Silence is Smoldering
Wherein the narrator spends another day hiding in
San Diego, waiting for someone to tell him where to go, while his domicile
disintegrates.
Some dates are good, some are bad. Last
evening's was fairly boring and let's leave it
there.
Around 8 PM I got email from
Leslie - who is staying at my place while I'm away (not that I'm actually away,
yet) - and he informed me that the toilet had sprung a leak. Every time he
flushed, the bathroom gushed with water. And the crack in the ceiling at the
bottom of the stairs is getting scarier. So I called the super, who sent some
workers over this morning. They fixed the toilet, but it'll be a bit harder to
handle the problem at the base of the stairs. I expect I may return to Casa
Pesce tomorrow to find all sorts of stuff torn up. We'll see. I might even
take some pictures.
Anyway, back to the
situation viz. the visa. Nothing. Nada.
Silencio.
Despite the statement in the automated response email that inquiries will be
responded to within 24 hours, I haven't heard a word from the Australian
Embassy. So now I'm beginning to wonder: is anyone working there? Are they
actually processing visa requests? Is it possible to get a work visa to
Australia? It may be that this is a sort of political football, that the Howard
government is so paranoid about "guest workers" that even those of us
INVITED
by the Australian government (AFTRS is a national school) can't actually get
permission to work in Australia. It may
be.
Or I just might be
paranoid.
And it's not that I hate
being here in San Diego. I'm eating my way through my father's rather
substantial supply of Costco-acquired foodstuffs, watching his cable TV, and
driving his car. Sweet. But I'm not sixteen, so all of this has limited
appeal, particularly as it's feeling a bit more like purgatory than a rest
stop.
The latest commercial for Ahnold
has voice-over narration which goes something like
this:
An extraordinary
man
At one with the
people
A government for the
people
For a
change
The ultimate
power
Still rests in the hands
of the people.
Although the Nazi
revelations have been popping up since Ahnold announced his candidacy, in view
of the latest ad - which seems more Goebbels than Rove (the difference is
subtle, but noticeable) - I'm even more worried than before. Particularly as it
does look as though I will be here on Wednesday morning, when California wakes
up from its Recall rave, and realizes, without all the MDMA floating around its
nervous system, maybe it wasn't such a good idea to hand over the keys to the
car to someone who maybe doesn't even know how to
drive.
But whatever. I look at it this
way: it's one more reason to get the hell out of here. If I'm allowed
to.
On the upside, I'm loving this
iBlog software. Truly loving it. It may actually help me keep some sort of
record of my life. Not that it's going to be interesting to anyone else, but,
well, we all know I love seeing my words in
print.
And a spot of good news: Logan,
a 10 year old son-of-one-of-my-oldest-friends has gone into complete remission
after his first treatment for leukemia. Just as the doctor said he would. He's
not entirely out of the woods yet, but it's encouraging...
Posted: Fri - October 3, 2003 at 03:46 PM