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June 02, 2004
it's a good life
that's what aaron and i tell ourselves all the time these days. the city has been really good lately. here's why:
so today i went and worked as an interpreter down at the asylum petition office in one of the court buildings. my friend blaine set me up with the job, and i was a little nervous going in. i was interpreting between a peruvian man seeking asylum here and the asylum officer. i won't go into details obviously, but his reasons for the petition were based on a fear of being pulled into the growing conflict with the marxist guerilla group el sendero luminoso (the shining path) if he gets deported back. the interview went for more than an hour, and it felt so amazing to be there using what i learned in university and through all my travels to help somebody out. it struck me that it was the second time my studies have earned me money, the first being when i wrote that article for the reno weekly about immigrants and i had to translate all the interviews. both times i was also helping out the latino community, which felt rad. when the session ended the guy totally thanked me, i felt kinda humbled and almost wanted to thank him back, then i rode off to my restaurant job with the biggest dumb grin i've had in a while.
after work i went and played chess on market street. i played really well, so well that my opponent, an old asian guy, totally finked out and went into a bullshit holding pattern of checking me from the same 2 squares so that i couldn't beat him. i told him it was crap and he launched into some lame explanation of how it was a stalemate, so i told him he played like a coward and that i considered myself the winner. it was annoying to have my victory dampened by his lack of guts, but it was rad that i was as good as someone who hangs out and pretty much plays chess all day long.
let's see what else...might start doing some documentary stuff, we have various topics in mind, and owen is down in l.a. trying to get some backing or help or whatever. owen fucking rules and mailed me some tapes for a reel i'm putting together to try and get editing jobs, plus he included in the packagean mp3 player and pretty much all the guns and roses cds, so i've been listening to use your illusion 1 and 2 pretty much solid, and though many of my housemates aren't amused, darby and i did some rocking out. darby's been have a recent memory lane tour of all the rad music from high school, she went out and bought a cypress hill record and dr dre's the chronic the other day, i have to admit that stuff sounded good.
another cool thing was that my old buddy brad and his girlfriend danielle were in town yesterday to see the shins show, i didn't go the the show but they crashed at my house afterwards and we drank some brass monkey on the back porch and had a good chat. my housemates have no problem with someone crashing here, so if any other reno folks wanted to cruise out to catch a show or whatever, it would be fine i'm sure.
tonight gonna catch dinner with brad and danielle, and then i'm still trying to decide what cool thing to take advantage of. there are 2 films i want to see, plus the guy from found magazine is talking at the bookstore where i saw steve almond. my friend megan is totally into finding notes and loveletters and weird stuff like that on the street, she even has some of them posted on her website, which is kinda voyeurish i think, but also real interesting.
i'm feeling kinda excited that i'll be visiting reno this coming weekend, i was dreading it at first but now i think it will be good fun. everyone always says reno's way better when you don't live there. i believe it.
one last thing, so much to write about today, but expect to see photos of me from the world naked bike ride. hell yeah.
Posted by bendan at June 2, 2004 04:44 PM
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