Bakersfield!

What a time to be in Bakersfield! Here is what happened of note while I was out there:

Country-
As all of you know. Bakersfield is (was) home to Buck Owens...of "Hee-Haw" and country music fame. I drove on Buck Owens Blvd. He has this country music museum, restaurant, and I think a sizeable concert space out there. It's big time.

Well, he died last Friday night. In his sleep after performing. I happened to catch a little special on TV about him. He created this country music museum...had these bronze statues made of country greats like Johnny Cash, Garth Brooks, Merle Haggard (or something like that), and others (including himself). When the statues were unvealed the people who were portrayed in bronze (who were still alive) were there. And Garth Brooks PROPOSED TO TRISHA YEARWOOD RIGHT THEN AND THERE IN FRONT OF EVERYONE!!! (I don't follow country music at all).

I found out from the Manager of the place I was doing my trainings that tomorrow (Saturday) is the funeral and they are supposedly closing the freeway that took me from my hotel to the airport. So I got out of there just in time. Farewell, Buck Owens. It seems just yesterday you were here. Once I finally made it to Bakersfield, plbbbt!, You were gone.

An Actual Country-
California is a state that is right above Mexico (the more you knooooowwwwww). Apparently there is some legislation coming up that has Mexican teens in an uproar. The legislation is supposed to crack down on illegal immigrants. There were two school walk out protests while I was here. All Jr. High-High school students waving Mexico's flag. Lots of news footage of teens talking about how Mexicans come over and do the jobs no one wants to do. The pressure is slowly building and there is another scheduled walk out for 4/10 (JOIN UP!). While I was driving from my last training to the airport I saw a white guy sitting on a wall with an american flag. Two Mexican youths were walking by and yelling at him. One of them spit on him and he just calmly picked up his phone. A couple white people popped up on the other side of the wall and yelled at the mexican teens. One of the teens threw a punch. Then the two teens made their way across the 6 lane road (not a freeway or highway...just a CA road). There were already a lot of Police driving around the area, and it wasn't long before the teens started running and two cop cars were heading there direction.

My take? Unless you're a Native American, you're pretty much an immigrant. Settle down everybody!

F this S-
I flew from Bakersfield to Phoenix, and now I am here in Phoenix. My flight was supposed to leave at 10:30pm and arrive in Chicago at 2:49am. My flight is delayed until 11:20.

I managed to get to California Pizza Kitchen right before they and every other food place closed for the night. I sat next to a table that had a mother and a son. The son was about 11 or 12. They were having a very cordial conversation that went a little something like this:

Mom: (all said in a pleasant voice)You're really just saying those thing to rebel. It really isn't nice to say S or D.

Son: I know. It just comes out sometimes....my teacher says D.

Mom: Really? When?

Son: Like "Oh I forgot to grade you D reports!"

Mom: Laughing Well...D isn't as bad as S or others, unless you are using it with his heavenly father's name...that is VERY bad. You should never do that.

Son: What do you mean?

Mom: GD.

Son: Oh. [some name] says [something I couldn't hear] but it's ok because of her beliefs.

Mom: She believes in God. But you're right. She can say what she wants. (long pause) Ben doesn't say GD does he?

Son: Sometimes.

Mom: (pause) Well he knows better than that.

It was a wonderful conversation filled with letters.


What will happen on my adventures next week? Stay tuned and find out!