The first time I saw an earthship, I was driving outside of Taos, New Mexico.
The earthship appeared as a small bump on otherwise flat terrain. But looking closer, I saw another bump, and another. It was a community of earthships.
Earthships are self-sufficient homes that generate their own heat from active solar systems, heat their own water with passive solar systems, grow their own food in indoor gardens along large south-facing windows, collect their own water from rain and snow, and treat their own waste and gray water. Michael Reynolds, the original architect for earthships, constructed earthships from recycled tires filled with dirt. The tires act as large bricks that form walls that are three-feet thick. They are considered autonomous dwellings, yet they are are usually found in communities, such as the developments outside of Taos.
With a concept of self-sufficiency so inspiring, what could the downsides be? While financing is available at two banks in Taos for local earthships, finding financing for a mortgage elsewhere may be difficult. Likewise, while zoning requirements are now met in Taos, an earthship may be difficult to build legally elsewhere. And reselling may also be awkward.
And then there is the larger issue of autonomy. Are human beings really that autonomous? Our utility systems connect conventional homes to a grid, but we are connected in familial relationships as well to one another. While the earthships in Taos are in developments, the concept of an earthship is to make each unit self-sufficient. And while we do want to decrease resource use, we don’t necessarily want to encourage a mentality of every family for itself.
No, this is not a post about memoir writing.
It is a post about making yourself feel better during the workday.
Please, follow these steps.
1. Locate a blog from your college (or even high school, for greater effect). I’ll lend you one from Wesleyan, if you don’t have one, or perhaps from Smith, but the Smith blogs look like a marketing effort on behalf of admissions. I’ve checked for New Mexico Highlands, where I did my teaching program, but alas I’m not sure people blog much in rural New Mexico.
2. When you have a spare moment during the workday, just check the posts and see if anything seems familiar.
For example, today’s post on Wesleying, titled, “Email Us Your Events, Jerkfaces,” was a somber reminder of the difficulties of scheduling. Plus, points are given for the use of “jerkfaces” in a sentence. That made me smile. That was honest.
Reading further, I found lots of pictures of Wesleyan students, which Anne has pointed out just look like another version of us fifteen years ago. Except they are much hipper. It might have been nice to go to school when grunge wasn’t popular.
As you scroll, note how the same exact campus problems exist in 2006 as in 1992: drug parties at Eclectic House. Shocking. No housing for juniors. I’m floored. A list of supposed rapists on the first floor of the women’s room in the campus center. Yup. Know it. This could have been written fifteen years ago.
3. Now, feeling the tickle of college anxiety and angst, continue to wander around on this blog for a while.
In the case of Wesleying, you will find links to an anonymous board of Wesleyan students posting their particular challenges, which seem to consist of lots and lots of crushes and one guy having sex with a young woman who was menstruating and being puzzled (nay, annoyed) by this fact.*
And with that, I had to stop reading, because looking back had served its purpose. The trick is appreciating how different life can be. Nothing was harder than college. Nothing. And I’m not even sure why. I had to show up for meals and classes and work and study. But it was literally the most difficult time of my life. And one of the best things about college is that at some point, it ended, I got a series of jobs, earned some money, met my spouse, bought a house, and did not have to post anonymous crushes on livejournal. Ahem. Not that livejournal existed back in the day. But if it had, I would definitely be the woman who menstruated who had someone post about it the next day.
*Note to Wesleyan Men who encounter Menstruating Women: It happens, kids, and trust me, you are not seeming worldly by complaining about having to wash the sheets. Vaginas had a biological purpose long before it was housing your penis during recreational sex. Must I recommend Our Bodies, Ourselves: A New Edition for a New Era
Why not make a few changes in your daily work life to improve your life and the environment? No one is nourished by working in a sterile wasteland of paper and computers.
1. Bring in plants. And then fertilize them with organic fertilizer, such as Plantea, so that you don’t have to see them wither and die in the office. There’s almost nothing sadder.
2. Stop printing so much. I see this statistic over and over: the average office worker prints 10,000 pages a year. Can you imagine? And once you’re done with it, recycle it.
3. Get your supplies at an eco-wholesaler.
4. Recycle your old computers. They have stuff in them you don’t want in the ground. Yes, I’m feeling very technical this morning.
