Leaving my Liberal Bubble

(NOTE: this post contains information that some may find controversial or graphic and generalizations about people from the state of Utah...and I didn't really get a chance to speak to everyone in the state of Utah so this post only reflects my impressions of the few people I met. You are encouraged to read on and learn important information about access to safe, legal abortion care and some good restaurant suggestions in Salt Lake City, UT.)


The other day, I had a realization that I spend about 98% of my time with people that are just like me.

I don't mean "just like me" in terms of religion (although I did just return from a conference composed of 3,000 Reform Jews but that was only a week) or other forms of usual diversity, but I mean that the vast majority of people I interact with on a regular basis are pretty politically progressive. The most heated disagreements we have are about tactics to dissuade Senators from incorporating something similar to the Stupak-Pitts amendment into their version of healthcare reform...or if brunch at Busboys and Poets is better than brunch at Marvin... or if Nail Avenue is an acceptable nail salon (and in case you're wondering, it so is not, in my opinion).

In addition to the fact that I love including seemingly random personal information at the beginning of blog posts, I volunteer this information to illustrate the significance of the following statement...

This weekend, I left my liberal bubble.


In fact, I flew over 2,000 miles and spent the weekend in the middle of a Conservative stronghold also known as Salt Lake City, UT (Fun Fact: Forbes Magazine proclaimed Salt Lake the most vain city in America based on the number of plastic surgeons and their spending habits on cosmetics. Thank you Wikipedia.)

The prospect of my visit to Utah was exciting since I rarely get a chance to travel to states I've never visited before (let alone places where I know absolutely no one). I was met with almost silence when I put out the word that I was looking for restaurant recommendations in Salt Lake (thanks for saving the day, Beth S. and Kirsten S.) and when I landed in this snowy state, I didn't have any local residents to text message announcing that my plane had touched down in their hometown. As my cab drove from the airport to my hotel, I noticed bill boards for gun shows (really) and the very beautiful Mormon Temple in the distance...it was obvious I was no longer in Dupont Circle...alas I arrived at my hotel and was engulfed once again in a sea of liberal activists...some of whom will become abortion providers after they graduate from medical school!

I was in Salt Lake for the 2009 Annual Medical Students for Choice Conference.

The gathering of over 500 medical students from across North America was truly memorable. Did you know that 97% of family practice residents have no experience performing first trimester abortion procedures? I feel like I knew this before I got the conference, but it was not until I was standing among the conference participants in a gigantic and drafty hotel ballroom while learning how to perform an abortion on a papaya that the fact really hit me. For many at the conference, this was the first time they had been exposed to the procedure. I got a little light headed when the local anesthesia options were discussed and demonstrated on our pelvic model papayas and listened as the med students asked clarifying questions.

In addition to the papaya workshop, I ventured out of my hotel for one evening out on "the town." (Quotes are necessary because Salt Lake doesn't really get wild. I was also being carted around in the hotel's airport shuttle--so if you are attempting to picture my wild Saturday night in Utah, please include that in your mental picture.) With the help of my former Planned Parenthood colleague, Kirsten S., I found two memorable establishments: Mrs. Backer's Pastry Shop and The Red Iguana. The latter seemed to be a bit different from many of the non-alcohol serving establishments that populate most of the downtown area (the beer selection was impressive), but I was too full from chocolate chip cookies from Mrs. B's to order a brewsky (and let's be honest--if you have ever met me you know I would choose a cookie over a beer in a second).

My first stop was at Mrs. Backer's Pastry Shop. There is a big sign on the glass at Mrs. B's asking customers not to lean on the glass case as it is "over 70 years old." When you walk in, you sort of feel like you're in someone's living room who never learned the "less is more" decorating adage. I also had a theory that everyone in the shop was keenly aware that I was in town attending the MSFC conference...even though I was sure to remove all conference paraphernalia before getting out of the hotel shuttle. The paranoia really set in when I wanted to begin chatting with the people behind the counter about my visit and where I'm from and ask if they had ever been to the Levain Bakery...but didn't want to blow my "liberal in a very conservative place" cover so I decided to stick to ordering. The cookies I selected were delicious but nothing compared to Levain. I am still curious if Mrs. B or her business associates have ever ventured to that cookie mecca. (W and CP reader Robin T. recently did and e-mailed me to tell about it! How lovely!)

My next stop was the Red Iguana ("home of killer Mexican food" according to their website). The hotel shuttle driver insisted on driving me, so I forced him to take a few cookies to share with his hotel employee colleagues and took several pictures of the Mormon Temple out the window while owning my very tourist identity. I arrived at the restaurant around 6:30 on a Saturday night and was told by my new shuttle driver buddy that there is usually a line out the door and an hour wait. I was prepared for such a wait (armed with several pastries I had purchased at Mrs. B's) but was worried since it was snowing on the night of my visit and as much as I tell people I would prefer to be freezing as opposed to sweating in the swampy conditions that are DC in August, it was REALLY cold in Utah and there is no way I would have been able to stay warm for an hour. Lucky me, food blogger and party of one, there was a table right at the front of the restaurant waiting just for me! All of the tables at Red Iguana are covered in the brightest oilcloth which makes the entire inside of the establishment look so cheerful. So I took my seat and began photographing.

My waitress looked exactly like Kate B. (aka Suburban Sweetheart). And because I was eating dinner alone at a table of four, had just performed a fake abortion on a papaya, and am a person who sometimes talks to people I don't know, I decided to be her friend. I learned three important things from our conversation:

• People in Utah are giving things away for (almost) free. The cost of my entire dinner was $9.47. What? And the four bedroom house that my waitress rents in downtown Salt Lake costs less than 1/2 the cost of my two bedroom apartment in DC.
• The Red Iguana makes a wide selection of moles. As soon as I asked a question about a mole, a whole plate of mole tastes was brought to my table to sample. And they were good--some smoky, some sweet, some very spicy.
  
• Eating dinner alone while photographing my food is getting less and less awkward. Especially when compared to my experience at Melt.
  

I ended up ordering the floutas which were very delicious but not as good as some of the moles I wish I had ordered as part of my main course.
My last unique experience while visiting the Crossroads of the West was an early morning visit to Kinko's. I was shocked that Kinko's was even open on Sunday (the entirety of Salt Lake closes around 9:30 on Saturday night and doesn't really reopen until Monday). The medical students were such eager conference participants that they snatched up all 200 copies of Abortion: A Christian Ethical Perspective and The Continuum of Choice in Sanatana Dharma that I had shipped to the conference from my office in advance. I was desperate and had five more hours of tabling ahead of me.

I wish I could have documented the faces of the Kinko's employees when I presented them with the original documents I needed reproduced. Unlike the bakery interaction, there was no way I could keep my liberal identity a secret. I think the hardest thing about the whole scene was that I didn't even strike up a conversation--I couldn't even disprove the judgments I had made about the people behind the Xerox machines. So their true feelings about my handouts will remain a mystery.

If only I had brought some extra cookies from Mrs. B's to share with them....