Happy People Don't Talk Like That...

[chicating]

The call that I can't stop thinking about from the weekend's calls was not a success. But I'm not thinking about it to beat myself up or to reflect on myself as sort of a magnet for weirdness or anything. I sort of expected that I wouldn't get anywhere with this woman--she sort of told me as much, right? I don't love that, but with a lot of my lists a certain amount of "Throw The Bums Out(Or maybe, since I gravitate toward the insurgent type: Don't Put The Bums In, ha ha!) is part of the deal before real talk begins. We talked for ten minutes...if she were really "fine," as she kept assuring me, that would not happen.(my boss would be very upset that I'm not imagining creating a comrade-for-life in any of these moments, but though I've witnessed calls that worked that well, it kind of hasn't happened to me, personally. Even my friendly people are just, like, "Cool! Good luck!" And that's good enough.Some girls just get it quick and dirty.) K. told me she was fine, didn't look to the government to solve her problems and that maybe closing the border was a good idea. She also told me she might have to move because she couldn't afford things, and her kids didn't have summer jobs.
I do think governments should be there to help people with their problems and I did push back on the border thing a little, because I think it's racist.On one hand, I think it's cool that women take pride in being independent, maybe ironically more so because I usually can't do it. But I had time to wonder, or indeed affirm, that K. was using stigma to keep boning herself. Although I really do know that it's not "just fill out a simple form" easy, but I believe it could and should be.