Austin, TX

Is it just me or does it piss off other people when Christmas goods are out before Halloween stuff is in the stores? I am up in Dallas today and the news just mentioned that Fort Worth put up it’s town Christmas tree today. I have one thing to say to the people of Ft. Worth:

If I had my way, Thanksgiving stuff would not be out until the day after Halloween and Christmas stuff would not be allowed to be displayed until after Thanksgiving. I think it should be illegal. Bah Humbug!

My drive from Austin was uneventful. Does anyone else measure their distance via Starbucks? First stop Temple, exit 301. Quick trip to the bathroom, a double espresso macchiato dopio to wake me up and then an iced tall chai to go. I drink down the espresso shot before leaving the store and that keeps me awake at least until the next stop. That’s Waco, by the way, exit 359. Waco is pretty much half way. The last Starbucks along the way is in Hillsborough. Today I made it on one Starbucks stop. My parents must have driven me around to put me to sleep with when I was a kid because you put me in a car and immediately I get sleepy. Hence the need for espresso. I’m not a big fan of Starbucks. I don’t care for their over-roasted burnt beans but I do like their chai and they are right there only the highway so they’re easy to get to, they have fairly clean bathrooms and they have darned good oatmeal cookies.

I went walking this morning and I’m really happy to report that my pace was 21.3 mph. That’s fast for my short little legs. Normally I walk at around 23 mph. Patrick, our Zen trainer told us early on that most people should be about to walk a 20 minute mile. Most people aren’t 4′11, say I.

Okay, I’m rambling now but before I go I want to send you over to Allison’s Reality on Bravo blog. Allison is having a great contest in which you could win a cool “Stop Global Warming” bracelet from Ecoist. For every bracelet Ecoist sells, they will plant a tree. What’s not to love about that? Ecoist restyles candy wrappers into super cool products like handbags, belts and other fun accessories. You’ve gotta love a company that “repurposes” sustainable materials and gives them a second life. Not only that, but they do it with style! Check out their movie billboard handbags. I want! My teenage niece would love the belt.

Ecoist, recycling, repurpose, sustainable, Starbucks, Austin, Dallas, road trip, rant, Christmas, thanksgiving, Halloween, candy wrappers, movie billboard handbags, fair trade, environmentally friendly

I mentioned yesterday that I was grumpy. Reason 1 was due to Dallas’ new “Pull up your Pants” campaign.

Reason 2 has to do with Philadelphia Municipal Judge Teresa Carr Deni. Pull up a seat and I’ll explain why Judge Deni has me pissed off.

A young man, Dominique Gindraw, contacted a young woman he found on craigslist and negotiated to have sex with her for the sum of $150 for one hours service. When the young woman arrived at the agreed location she found herself not in his home as she’d expected but rather in an abandoned building in North Philly.

Mr. Gindraw then asked her if she’d have sex with his friend, too, which she agreed to do for another $100. My guess is that she realized she was in trouble at that point and figured she was better off negotiating for more money than trying to leave.

The friend arrived without money but carrying a gun. Men continued to arrive until a 5th man arrived and questioned why the young woman was crying. He helped her to dress and leave.

Yes, the girl had prostituted herself and put herself in a dangerous situation but what happened next is what pissed me off.

The case goes to court. The Defendant, Dominique Gindraw, is, of course, charged with sex and assault charges.

This is where Judge Deni comes into the equation. Judge Deni drops all charges and instead charges Gindraw with armed robbery for “theft of services”.

Theft of services? Since when did sex forced by gunpoint cease to be rape? When asked about her decision Judge Deni replied:

“She consented and she didn’t get paid . . . I thought it was a robbery.”

“Did she tell you she had another client before she went to report it?” Deni asked a reporter.

“I thought rape was a terrible trauma.”

A case like this, she said - to the reporters astonishment - “minimizes true rape cases and demeans women who are really raped.”

Four days later, Mr. Gindraw was in court charged with a nearly identical crime against another woman. The prosecutor, still stunned from the first case, refused to present the second case and therefore Judge Deni threw out the case entirely.

