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News from Home
Mar. 30th, 2003 05:27 pmToday went better than I expected. I caught up with some RL friends, did my 2003 budget, did the dishes from last night’s dinner party, found some bibliographic notes I’d mislaid for the Arts/Crafts and Tolkien essay, tortured lithe young Elrond in the la-la land of fanfiction, and did yet another thing with my New Zealand taxes. Next week I have to send off my US taxes. Since I’m an American living abroad, I still have to file. However, I have to pay US taxes only if I: a) make over 70,000 US (so not likely) or b) spent more than 30 days in the US last year. So I’ll be sending them paperwork saying I owe them nothing.
I spoke to my mother in the U.S. today and asked her about the war. “Everyone here totally despises George Bush. Even the hard-core Republicans. Nobody’s for The War.” She then told me an anecdote about her Greek boyfriend’s daughter, whose name is similar to Vasiliki Vasilokopous. She flew from New York to London the day after the U.S. essentially declared war. “They seemed to be going by passports and pulling anyone who had an un-American name, and they held her and interrogated her for national security.” This woman, though American, was held up with other oddly-named Americans and a Harvard student from Armenia while airport security went through their luggage with a fine-toothed comb, even checking the contents of any music or program CDs and inspecting toothbrushes. This held her up for four hours. The Armenian Harvard student was inspected with exceptional strictness. (shudders)
To my immense surprise, I found out that my mother, who is English, is a boxing fan. “I’ve always liked boxing. The British love boxing. My mother likes boxing as well; we used to watch it together, because nobody else would join us.” Upon inquiry, she is not a wrestling fan and she said in her extremely British voice, “I just don’t see the point. It looks like men having sex.” Now I have to watch some wrestling to see if this really is the case – I haven’t seen a match since I wandered into a pro-am wrestling match one night in Philadelphia.
I spoke to my mother in the U.S. today and asked her about the war. “Everyone here totally despises George Bush. Even the hard-core Republicans. Nobody’s for The War.” She then told me an anecdote about her Greek boyfriend’s daughter, whose name is similar to Vasiliki Vasilokopous. She flew from New York to London the day after the U.S. essentially declared war. “They seemed to be going by passports and pulling anyone who had an un-American name, and they held her and interrogated her for national security.” This woman, though American, was held up with other oddly-named Americans and a Harvard student from Armenia while airport security went through their luggage with a fine-toothed comb, even checking the contents of any music or program CDs and inspecting toothbrushes. This held her up for four hours. The Armenian Harvard student was inspected with exceptional strictness. (shudders)
To my immense surprise, I found out that my mother, who is English, is a boxing fan. “I’ve always liked boxing. The British love boxing. My mother likes boxing as well; we used to watch it together, because nobody else would join us.” Upon inquiry, she is not a wrestling fan and she said in her extremely British voice, “I just don’t see the point. It looks like men having sex.” Now I have to watch some wrestling to see if this really is the case – I haven’t seen a match since I wandered into a pro-am wrestling match one night in Philadelphia.
