raybear | Like 1001 nights?

I work around the corner from one of the friendliest, chattiest employees of this firm. This is not without its disadvantages. Actually, I'm not sure there really that many advantages. Mostly I just let it go, but sometimes on my way to my own desk, I just am not quite yet up for hearing "Happy Thursday!" or "Happy Friday!" or "Happy Wednesday!" or....you get the idea. She is exceedingly sweet, of course, but that doesn't really soften the blow when exceedingly problematic (or just straight up fcked up) things come out of her mouth. Mostly I am incredulously amused, say for example, when during the discussion about the Oscars, her opinion of The Departed was "everyone just got shot in the head!" or that she didn't see Pan's Labyrinth because it has subtitles and she doesn't like to read when watching a movie, or that she saw Little Miss Sunshine four times and loved it because "it had everything! the overweight kid, the cranky old guy, the homosexuals, the strained marriage! it had something everyone could connect to!" and when she said 'homosexuals' I think she sort of gestured towards me.

Yesterday I was less amused when she told a story about people on the Metra freaking out and calling the conductor, who in turn, called the police and bomb squad, because a man was on board, praying and chanting aloud. A man, who in her story, she called "an Arab" but pronounced "AY-rab", like rhymes with Ahab the fcking captain in Moby Dick. I nearly spit out my tea.
"Excuse me? An AY-rab?"
She quickly backpedaled and said, 'I'm sorry, I'm not ever politically correct!'
"It's not about being politically correct. It's about being accurate."
'Oh, ok, I mean...Arabian. He's Arabian.'

Um, I'm going to take a guess and say he probably wasn't Arabian.

At least the story was about how she was appalled at the behavior of the overreaction about a person simply trying to pray. In this place, I will take the tiniest of blessings available.

Which is why today, when she talked about going on vacation next week to south Florida, and described Key West as the place with lots of great boutiques, expensive but good restaurants, and 'gays', I almost deemed it progress. Except, I don't know. I kinda like the word homosexuals.