The police detective stated that both women “were in fear for their lives. Since they saw one of the doers really well, it crossed both of their minds that they’d be killed.” He went on to say that Judges actions were ” frankly, appalling”.

Deni stated that she has to “sleep at night with what I decide.” According to Deni, she slept well that night.

While it’s true that these women who prostitute themselves and foolishly put themselves in danger are somewhat difficult to feel sorry for, the law isn’t about how “worthy” the victim is or is not.

Reducing rape to “theft of services” is an insult to all rape victims. The judges contemptuous, dismissive attitude toward these young women is tantamount to raping them a second time. The chancellor of the Philadelphia Bar Association agrees:

“The victim has been brutalized twice in this case: first by the assailants, and now by the court,” Chancellor Jane Leslie Dalton wrote. “We cannot imagine any circumstances more violent or coercive than being forced to have sex with four men at gunpoint.”

Being prostitutes doesn’t make them less human and as often as not these young women get there by having suffered domestic violence growing up. I suspect that the judge had a much luckier upbringing.

The prosecutor in both cases says he’ll reinstate the charges, re-file and present to a different judge.

As one reporter said, “Hopefully, the next judge will be better able to differentiate between a violated business agreement and a violent attack.”

http://www.kansascity.com/440/story/341070.html

Deni, Philadelphia, rape, craigslist, prostitution, theft of services

Good morning, I hope you all had a great Halloween and that you are having a good day so far.

I, myself, am grumpy. Why am I grumpy? I’m so glad you asked.

First up, this article in Lindsey’s blog called Pull Up Your Pants. While it’s not Austin related, it’s certainly Texas related. It’s actions like this that make Texans look like a bunch of Neanderthal red-necks.

It seems that the great city of Dallas has nothing better to do with their time than to spout out anti-gay propaganda in an effort to get kids to “pull up their pants”. Now really folks, if the only thing you can think of to entice kids to bend to your fashion rules is to accuse them of being gay, you need to find yourself a new marketing department.

This is the billboard, kindly donated by ClearChannel:

As if that’s not enough, they’ve got a rap song, too:

The song, recorded by rap artist Dooney Da’ Priest, contains lyrics that say, “You walk the streets with your pants way down low/ I don’t know/ looks to me you on the down low. If you stand up straight, bet your pants fall/ Might as well walk around with your pants off/ Pull ‘em up, pull ‘em up, pull ‘em up/ Be a real man/ Stand up/ Is that your underwear, man? Pull your pants up.”

In an interview with FOX news, Dooney Da Priest stated: “Got a lot of partners of mine, they come out of jail, they let me know that means you’re basically easy, you’re lettin another man know that you’re available.”

As one NPR listener said, sarcastically:

It’s cute when homophobia is part of a citywide campaign. Shaming the youth by calling them gay, love that from the government.

The custom of wearing your pants low got it’s start in prisons, where belts are not allowed. Wearing your pants low meant you were “prison-tough”. This campaign aims to show that wearing your pants low is more indicative that you’re a “prison bitch”.

Hey Dallas, I think what you’re doing is on par with a hate crime. The youths of your city should band together and start their own campaign. I’d call it “Sue Your Pants Off”.

Here’s a suggestion, how about fighting real crime and not fashion crimes? If bad fashion were truly a crime, we’d all have done time by now.

Good Day.

Dallas, Texas, Pull Your Pants Up, campaign, billboard, rap song, anti-gay, homophobic, pants low, prison, saggy, Dooney Da Priest, Fashion, crime

I was listening to NPR today, as I drove around from appointment to appointment. The subject matter was illegal immigrants and the Mexican border, a subject which is always likely to raise my hackles.

The border between the United States and Mexico stretches from San Diego, California to Brownsville, Tx on the US side. It stretches 1,969 miles in length and is the most frequently traversed international border in the world. With over 250 million legal crossings a year, it is also has the largest number illegal crossings in the world.

So now, of course, we’re building the Great Wall of the U.S. We all know how well that worked out for China. Thanks to the “Secure Fence Act of 2006″ we’ll be getting a 700 mile fence, the construction of which will not be subject to any laws. You can thank the Real ID Act for that little gem. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff used that little rider to trample over the Endangered Species Act, among others to extend fencing through the Tijuana river.

