Work Adventure #4



From lhomme@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu Sat Aug 10 05:09:32 1996
Date: Sat, 10 Aug 1996 03:00:58 -0400 (EDT)
From: lhomme@gwis2.circ.gwu.edu
Reply-To: blah2@obscure.org
To: blah2@obscure.org
Subject: last day of work


I am now unemployed. Woohoo!
But what would an extremely bizarre job be without a bizarre last day? So, here is the final work story you will be getting from me this summer:
The day started off quite well. Since it was my last day, I had control of the music on the drive to and from Lafayette so everyone had to listen to the Virgin Prunes the entire time. I think there may be a connection to the fact that everyone except me did pathetically today. I brought in three times what anyone else did.
Anyway, the day passed quite normally until I got picked up after canvassing. While we were driving to pick up the other two canvassers, my friend and coworker, Lee, told me that she had been stopped my the cops and harrassed for well over an hour. They gave her an especially hard time after they found out that she is physically a guy and not a girl. They refused to accept the permits we had to canvass in Lafayette (not that permits are even necessary as countless court cases have held that what we do is protected by the first ammendment). Anyway, when we reached the pick up point for the other two canvassers, who should be there but the four officers who had harrassed Lee. They had a long talk with our field manager and then came and took information about each of us. I actually was the last person they talked to.
The officer asked for identification and I came extremely close to giving him my library card but the fact that the police in Lafayette have a reputation (as do the police in most areas I know of) for excessive violence. I refrained. I was actually quite well behaved, although I realized being a victim of police brutality would make a better post to blah, I decided that I just wasn't in the right mood for it. All I did was constantly roll my tongue bar along my teeth while the officer talked to me because I know that can be annoying as Hell.
This was the conversation the officer and I had. I swear that this is accurate.


Cop: Do you have any tatoos?
Me: No.
C: Are you missing any fingers or toes?
M: No.
C: Do you have any tatoos?
M: No.
C: What color are your eyes?
M: Blue.
C: Do you have any major surgical scars?
Me (assuming all of mine qualify as minor): No.
C: Do you have any tatoos?
M: No.
C: Do you have on any rings or watches?
Me (assuming my nipple ring was not what he meant): No.
C: Do you have any tatoos?
M: No.

This and his information about what I was wearing is now on record with the Lafayette police for the next year. And should anyone wearing black shorts and a yellow shirt (presumably someone without tatoos) be seen committing a crime, they will contact the police wherever I am and have me brought in for questioning. At least according to these officers. I'm just glad it wasn't earlier in the week because I was wearing all black and I have a feeling that that is a popular ensemble for the clothes of criminals. So, Luis, when they kick down our door and drag me off next year, you can be pretty sure that someone without any tatoos has committed a crime in Lafayette. Actually, their intimidation techniques such as this were kind of amusing because they were so transparent. Anyway, that's my last work story.

"This place is Hell to me with the devil in my bed and the devil in this bottle and the devil in my head. I'll meet you in heaven again if you wear that dress again (I'll have one more drink my friend) where my heart is kept on ice and prayers burst into flames. Prayers on fire."-The Birthday Party





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