Traffic court and serendipitous encounters

[tehuatzi]

One day back in April, I was rushing to meet up with M and the boys at Detweiler Park after a long day at work. What better recipe for de-stressing than a spring evening walk with my lovely family, the falling sunlight filtering through the young green of newly opened leaf buds? In my haste, however, I was stopped for speeding by a crusty old

Comments

[meganquinlan]

My brother is fluent in Spanish and always speaks Spanish in restaurants. I've always thought that it must look bizarre to see this huge Irish kid speaking Spanish with a Cuban accent, but you may have just topped that one. Although he has this friend Dave who was his roommate in Cuba who is Native American Mexican Californian (His family are native american and lived in California when it was still part of Mexico) and he's Jewish. But he looks Asian - actually, we just say he's "ethnic" looking, because he looks like he could pass for just about anything.

Court stinks - I once had to go as a witness (for my old job as an EMT) for some guy who was a jerk to me - and I was to witness on his behalf! I spent all day in court (8 hours) until they decided they didn't need me and sent me home. At least I got through a good chunk of one of the Harry Potter books!

[tehuatzi]

How much time did your brother spend in Cuba, and how did he end up down there?

[meganquinlan]

He spent a semester there, studying abroad through Butler University at the University of Havana. He has a paritcular interest in Spanish and political theory, and there is no shortage of political intrigue in Cuba. Butler had the only program in the US to study abroad in Cuba, and I'm not even sure it still exists. Right after he went (I think it was in 03), there was a bigger crackdown on US citizens going to Cuba. Even then, he could only go as part of an educational thing. I would really love to go myself. It was really tough - before he went, he was planning to go into the Peace Corps, but after spending three months in a 'developing country', he decided against it. Now he wants to go into the Foreign Service, like the State Department diplomatic security or something like that.

[tehuatzi]

Well, if I had actually had to pay the $1000, it coulda gotten ugly. But as it was, M mostly just felt sorry for me.

I don't know if you heard Schmelzer when the Champaign Vineyard hosted the 2004 Regional Conference, but he talked about the four stages of faith development, where stage 3 is like adolescent, rebellious, newly-sophisticate, I-get-postmodernism-and-you-don't rejection of stage 2's mono-perspective, black-and-white, rules-and-regulations orientation. Shortly after got the tickets, during a discussion of reading-while-driving, Monica said to me, "Dave, you need to move out of stage 3 in your life in general."

[egli]

and did you (move out of stage 3)?

[tehuatzi]

Well, that's rather a sizeable project, so I can't give you a yes or no at this point. I did stop the driving-and-reading, and I'm not speeding (as much :/) and respecting things like stop signs more, in general. But she was talking about a lot more than just driving habits, e.g. stuff we're talking about in counseling; a broader playing field than I can survey in one glance, or get my mind around in a comprehensive way. So I think it's gonna be a process of dealing with things on a case-by-case basis.

[aandcsmom]

...well at least you got frisked by my dad!! Of course, he made it a point of telling me that he saw you in court and that you got THREE tickets!! There are NO secrets in Peoria! I must say thought that I think I would have preferred traffic court to cleaning the 8 toilets at church!! ARGHHH!!

[tehuatzi]

Yeah, it was fun to see him there. I actually told him to tell you that he frisked me :). (He didn't really, of course.) Your dad's a nice guy. His jovial greeting set a good tone for the morning that day.