I sometime wonder if I’m entitled to more freedom simply by virtue of being fortunate enough to be born in this country. I’m bothered by the hypocrisy of our immigration laws where we open our arms to Cuban refugees and spit on Haitians. We live in a country that we conveniently forget that we stole from the Native Americans who are in large parts extinct now and those that aren’t are still living on land “allocated” to them. Many living below poverty. Yeah, I know about the casinos. That’s doesn’t equal things out in my books. We forget that this nation was built on the sweat of immigrants. Yeah, I know they may have been “legal”. I also know that I’ve never been so desperate for freedom that I’d stuff myself in a wheel well or put my family on a rickety boat to cross miles and miles of treacherous waters knowing you may be turned back or that you may die. We have over 11 million illegal immigrants. I don’t think we have the manpower to kick them all out. Yeah, I know we could be taxing them. Do you honestly think the fact that they don’t pay taxes means they aren’t spending money in this country? They gotta eat, right? Buy gas, right? Pay rent to someone? If you had to sneak over the border to put food on the table for your family, would you? Furthermore, a great number of illegals do pay taxes, and pay into the Social Security and Medicare funds as well. They just can’t get anything out of those funds, because they’d get deported. Yes, many illegals work “under the table” jobs, but many also work with forged documents so their employers either don’t know or can claim to not know they hired illegals.

I’m not, for a moment, suggesting that illegal immigrants don’t pose problems nor that we don’t need to find a decent solution. However, “economists generally believe that when averaged over the whole economy, the effect is a small net positive. Harvard’s George Borjas says the average American’s wealth is increased by less than 1 percent because of illegal immigration.”

But, whatever. Get the hell out of “my” country!

One of my legal immigrant friends, who lives in Miami, had this to say:

The laws to becoming a legal resident are confusing and long, those that do not pony up to an immigration attorney that can cost from 5K to 15K in order to get “legalized” have to live under the fear of being found out. I have seen people who have to make it on $3.50 an hour (yes they are paid an hourly wage) but who know they can never complain about it, or their boss will rat them out.

America was built on the immigrant’s backs. Today we eat vegetables and fruits that we could not afford if it were not for cheap immigrant labour. Here in Florida, the Fanjul family has the ability to import workers for picking season, and pay them 500 dollars a week. Sweet deal? Not really, they work 12 hour shifts in the fields, and then the Fanjul’s charge them for lodging, food and equipment, and yes, they are kept in holding facilities near the everglades, these immigrant “work camps”, so they are never to see Miami, except when they arrive, and when they leave on the armed escort. Beach - ha, these poor folks don’t have days off, I forgot, they signed their rights away to make some money to take back home.

Will the wall end the flood of immigrants from Mexico? I wonder. I guess time will tell. I seriously doubt it, though.

If you’d like to read more of my political articles, you can read them here.

politics, mexico, texas, border, immigrants, illegal, wall

There is a joke that goes:

Q: What’s the Difference Between Columbus and Hitler?
A: One of them has a holiday.

Yes, I am aware that “Hitler” comparisons are a bit cliché.

Tomorrow will mark the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Columbus Day holiday in the state of Colorado. Yesterday Denver held its annual Columbus Day parade. This year, as in the past two decades, the parade was met with protest by American Indians. Protesters delayed the start of the parade by more than an hour but were eventually hauled away by police.

Today, curious if there were any protests taking place in my neck of the woods, I asked an online community I’m part, the simple question, “Do you know of any protests happening in Austin tomorrow regarding the 100th Anniversary of Columbus Day?”

What resulted from that simple question was a vitriolic diatribe that took me somewhat by surprise. While a couple of people were surprised to learn that there even exists a controversy surrounding Columbus Day, others acted as if I had taken out a personal ad condemning America.

One person said:

Why does everything get tossed on Columbus’s shoulders as he being the progenitor of all that is evil?

