Wednesday, May 28, 2003

My sincerest apologies for the lack of postings. Y'know how it is, with the school and the job and the family and stuff.

Today I become a man. Er, not really. Today I'm taking my written driving exam in Pleasanton, California, and with any luck I will end my afternoon with a permit in my hand. That means that I can legally drive as long as there is a licensed driver at least 25 years of age in the vehicle with me. Why did I wait until I was 19? Well, the recent laws for minors under which I fall because I was born in September of 1983 (Spetember 11, oddly enough) were too strict for me to happily to comply, so I waited till those laws didn't apply to me. Then I've spent my entire adulthood living in Berkeley, where having a car is a burdon (especially 'cause all your loser friends want a ride to BevMo and Ikea and shit). Furthermore, my budget doesn't really allow for a car and gas and insurance. But I'm gonna go ahead with it anyway.

Tomorrow I'm flying from Oakland to Long Beach to see my mom's graduation. (All told only $72 round trip with JetBlue! Includes taxes and handling fees! Three months ago when gas prices were higher, this cost would have been cheaper than driving.) It would be neat if she was finally graduating high school despite years of racial oppression and institutionalized racism. That would be really touching. Actually, she's white, and if we learned anything from the extended commentative ranting on CalStuff, it's that people can't be racist against us white folks. And actually, she's getting her Master's Degree, not her high school diploma. A little less touching, I guess. But very impressive nontheless. I'm pretty sure she got her Master's in early developmental education down the block from my house at Cal State Long Beach. She's been teaching inner-city kindergarten kids for something like 17 years now, and doing an awesome job to boot, so she thought it was about time she got a piece of paper to corroborate what everyone in her school already knows: that she's really fuckin' smart and a really fuckin' good teacher. Congratulations, Mom, and I love you. See you tomorrow. My flight lands at 10:40am, and I'll get on the 111 bus soon after then (since I'm not checking any baggage), so I'll be at the house by about 11-ish. You can go and run some errands if you want; I have my own house key still. The reservation for Macaroni Grill is at 7:30 on Friday? I look forward to seeing Uncle Mike and Steve and Landon and Allison. Oh, yeah, my mom doesn't know how to use computers, so I guess she wouldn't be reading this. Well, if any of you know her, send along my message.

posted by Rebecca C. Brown at 8:38 AM

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