So it looks like I'm going to leave the house today. Ever since the local work dried up weeks ago I've been a veritable shut-in. By choice. Other than quick little forays to the market for Mexican produce, I rarely leave anymore. It helps maintain the illusion I don't really live here. Once you leave the house, the fact that you live in Bakersfield becomes inescapable and my little emotional house of cards starts to collapse.
It's just as well. I'm going a little stir crazy. I used to have the TV to keep me company, but it died a horrible death. The boyfriend made one last valiant effort to revive it. It didn't work, but we did learn something valuable about flat screen TV's... they don't bend. Not even a little. The boyfriend had laid it face down on the carpet to tinker with it in back and we heard the slightest little "crack". When we lifted it back up, the screen was one big shattered spiderweb. We haven't bothered to get rid of it yet. It just sits in the center of the living room, a 42 inch slab of broken glass. If anyone were to ask I'd just say it's a piece of "conceptual art". I have an art degree - I've seen worse.
I tried radio, but in Bako you're pretty much limited to country or bubblegum pop. There is one station that plays classical. There's one that broadcasts NPR. They're the same station, so it's half and half. Since there are probably only twelve people in Bakersfield who would listen to either format, it's broadcast out of Fresno, the urbane center of sophistication in the Central Valley. The reception wasn't great, and then they entered their pledge drive, so I abandoned that too. So I'm left with my iPod, but after the past several days I've come to the conclusion that I have horrible taste in music.
So it's out into the wild today, to the prison-like mall. To Sears, "Where America Shops"... if America speaks Spanish. And the most shameful part of the experience is, I'm going to return some clothes.
We bought clothes at Sears.
It's hard to believe I once shopped at Fred Segal. Now we can't even afford Macy's. We had gotten to the point where we really had no choice but to swallow our pride and go to Sears. When we moved here we had to buy some appliances - a fridge and washer & dryer. Our old, nice appliances ended up being part of the short sale of the house. It wasn't the plan, but we really had no choice. So when we moved here we bought the cheapest appliances we could find and we ended up with a dryer that has only one heat setting - nuclear. Over the past several months both our wardrobes have been slowly reduced to doll clothing.
We went to Sears and bought a bunch of staples. We didn't try everything on because we (and by "we", I really me "I" - the boyfriend was surprisingly unfazed by the whole experience) really just wanted to get the hell out of there. The fitting rooms were scary and reminded me of some of the seedier bars I've been in in my day. I half expected there to be glory holes cut in the room dividers.
So shock of shock, some of the clothes don't fit and I get to go back. The highlight of my day is going to be getting store credit at Sears.
Dare to dream!