I’m not saying all he did was right, but I’d like to point out a few things -

a) you’re judging a 15th century man by 20/21st century standards. It took us longer than halfway between the 20th century before this country did right by African-Americans. Slavery had been happening for centuries at that point, not just in Africa but in conquered countries around the world.

b) He was the commander/commodore of a squadron of 3 ships with resources granted by the Queen (refresh me if I’m wrong). Wouldn’t the use of slaves overseas be indirectly the fault of the Queen, and not Columbus himself? Shouldn’t the most authoritative person in the line hold the responsibility?

c) Who wrote the facts and statistics about Columbus being a genocidal murderer? And why dont we hear about these growing up? We hear about Cortez and the other conquistadors, and their murderous sprees, why not CC? And if he was a genocidal murderer, where are the facts obtained from?

Wow, my question regarding planned protests said all that? I had no idea!

Another person stated:

Columbus is just a symbol. People go around saying Columbus made all the Indians sick and killed them all.

Like he was supposed to guess that his presence would infect the American disease pool with new diseases that they were unable to fight.

And actually, Columbus tried to save the Indians, though he didn’t have either the medical knowledge or resources to stop the native deaths, he did institute the Encomienda system in 1493. Later, Pizarro and Cortez abused the system, but Columbus kept his encomenderos accountable for the wellbeing of the people on their Encomienda grants.

But does it really matter? The people who want a reason to protest rarely delve into the details because if they did, it would muddy their black and white view of themselves.

Four legs good.
Two legs bad.

Now, simply asking a question about planned protests makes me small minded?

Another person suggested that protesting Columbus Day was like, “protesting peanut butter” while yet another suggested I spend my time doing something more worthwhile with my time, like “working in a soup kitchen”.

While one or two people jumped in to “defend” me saying things like, “Columbus was kind of a jerk”, another compared the controversy to “people who don’t want MLK’s birthday celebrated.”

One woman pointed to The People History of the United States” by Howard Zinn and an authority on the evils of Columbus but the person who’d accused me of small mindedness rebutted:

I’ve read the People’s History. Zinn is a good historian and he writes from an important viewpoint, but he isn’t the be all end all of historiography.

Zinn believes that all the ills of Spanish colonialism in Latin America can be traced to Columbus. The enslavement, the torture, the murder, the dehumanization of these people. That is the important thing all relates to the establishment of the encomienda system. While you can look at the system and see in its inception how all the ills of Spanish colonialism sprung from it, saying that Columbus consciously created this system to enslave and dehumanize these people is oversimplifying the complex factors of Early American history.

Remember, the European contact with the American continent also transformed the old world, not as dramatically as it did the new, but these European explorers had no tools of reference with which to work in this new world.

And the Spanish didn’t have Gene Roddenberry to give them the Prime Directive.

The Prime Directive? Yep, that’s it, that’s what was missing! Someone forgot to give Columbus a copy of the Prime Directive. How negligent!

Finally, someone asked, “Wouldn’t your time be better spent protesting something that might actually make a difference in today’s world? Is the world gonna be a better place all of a sudden if Columbus Day was gone?”

Which led me to wonder, “Would it?”

One thing is certain. Columbus isn’t the man they teach us he is in grade school. There is no mention of slave trading. There is no mention of genocide. I think it’s the very fact that we’re brought up believing Columbus to be a hero that makes people so angry when the holiday is questioned. Perhaps we’re just angry at having been lied to all these years.

Perhaps there is nothing that condemns Columbus more than his own words, recorded in his log and diary:

“They… brought us parrots and balls of cotton and spears and many other things, which they exchanged for the glass beads and hawks’ bells. They willingly traded everything they owned…. They were well-built, with good bodies and handsome features…. They do not bear arms, and do not know them, for I showed them a sword, they took it by the edge and cut themselves out of ignorance. They have no iron. Their spears are made of cane…. They would make fine servants…. With fifty men we could subjugate them all and make them do whatever we want.”

“As soon as I arrived in the Indies, on the first Island which I found, I took some of the natives by force in order that they might learn and might give me information of whatever there is in these parts.”

It seems this controversy is not lacking for emotion.

