Oh Yeah, That Happened

As last semester was the age of Foucault, so is this semester, clearly, the age of Marx, to the extent that I have named my car battery charger (don't ask) "Karl", and when people inquire to my relationship status and I say I am sleeping with someone, I am referring to this German, long since passed from this world and also, married. The fact that this does not strike me as at all odd until I actually write it down says something deeply disturbing about graduate school which I will endeavor not to examine.

I am house and puppy-sitting for the weekend, which is really enjoyable. I love having a new environment in which to sit for hours, head in my hands, drowning in theory and coffee. And for the record, these wonderful people have AMAZING coffee. They also, apparently, have a housekeeping service.

So this one time, I was sitting at someone else's kitchen table, reading the works of Karl Marx while chatting with the housecleaner.

Oh yeah, that happened.

I could unpack the experience, but let's just go with the facts:

1) The two ladies, Lucia and Maria, were absolutely lovely.
2) Lucia was from Brazil, where dogs, apparently, drink beer.
3) They both spoke much, much better English than I speak Portuguese.
4) They are self-employed and make an excellent living.
5) I was also, in this case, "the help", but I am to all appearances white, I speak English, I am pursuing higher education, and I have a more personal relationship with our "employers".
6) I did not grow up in a house that used a cleaning service, so I am unused to the situation generally, and kept apologizing and trying to get out of the way.
7) I found the whole situation both intensely awkward and completely hilarious, which might mean I'm a terrible person and definitely means I am an inadequate revolutionary site.