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June 08, 2004
back in the city
so went to reno, it was good to see my family and hang out with my stepsister at her graduation. my stepgrandfather joe is so funny, he makes the best faces when he's bemused and when he and his wife my step grandma bicker it's more sweet then sour. at the graduation they had a speaker who rattled off every trite cliche graduation inspirational speech comment, in a long terrible row. i turned to joe and asked what he thought of the speech, he just pointed his thumb down and frowned. it was rad.
i was also able to spend a little time with daveo and visit john and kelli springer, who were celebrating their anniversary and allowed me to help in the celebration by pouring me a shot of whiskey. daveo and i decided that the newest reno sport is in-city hitchhiking. after we ran blocks to meet shannen at the alibi bar for some drinks, we hitched to our next location with some mexican guy. the next day i got a ride from near virginia lake back to the katherinehouse with some old long haired guy who's car only went into first gear. he played the cello and worked at a convenience store, and riding in his car made me think of that film jesus' son. so all in all, drew was totally right about reno being more fun when you don't live there.
i want to say i was bummed not to get to hang out with other folks, especifically my friend rachel, but i'll be back in early july hopefully to help drew paint the katherinehouse and to visit for longer, so i'll see her and the others i missed this last time.
so being back here is good of course. i've been interpreting more which is totally rewarding and excellent, even when the asylum official instantly dislikes the client, such as what happened today. then i get to try and keep up with her and him shooting back and forth questions and answers, while she wears the "i don't believe you" face and he continues to respond vaguely to very precise questions, meanwhile the lawyer and i both know it's going real bad but the case never had any chance to begin with, so it's mostly going through the motions but it sucks when you know things are going so poorly. still though, it's such a better job then waiting tables i can't believe it, i'm tempted to drop waitering but i'd need another source of income besides interpreting if i was to continue saving money and buying plane tickets and such.
heading up to portland the 25th through the 28th, gotta just bite the bullet and buy the ticket, the restaurant won't like that i keep taking time off but i'm more and more over that job each time i work, the breaking point is coming soon for me to cut my waiter's apron strings. of course i've been saying that for a month and a half.
so an exciting thing that happened yesterday was all the protests against the biotech conference. i was busy during the middle of the day, but managed to meet up at 5 for the reclaim the streets party. there were a few hundred of us, and we headed off marching and singing and dancing down market street around 6 pm. before it even started we knew it would be short lived, there was a veritable army of cops on all sides, looking menacing and small-dicked with their cop glasses, riot helmets and batons. they eventually corralled us into a standstill at 5th and market, and began citing everyone still in the middle of the street. these photos illustrate the moment quite well. I'd never been to a reclaim the streets party before, it was really amazing to see folks dancing and happy and alive in the middle of the city in a big group, the sound system blasting the classic by NWA, "fuck the police," cars honking horns in support. gave me some hope.
allright, gonna go to the library before i go to work, then after work it's off to the climbing gym.
Posted by bendan at June 8, 2004 04:38 PM
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