I Unfriended U After Your Conversion

What perversion is going through your mind?

Because she became a pagan? Because she went directly from omnivore to vegan without the in-between steps? Because she added another person to her monogamous, heteronormative, male-dominant paradigm of the marital institution?

No!

You betrayed me in a more serious manner...

I live a blue state that resonates with me. There are counties or pockets of the state wherein the blueness is marginalized. I think of the O.C., rich Marin, and parts of the agrarian San Juaquín Valley. I generally stay clear of these regions. The O.C. is a county I drive through on the way to San Diego. I try not even to buy gas there. I voted for Hillary. And I voted for Kamala. But I was never a big fan of Bernie.

So what's up with this unfriended friend? She was in a volunteer group of mine that was sponsored by the AIDS Project Los Angeles. It was the buddy program. We teamed up with someone who was HIV+ (i.e., "had AIDS" at the time) and we'd meet once a month in a group to talk about the month's experiences that we had had with our client.

This woman lived well. She was the daughter two Nazarene missionaries (one of three girls). Both parents were Latin Americans. Yes, I still raise my eyebrows when I meet Latins who aren't Catholic and hold back asking, "So, when did your family convert?" She married a Jewish guy she had met at work; his parents owned the restaurant franchise.

She never converted and he never converted. It was on her bucket list. She even said, "It's easier for a Christian to become Jewish. We have all of the blind faith pre-programmed." (So, what's that mean? All you do is just make sure you don't mention Jesus and keep ham and shrimp out of the fridge and BOOM you're a Jewess)?

They lived well and had a daughter together later in life. They are in their 60s and the little one is in undergraduate college. Then, one day, they decided to leave the Golden State and move to Tennessee. She had never lived outside California except for a few pre-teen years in Texas. "I've always wanted to live in the east. I've always wanted to experience the seasons."

Fall Foliage Tours | Tauck I was a travel agent for over two decades in California and have grown so tired of hearing that sh*t! Want to see the leaves change color? Book a tour of New England, upstate New York, the mid-Atlantic, or the glorious south.

But they moved. She also said she wanted to get more bang for her buck. Their home in the San Fernando Valley was a place that had been uninhabitable for over a year due to gas leaks from the gas company. They lived in a motel during that time. I'm sure when everything got cleaned up, their buck banged when they sold the property.

Did they expect to earn the same amount that they were making in southern California? The Jewish husband gave up working as a private investigator and went back to his roots in the franchise food industry. He is an employee at Chik-fil-A. She works in the administrative office of a hospital. The little girl is in George Washington and is no longer on scholarship. I don't think the parents looked closely at financial aid. I'm guessing there wasn't a huge college fund. I'm guessing none of this is none of my business, so I don't much ask anything even when I'm told what the situation is.

She has made comments about Trump that were not in line with my overall negativity. Maybe he is cleaning house of government agencies; getting rid of the lazy people who work for a free ride. I told her that he had eliminated the unions and thereby took away the rights of labor. Maybe the rights go against productivity in the workplace.

Then she started in on the governor of the state. Gavin!!? Don't pick on him to me. He is more than just eye candy. I know she was probably thinking of the redistricting that he is planning, but instead she went for the highspeed railway that has never gotten off the ground. Billions spent, miles to go: The story of California’s failure to build high-speed rail

The problem didn't start with Mr Newsom. And the republicans have not been supportive in helping with the hindrances that have faced the project. I'd love to see it in my lifetime, but it's not the highest thing on my list.