No Anti-lent this year! It's the real thing!!

So, this year I'm actually aware of lent in time to remember to do it. I didn't grow up observing lent but it seems like fun to quit doing something that I do more than necessary just to see if I can. So this year, complaining. For the next 46 days (counting the Sundays) I will not complain. So I'm getting it all out here so I can look back and remember what it is that I miss so much.

I hate people on the bus who talk on their cell phones. Most people that have the lack of courtesy that drives them to talk on their cell phone in a confined public space are the type of people that only have one or two functionaing brain cells - people that shouldn't breed. Like this lady that spends every Tuesday and Thursday on the ride home talking to two or three different people about here medical conditions. The one she tells her sob story and he hangs up on her. The other, she tells about how the other guy hung up and then gives that same guy the same sob story with the exact same vigor. The third person, she tells that she needs a ride from the bus stop because, well, she has a medical condition and it involves...what?... the same shit that she just got done telling the other two guys.

My women's US history professor spends the first half of class talking about her in-laws and parents. Where they live, their past, what kind of herbs they grow (not even kidding), and what their migratory habits are in their retirement years. Now, I like hearing about women and a whole different view on history, but she is missing alot of things in her analysis of the role of women and why they have always been viewed the way they have. Apparently it's open-minded to think that way, but thinking only that way and ignoring all of the other important stuff doesn't seem to be very open-minded.

People who turn left on roads without a turn lane drive me crazy - especially during rush hour! Go to a light, make a U turn, and save us all some time so that we don't have to wait behind you while the world revolves around you! On the subject of driving, why can people not look around and see driveways where cars are trying to get in and out of (from a left turn lane) when they are sitting at a stop light. Look around and observe that you might want to leave some room for poeple to get through.

Cubans! I want to go on the same trip that I went on last year to Cuba, but the people that Pastors for Peace is working with in Cuba cannot figure out the exact dates and what theme they want for the trip. Meanwhile, I'm deciding when I'm going to be able to go on my summer skate trip/camp that all of the high school guys I work with are looking forward to, and I can't plan my trip to Greece. Work more than 6 hours for once and maybe you'll get it figured out...seriously Cuban friends...I love your culture and country and sense of solidarity, but make a damn decision!

The Scotts Valley post office. their hours are 9-4:30. Times when people are at work or in my case school. How am I supposed to buy stamps when you guys are never open?! I have a non-profit to keep afloat. I need stamps but I have to go to class too.

In the afternoons at school, the bus that I need only runs every 2 hours. So, if I get out of class late or have to take care of some quick business I'm stuck at school for another 2 hours. This wouldn't be so bad if maybe I went to a school where there were real people. I cannot even begin to describe the people that I go to a university with, but they are completely retarded! Words like HELLA! "So I was at this party the other day, hella drunk, and mike comes up with his pants hella saggin, and he hella was wasted, and hella said, 'hey do you wanna get some hella good food with me?' And I was like O-M-G i'm hella down aaaeeeight!" Maybe that's why people are more than happy to spend an ass load of money on private schools, because the people that can afford that have at least somewhat high self-esteem and aren't inbreed.

And on the subject of breeding. My roommates and I should be the only people on earth who get to decided who gets to breed and who gets to drive.

Girls - If you think I'm cute (which I assume all girls do, especially hot ones), then talk to me. See, we live in a world where women want more of a role in this patriarichal world. While this is happening, men, like myself, are becoming more and more pansie (if I can use that word as a verb). This is mainly directed toward this hot girl in one of my history classes.

Back to driving, my roommate reminded me of people that drive in the rain with their headlights off. In CA it's a law that if your windsheild wipers are on then your lights have to be also. Why? Safety. So i hear someone talking on local radio one day about how she's never had trouble seeing people like this. I was on my way to work the other day and it was raining. There was a lady behind me who had her headlights off. She had her blinker on because she was about to make a left turn on a road with no turn lane. I had to stop suddenly...so did she. And then there was a noise. She got rearended. I understand that her having her headlights off had nothing to do with that, but I just thought that was a fun story to tell. Mainly because it was a very slight bump. Her stupid high school daughter had this look on her face like her entire world came crashing down around her because her eyeliner was about to run and she was gonna have to get out in the rain and her hair would get frizzy. It made me laugh and I went on to work.

And just when i thought I was out... I'm in a political thought class. As you may know, these classes are magnets for egos. This particular class has about 7 people who were always trying to prove how smart they were in classes I shared with them last semester. And of course, they make it a point to make sure that the professor knows how much they know. In reality they know nothing. I'm not saying I do...my mind doesn't think like that...not good for political theory. But what I do know is that Machiavelli is wrong, Hobbes is wrong, Paine is wrong, Rouseeau is wrong, and so on. There is no such thing as a perfect political theory. some parts of theories are right and most parts are wrong. But my point was that these guys only speak because they want other people to think they are smart. Now, I personally think I am pretty smart...in some ways. But I realize that I look like a complete jackass when I try to one-up people in class, so I refrain. Plus, we all want to get out of class earlier and the less you talk the shorter class may be.

I think I'll end with this... Christians. When we study various societies in history we come to understand that religion has been a tool of the elite. Like political theorists, they are part correct and mostly not. But especially when Christians do the kinds of things that the church today sees as important, they are undermining what God and his little buddy Jesus actually wanted. It is my belief that the Christian church is itself subverting the gospel of Jesus, which one would think would be the most important thing to them, for their own worldly gain.

I'm done. Have a good lent as I'm sure I will. I wonder if all of this lack of complaining is going to actually change the chemistry in my brain and I will forever be an optimist after this season of lent. Maybe it will be like a godly prozac.