5. Putting your computer to sleep rather than leaving it on and running saves electricity. Turning it off saves more electricity and if you’re replacing it every couple of years you won’t wear out anything too much. See how low can you go for more.
Via Ideal Bite.
Read a Primer on Making Your Office a Greener Place for more tips.
Let’s get one thing straight: I know Nanowrimo is a crazy idea. I’m going to do it anyway.
Now, is anyone else doing this? Because you could make Ms. Theologian your friend on Nanowrimo, where she currently has no friends. (You could also make her your friend on myspace, where she currently has 25 friends, roughly the same amount as other pariahs.)
Yes, I am committing to writing 1000-2000 words a day of a new novel for the month of November. And I’m also committing that the novel’s main characters will not be 17-20 years old because I’m really tired of being told I write YA. I realize that may involve a bit of a stretch for my emotional range, but I’m going to do it. I even made a very loose outline based on The Writer’s Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers. 
If you haven’t read this book, it’s a good one, but it will make you feel like a total hack for following such a prescriptive outline. On the other hand, it makes your story have a beginning, middle, end, and an arc. All good things. The basic flow is this
Act One
Ordinary World
Call to Adventure
Refusal of the Call
Meeting with the Mentor
Crossing the First Threshold
Act Two
Tests, Allies, Enemies
Approach to the Inmost Cave
Supreme Ordeal
Act Three
The Road Back
Resurrection
Return With Elixir
Now if I only knew what the elixir is and who the mentor is, I’d be all set.
I’m really not into traditional electricity. Electricity is generated mostly at plants fueled by coal. And coal is just gross. By gross, I mean that burning coal releases carbon dioxide, which we all know is a greenhouse gas. Coal is nasty. It’s just about the dirtiest fuel around other than say nuclear energy, which keeps trying to slip in under the label of “alternative.” Yeah, it’s an alternative. A really bad alternative. Anyhoo, back to coal-burning electrical plants….
Despite saying that she will pursue renewable sources of energy, the governor of Kansas, Kathleen Sebelius has pursued the option of opening three electricity plants rather than any wind generated electricity.
If built, the plants will belch out about 13 millions of carbon dioxide a year, to become the largest new source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Global warming, anyone? These plants would be the equivalent of putting an additional 2 million additional gas-powered cars, light trucks and SUVs on the road. And the expansion could increase the mercury emitted from coal-fired power plants in Kansas by up to 80%.
Read the article at Treehugger. You can email Kathleen Sebelius here. I just did.
One of my favorite stories about Wesleyan is about the student graduation speaker who snipped off his pony tail and said that it was time to go underground (Anne, wasn’t that your year?). He meant it was time to go underground into Corporate America post-graduation. I can only hope that worked out. It’s harder than it seems.
Halloween is my favorite holiday for similar reasons. It appears to be all about candy and Disney costumes, but it’s also an expression of the pagan holiday, Samhain, which is as old as human beings. Halloween is the above the ground expression of Samhain, which has gone underground.
Samhain is the celebration of the dead. In Selena Fox’s description of Samhain, she tells of how she takes time to reflect on the changes in nature, honors the people who have died in the year, feasts, and eventually parties. Jim and I have been doing geneological research during the past couple of months, and I think we’ll find a way to honor the people we never knew of until now.
Here’s Selena Fox’s suggestions for celebrating Samhain:
Set up an altar in your home to honor departed loved ones and ancestors, or, if you already have such an altar, place offerings and light a candle there. As done in ancient times, set a place at your table for your spirit friends and relatives, and serve them some of the food and drink you share at your Samhain feast. Throw a Come as You Were Party and have everyone dress up as they were in another life. Set lighted carved pumpkins around your home to bless it. Magically make a resolution to break out of a negative habit pattern and begin a healthier way of being. Do divination on the year ahead.
This is a time of spiritual renewal, a spiritual new year for pagans. It’s a time to let go of the old and welcome in the new. And it’s time to appreciate what’s underground.
Halloween Resources:
The Circle Sanctuary
2006 Samhain Festival: Honoring the Dead
Samhain: The Spiritual New Year
Send a Halloween Card
Make Magazine’s Halloween Projects
Homemade Halloween Costume Ideas
Homemade Makeup and Bruises
Vegetarian Recipes for Autumn
A Happy Birthday to Myfanwy Collins!
