Shaking Hands

Alright. I just realized I posted an entire blog about donuts. And while the donuts do deserve their due recognition...I live in a different universe than I did two weeks ago. Necessitates documentation.

Tonight I took an evening jog. A block from my house I passed a guy pushing his cart o' stuff up the hill. Five blocks further, I passed a house hosting a dinner party with four men in red vests managing the valet parking on their front curb.

Earlier this week in a job interview for a position with an adolescent treatment center, while discussing the various strengths and weaknesses I could bring to the organization, my potential future supervisor leveled with me. "I will be honest Michelle, you're a little white girl. And these girls are going to want to push you to see what you're made of. Are you up for it?"

Today as we were unpacking, we were passed by a woman out walking a baby in a stroller. From her age, and heavy Eastern-European accent, I deduced that she was a nanny. I said good morning, and she came over and started to talk. After a few minutes of chit chat, I offered my hand and introduced myself. Before taking my hand, she stopped me. "I sorry. I should tell. I'm a Jew. Is still ok with you?"

Intellectually, all of these things have been part of the world forever. It's so bizarre to actually experience it: to see the Bentley's driving four blocks from the Rabbits; to be in a situation where my ethnicity means I am deviate from expectation; to live in a world where people feel the need to apologize for their heritage, the need to disclose it up-front in order to be fair, or to be safe...

Bizarre-o. And I've got so many other stories from the last two weeks. This is the new normal. I'm intrigued.