In the end I have to wonder, “If the indigenous people of this country are offended by this holiday perhaps it’s time to rethink it.” A close examination of Columbus tells me that he is unworthy and that a holiday is his honor is unjustified and un-American.

What do you think? Is Columbus really the stuff of which heroes are made?

Then again, perhaps this whole experience just boils down to “The Internet Dickwad Theory“.

Columbus, Christopher, Controversy, Hero, Columbus Day, Native Americans, American Indians, protest, slave, trading, genocide, holiday

More political posts

If you follow politics in Austin you may be aware that council members Jennifer Kim and Brewster McCracken have proposed an ordinance to ban panhandling within 1000 feet of schools. Austin Chief of Police, Art Acevedo quickly jumped on board further recommending that the ordinance be extended to 1000 feet on either side of schools.

“Sometimes people out of desperation will take desperate measure to try and go out there and solicit money. Quite frankly the highway is not the place to do that. Vehicles and pedestrians do not mix,” Acevedo said.

At least he acknowledges that the individuals are in need.

Once again council members are using scaremongering phrases like “our children’s safety” as a means to sway public opinion on an ordinance that does little more than punish the homeless while failing to help them. Austin already has laws against aggressive panhandling. With outcries from homeless advocates and a backlash that took her by surprise, Kim backpedaled and said that the ordinance was really about “safety issues”.

Aceveda’s claim that 17 deaths this year could be attributed to panhandling were squarely kicked in the butt by Rebecca Bernhardt of the ACLU. It seems that not a single death can be laid at feet of the evil panhandling.

I went through all 17 incidents for 2007 … Five of them occurred between 2am and 5am, not a time when people are asking for money. Five were jaywalkers, that is, people who tried to cross a major street in the middle of a block. Doesn’t sound like somebody is asking for money in an intersection. One man was killed because he was asleep under a truck at four in the morning. Probably homeless and probably not asking for money. One person was killed crossing I-35 on foot. Clearly not a good idea. Probably not connected to asking for money. There were also two pedestrians who were hit by cars when they were walking on a frontage rolled of a major highway, I-35. One was walking with a woman and a baby and a baby caravan – only the man was killed. Also doesn’t sound like somebody asking for money. I think this city has a serious public safety problem and sounds like it needs sidewalks and cross walks and traffic lights … And we would like to see no more antisolicitation ordinances. Thank you.

Booyah!

This is not about the safety of our children, it’s about silencing the poor, encouraging police harassment, and sweeping the homeless under the carpet. It’s about using the safety of our children to promote council member’s careers. It’s about “hot buttons” that get voters riled up and thinking that council members are “working for you”. With the “revitalization” of downtown and new condos, high rises and shopping districts popping up all over the sight of homeless people is becoming more and more distasteful. I think this quote by Kim pretty much sums that up:

“The problem is it’s happening on Barton Springs, on Lamar – we’re starting to see it in our neighborhoods.”

Oh. My. Gawd. Not in our neighborhoods!

The new ordinance would give law enforcement more power to harass the homeless for little actual gain. The ban would keep panhandlers from begging during the hours of 7pm to 7am but they’d still be able to panhandle during the day. How exactly will that stop the so-called harassment of school children? To top that off, Officers won’t be required to send the panhandler to alcohol or drug rehabilitation. They’ll just end up in court, get a low-level punishment and be back on the street.

“There are already laws on the books for impeding traffic, for indecent exposure, defecation in public, the type of things the City Council is trying to stop,” Diego Bernal of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund said. What’s more, the ordinance would inevitably target day laborers and “would be hostile to an already marginalized population,” said Emily Timm of the Central Texas Immigrant Worker Rights Center, part of the Equal Justice Center. Right now, the city runs only one official day labor site, though Timm said there are at least six informal corners throughout the city.

While we’re on the subject of the “safety of our children”, I have to tell you about a conversation I had with my brother, Kevin, who lives on South Beach in Miami. It seems my nephew’s school is making the kids get ID badges. He ran into the principal and asked her if the teachers would also be required to wear badges. She told him that in fact, no, they would not. That’s because they’ve been told that they cannot enforce the wearing of badges by teachers. My brother went on to ask her if she really thought that kids were in more danger from other kid who might wander in than they are from strange adults who might wander into the school. “Yes, I do,” she said, “it’s not the same world as when we were kids, it’s not nearly as safe.”

