Throw transportation down the well

if the sudden surge in posts isn't telling enough, i've had alot on my mind lately. i've also had more time on my hands. maybe the two are related.

i need to start working out my future a little bit. I just got out of a talk with ruth and david that started with me wondering with how i shold tender my earnings, and led inevitably to how long i plan to stick around, when and where i'm travelling, where i plan to go when i'm done here, and of course fillign me in on their travel plans so i can try and make mine coincide.

david causally pointed something out that is very important to consider. he told me that he was afraid for me (with respect to my travelling) because he recognized taht i am kind of spontaneous and like to act in the short term, whereas many of the things i wanna do really require liong term planning. at the time we weer talking about going to carnival in rio. i don't just need to figure out travel plans and junk, but i need to hook up with a samba school. before any of this hapens, i need to see if i can exchange my return ticket. if that happens, i need to put in for a leave extension from the rescue squad.

see, this is exactly whty i don't like making plans.

i asked david about a road trip we had done about 10 years ago (man time flies!). he mentinoed to me that the road we took wouldn't be a bad one for me to check out again, if i could rent a car. i started talkign about how road trips were my style and began to wax reminiscent about my x-coutnry trips in the US and sleeping in cars when david immediately jumped on me and said "if you sleep in your car, you WILL get mugged." i started laughing because his certainty was nuts. i wasn't laughing becuase i didn't believe him, but because this country is just so wierd like that.

anythign and everything you do, you are at a high risk of getting mugged in one form or another. jstu about all of my students, friends and family have been "assaultado" at one point or another, or even multiple times in a mroe than a few cases. one of my students told me about a time a biker snatched his glasses right off his face.

brazilians like to remind me how "violent" their coutnry is. as bad as the country is, unless michale moore lied to us, the US is MUCH more violent than brazil. here, sure, you are more likely to get mugged. big whoop. my glasses mysteriously disappeared on the bus, i got conned in rio, and some cops fucked with me. big whoop.

You want violent? let's talk to ex-DC mayor Marion Barry for a second: "Outside of the killings, DC has one of the lowest crime rates in the country." nough said.

still, i don't udnerstand how sleeping in your car can be more dangerous than camping. locked doors oughta win the security contest over tent flaps, right? oh wait, no guns win.