It's furniture-throwing time: New Angroyed thread

[davy]

There are few things cheaper than eating at Moe's, I'll tell you that. I eat there everyday I'm at work, so maybe like 4-5 times a week. I get the Funkmeister soft taco with tofu (and yes, I hate saying that out loud). After they've dished out the tofu, I tell them to put pinto beans on it, then cheese, lettuce, diced tomatoes, black olives, pickled jalapeños, and lime. The thing is, they've been making gigantic burritos all day, and their hands are not in the habit of spooning out portions small enough to fit in a taco shell. So the thing is basically overflowing with taco-fixin's. It's almost the size of a burrito. The next thing they do is fill the bag halfway up with those yummy lime-salted tortilla chips. I walk over to the salsa bar, prepare a few cups of salsa, and then I'm set.

The meal costs $2.88.

[jess]

This blog entry seems awfully timely: http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2010/09/21/food-responsibility/

[cold before sunrise]

I'm incredibly annoyed by how that article is called 'Food Responsibility' then goes on to blame everything from long hours and inaccessability to why people who eat badly should hold 'the people who feed them' responsible for the health implications of the poor choices they make in feeding themselves. What do you think this is, Communism? Does 'the man' spoon-feed you? Are you a baby? The fact remains that being in a lower income bracket means having to fight harder for a good life but having been on both sides of the fence I've noticed two things to condradict your tidy summary of who's to blame:

A) It's only in rougher neighbourhoods that grocers have discount bins, where produce on it's last legs is practically given away. (For the healthfully inclined you can take the final sales and dehydrate vegetables for cheap, instant homemade soups or dry fruit for healthy snacks, either on their own or mixed with nuts, dark chocolate and soy - either dried edamame or roasted soybeans from the bulk department - to make them quick and protein-rich.) It's also simple enough to make large batches of cheap, vegetarian dishes in an hour a week to freeze in individual servings, to heat for dinner in 5 minutes as necessary.

and B) Community gardens are widely accessible in a way that is less the case in more affluent neighbourhoods, giving you the chance to grow whatever you like for the price of a few seeds and occasional effort of watering. The people who say they don't have the energy to do it right are the ones who don't realize that taking the initiative to eat well will give them exactly the boost they currently lack.

There's rarely a reason to feel sorry for anybody and all too common for people to feel sorry for themselves.

[Ignatius]

One of the things about being poor and cooking hamburgers is that time and energy can be just as scarce (moreso if you count on public transit) as cash if your wages suck.

I didn't read that article, though - this was in response to FK's ground beef thing.

[FreddyKnuckles]

If anything our points aren't in contradiction. Me: fast food isn't really cheap, but I understand that there are other reasons poor people have to buy it. You guys: there are other reasons poor people have to buy it

When it was just my mom and me, she was making 18k a year. I ate hamburger patties cooked in a pan with instant gravy and lots and lots of the cheapest grocery store dogs. I'm not trying to say I grew up the hard way or anything, because I definitely have had a lot given to me in life, but I also know what its like to make it work on the cheap and not in a fratboy kinda way.

[Maaik]

I remember a fair amount of corned beef and rice when I was a kiddo.  I'm certain my parents went through some lean times that I wasn't aware of.

[peacocks]

B) Community gardens are widely accessible in a way that is less the case in more affluent neighbourhoods, giving you the chance to grow whatever you like for the price of a few seeds and occasional effort of watering. The people who say they don't have the energy to do it right are the ones who don't realize that taking the initiative to eat well will give them exactly the boost they currently lack.

um, where do you live?  Because this is not a reality anywhere in Florida and probably a fair amount of other states as well.

[elpollodiablo]

There are these two young fish swimming along, and they happen to meet an older fish swimming the other way, who nods at them and says, "Morning, boys, how's the water?" And the two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, "What the hell is water?"

[coldforge]

Hey Socrates, take your jibber labber to your local community garden!

[elpollodiablo]

FUCK YOU I'M GOING TO CHIPOTLE

[coldforge]

 Unhappy the land that has no community gardens. / Unhappy the land that needs them!

[elpollodiablo]

As much as I'm loving grad school, teaching freshman comp is the fucking worst. It's not difficult, it's not challenging, and it's not particularly taxing. It's just a giant thankless tedious menial timesuck. Teaching process composition is like spiritually draining. People who choose this as a career are out of their fucking minds.

[mixed cats]

The teacher of my first year writing class.. His day job was teaching theater to elementary school kids. Then he had a couple sections of writing with art school fools like me. He liked that he could be all, "fucking fuckshit goddammit!" with us, since he had to be restrained all day with the kiddies. He told us he drank copious amounts of gin to deal with grading our papers.

He was my favorite teacher.

[cold before sunrise]

B) Community gardens are widely accessible in a way that is less the case in more affluent neighbourhoods, giving you the chance to grow whatever you like for the price of a few seeds and occasional effort of watering. The people who say they don't have the energy to do it right are the ones who don't realize that taking the initiative to eat well will give them exactly the boost they currently lack.

um, where do you live?  Because this is not a reality anywhere in Florida and probably a fair amount of other states as well.

