February 24, 2004
Blood, Sweat, and Tears
OMG! They are working me like a dog everywhere I go. Did I do something wrong again?
I was at the other job late last night. The music was on really loud. I was singing and such like that. It was a great time. Yep. The office has a peculiar function of turning off all the lights at a certain time at night. The building managers swear that it's only to prevent huge electricity bills, and it only affects the overhead lights. So, at 9:38 PM last night, the lights went out, and I sang louder. I don't think there's a correlation, though.
At 10:08 PM, the lights came back on and scared the shit out of me. I turned the music off and greeted the cleaning crew, janitor, whatever you want to call him. He's a short latino, cute in all aspects, but just about mute. I said hello to him, and mentioned that he scared the shit out of me, and he just looked at me and smiled. It kinda pissed me off because he couldn't understand me enough to respond! Like he only knows "hello" and "good-bye." So he couldn't laugh at how silly I was being, and he couldn't laugh at the joke I made about myself, and that hurt my ego a little.
I've lived in California for 14 years now, and this whole time I could have been fluent in Spanish. It never really occurred to me until recently that I should learn Spanish. I mean, this is America, after all, Land with an Unofficial Official Language. Land with No Borders! Land with No Immigration Laws! (Whoops, there's a tangent I can't really follow now. Sorry.) So is it my fault that I can't understand him, considering I've had more than ample time to become fluent in his language? Or is it his fault that he didn't learn mine (which is spoken by the majority...for now)? In any case, it's totally clear that if I am going to be friendly in the future (and as it stands now there will be plenty of opportunities with all the work that's coming), it appears that I will have to accommodate him. Unless I just ignore him, but that's rude. And he is really cute.
