I got the part!

Okay, so I knew that I would, but that doesn't negate the glee that I felt when I was actually cast as Pereza, one of the Diablos in the Pastorela that my theatre group is performing next month. The slightly disconcerting thing is that Pereza turns out to be a much larger part than I had previously thought it would be, which means that very likely my Spanish is about to get a whole lot better, out of necessity. It's sink or swim time, and I'm not going to sink.

I also play the part of Valtazar, one of the kings. But with a name like that he should be a sci-fi supervillain. He has one line at the end, after the diablos have been thwarted by the angel Gabriel. Well, I guess it's a kind of divide and conquer thing. The head devil works us lesser devils too hard, and so we start demanding workers' rights, and then it's an easy thing for Gabriel to finally get rid of us once and for all. Oh man, am I nervous though. It's gonna be hard work.

In other news, I'm still working on getting the book club together. I visited three houses today. One guy wasn't there. One guy's address didn't exist. And I have a meeting tomorrow morning with Ramona, who I have successfully gotten in touch with!! Yay! Something's happened! And Ms. Swenson, the head teacher at Dugan, has another guy she wants me to try to find. So we'll see how that goes.

My existentialist/soon-to-be-Socialist is working on a HUGE paper about Nietzsche and the pointlessness of pain, and has come to me for help. And you know, I guess it has been since high school since I actually read Nietzche. Since then I've discussed his philosophies, but it's really quite fascinating to read the man's essays again now that I've grown up a bit. Nietzsche has got a really dry wit about him. He's also an arrogant bastard, and I don't think he'd mind me calling him that.

There was a shooting a block over from work yesterday. I didn't hear it, but soon after Sonia was yelling for me and I ran over to see what had happened. The Kings came into the neighborhood looking for someone--I think anyone, really. Some Saints noticed and started throwing rocks at the cars, and then the Kings started shooting. But then they crashed both their cars. The van into a fire hydrant, and the car into a corner. Three people are in the hospital, no one died, and none of MY boys were hurt.

What really got me is that it was report card day for the elementary schools, which means that there were hundreds of little kids on the streets since school was out. And plus, it happened right outside the food pantry where there was a long line of people waiting to get their groceries for the week. And then the news media comes out. It was sickening. I was standing with Sr. Angie and Ms. Swenson and we started saying how nice it was that the media was here to report about report card day--you know, really show off the good things in the neighborhood, the progress that our kids are making.

During art class last night, my students were talking about it, and, surprising me, asked, "So who won?" And they were pleased that it was a clear victory for the Saints. That snippit of conversation was incongruous since other parts of their conversation focused on the retaliations that are sure to happen, and how the violence is only going to cause more violence. Others of my students couldn't come to art because their parents wouldn't let them leave the house so soon after a gang shooting.

Welcome to the neighborhood.