bedheadchicken

So this is what's on my mind: My job is ending next month. I've been here for almost 10 years-off and on-and it's been the best experience of my life. I've met some of my best friends here and it's changed my life in unimaginable ways. But as much as I'm gonna miss it, I'm glad it's ending.

I went for a long walk yesterday when I got home from work. It's funny -I live very close to where I grew up yet I spend so little time there that when I do I feel like I'm visiting. Like I've returned home for a visit. I walked for a few hours just thinking things over, and I came to the top of this icey hill in a park that I used to go to when I was younger. The sun was setting and from the hill there I could see lights in living rooms going on across the neighboring few towns. They're all working class towns-people who work for someone else coming home and turning on the TV for the night or something. I think I've lived there so long because I wanted to honor that part of myself. My parents and grandparents are all people who worked for other people. But working 10 years at the same job-no matter how great that job has been to me-is still working for someone else. And my life has still slid into some of the patterns I saw in those living room lights at sunset last night. A change is a-gonna come. next chapter.

So here are some random thoughts I had in traffic this morning:

who named flies? What a lazy fucking name for a living creature. That's like calling a fish a "swim"! Or a turtle a "crawl". Can't we do better than "fly"?


Why does all "official" sounding language always opt for the genus rather than the species in identifying things? I noticed this because I got a ticket on Sunday because a cop claims I ran a red light. I didn't. But that's another story.

Anyway, this was on the ticket, but it's usually used in all policespeak. A car is referred to as a "motor vehicle". Well a tractor is a motor vehicle! I'm not driving a tractor, am I? I'm driving a car. Why don't you want to be specific? And I'm listed as "the individual". Isn't that a little vauge?

it's not just cops, though. Airlines are telling me about what I can do on the "aircraft". Well a hot air balloon is an aircraft too, so why don't we just say "plane". Cause that's what we have to worry about.

I think it's funny that people think that being specific doesn't sound as important. If I say "the individuals took a motor vehicle to the aircraft" it sounds more official than "Ashley and Todd took a cab to the plane."

Why is that?

Wierd.