Currently listening to: Avril Lavigne's Under My Skin

Standing Out

A funny thing happened to me today. I went to Target to drop off some film at the one-hour processing. The girl behind the counter filled out the envelope for me which included asking me how to spell my last name. A couple hours later, I head back to pick them up. The line is short, but I'm not helped right away. When the same gal gets to me, I'm expecting the whole "Can I help you?" bit, but turns out that she already got my pictures and tells me the total. Hmmmm...either that girl has a good memory of her customers or maybe, just maybe, it's easy to remember the brown girl with the funky-hard-to-pronounce-even-though-it's-phonetic-last-name. It kinda caught me off-guard, but whatever.

That happened last week when hubby and I went to get our taxes done. We went to an actual accountant-I know, whoa, huh? After being seated in his office, accountant dude asks our names and again, asks us to spell our last name. He looked up from his writing pad and says, "I take it you guys aren't from Iowa." EH?! Later I told hubby that his comment could've been taken in a totally inappropriate way, but again, whatever...as long as he does our taxes and doesn't jack us, right? A couple of days later, we return to sign off on everything and right when we walk into the office, the secretary automatically pulls from the pile OUR file. No "And your name is?" or "You're the so-and-so family, correct?" None of that. Hubby and I joked that we're probably his only non-white clients...and if that were the case, I wouldn't be surprised.

I knew once we moved here that we would stand out, but it's unnerving sometimes. I think it would be different if, say, we were regulars at a restaurant and we were on a first-name basis with the wait staff. But that's not the case. We're easily remembered because we're probably one of the few minority people that they deal with. And yah, it's all good, but there's often that puti mentality that seeps in that bugs the crap out of me. I mean, was it a coincidence today that while I was at Barnes & Nobles, that the cash register guy was less than cordial with me? Hey, forget about all the other customers that he was overly friendly and gung-ho with, who also just happened to be white. And why was that one worker lurking when I was near the back corner? Did they think I was going to steal something? Coincidence? I think not.

The Midwest is a totally different world. Okay, so it's not as backwards as I thought it would be...LOL, I didn't know what to think! For all I knew before we moved here was that we'd be in boonyville. Oh wait! We ARE in boonyville! On the real, and I've discussed this with hubby countless times since our move here, that had we been born and raised here, we would 100% think differently than we do now. But the fact that we're CA born and raised, our mentality about almost everything clashes with the MN mentality and way of life. Depending on which way you look at it, it could be a good thing or not. I will admit to the pride I tend to boast about coming from and being raised in an openminded and culturally rich society such as da Bay. Albeit MN is culturally diverse people-wise, but it doesn't necessarily mean that everyone is so accepting...civil, yes, but accepting? Hmmmm... 'Tis just a different world here in our neck of the woods is all...

Overexposure

Yesterday's temps was up in the 70's. It was so nice that I decided to finish reading "The Da Vinci Code" outside on our patio. I wore shorts, a tank top, and headed out with a bottle of tanning oil. A couple hours later, I have this awkward tan line across my thighs, but I'm stoked because I have color. Yay! Later on in the day, I scratch my shoulder and immediately feel a sting of pain. I glimpse in the mirror and notice that holy crap, I'm red! After seeing the red skin, the need to rub and scratch takes over. By the time I go to bed, my body is covered and is still covered by these red, itchy, bumpy welts. I had gone and given myself the hives or something! I think that because it's been so long that I haven't had any exposure to the sun that my body couldn't take it. Sunburn so sucks...but once it all heals, I'll be out and about again. LOL!