Now if you’re like me and you’re so forgetful that you forget your own mother’s birthday on a regular basis (hence that tattoo), you might not be prepared for Myfanwy’s birthday. But fear not. For several weeks, I’ve been saving photos of these luscious gifts. I can’t imagine a better gift. Wait, clothes, wine, chocolate. Never mind. I can, in fact, imagine far better gifts. But these will have to do.
Yes, it’s Diwali Barbie. Toys R Us says: The most important and magical festival celebrated in India is Diwali. Homes are decorated with marigolds and mango leaves, thousands of oil diyas or lamps are lit as auspicious symbols of good luck, and everyone enjoys sweets to the sound of firecrackers and revelers. Diwali Barbie doll wears a traditional teal sari with golden detailing, a lovely pink shawl wrap, and exotic jewelry. The final detail is a bindi on the forehead - a jewel or a mark worn by Hindu women to indicate that they are married. Doll cannot stand alone.
Did you read that? Doll cannot stand alone. Of course not! We wouldn’t want her to be self-supporting! And as One Brown Woman says, “But this is to diversify for all the brown children who need a Barbie to look up to!” Just to clarify: she’s kidding. No one needs Barbie to look up to. Besides she can’t stand up on her own anyway.
And let’s not forget that it’s important to exercise! We can’t play with Diwali Barbie all day.
Yes, I’m not sure if the stripping as exercise fad has spread far from Los Angeles where even here in suburban Santa Clarita there are exercise classes to teach us girls to strip for our hubs. But if mama does it, no doubt it’s okay for her girls too. And our girls can use the stripper pole while wearing their padded Bratz bras. As long as they’ve turned six years old. Not a day before. We have values here in Santa Clarita.
Most importantly, a happy birthday to Myfanwy! Go out and avoid purchasing these gifts for her today!
These are via feministing.
October 24th was Take Back Your Time Day. Despite writing this post ten days ahead of time, I forgot to actually post the draft. Whoops. Good thing you can take back your time any day of the week.
The main goal of Take Back Your Time Dayis to call attention to the overworked nature of life in the United States and to begin a discussion about how to address it.
The political agenda of Take Back Your Time Day follows:
Calling on our political leaders for action, we are bringing together individuals and organizations in support of the “Time to Care” public policy agenda:
Guaranteeing paid leave for all parents for the birth or adoption of a child. Today, only 40% of Americans are able to take advantage of the 12 weeks of unpaid leave provided by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.
Guaranteeing at least one week of paid sick leave for all workers. Many Americans work while sick, lowering productivity and endangering other workers.
Guaranteeing at least three weeks of paid annual vacation leave for all workers. Studies show that 28% of all female employees and 37% of women earning less than $40,000 a year receive no paid vacation at all.
Placing a limit on the amount of compulsory overtime work that an employer can impose, with our goal being to give employees the right to accept or refuse overtime work.
Making Election Day a holiday, with the understanding that Americans need time for civic and political participation
Making it easier for Americans to choose part-time work. Hourly wage parity and protection of promotions and pro-rated benefits for part-time workers.
Take Back Your Time Day is an initiative of the Simplicity Forum and the Center for Religion, Ethics, and Social Policy at Cornell.
If you haven’t been following Oliver Davies application process to a hundred jobs for which he’s not qualified, you might want to start. It’s terribly amusing. And, sadly, it mimics our own job application process, no?
Job No. 52 - Psychic Medium
In the past I have come across jobs that seemed interesting, I’ve come across jobs that looked a possible match and I’ve even come across the odd job that felt right - but, up until now, I’d never come across a job that was my destiny…Today, while take an afternoon stroll around the internet, I stumbled across a vacancy for a Psychic Medium in Glasgow (on a Wednesday) - and the advert stated that “Only those who feel that working with the Tarot and the Psychic Arts is their destiny need apply”. Well, I have to admit, I wasn’t sure whether it was my destiny or not, so I decided that I should check by using the full spectrum of paranormal fortune telling at my disposal.
1) First of all I tried an online tarot reading - which gave me the following answer: “The essence of air behaving as water, such as a refreshing mist”
2) Then I decided that I should try out Stichomancy - which basically involves asking a question and then selecting a random passage from a book which is meant to offer insight. My tome of choice was the Yellow Pages and I received the following answer: “Peking Chef, Chinese Take-away, 01642 767070.”
