Four Objectifications

930 am: I was riding my bike on University when a small dumpy truck with a huge cargo cab (the kind you sleep/live in) pulls up next to me and a black man approximately age 60 starts speaking some Southern gibberish, something mostly incomprehensible. And in between the puttering exhaust pipe, puffing and grumbling, I heard, I think "White girls from behind......black girls...white ladies too!.....since I was 20 year ole....so I just think....good for you...Have a nice day! OKay!?" So I said, "Okay," and turned down the alley behind the "Gainesville Dojo." Then the water main burst right in front of me.

5 30 pm: I was jogging near the hospital when a large blue van passes on the opposite side of the street, from behind. A man, yells out, "Looking good! Why don't you come hop in mah BLUE vay-an."

5 35 pm: While jogging past the International Grocery Store I past a black man approximately age 50, thin and carrying two bags of groceries. He said hi, and I reciprocated. Then he said "I like the way those shake." I laughed sharply at a high pitch. Then once we passed he cried out "I sure do!"

6 30 pm: I was drinking from the water fountain in the Gold's Gym. A black man approximately age 30, wearing a black sweatshirt cinched high at the waist with a weight lifting belt, passes me. (His sweatshirt had a screen-on photograph of his wife or girlfriend. She was smiling, exposing a mouth full of gold teeth. He also had gold teeth, and terrible pock marks, and a pony tail of long braids with beaded ends.) I was sipping and he said to his white friend as he passed, "She is fine. I think I'm gonna get some stretch pants. I should get some stretch! pants!" White man looks at me and we laugh together. It was my first day.