I bring this up only because there is a elderly woman on campus who sets off my "danger sense" whenever I'm near her. She's been attending the school as a student for some time now as an art major, or at least she's enrolled in classes as an evaluator, I'm not sure the circumstances. Suffice it to say I don't know why she's in the college and I wish she weren't.
This particular woman has mood swings, I'd say bi-polar but really I'm thinking crazy. One day nice old woman with a cart that's always with her, next day hissing viper. I've even been warned by one instructor to avoid contact with the old lady as she's not stable. Physically I don't think she's scary but it's the fact that I couldn't easily deal with her if she flipped, that makes me uncomfortable. I mean you can't just punch someone that's mean.
Anyway I'd say she's lonely but she treats everyone like shit. Except the pigeons. Still I can't say that's a redeeming quality.
Thinking about her made me think of Terry Pratchett and how he feels about his Alzheimer's disease. I'd hate to get to a point where people only have to glance at me to see that something's wrong, and that everyone would be powerless to do anything about it.
Before writing this post I had to look up the infamous Dr. Kevorkian and see exactly what that man is about. I've only ever heard his name as associated with evil and I think that when a person gets that kind of reputation in controversy you need to know more about the situation.
He claimed to have helped 130 patients and was convicted on a video of his assisting a patient with als to kill himself. I've heard it said that suicide is one of the most selfish acts a person can commit but when a person can't move their limbs, or is in constant pain with no relief other than to lose their ability to think, I'm not convinced that that state something that we should inflict on them.
The scariest thing to me is to "lose my mind" and no longer be me. It seems to me to be a type of living death or worse that someone has stolen my identity to destroy the memory of me. This is an area in which I think careful consideration must be taken in every case but the rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness surely include the rights of choosing how to die (part of life) and how to live your life(liberty) and if a person is trying to end pain and misery (happiness) then I think that our country ought to support people in these hard situations instead of ostracizing them.
None of which helps me when I think of the crazy old lady. She'll live on just to spite people like me.
Friday, June 18, 2010
Friday, June 11, 2010
Why presentation is everything.
So tonight was a bit off the beaten path in thought processes for me. First I went to my old apartment to check the mail. Since I'm not sure quite how many people I still need to notify about my change in address. Anyway the story starts when I reach the door outside the old building.
There was a woman and child in the foyer of where a person goes to check the mail. The door is locked so that only residents can enter the building with keys from management. As I was walking up this lady kindly opens the door for me, as I'm walking my bike in. I go to check the mail and she then approaches me and asks me in a sweet little voice.
"Do you smoke weed?"
Now this has caught me quite off guard since for the first time in my life I am now being approached by a drug dealer. I shouldn't be surprised when this happens since I'm now an art student with long hair and I often forget to shave. I'm looking kinda hippy right now.
Needless to say I wasn't prepared for this and my brain caused me to double take. At first I wondered if she was asking me for some, and I my immediate reaction was nope I don't have any. I've never had any, I've just never sought it out and that's the type of thing that usually requires some hunting before you get it.
Anyway she corrected me and showed me a bag of what I assume was weed, and told me I could have it for some price that included $5 it might have been 5 45 25 or any such but speaking as soft as she did I wasn't quite sure I had the right number. It was a small bag but from what I hear which isn't much the price seemed low maybe? I couldn't tell.
My wallet was in my back pocket and at this point seeing the woman's child I felt really charitable. But for some reason my hands pulled the I can't find my wallet even though it's right next to my butt. Not that I could have bought anything. I'm a student, it's nearly always empty.
So anyway she left telling me an apartment I could go to if I wanted to pick some up. Now here's the part where time and presentation change. I go sort my mail and find I infact have money in my wallet as I'm planning on seeing the Hoover Dam this weekend and I figured I should have money to buy a ticket when I get there. But the woman and child have me feeling like I could be a savior so I head to the named apartment.
I have in my head an idea that she's a single mom who's selling marijuana to support her kid while trying to make it in the big city. (I'm a sucker for a good sob story) And here's a guy who can help her by making a small donation to this worthy cause.