It can't be a uniquely Canadian thing? Hunt around a little, you might be surprised. I've been all over the country and public gardens are available everywhere from Victoria to Toronto. There also has to be public demand. the most recent city plot I tended was a pay lot in Alberta that was sold by the city to developers last year, but the promise to open 4 more to replace it hasn't be kept. Residents continually have to keep up the fight for public land to be available for the municipality to make provisions. In Newfoundland people without their own space will apparently find sunny roadside patches and tend little renegade vegetable gardens on the spot.

Womens' rights are important and I think we're better off for the 60's and joining the workforce but you know, who does that leave to sew clothes and make preserves? We pay somebody else to do it. I don't know many people who can even stitch a button properly, not to mention jar peaches, and takes away from your independance when you can't fix your own clothes or preserve produce when it's cheap and in season. Even talking about this stuff makes me feel about a 1000 years old since who the shit cares about this stuff anymore? My boss laughed at me for gardening like it was the weirdest thing in the world for somebody young to be interested in anything other than partying and shopping. Friends drop in announced and laugh at me for being such a square because they catch me baking or crafting. Even my roommate's cats probably thing I'm on oddball for making them food instead of opening a can of whatever it is the cats on TV commercials get but you know what? Fuck the world. Go twitter about what you ate today, I bet a Mexican farted on it because you're an asshole and we're both laughing at you now.

[FreddyKnuckles]

As much as I'm loving grad school, teaching freshman comp is the fucking worst. It's not difficult, it's not challenging, and it's not particularly taxing. It's just a giant thankless tedious menial timesuck. Teaching process composition is like spiritually draining. People who choose this as a career are out of their fucking minds.

Our freshman comp teacher was this little skinny nerdy environmental studies grad student who had tufts of hair coming out of every shirt opening.  He made us read outtakes of Al Gore's books (this was in 2003, when Al Gore was not cool)

[kadiekatRN]

Can't breathe.  Like it is seriously difficult.  Worked for 12 hours unable to breathe.  Asked at 1 p.m to go home at 3 because I was not longer able to walk to my patients' rooms or complete a sentence without getting out of breath.  Charge nurse tried but ultimately I couldn't go b/c there was no extra nurse for our unit.  Went home, used Frank's inhaler, took an expectorant, put on a menthol patch, drank about a quart of water and/or gatorade.  Sat in a warm bath and still am tachypneic (breathing fast), have a tight chest, and can't stop coughing.

Am seriously pissed that they didn't let me go home.

And am not slightly worried that I will need to go to the ER tonight if my breathing d/n improve.

Also, very very mad that when i went to urgent care on Tuesday, they did a chest x-ray that the MD read as clear and diagnosed me with bronchitis.  He then waited at least two, maybe three days to call me and leave a voice mail telling me the radiologist said it was pneumonia and I should start antibiotics.

Had I know that I needed antibiotics, I wouldn't have braved work 12 hours each Thurs. and Fri. under the mindset that since my fever was gone and my symptoms were starting to improve a little I could work. That delusion lead me to decide to work today only to be out of breath and hypoxic and working with sick kids and unable to go home.  The bad symptoms were for the last 7-8 hours of my 12 hour day.  And I am so mad that I had to work through them.  And now I'm at home, coughing uncontrollably and unable to catch my breath despite all the pharmaceuticals and non-pharm interventions this nurse who treats respiratory patients can think of.

Going to MD tomorrow to actually get said antibiotics (wasn't able to check voicemail until after 7 tonight).  ER if this is still going on when Frank comes back.

[davy]

Yeesh. Take care of yourself. 

[lucky strike]

we have community gardens in houston

[clare]

There are some here, but they're all organic as far as I know. There's not enough urban density for people to need them (most people who want to grow stuff have enough garden space of their own), though that is changing with urban infill.

[Anne the Man]

Shit, Katie, seconding the take care of yourself thing.

OT: I really don't like being followed by a 50-yr-old (who once asked me out at checkout) in his car who tells me he's seen me around at uni a bit or some shit. Moreover I don't like having a guy sneak up behind me and almost try to grab me at 3am when I'm walking down the street. Rape jokes suddenly got a lot more personal and horrible. My rule of life is to get annoyed but not get angry, but this shit makes me fucking angry and upset. There isn't much within reason that I can do about walking down a suburban street in the middle of the day, and I wouldn't fucking do it anyway because it's not my fucking responsibility to avoid harassment.

[Killdozersnakeboy]

Moving to Oz in 36 hours. We have more shit to move than we thought. And more shit to throw away than we thought. Just far more shit all up. Total clusterfuck. Freaking out. Fucking hectic.

[clare]

eh, it's always the way with moving deadlines. Pull an allnighter tonight and see how you're travelling in the morning. Good luck with the move, mate.