I haven't posted lately because I have gotten into a routine, which leads me to think that I have nothing new and exciting to share. But that's not entirely true! I have been hopping all around seeing people: In DC for a mini-reunion of Bolivia study abroad friends. In New York with Amherst friends for my first Passover, which I loved. In New York again for a one-night stop at a rally to pass a Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights; unexpectedly saw Aya Hamano, who is interning for oh-so-awesome Domestic Workers United (dream job...). In Williamsburg to see Jeff Gang and Kate Silverman. And lastly in Florida with my mom to visit my grandmother at her old-people's community for a long weekend. The last was a lot of mom and Abu (short for Abuela) time. On the one hand, Abu gave me the most amazing facial. On the other, I had to get in the car with her. (Abu still drives with two feet: We're zooming up to a red light. I see it's red. Does she see it's red? I'm in the backseat. She's hard of hearing, so if I tell her it's red, she probably won't hear me. Oh wait, she does see that it's red, because we're ten feet away and she's slamming on the break with her left foot while simultaneously still pressing the gas with her right. Owww.) There were no shortage of interesting, hilarious moments over the weekend, which I could only laugh about (slightly horrified) to myself: Abu calling brown-skinned lawn workers "terroristas" because their faces were covered with bandanas. A book titled "The Latina's Bible" prompting a conversation about whether we're latino (my mom: absolutely yes; my grandmother: absolutely no, we're Hispanic). My grandmother's new-ish male companion inflaming all my feminist impulses as he tells me that "I need to make her a great-grandmother" and "she needs taking care of". These moments aside, though, the weekend was so good. So much amazing cooking. So much Spanish and Spanglish. So much sunshine.
Things have been happening in my day-to-day routine, too. The weather has gotten beautiful, so I have been spending my work days door-knocking. I show up on someone's doorstep and tell them who I am and, if they're not completely suspicious, which is more often than not, they invite me in, introduce me to everyone in their family, offer me cafecito, and show me all the repairs they've done on the house. It feels like real community-building by intentionally making relationships, and I love it. It's amazing how friendly people are.
On the other hand, this week I was assigned to take on homophobia in the workplace. Yikes. One of my bosses outed a coworker at a recent meeting in front of our entire staff (in itself grounds for a lawsuit), and then picked me to facilitate a staff retreat to address "our conflicts" with sexuality. After all, she says, we want to be "tolerant". I cringe. Maybe I will just show up with Amherst's own "Gay? Fine by me." t-shirts and call it a day.
Lastly, most excitingly, I bought this book yesterday with a gift certificate: The Bread Bible. I am going to bake my way through it! Flatbreads? Yes! Sourdough? Yes! Scones? Yes! I will never buy bread again! Yeast is my new best friend! And Megan, I will figure out how to make it gluten-free if I have to!
I am going to bake up a bread storm for all of you here so soon!
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