Y’see folks, this is where scaremongering and the news come into play. That statement is simply not true. In fact, crimes against children, like crimes against all individuals, has been in decline since 1993. That’s right, for more than a decade, crime rates against people have been dropping. What’s increased is the televising of crimes against children which has led to raising a generation under house arrest. Richard Louv, parent and author of the landmark book, “Last Child in the Woods,” has this to say:

“The underbelly of this issue is that parents are scared to death,” Louv said. “Parents are terrified that some stranger is going to take their kids at the corner.” He blamed the national media for taking a handful of terrible crimes against children, magnifying and repeating them over and over, to create a national state of fear.

As a funny aside, a friend asked me what the city was doing about homelessness so I did some googling and found the City of Austin’s web page that addressed that very question. For a start I can tell you this, the website does not appear to have been updated since 2003! Here is an excerpt:

The City is currently implementing several major projects:

AUSTIN RESOURCE CENTER FOR THE HOMELESS

This new downtown men’s shelter, resource center and health clinic will be operational in July 2003.

Er…2003?!?!

Under it’s list of Useful Resources it lists Austin Homeless Advocate, which links to some live cam site. I seriously doubt that’s where the link went to when the web page went up.

Panhandling in these areas may be a problem but it’s not a safety issue for our children. Instead of trying to punish the homeless why don’t we work on some solutions that might take them off the streets? How about we start with paying people a living wage? Mmmhmm, yeah, now there’s a concept!

More Rants!

Resources:
Parents need to let kids out of ‘house arrest’.
City of Austin Website
The Austin Chronicle
Crimes Against Children Resource Center

Jennifer Kim, Brewster McCracken, homeless, homelessness, panhandling, ban, ordinance, Austin, children, safety, Art Acevedo, Council, City, Rebecca Bernhardt, ACLU, Richard Louv, Texas, Tx

Week 3 of Zen training this morning was good. It was a tough workout but achievable. Before I get into that though, I have something to say…

Dear Austin Chronicle,

YOU SUCK GREAT BIG MONKEY BALLS!!

Okay, I feel a bit better now. *deep breaths*

So I get to training this morning and suddenly there are a dozen new faces and lots of people asking, “are you with the Zen training?” I said yes and introduced myself and a few other people to a couple of the new folks. As more and more people showed up I finally asked, “Are you the folks the Chronicle has chosen for the Zen Challenge?” Why yes, yes they were they all nodded.

This is the point at which I got angry. I leaned over to Raquel, the very nice lady from the Brain and Spine Center and said, “It would have been nice if the Chronicle had informed the rest of us that they’d chosen the team.” Raquel told me that no one had talked to her either and that she’d never met Erin from the Chronicle. Raquel, by the way, attends and participates in the training.

Pretty soon I hear that Erin is parking and will be along shortly. Erin and a photographer show up with some packets and name tags for the Chronicle team and I spot one of the other ladies who’s been coming the past few weeks walk up to the Chronicle group and ask a question. I went over to talk to her and her friend and like me they were upset at not having been told that the Chronicle team had been selected. “I’ve been looking at the website all week waiting for them to announce the winner,” she confided, her friend nodding in agreement. “Me, too!” They were supposed to announce the winners on the 24th but none of us had heard anything. In fact even this morning the website still says:

The entry deadline is over and we are currently reviewing all entries to determine the Club Chronicle Team. Thanks so much for your interest in the Club Chronicle and Team Zen Challenge!

