Monday Jan 16- day 10

Today is a national holiday for Martin Luther King. I go into Uni and the place is largely empty. I don't achieve much, apart from some bloggin', and I head back home for 5-ish as Ann is having Krishna and his girlfriend Deanne over for food and I am invited!

I meet Deanne and Krishna (again). Krishna seems a bit more relaxed this time. Deanne seems nice enough. I try not to be put off by her very long hair (I have a phobia about very long hair), and the way she has a permanent fixed grin on her face. And the way she talks without opening her mouth. And the way she keeps talking. And the way she talks about herself a lot. And the way she changes subject to randomly talk about herself. Ann has cooked some nice pasta with Alaskan salmon, and opened a bottle of red, so we tuck in. Conversation turns to MLK day, and I ask a potentially risky question for a dinner party about the state of race relations in present day America. It seems that whilst Seattle is in many ways a progressive city, with a mixed population, the racism is, as Krishna says, "still there, just hidden". We talk about the UK too, and I mention the Anthony Walker and Stephen Lawrence cases (not by name). Deanne says, "I umm like don't really think that umm there's much of a like problem in Seattle umm I mean I've never umm experienced like racism myself." I stare into my pasta. Is she for real? Young, white, well-heeled, and able to state that the city has no racism?! Krishna just says, "That's because you are not... of colour."

The rest of the evening passes off uneventfully. When they are gone, Ann confides that she really finds Deanne hard work, and doesn't think her and Krishna have much in common. I am as diplomatic as I can be, suggesting that Krishna will work out whether they are good together. It must be hard to be a parent who is dubious about your child's choice of partner! Who'd be a mother-in-law, I wonder...