#61 out of 200ish.

It's been a month since I sent a shout out to all my family and friends about my adventures in picking up a trade. For that I have no excuse other than laziness.

I'm taking Steering and Suspension I right now and am BORED. We've been learning how to align different cars and get used to the multitude of alignment machines the shop has. It's not rocket science and yet we've spent three class periods on four different cars. Needless to say, there is a lot of standing around. Yawn. I think my boss is going to let me work on his old jeep and give it a new suspension...until then....boredom.

I've been getting to know my classmates better and really enjoy them. I have to remind myself that going to school in Portland is so much different than what it would have been like if I continued in Denver. For one, most of the guys lean towards the left side of the political spectrum. I had a conversation with one guy about female stereotypes in the media, birth control and the treatment of women's biological functions as a medical condition rather than natural. Despite what people may think, this guy brought up most of the subject matter in the conversation. I went with it. It was informative. Also, about half the class rides bikes around town on a regular basis. Interesting dichotomy that I would never have seen in Denver. There is a flip side to the good classmates that see women as their equals and can have an intelligent conversation about it. I don't talk to these guys often, but when they rear their head, it disturbs me.

One example is the tool room guy. S and I often go into the tool room together to get tools. This time S wasn't wearing her lab coat and had on a cute t-shirt that I'm sure she'd slept in the night before. No matter. We walked up the counter and the man gave her a look up and down that made my skin crawl. He says, "that's a nice....shirt." It was immensely creepy. Not only is it sexual harassment, the creep is around 40 and S is only 17 years old. After talking it through for a couple days with some classmates, she made the bold move to tell our teacher. This resulted in a meeting with the chair and adviser for the department. Our discussion wasn't perfect but the creep has been warned. One thing the chair couldn't seem to comprehend was how difficult it is to speak up in the moment. He kept telling S that she should feel empowered to tell someone what they do makes her uncomfortable and that they should stop. But what about saying that to someone that has more power that the victim? What about retaliation? It's a tough call to make. S chose to report him to his higher ups. She should have never had to say anything to begin with. It's shouldn't happen. Period.

Another quick example of male weird creepiness: I was walking through the shop holding a ratchet and deep socket, twisting the socket to make the ratchet make it's clickie noise that is addictive to make. A guy walks by and says "that's hot..." Um. Creep. Why is this perceived as appropriate?

Speaking of the male patriarchy. I have been trying to get an apprenticeship with the electrician's union. I had my interview about three weeks ago. I was extremely nervous about it and felt prepared. Boy oh boy, was I wrong. I spent 15 minutes in a room with 4 guys and felt like I did a horrible job of showing them that I'm the right one for the job. They asked questions about a multitude of things, but the ones that caused me strife were the typical male bullshit ones. "I'm have a problem with one thing. You are going to have to use tools on a daily basis in this job. Saws, hammers, drills. How are you going to be with power tools?" The man made the assumption that I can't handle it. I told him that I use tools right now on a daily basis. Air tools, hand tools, hammers, etc. One of the male interviewers reminded the small minded asshole that asked the question that I'm currently taking classes in automotive technology. Another guy asked me if I knew what a construction site really looks like. I was upset when I left the building. I'm not quitting though. If anything I'm more determined. I got my letter in the mail with my rank about a week ago. I'm #61. This isn't horrible, but it isn't good either. They will probably take roughly the top third of applicants and 61 out of 200ish puts me just in that range. I see it like this: I stand on one side of a canyon and what I want is on the other side. There is no clear way over. I have to figure it out. The tools I've been given up to this point aren't going to cut it. It's time to rethink things. I'm still thinking on what exactly I'm going to do, but as soon as I know I'll fill you in....Soon. My plan is taking shape.

My skin is getting thicker. My naivety runs deep though...

For christmas I dream of tools and prescription safety glasses. what about you?

I miss you all. How's the world where you are?

love, kt