I’m not mad that they didn’t select me. Disappointed, yes. Highly disappointed. I am very angry though that the Chronicle did not have the courtesy to inform us and instead let us find out the way we did. I was so angry at the beginning of the workout that my stomach was just roiling and I had stomach cramps for the first half hour. It was rude. It was unprofessional. It was unkind. I am also disappointed that they didn’t choose a single person who’d been attending the Zen training for the past three weeks. The Zen training that they invited us to join early. Those of us who joined early did so as a way to show commitment and to see what it was like and while the training has been good for us and while it was by no means a waste of our time you’d think they might have talked with Raquel or Patrick to ask about us. I know for a fact that they did not. It is possible they talked with Adam from Zen Foods Fast but he hasn’t been at training the past two weeks. I think that the Chronicle owes us a big apology for the shabby way they treated us. So, once again, I say to Erin at the Chronicle:

Dear Erin,

YOU SUCK GREAT BIG MONKEY BALLS!!

/end Rant

Todays training was what is referred to as “Circuit Training”. Circuit training is a type of interval training that combines strength training with endurance training to benefit your cardiovascular system and improve your strength. To do this you set up a circuit, Patrick chose to use the half mile loop that turns at my 2nd favourite statue in Austin, Stevie Ray Vaughn (read about my favourite Austin statue). At each of the four corners of our circuit we had to do a set of exercises. The corners would be the “stations” of our circuit. At the first station we did 10 lunges.

At the second station we did 10 squat jumps (or perhaps they are called star jumps) where you start in a squat and explode upward.

At the third station we did 10 sit ups and at the fourth we did 10 push ups. I had to do “girl push ups”. Have I mentioned that I’m not in shape? Heh.

By this time my legs were already feeling a bit wobbly but we did the circuit a second time and lastly we walked it for a cool down.

Finally my favourite part arrived. Breakfast. Mmmm those Tokyo Breakfasts make me a happy camper. I had to laugh because as I was grabbing my breakfast another woman said, “I just come for the breakfast.” “Hey,” I said, “that’s MY line!” Chip ate two breakfasts.

We sat on the wall eating our breakfast. The Chronicle’s Zen Challenge team sat down around us. One fella whom I shall henceforth likely refer to as “Annoying Guy” sat next to me. He said, “what this breakfast needs is queso.” Um, no Dickwad, I don’t think so. He was very exuberant during the training and talked a lot. He mentioned stopping off for a burger on the way home. “But I suppose that would be counterproductive. Y’think? He was encouraging to the slower challenge members which will possibly be good. Time will tell. He said to Erin and the photographer, “can I say fuck a lot in my essays?” Being around him certainly made me want to say fuck a lot. Maybe I was just grumpy but I don’t think so because my walking partner expressed annoyance before I did. They assured him that he could and advised him that they were mostly looking for the essays to be “interesting”. I have nothing against those folks who were chosen by the Chronicle. I’m sure they are all deserving. Well, except for “Annoying Guy”. I’m just pissed at the way the Chronicle handled the situation. Yeah, yeah, I know I said I was done ranting.

Patrick mentioned again that we’d probably hate him later. He was right about last week. My ass hurt all week. I’m already feeling todays training!

And thus ended week three. Aside from the Chronicle debacle, it was good. They let us take home an extra breakfast. Guess what I’m having for lunch. Woohoo! How can something so healthy taste so yummy?

Read about Week Two
Read about Week One
Read about Week Four
Week Five Review
Week Six Review
Week Seven Review
Week 10 Review ( I missed 8 & 9 )

Exercise, running, Team Zen, Zen Japanese Food Fast, restaurant, Adam Weisberg, tokyo breakfast, Austin Chronicle, Challenge, Auditorium Shores, Fitness, Rant

Dear Central Market,

I love food. No, really, I do! When my friends and family come to town do I take them to the museum? No. Do I take them to Mt. Bonnell? No. In fact, I’m much more likely to take them to Central Market where I wax poetically about your cheese selection. I walk them through the wine section, noting the envy in their eyes. I stroll casually through your bread aisles filling their olfactory senses with the scent of freshly baked bread. I point out the fresh produce and international foods and bulk items until they are dizzy with jealousy and all the while I smile smugly.

This is all wonderful but it’s not good enough.

Why, oh why, must you let me suffer at the hands of one WalMart after another closing in on me? You’ve fulfilled the dreams of the Southies, so what about us Northies?

Please, oh please, I implore you, bring a Central Market closer to me!

Your pfriend in Pflugerville,

Kyla

Central Market