But as I walk down the hallway towards the door numbered W336 I hear two things that stop me cold in my tracks.
1. Loud music. I lived in a place where people couldn't resist playing loud music at the worst times of day. 8am -3am you could have your ears accosted at any time from somebody who didn't realize that other people didn't want to hear your sh*t at any time let alone 10 at night when finals are tomorrow and someone need to study.
2. The deal breaker: a loud angry man voice, this shatters my first illusion, that I might help out a single quiet mom who's got a poor kid to care for. Next when the loud man voice stops I hear a loud woman voice. Suddenly if I want to get myself narcotics which I'm not used to in the first place, I have to enter in on a fight between two people who sound like they're arguing about money, work, and other life details that frankly I deal with without fighting people over.
I'll grant you here that I'm a coward. I could deal with a woman who posed no threat, but I wasn't ready to deal with 2 people in a bad mood.
I like hero. I don't like nosy neighbor who complains about the music and enters when others are talking(or shouting) serious matters. I tiptoe away hoping that one day I can be a knight in shining armor (who gets the gold of course) to someone who doesn't go from madam to monster in 10 minutes.
There was a woman and child in the foyer of where a person goes to check the mail. The door is locked so that only residents can enter the building with keys from management. As I was walking up this lady kindly opens the door for me, as I'm walking my bike in. I go to check the mail and she then approaches me and asks me in a sweet little voice.
"Do you smoke weed?"
Now this has caught me quite off guard since for the first time in my life I am now being approached by a drug dealer. I shouldn't be surprised when this happens since I'm now an art student with long hair and I often forget to shave. I'm looking kinda hippy right now.
Needless to say I wasn't prepared for this and my brain caused me to double take. At first I wondered if she was asking me for some, and I my immediate reaction was nope I don't have any. I've never had any, I've just never sought it out and that's the type of thing that usually requires some hunting before you get it.
Anyway she corrected me and showed me a bag of what I assume was weed, and told me I could have it for some price that included $5 it might have been 5 45 25 or any such but speaking as soft as she did I wasn't quite sure I had the right number. It was a small bag but from what I hear which isn't much the price seemed low maybe? I couldn't tell.
My wallet was in my back pocket and at this point seeing the woman's child I felt really charitable. But for some reason my hands pulled the I can't find my wallet even though it's right next to my butt. Not that I could have bought anything. I'm a student, it's nearly always empty.
So anyway she left telling me an apartment I could go to if I wanted to pick some up. Now here's the part where time and presentation change. I go sort my mail and find I infact have money in my wallet as I'm planning on seeing the Hoover Dam this weekend and I figured I should have money to buy a ticket when I get there. But the woman and child have me feeling like I could be a savior so I head to the named apartment.
I have in my head an idea that she's a single mom who's selling marijuana to support her kid while trying to make it in the big city. (I'm a sucker for a good sob story) And here's a guy who can help her by making a small donation to this worthy cause.
But as I walk down the hallway towards the door numbered W336 I hear two things that stop me cold in my tracks.
1. Loud music. I lived in a place where people couldn't resist playing loud music at the worst times of day. 8am -3am you could have your ears accosted at any time from somebody who didn't realize that other people didn't want to hear your sh*t at any time let alone 10 at night when finals are tomorrow and someone need to study.
2. The deal breaker: a loud angry man voice, this shatters my first illusion, that I might help out a single quiet mom who's got a poor kid to care for. Next when the loud man voice stops I hear a loud woman voice. Suddenly if I want to get myself narcotics which I'm not used to in the first place, I have to enter in on a fight between two people who sound like they're arguing about money, work, and other life details that frankly I deal with without fighting people over.
I'll grant you here that I'm a coward. I could deal with a woman who posed no threat, but I wasn't ready to deal with 2 people in a bad mood.
I like hero. I don't like nosy neighbor who complains about the music and enters when others are talking(or shouting) serious matters. I tiptoe away hoping that one day I can be a knight in shining armor (who gets the gold of course) to someone who doesn't go from madam to monster in 10 minutes.
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