I, Gansta Rapper

Uh... not.

For the past week, I decided to flaunt my collar. At work. Heretofore, I decided to be low key about it. I'd wear a tshirt and wear the collar inside. Or if no tshirt, I'd turn it around so the padlock was in back. No more. (Talk about your Mauvais Foi, huh?) All week, I've been front and center with the padlock securing a steel chain around my neck.

And nobody said a word. Nuthin.

Odd, methinks.

Well, maybe not so odd. Short of a muu-muu (what a thrill to be able to work that word into a written sentence; did you know how it was spelled?), there's not a lot that I could wear to work that would elicit some kind of comment. Straight men tend not to notice those things, or don't think much about them if they do.

This held until today. Something was mentioned about somebody being in prison, and one of the sanding boys said, "Hey Dutch, your in solidarity with the brothers in lockup, right?"

Uh... come again?

And it was explained to me that amongst gangsta rappers, it was a 'thing' of late to wear chains padlocked around your nect to draw attention to the socio-political issues surrounding the high incarceration rates of African American men.

I said that wasn't my intention in particular, but I thought that the full explanation would be a little much.

Maybe later.

Speaking of work though, things are going absolutely gangbusters. I took my cabinet making exam tonight, and I think I did pretty well. And tomorrow, I could very well start working in the hardware department. And, my trainer in the hardware department will be none other than the other hot man with the amazing gut--well, I guess at this point he's the only one since Nightingale continues to lose weight and is now down to a scrawny 209. And.. and... there's this new head foreman guy at the shop. He comes to us from Thomas Moser. Everybody has been sort of jittery about him. We proles always get anxious when there are changes among the demigods that rule our world. But today, he comes up to me and says he heard I gave a great presentation on sanding, and would I please give it to him, as an audience of one. So, of course, I did.

And we totally bonded. Talking about the sublime joys of woodworking. I think we're totally on the same page. In other words, he gets crushes, too. Wonder what his sign is. This can only be a good thing for me, right? Right.

Although I'm feeling a little better about moving to Hardware (the prick has been all but neutralized), I am definitely sad to leave behind my sanding boys. My sandinistas. My sandawgs. Today, being Thursday, was Pirate Day again. (Aaarrrgh! Avast ye swabs!) I doubt the prick and I will honor Pirate Day in the Hardware Department. Although maybe Amazing Gut would be up for it. I'd sure walk his plank.

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