I'm sure feeling free to get out and about for a weekend, or even an afternoon, would be appreciated, shrift. And congrats on the new auntness. Being an aunt is terrific.

Not surprisingly,I suppose, I agree with everything above regarding the AZ law and like bon bon, I don't think the law will be around very long. Besides the federal/state issue, which is huge, I'm not sure how you enforce a law without violating civil rights when the cop is supposed to just...decide who to ask without racial profiling.

But the one thing I always point out in this discussion s that immigration law is administrative, not criminal. Yes, there are some immigration crimes (meaning you can be charged criminally) but in those cases you a) can get a public defender and b) have full access to the Constitution. But those crimes are small in number and rarely prosecuted. They DON'T include being here without a visa or overstaying your visa. So are those people violating a law? Yes, but not a criminal one.

Of course, the real fiction here is calling removal, or deportation, an "administrative penalty". It upends someone's entire life and in many cases is worse than jail. But until we start providing non-citizens with an attorney to defend themselves, and a hearing in which they have full access to the Constitution, I hate hearing immigrants called criminals when the context is simply being here without a visa.

But the one thing I always point out in this discussion s that immigration law is administrative, not criminal. Yes, there are some immigration crimes (meaning you can be charged criminally) but in those cases you a) can get a public defender and b) have full access to the Constitution. But those crimes are small in number and rarely prosecuted. They DON'T include being here without a visa or overstaying your visa. So are those people violating a law? Yes, but not a criminal one.

Pfft. You and your facts.

I kinda feel like that's a bit of a mommy faux pas, not making the birthday dessert for the family celebration,

Burrell, NO. Was it festive? Yes. Was it delicious? Yes. You have done your mommy duty in spades.

Nevermind that every time I encountered this? Their families had been settled legally in this country longer than my own pale ass family.

Yeah, I had a Chicana roommate in college who was from San Antonio, and I'm pretty sure her family had never immigrated anywhere -- they were there when it was Mexico, and stayed when it became Texas.

But having help with grandma may be the best thing I can give her right now.

I think so, too, shrift.

Man, I do not f'in get people.

The place where I exit the subway for the new office space is a small staircase in a busy area the larger exit area is closed due to construction and has been for a while. because there are so many people for a small staircase and the traffic flow is heqavy out of the station in the morning, there is a sign posted that this one entrance is EXIT ONLY from 8am - 10am. Every morning there are people entering though. Making it a one pathway exit instead of a two pathway exit like it should be, so I get in the second pathway and yell at people who are trying to come in. Today a guy backed up 4 steps as I came up yelling at him. F'in people, cross the damn street!

Also? at work, we have those single serve coffee thingies. We have like 10 varieties. People use the last one from a box, leave the empty box there. Then someone else goes to the drawer, opens a new box and takes one serving out, but STILL does not replace the empty one on the shelf! WTF is wrong with people. I bet they drink straight from the milk carton and put the empty carton back in the fridge also.

I may actually get into a fist fight today.

Smite on, msbelle!

I'm on day 4 of this cold. I'm turning to dextromethorphan as my last, best hope, even if it makes me very floaty. I got my first Census assignment yesterday and I want to be able to canvas my assigned neighborhood block this afternoon!

Yeah, I had a Chicana roommate in college who was from San Antonio, and I'm pretty sure her family had never immigrated anywhere -- they were there when it was Mexico, and stayed when it became Texas.

Yep. The Mexican cession brought thousands of people into the US whose families had been on that land for centuries. Yet I, someone whose great grandparents (on one side) were dealing with a Tsar infestation, would be the one who could wander around Arizona, paper-free, and not worry about getting deported to Finland. Madness.

Also? at work, we have those single serve coffee thingies. We have like 10 varieties. People use the last one from a box, leave the empty box there. Then someone else goes to the drawer, opens a new box and takes one serving out, but STILL does not replace the empty one on the shelf!

My favorite is when they use the last fork/knife/spoon from the drawer and put the empty box on my desk but don't put a new box in the drawer. I do order the supplies, but I also keep 3 boxes of each to hand at all times. The office went a week without forks because I was on vacation and no one could be arsed to open a fucking cabinet labeled PLASTIC CUTLERY.

Also? at work, we have those single serve coffee thingies. We have like 10 varieties. People use the last one from a box, leave the empty box there. Then someone else goes to the drawer, opens a new box and takes one serving out, but STILL does not replace the empty one on the shelf! WTF is wrong with people. I bet they drink straight from the milk carton and put the empty carton back in the fridge also.

A couple of months ago, I noticed that when Incompetent!Boss went to the kitchen to get a beverage with ice cubes, there was always the sound of a full tray of ice being dumped in the sink.

I finally asked him if he was dumping the ice tray in the sink.

IB: "Yes, I am."
Me: "Why are you WASTING WATER like that? Is the ice dirty?"

His reply, because he is apparently a petty junior-high girl, is that whenever he gets ice from the freezer, the ice bucket-y thing is empty (apparently people don't refill the bucket after they take the last cubes from it, which I *do* agree is uncool).

IB: "So, if people aren't going to be considerate enough to re-fill the ice bucket, neither will I."
Me: "But you aren't *just* NOT filling the ice bucket, you're dumping out all the ice that you don't use from a given tray! That's really wasteful!"
IB: "Well, I'm certainly not going to fill up the bucket with the ice I don't use from the tray, because no one else does!"

I suggested that he just put the tray (with the remaining ice cubes IN IT) back in the freezer. That way he can feel vindicated in his petty decision to not fill up the ice tray, but he also won't be wasting water.

Seriously, GROW UP, YOU MANCHILD.

We have no coffee AT ALL in this office because nobody wanted to be responsible for (a) making a pot of coffee in the morning or (b) rinsing out the carafe at the end of the day.

So instead of assigning this duty to someone in Office Services or buying a K-cup machine instead, the solution was simply to stick the coffee maker in a cabinet and let people fend for themselves. I now have a French press at my desk.