3) Finally, I decided to consult the I-Ching which turned up Hexagram 42 to represent the future giving me the answer. “There will be advantage in every movement which shall be undertaken, and it will even be advantageous to cross the great stream.”
Now, this all made perfect sense to me.
Read the rest of the post here.
A long time ago, when I did not want to be pregnant, I tried to get a prescription for Plan B through my doctor.
As you may know, Plan B is not an abortion pill. It is simply a larger dose of birth control pills that prevents an egg from being released, an egg from being fertilized, or a fertilized egg from implanting. If you are already pregnant, it does not work (because it is not an abortion pill).
Unfortunately, my doctor wouldn’t prescribe it to me (and the receptionist literally snarled, “We don’t do that here.”) Instead, the doctor gave me a lecture on how Jim and I really wanted a baby despite being unmarried, poor, and in graduate school (and virtually unemployable as a minister once noticeably pregnant). She then told me how she hadn’t wanted her child when she became pregnant, so she had thrown herself from a table to the ground trying to induce a miscarriage, but now her daughter was grown and she was happy.
Why did I go to this doctor? Because she was covered by my insurance. Why didn’t I go to Planned Parenthood? Because I would have had to pay a great deal more because it wasn’t covered by my insurance and even a sliding scale fee is more than a co-pay.
In the end, I opted to just walk out of her office because as I said to Jim, “That doctor is a lunatic.”
Now, I thought my experience was unique, but apparently this experience in frustration and desperation is very widespread. Plan B is totally legal, and as of January, it will be available without a prescription, if you are over 18. But just because it’s legal doesn’t mean that it’s accessible. A doctor may choose not to write a prescription and a pharmacist may choose not to fill the prescription.
I do think that doctors should not prescribe pills that are against their own ethical beliefs. I really do. I just think they should post a sign somewhere or inform patients that their own ethical beliefs are more important than the patient’s wishes. I think there is a great deal of misinformation about Plan B circulating and I think doctors need to recommend alternatives other than having children. For example, EC-Help lists where Plan B is available directly from the pharmacy rather than dealing with a reluctant or unwilling physician.
And if you haven’t followed Biting Beaver’s saga, in which no one (doctors, emergency rooms, pharmacists) would prescribe Plan B after a condom broke, and she became pregnant and had an abortion as she would die if she had another child, you should read it here.
In the meantime, I hope you will read about Emergency Kindness, a plan to get Plan B to women who request it without any judgment or questions and consider becoming a Jane.
Via Feministing
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While recovering from surgery and while the power was out, I was forced to pick up Real Simple. It isn’t bad, though it seems to emphasize purchasing crap and eating meat as the key to living simply. Cuz if you just roast a chicken in five ways, that’s real simple!
In any case, in one good article, Letting Go of Your To-Do List, Gail Blanke, a personal coach, gave five steps to living more (I’m paraphrasing):
1. Ask yourself how easy, simple, delightful you could make a task during the day.
2. Stop measuring yourself based on your much you get done and celebrate instead how much you discover.
3. Look up from your to-do list three times a day to take in your surroundings.
4. Listen to the people you love best.
5. Look for magical moments.
I thought she truly had some great ideas and she can’t be held to blame articles for five ways of roasting chicken. You can see Gail here on You-Tube talking about transitions and about leaving your job here.
The LA Times has a fascinating story in this morning’s paper about how job requirements in Mexico are a tad different than in the United States. For example, check out this job ad:
Position: route driver
Education: high school diploma or technical school
Sex: male
Age: 25 to 30
Height: minimum 5 feet, 9 inches
Weight: 154 to 176 pounds
Documents: proof of military service; truck license
Experience: driving a 3 1/2 -ton truck; knowledge of the metro area
Appearance: good presentation
Live: in or near the southwest side of Mexico City
Other: don’t apply if you don’t meet this profile 100%
You probably thought that sort of discrimination was illegal. Well, this is Mexico. But, wait! What company is that? Oh, it’s just Coca-Cola, engaging in discriminating policies outside of U.S. law. Nice move, Coke! What about looking for the best qualified candidate?
I’m recovering from surgery. I also have a headache. Those two are related.
