Legal issues, To-Do Lists & a Modified Start Date

Something I'd almost forgotten about, which may be a challenge: Staying on the right side of the law. Or rather, staying the heck off its radar, which we all know is more important anyway.

I'm not a malicious person, mind you; I don't destroy shit or disturb people when I can avoid it. But I am annoyingly creative, and easily bored, and fond of harmless mischief and amusing social commentary.

I was polishing my Keep Busy List today. It's going very well; I'd thought life had gotten rather boring lately, but it turns out that time restrictions were a large part of that; once I wrestled myself into forgetting about "not having time", all sorts of interesting things to do popped up.

Many of which I'll be doing at night. Now, I live in a middling neighborhood; a good area for this area, but considering the proximity of Detroit, that's probably not saying much in terms of good-area-overall. I'm not worried about running into gangs or anything; this is a safe neighborhood, and I've been in not-safe neighborhoods so I can say that with confidence. That doesn't stop the cops from being royal dicks whenever possible, of course; and I can really only count on the fact that I'm an adult white girl with a clean record to protect me so far -- Being out at night is halfway to crime itself, as far as people with Egoitis and a badge go. (And I meant that "thank god I'm white" bit 100% as an insult to idiot racist cops, in case it wasn't clear. I'm not prejudiced...well, except against cops. ;)

(click "read more" for the rest)

Then I looked at that list, and started thinking...Bike rides, okay; but I live right next to a huuuuuge wooded park; can I really stay out of it? If I bike through the roads, the cops'll nab me for sure (since the park "closes"), but if I muck about in the woods I'm just asking to get rolled by one of the homeless residents, so can't do that. (Nothing against the homeless per se, and I don't blame them for sleeping in the park--I probably would too--but I wouldn't want to stumble across one at night, thankyou.) And what about the tantalizing call of some of the less-than-kosher items on my long-term "to do if ever possible" list, like hanging up Robert-Anton-Wilson-type signs in public places? And with all the stupidity in the news lately, can I resist stealing my toddler's sidewalk chalk and making some noise?

Oh well. I'll just have to be middling smart about it, and--since I'd planned on checking out Ann Arbor anyway--try to keep any political noisemaking to there, where the cops are more used to that sort of thing. And as for being out at night, well, my record's clean and my daddy's a lawyer, so I guess errant cops can be cordially invited to kiss my ass. (I also carry a voice-activated tape recorder, which I shall pack extra batteries for, just in case.)

School started yesterday. In light of the incredibly cramped summer semester, I'm thinking about making the start-date of this experiment the beginning of July. Some of that depends on work (I have a business trip coming up, don't know exactly when yet), but I think it'll work out best that way. If I wait until later in July, I'll be running into finals and papers, eeeg.

-PD