guilty because I was afraid I was suspicious only because he was black. If it had been a white man or woman, I would've said something or reported them a lot sooner. I wondered if this kid knew that these Berkeley types were loathe to point their finger at a black man. Was he playing on our white guilt? When I was gathering up my stuff, he made some lame attempt to look like he was stretching. That's when I was sure he was up to no good. It wasn't even the stretch we were doing, and he hadn't made any attempt to stretch earlier in the class. I suppose I thought he was just waiting for someone who was taking the class, but that was obviously not the case. My bag was not unzipped when I sat it down, and it was when I picked it up. However, I don't think he took anything. I was watching him pretty closely, and he was definitely aware that I had my eye on him. I just wish I'd moved earlier, and more gracefully, so they could've caught him.... Anyway. | ||
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