On Friday afternoon, I had dental implants installed, and “installed” is exactly the right word, because it denotes home improvement and carpentry. Basically, the oral surgeon drilled two screws into my upper jaw, much like you might screw a cabinet into the studs in a wall. The screws will serve as the roots for two crowns. I tried to use Tonglen meditation during the process, but breathing into the pain seemed much more difficult than, say, actual breathing, so I just counted my breaths until it was done (278 breaths) Then I was released to my husband with a piece of bloody gauze sticking out of my mouth, a bottle of painkillers, and a bottle of antibiotics.
Surgery on Friday afternoon took an hour. Recovery takes six months during which I’m sort of on a modified liquid diet. I say modified because I’ve never successfully followed a diet for more than a week. In any case, it was the headache the next day that was the problem. That headache was like:
a. I had consumed a bottle of red wine and then smashed repeatedly the bottle against my head; or
b. I had reclined in the street and let a tractor roll over my face; or
c. I had reclined in the chair at an oral surgeon, paid him thousands of dollars, and had him drill two screws into my jaw.
The painkillers were Tylenol with Codeine, which frankly are not so much “painkillers” as much as “pain dampeners” and possibly “hunger exacerbaters.” Despite knowing about the surgery for three years and having pages of instructions on what I could eat, nothing that I bought ahead of time was appropriate. Nothing.
So, the next day, this lead us to Whole Foods, or as it is frequently called Whole Paycheck (Note: Type “Whole Paycheck” into google and you get Whole Foods, I kid you not), where we spent $85 on frozen fruit for smoothies, most of which I blended in about 2 hours. So that’s really only $42.50/hour worth of food for me.
But back to our still-drug-induced self-indulgent rambling account of surgery.
So now, I’ve taken my antibiotics and painkillers, and we have Rob the contractor here installing heat even though it’s 85 degrees, but he’s available, so that’s fine because we really do want heat eventually and we’re afraid if we send him away we will not see him until January. (Note: We like Rob. We really do. Please, Rob, if you read this, come back and finish the heat. Please. We’ll pay you whatever you want. Seriously.)
But then power goes out because of some work in the neighborhood, and it stays out for five hours, until it comes back on suddenly and sets Jim’s computer aflame. That’s right–a power surge set the computer on fire despite being plugged into a surge protector.
It’s a good thing we were here because otherwise the house would have burned down. So upon seeing the flames shooting out of the back of Jim’s computer, we doused the flames with frozen fruit. Just kidding. It was an electrical fire. We unplugged the computer, turned off the power, the fire went out. And then we kicked the computer repeatedly simply because it was there.
Whenever I say I’ve been a vegetarian for twenty years, someone who knew me during 1992-1994 always wants to step forward with a story about a bacon double cheeseburger and me. Yes, there have been slips. I’m not a purist. I’m still not a purist. I eat fish, occasionally, and eggs and cheese sometimes. I mostly eat those items when there’s nothing else.
I became a vegetarian at a steak house when I was twelve. It seemed gross and hypocritical to me to eat a steak and look at the stuffed heads of dead cows on the wall at the same time. And frankly it still does. The more I read about animals rights (that is the right to live without unnecessary pain and suffering and premature death), the less I could consider eating meat.
This decision drove my mother insane. Until, of course, she became a vegetarian herself. I like to think her decision was influenced by her cats, who are her companions throughout the day. I think that when you have an animal companion you understand that animals think, feel pain, and suffer just as we do. A few examples:
Scientists at the University of Guelph have learned that pigs and chickens will choose to turn on the heat in a cold barn if given the chance and to turn it off again when they are too warm, and University of Bristol researchers have observed that chickens will complete a difficult maze to reach a nest instead of laying their eggs on the barn floor. Perhaps you read the recent New York Times article about the ability of sheep to recognize the faces of 50 or more other sheep or humans from photographs, even if they haven’t seen the other sheep or humans in two years? In Pennsylvania, a farm welfare researcher has shown that sows like to play video games, and that they play the games better than some primates. And a researcher in Saskatchewan is studying the complex social lives of cattle, finding that they interact in ways very similar to the ways we interact. These scientists join sanctuary owners and many small farmers in recognizing that animals are individuals, with feelings just like our own.
So, I was absolutely thrilled to see that MSNBC has a Your Vegetarian Questions Answered column. For years vegetarianism has been kept in the realm of the Vegetarian Times, which contained recipes that took so much time to make they actually constituted a full-time job. That’s not to say I don’t have a subscription. Of course I do. And more recently, they have realized that not everyone has a life to devote to legumes and changed their ways.
