Wednesday, July 21, 2010

My fellow Americans

I went to the US Consulate yesterday to add pages to my passport. I love the US Consulate for all the right reasons. I'll probably elope there if I ever find an unmarried straight man who appreciates sarcasm, has a thorough knowledge of "Seinfeld," and showers daily. But that's like trying to find a unicorn in the New York subway--a Hindu in the Vatican--a liberal in western South Dakota. (You get points for more examples)

Anyway, the Consulate. They confiscated my deodorant, sunscreen, and mobile phone, but those are extravagances. I'm trying to live more like Ghandi these days anyway. It's going pretty well. I walk everywhere, even if it takes 2 hours. I don't eat much unclean meat, but I guess that's more like Abraham than Ghandi. And I'm learning Spanish.

I had my final show for work last weekend--a fabulous Penguin show at the Library. I know it was fabulous because only one child struck me.

Now I am covering classes for an absent teacher. It's grand. I get to be Miss Camber again...Miss Camber is my alter-ego. She cares deeply about children and wants them to succeed in life. One precocious brat of a student called her "counter-intuitive" the other day. Miss Camber does not dwell on impossible insults.

Back track to "Lysistrata"--we performed this oldest comedy ever written as a charity to raise scholarship money for students to attend classes at the studio. Directed by the lovely and talented Meaghan McGurgan, the production--despite every obstacle possible, went off well.

I'm wearing a mask, which I'm sure my sister would say is a better look for me and I should consider wearing one at all times.

I moved away from the Bedazzler! No more reverse thongs for me...I mean, for me to see on her. I don't really want to say where I live now, for fear of a weird guy, but I'll say it's close to a synagogue. There are guards outside of it at all times. I call them synaguards. No one else thinks that's as funny as I do.

I'm living in the best possible situation. Currently alone and "house sitting" while my friend Kath visits her 92-year-old grandma in Manchester. When she returns, we'll be flatmates for a couple of months before I leave Hong Kong in November. She doesn't want me to pay rent. I'm so thankful for this boon! She just wants to do something nice and I am the fortunate beneficiary.

I dyed half of my hair a really trailer-trashy red-pink. It's the bottom half, so I can still sort of convince people to take me seriously.

To celebrate America, Lindsey, her mom, and I hiked 4-hours in high 90s temps on Lamma Island.
Lamma scene:


In a semi-deserted village:
A bit of the daily for The, Dad:

And a rain-filled light bulb:

This is a Kamikaze grotto. The Japanese constructed these caves to store speedboats and other equipment for an attack on the Allied forces. The War ended before they finished, so they were never used:


Also, I finally went to the Central Post Office and saw this stamp mosaic. Totally worth it:

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shouldn't The, Dad be able to identify his own daughter in at least one of the two photos? We clearly have been apart too long.


Thanks for the ordinary picture of life in all its fulness. I have become very accustomed to laundry lately.

The stamp mural brings back such memories. I think The, Mother and I saw it the same day that we attempted, without success, to see the noonday gun.

The,

Dad.

Anonymous said...

Mothers are always able to identify their children-masks and all-so I will enlighten dad. The news yesterday had a story of a mother in the US identifying her wounded soldier son by his hands when she saw him on a news clip.

Also, I can't believe that you waited so long to see the postage stamp mural. I thought you would have gone right after we told you about it.

Did the Consulate return your belongings--mothers care about such things as that..AND thank you for the much awaited blog.

The Classic Harpist said...

I'm with T,D. Where are you? Perhaps the mask improves your appearance so much as to render you unrecognizable. I have my guess in the first picture, but it is based entirely on your signature obnoxious pose.

Synaguards is funny. Please don't haul me off to the consulate - I'm already married, and I don't want them to confiscate my sunscreen.

You didn't tell us about the stamp mosaic! I would have totally skipped the Noonday Gun for that.

Camber Carpenter said...

I'm the one in what appears to be a blue jacket. You may even see a tie, crafted by The Mother, that says "VOTE." White shirt. Blue pants. fiery personality.

D--I didn't tell you about the mosaic because I didn't know it was still there. Had I known...I might have still not said anything.

Also, D, you don't have to get married when you go to the Consulate. They provide other services, too. I might go there to change my party affiliation...or ask questions about paying taxes abroad.

TM--they did, indeed, return all confiscated articles.

Keith said...

I thought "Synaguards" was funny even before you told me it was supposed to be funny.
Thanks for the update.

Anonymous said...

Oh.

The,

Dad.

Camber Carpenter said...

Thanks for the votes of confidence on "synaguards," everyone.

Anonymous said...

I'm working on examples but anything I come up with pales in comparison with the three starters--let's challenge Keith. I'm sure he and J. Buchanan could make an interesting list. Mom (not T,D)

Camber Carpenter said...

So far, Steven Varble is in the lead with 7,000 Points.

With his permission, I will copy and paste his results on this forum.

Nikita said...

A straight guy in a musical...horse ovaries at walmart...your ex in a clapping contest...how many points do I have so far? I can come up with more. Oh, you know I will!

Nikita said...

Oh, p.s. I totally LOLed all over the place at "synaguards."

Nikita said...

Aaaand, it's like seeing the "Lord of the Dance" win an arm flailing contest or finding a way to use the word "leprechaun" in a blog comment to win Camber points.

Andy said...

I didn't know Gandhi spoke Spanish.

I hated the American Embassy in Rwanda. It was huge and sterile and totally walled off from the rest of the city. Not a very friendly place.