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SNAP COUNTRY USA
WHY READ THE INTERNET
ANYWHERE ELSE
DING
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December 7, 2009
It's now December, and I am doing my work sample as an art teacher. The high school where I am doing my practicum is enormous, but at the same
time there isn't exactly a place where I can work besides the staff lounge or the library. Today, I have chosen the library. The library is a large
room. I am looking at a poster of Oprah holding a copy of Beloved. She wants me to read. I know this because it says READ over her head.
Oh, there is Yo-Yo Ma - he wants the same thing. Except he is holding Goodnight Moon. And a cello.
I am watching a class using the computers in this library. I see a young male teacher wearing a black adidas track jacket. I see students sitting
at the computer clusters. I hear them talking. I have heard a female student tell a male student next to her that he "sounds so gay." I have heard
two female students talking about crack and getting drunk. I have heard the young male teacher loudly say "Guys! Guys!" several times. He is swinging
the keys on his lanyard. He is sitting on a table away from the students. Now he is walking around, talking over their talking, saying "Guys!
You have to finish these tests today! Let's go!" Oh.
Today the high will be about 30 degrees. Fahrenheit! It is winter now. Winter means: My car uses gas up more quickly. It's almost Christmas. I want
to buy things all the time. This weekend I went on two shopping trips: one was to Uwajimaya on the Beaverton Hillsdale Highway. It is a japanese grocery store. I had only
been to the one in Seattle before, and not this one. It was an event, with Wendy, her neighbor Naomi, and another friend, Jen Matheson. While at
Uwajimaya, I got a ceramic ginger grater that is also a small bowl AND can be used as a cooking spoon holder. Wendy wanted me to know that I could
find another one for a less expensive price, but I said NO and bought it anyway. At Uwajimaya, I saw another small blonde haired girl hovering around
us in the Gifts / Non Food area. She was about
Naomi's height, and I kept almost talking to her and asking about candy and Hello Kitty products. However, it was not her. On the way home along the BHH,
we stopped by the Scandanavian Supply Store, and did not buy anything, and then we went up to the Alpenrose Dairy!
I had never been before. We got to see the cycling velodrome,
which is totally open and you can ride on any time. We left the dairy, as we were on a
small schedule, but I wanted someone to squirt milk in my mouth, or offer me a container of cottage cheese, or a tour. I'm not sure if that's the kind
of dairy they are. It IS the kind of dairy that has an old-timey simulacra Dairyville TOWN though. I think of Wall Drug, except about milk, and in the West Hills.
My other shopping trip was to WinCo on 122nd yesterday where Wendy and I purchased large amounts of Christmas baking supplies. Giant bags of chocolate and not-chocolate
chips! 10 pounds of flour! Chex mix ingredients! Sugar! Gum drops! Limes for 22 cents each! I purchased a can of Beanee Weenee, which I might just put a bow on
and give to my brother as a present. Part of the WinCo experience is: Customer encounters. There was a man who needed to tell us about how much better the peanut butter
prices were at Costco, in a way that was very authentic. He did not want to keep that information to himself. He wanted to share it. In the bulk aisle, a man was saying
angry words, and a WinCo employee was trying to put back together a bulk container that had spilled everywhere. I knew that their interaction was negative, but I did not
want to observe the bulk spill agression anymore. Later on, we saw the employee vehemently describing his upset feelings to another employee. We kept seeing the man
and his girlfriend in other aisles: The meat aisle, where an unwanted large sack of C&H sugar was placed in a refrigerated jello salad compartment. The dairy aisle.
The aisle where they keep birdseed. As we checked out to leave, a woman was giving sassy lip to Wendy about moving our cart so she could get by and bag her groceries. Wendy
did not say anything to her, but started humming We're All in This Together from High School Musical as she placed baking goods in paper bags.
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