November 19, 2004
Mrs. Warren’s Profession
Oh no, I think I’ve become like the TV starlet who decides to get pregnant, and "retire" but finds it very hard to let go of the modest but real attention she was getting from her "Girls Behinds Bars" series. Everyone tells her if she takes a break to have just one lousy kid she’ll be anonymous dust in this town again in no time. Plus the higher profile made her feel she could be a real voice for animal rights, even if that means doing cheesy benefits more than actually working with abused giraffes at Tipi Hedren’s Nature Reserve.
Before I flog this metaphor to death (I call them my "metaphorrors"). I might as well face facts that being out is going to present a whole new set of challenges as far as what to say than being inside did, and just as in the case of my starlet (Let’s call her "Lesbianne Warren") having a baby—being free--might be a lot more fulfilling-but much less interesting to the public—than making a TV series. It’s not like I’m going to get myself rearrested for the sake of the blog, in any event, but I may have to accept that I’m sort of like post-hurricane, post-election Florida. An interesting state, for sure, but do you really want to read about it EVERY day anymore?
So I learned yesterday that the LA transit system is really not bad, but double-check the itinerary they give you on the MTA website, or you might find yourself wandering around for hours in the armpit of LA that exists between here and Long Beach, searching for a Parole Office that was actually two stops back on the Blue Line. Of course, God forbid the P.O. herself might have been able to tell one of her clients how to get there without a car. It’s not as if newly freed wards of the states aren’t likely to HAVE one, is it?
Otherwise, she was helpful and I accomplished several administrative necessities on my way to becoming a real person again. Hopefully my pass request will be approved to visit my brother and other sister and niece and nephew and beloved dog in Salinas over Thanksgiving, and I’ll be off to Albuquerque not too much longer after.
I also walked from one the tip of Hollywood to mid-Wilshire (no mean feat), finally retracing the steps of one of the routes I took on a bus from County Jail to Court, in shackles, when I was arrested last year. I had wished myself with ever fiber of my being off that bus at the time, vowing to walk these same streets a free man, (and with enormous gratitude,) again. And I did.
I also (re) learned how much kinder one must be to oneself than one is. This is a little tricky, because it may sound like I wasn’t giving a friend of mine who intended to visit the benefit of the doubt when he never even sent in the form to do so. To a degree that’s true, but more fundamentally, out of the two possibilities—him being organizationally challenged, or him just not caring—it is startling how readily I was willing to go for the interpretation that cast me in the most unloved light possible, even though this individual has given a fair amount of evidence that would make it just as believable that his intentions often exceed his grasp.
On to greet another day conquering bureaucrats. This weekend, I’m going to the movies and out to lunch, and then to a concert at night. Imagine that.
MCO 2004
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