What does this have to do with spirituality?
Spirituality is all about connection. I feel the most connected when I can grow my own food or when I can pick it out at the farmer’s market, and cook it myself without knowing that another being died in the production of my lunch. And so I’ve made my connection with vegetables and to the Earth.
I also think that our attitudes toward the other living beings have been shaped by misinterpretations of the Bible. In Genesis 1, we read that man has “dominion” over animals to “subdue.” This particular line (Gen 1:28) was interpreted in terms of a manifest destiny to conquer and kill.
But it doesn’t have to be and the original intention may not have been so. In The Dominion of Love, author Norm Phelps, argues that the message of compassion and love should be applied to our non-human companions on Earth In Good News for All Creation, author Stephen Kaufman argues that “dominion” means stewardship for all God’s creatures.
Additional resources for thinking of vegetarianism:
The Vegetarian Resource Group
The Vegetarian Times
Go Veg
Vegan Aphrodisiacs
Vegetarian Recipes
Nature is not only for humankind. Ask Aldo Leopold or John Muir. (Note: I know they’re dead. But you can pretend) But nature does have a remarkable ability to heal human beings.
One consistent tip that I hear from people trying to cope with their work lives is to integrate being outside into their daily patterns. And often being outside often occurs for us in the city.
Daniel Harper has an excellent post on how to locate nature in the city. And, yes, of course, the city is part of an ecosystem, or contains many ecosystem.
Among his tips to note the:
Interrelationships between humans and other species
Humans as food sources (e.g., squirrels and human trash, pigeons eating bread crumbs, etc.)
Humans as habitat providers (e.g., raptors which nest on skyscrapers, rats living in subways, etc.)
Species humans kill (e.g., roadkill, rat traps, etc.)
Emotional and spiritual effect of other species on humans
Did you know that working parents spend more time with their children now than working parents did in the 1960s?
For married mothers, the time spent on child care activities increased to an average of 12.9 hours a week in 2000, from 10.6 hours in 1965. For married fathers, the time spent on child care more than doubled, to 6.5 hours a week, from 2.6 hours. Single mothers reported spending 11.8 hours a week on child care, up from 7.5 hours in 1965.
Housework apparently takes the biggest hit. But who lies on her deathbed thinking that she should have vaccuumed more? Not I.
Blessed are You, O Lord our God,
Wellspring of all that is.
You are the sea on which we float,
You are the wind that fills our sails,
You are the storm that buffets us,
You are the calm that brings us peace.
Open our ears to hear Your word,
Open our eyes to see Your beauty,
Open our hearts to be warmed by Your love.
Free us from our lonely prisons of fear and selfishness,
And make us over, day by day, into bearers of Your peace.
richard rosenberg
from World Prayers
I’m always up for a good tampon story, particularly one that involves a Mormon feminist being exhausted after a long day at work.
Needless to say, my normally cheerful disposition was somewhere else, possibly with the back door key. Suddenly–and I swear they materialized out of the polluted mist–about 8 very large black men surrounded me. I mention race not because it initially intimidated me (I’d read all sorts of stuff about how crime rarely crosses racial barriers) but because the men kept calling me “white girl” while they shoved me back and forth between them like a wind-up car that hits one wall and then just changes direction. While pushing me and calling me things I won’t repeat, they informed me they were going to take my purse. They didn’t rip it away–just tugged on the strap and shoved me.
Like I said, I felt tired and cranky. If I’d been smart I’d have just handed over the purse and tried to run for it while they looked for money. Instead, all the humiliation of the last 10 minutes, my headache, the @#%$^& missing key, and my ridiculous embarassment at being white converged on a point of utter bitchiness. I stomped my foot, held the purse out in front of me, and yelled, “FINE! IF YOU WANT A BAG FULL OF TAMPAX, BE MY BLOODY GUEST!”
The men took literal steps backwards. They held up their hands, as though my purse contained a gun. About half of them looked at their feet. I shook the purse at them again and made a “Hmmph!” noise. Finally, the guy who I guess was the leader looked me straight in the eye, gave me a big grin, and said, “You’re a cool white girl. We’ll walk you to your door.”