Work

You know, I've never really thought about how strange a place "work" really is. One is expected to leave all thoughts and feelings that could possible disrupt the "working environment" home. But how are you really supposed to do that? And then you have the comfort level of yourself and everyone you interact with. One little statement, seemingly harmless at the time, may have serious repercussions.

This was brought home in a very personal way a little over a week ago. I won't get into the situation, but it's made me re-think the workplace. With so many people and so many different personalities, things are bound to happen. I just hadn't imagined it was on quite this scale! It suprised me even though I've read about it and had become personally acquainted with the type of situation I dealt with last week several times while I was in high school. What I thought was that, since we are all adults, these kinds of things would be understood and not happen on such a scale.

But I was wrong. On so many different levels.

And now I realize it's not just people like me that are victims (though I find that too strong of a word) of this type of issue, but that it happens between people who are not in positions of power. I don't understand this. My situation could be justified as a slip of the tongue (even though there have been past sexual references that have made me uncomfortable) but this most recent situation is one concocted out of malice, pure malice (with possibly some obsessiveness and or craziness thrown in).

I don't understand this.

More later when I have had time to formulate my thoughts.

I must also update on my recent visit to Albuquerque.

Road Trip

So I started this post thinking I would talk about how I feel about my boyfriend's duty assignment, but I figured I talk on happy things first.

This past weekend I flew to Birmingham, Alabama to drive from there to Albuquerque, New Mexico with Ryan. Kirtland AFB is his permanent duty station. I like New Mexico. Santa Fe is a fun town and Albuquerque, while hard to spell, is a fun city also.

We made stops at Graceland (yes, I know, totally trashy, but still fun). It was cool. Worth a stop, not worth the $25 or $68 they wanted depending on if you wanted to see Elvis's mansion or his mansion AND his airplanes. For those prices, we didn't want to see either!

On to Little Rock, Arkansas. The Clinton Presidential Library was a must-see. And well worth the $7 admission fee ( of course, active military is free ). The exhibits were not what I was expecting. When I think "library" I think of books... well, there were books, but that section is restricted. The exhibits were interesting and provided background information about President Clinton and Senator Clinton. I have a picture of a newspaper clipping of Hillary in the '70s and, man, she's got some big hair! It was fun and it's a very pretty building.

Dinner with Grandpa and Pat in Alma, Arkansas at the Cracker Barrell right off the interstate. Dinner was fast and they left quickly after, but were apparently quite excited to see us and had canceled their Bridge game to eat with us. Seeing as how they had to drive about 150 miles to see us, I can't really blame them for rushing out of there.

We spent the night in Van Buren, right outside Fort Smith. Van Buren was cool. Sleeping through the alarm the next morning was not... but we ended up delaying our trip even more by spending about 2 hours at Fort Smith. They had preserved the jail and the foundations of many of the original buildings. I learned that Fort Smith played a big role in the Trail of Tears. It was really cool.

The Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial came next.

This was heartbreaking. The "park" memorial is beautiful and very well done. The museum was what got me. They had pieces of the building, items pulled from the rubble, survivors descreiptions of the event, and were playing broadcasts of the different tv stations that were reporting on the bombing. It also took you through every step of the investigation and death sentencing of McVeigh. Honestly, I was crying. It was something that I remember, but not something I'd really understood. Until then.

We spent the night in a very nice hotel in Shamrock, Texas. The lady at the gas station carded me for the lottery ticket. Yes, ma'am, I'm over 18.... For $2 people!!

The next day was all driving. Some bad food at Karl's Jr. (sad, it's good in UT, just not TX).

We were able to look at one nice apartment before they closed in Albuquerque, NM. It was nice, but too small.

The next day I flew back to DC, which is an all day event, mind you, and Ryan checked in with his base. He filled out paperwork and met some people and headed over to talk to the Housing office to get the take on the area and recommendations of places to look into. He checked out one place and signed the lease!

Ryan is now living in a 2 bdrm, 2 bath (about 1100 sq. ft.) apartment on the 6th floor with a balconey and a mountain view!! All utilities and covered parking are included in his rent which is the exact same amount as I am paying for my itty bitty (less than 500 sq. ft.) studio!

All is well. He's settling in nicely.

Ryan informed me today that he's been assigned to Security Forces.

Security Forces get deployed. All we can do is wait and see.

GW and Diversity

So in a recent article in the Hatchet, GW admits to having low numbers of minorities in attendance when compared to 5 other universities GW feels are members of it's "basket."

The article is about diversity. Does diversity equal skin color?? In the past it has, but currently, it does not. Many rising students are attempting to do away with or change affirmative action in the hopes that the focus on skin color is done away with. The fact that GW continues to count skin color as its requirement for diversity saddens me. Why not do as one of the people interviewed in the article suggests: take diversity as a mixing of ideas, not color? Ultimately, that would be the best solution rather than comparing numbers of minorities to other universities. Concentrate on the experience, on what each student is bringing to the university rather than the color of their skin.

Skin color does not necessarily equal race, either, much less make an institution diverse. I am Hispanic. But my skin color is white. I do not look like a stereotypical hispanic and in that I am very passionate in the fact that one cannot determine the background of another person simply by looking at them. I cannot say that I identify more with my caucasian heritage or my Hispanic heritage, but being biracial, I have always identified myself as Hispanic.