Happiness is....
hearing 2 50-something Southern Californians passionately talk about politics -- and what can be done about Bush, and what appalls them about the Iraq war and this administration's policies. One of the two is clearly an immigrant, perhaps Israeli, if I guess the accent. They are preparing something - an article or a presentation - about their views.
This is a Barnes & Noble cybercafe in Westlake Village, California, just around the corner from the Sotheby´s International Realty office. I parked my borrowed Mercedes alongside Jaguars and Lexus 4x4s and more Mercedes than I can count. These folks would make natural Republicans, by the preBush definition of Republican. They likely are registered Republicans.
Yet here they are, talking about what they can do, now, to make the world look more like they'd like it to.
Who knows if they've even noticed the wandering expat sitting across the aisle, typing furiously while grinning ear to ear.
They're awake! My paisanos are talking about this stuff, whatever their opinion on it. And they're looking for what they can do to change things--even if change starts with a simple article or an OpEd.
I've got a dayful of work ahead of me here. I spent the week living with 2 Weimaraner pups and the shell shocked cat they recently moved in with. That menagerie explains my absence here...and all the work I'll be catching up on today. If you want to be sure you'll never do a bit a work at home, buy 2 young Weims! They are a wonderful, rewarding, exhausting full time job.
But now their owners have returned and I've escaped to the local cyber, where nobody threatens to consume the couch or the cat or my foot or the wall or the rug or.... whatever catches the puppy eye while I'm typing at the laptop.
I'll hope to be back here at the end of the day, once the rent paying stuff's done.
This is a Barnes & Noble cybercafe in Westlake Village, California, just around the corner from the Sotheby´s International Realty office. I parked my borrowed Mercedes alongside Jaguars and Lexus 4x4s and more Mercedes than I can count. These folks would make natural Republicans, by the preBush definition of Republican. They likely are registered Republicans.
Yet here they are, talking about what they can do, now, to make the world look more like they'd like it to.
Who knows if they've even noticed the wandering expat sitting across the aisle, typing furiously while grinning ear to ear.
They're awake! My paisanos are talking about this stuff, whatever their opinion on it. And they're looking for what they can do to change things--even if change starts with a simple article or an OpEd.
I've got a dayful of work ahead of me here. I spent the week living with 2 Weimaraner pups and the shell shocked cat they recently moved in with. That menagerie explains my absence here...and all the work I'll be catching up on today. If you want to be sure you'll never do a bit a work at home, buy 2 young Weims! They are a wonderful, rewarding, exhausting full time job.
But now their owners have returned and I've escaped to the local cyber, where nobody threatens to consume the couch or the cat or my foot or the wall or the rug or.... whatever catches the puppy eye while I'm typing at the laptop.
I'll hope to be back here at the end of the day, once the rent paying stuff's done.
Labels: an american abroad
posted by Erin at
7:46 PM
5 Comments:
Welcome back ... been too long.
Good to read of the action at the next table.
By
Di Mackey, at 9:06 PM
I see you are enjoying yourself! Best regards! It´s cold here!
By
Nomadita, at 5:02 PM
It is nice to hear from you again.
By
Enric Archivell, at 5:35 PM
So glad to hear of this development - although more and more people seem to have awakened in the last few months and are now taking concrete action. Sounds like you're having a lovely time.
By
Anonymous, at 11:40 PM
Hi Dick,
Thanks for the comment. Fun to run into you over here.
You set me to thinking if I make assumptions much - I'd have told you I don't. I didn't mean to guess those particular men's political leanings but to express how the neighborhood I was in was traditionally (and still) a Republican stronghold. The cars are culture shock for me, big time, as they were the first time I moved here, in 1998...but they weren't the reason I suggested Republican -- Most of the folks in this area are incredibly wealthy, and politically Republican for fiscal policy beliefs ---often as a result of their experience as sr execs of large local corporations, Amgen, eg, or as business owners.
When I moved from here in 2002, I left a neighborhood of passionate Bush fans and lifelong Republicans. In fact I am typing this on the PC of just such a person--and he drives a Ford truck.
Makes hearing what I am hearing and seeing what I am seeing all the more powerful for me, cars and hopefully assumptions far aside.
By
Erin, at 5:19 PM
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