On an erotic classic.

Off and on for over a year I was reading this one erotic classic "translated from the French," The Story of O.

It kind of sucked, but I was making myself read it, since it was a classic, but eventually it got recalled by someone else from the library and I had to go take it back in.

That somewhat made me ashamed, that there were people like us in the city reading this book, and I wondered if the librarians especially paid attention to it when I returned the book, since they would have to sort it into the recall piles and everything and then maybe they'd recognize the title and everything and see that I was the one who had had it.

Sometimes I've thought about how cool it would be to start a library program where you could open up your contact info to other people in the city who've checked out and read the same books as you, since then you could write and maybe even meet these random people from the city that you'd never otherwise meet but who probably share the same interests with you and everything.

That kind of thing would work out, except for books like that one, I think.

A resthome resident's mother was a tough cookie, he says...

...and as an example, he tells me this one anecdote.

One time years ago when his mom was already old, he went and stopped by her house to go visit her, and it was already getting towards dusk and she was just sitting out in her backyard reading her book.

"Mom," he was like, "Should you really be out here?  It's getting dark, something could happen."

"Like what could happen?", she says.

"You know, you could get hurt, like you could get raped," he was like.

"I should be so lucky," she says.

. . .

Comment of a passerby when I'm out campaigning...

...and they refuse a flier and keep walking:

"We already have your sign in our window."

. . .

!!! - do I know their family member, or did someone get a few and pass it out to them? - !!!

Reflections of a coworker from Ghana.

At the resthome, a lot of the kitchen workers are from Ghana, including this one (young) (tallish) (thin) (very dark black) girl who I hadn't originally realized was from Ghana or even necessarily from Africa.

When I realized that, we started talking, and I told her that I had been there, and we talked about the country for a while, and then she said that she missed it, because "in Ghana it's like Christmas every day, you walk around and talk and go in and out of people's houses."

She said she goes back, but she wouldn't move back, because of job and money reasons.

She's from a small village over in the Eastern part, by the Volta.

Campaign nerves.

I'm really worried about getting enough signatures to get on the ballot.

The machine really makes the number high and onerous, to benefit incumbents and keep challengers out, and I'm just not made to collect a lot of signatures.

For one, I work weird evening hours, so I can only go out 2 days a week during the prime 5-7:30pm weekday slot, when most people are home and you can really bang out signatures.

Plus, because I have limited social networks in the neighborhood and I'm not an organization candidate, it's hard to round up people that way, though I do have some people who I got clipboards to who are going to go out for me and get signatures.

Plus plus, I don't have a spouse or relative who can act as a campaign manager, which would make rounding up volunteers easy, and I don't have the money to get one, though hopefully I will for the last few months of the campaign, which is when most people get one anyhow.

So, I'm trying to recruit new volunteers and lean on the ones that I have, and I myself am trying to go out for an hour or so before I head to work every day that I work, in addition to really going out on my days off.

One of the challengers last time said she got 2,000 signatures by going out like 4 days a week after work (only 1 day with someone else), and then by going out for shifts on her days off for a few hours, once with maybe 1-2 other people, and by getting clipboards to like 20 people.

She said to expect 10-20 signatures an hour, though I haven't quite gotten that so far, though it was just a long holiday weekend, so maybe that explains it, since it seems like a disproportionate amount of people haven't been home.

My lawyer said to get 1500 signatures to be safe for valid signatures and the one last challenger got way more than that with not that that much effort, so hopefully I'll be able to pull that off... 

In any case, I'm taking an extra day off work all this month, so I can be out gathering signatures, and I've gotten clipboards to like 5 people and am getting them to like 5 more.

Gosh darn it, it would be so much easier, if I could even just meet my supporters to hand off clipboards on weekday evenings, like people who have normal work schedules can.

It really does make you realize, how you have to be rich to run for office, or have a lot of people behind you for initial lift-off, though I'm a good one-on-one candidate and good for going head-to-head against the incumbent in the general.

The people will be there once I qualify for the ballot, but it's just a matter of getting there now!

Three stories of Tibetan coworkers:

1) When my one (male) (Tibetan) coworker found out he got the visa to emigrate to my city, his friends told him that he was going to live in the big city and party all the time, and all the time when they talk by phone, they ask him how many parties he's been to.

2) One of my (female) (Tibetan) coworkers was born in India, and her parents ran a small (Tibetan) restaurant in the village that they lived in.  She said the clientele was mostly (Indian), since they can't cook (Tibetan) food at home, and so it was the one place they could go to go and eat something different, like noodles and dumplings.

"Some Indian food was on the menu, too," she was like.

She also said that her parents would make some (Indian) food at home for themselves, but always with less spices than (Indians) make (Indian) food.

"So many spices!", she was like.

3) One of my other (female) (Tibetan) coworkers was very disturbed the other evening when a resident passed away.

"They took away the body so soon," she was like.  "Only three hours."

We talked a bit more, and she said that Tibetans leave the body alone for 24 hours before taking it away, so that the soul can realize that it's dead and has time to find its way out of the body.

So, she didn't come out and say it, but she was very very worried about the soul of the person who died, that they wouldn't have the proper time to transition normally and so something off would happen.  She was so stricken, you could see it on her face, that's how worried she was.  It was very visceral for her, this tradition.

A small pleasure working at the resthome.

The other week I found out from the son of one resthome resident, that she grew up in Hungary and speaks Hungarian.

I had no idea, so the next time I saw that resident, I told her that I heard she speaks Hungarian.

"Yes," she was like, "It is my native language."

So, I told her that my grandparents spoke Hungarian, and I told her (in Hungarian!), "Good evening, my dear!".

She seemed pleased, and she said I spoke Hungarian so clearly.

I really can't speak it, but I do know a few standard phrases like that, so I'll have to be sure to use them with her when I see her.

The one resident who speaks that is very wonderful.  Dementia can cause people to lose executive functions in the brain and that includes the ability to check behavioral impulses, and what's interesting with her is that she genuinely loves many people, and in the middle of social occasions a lot of times she'll go and tell people, "I love you," or, "I'm glad that you're my friend."

I can't remember who told me this, but they said that she was always a very warm and caring person, and it's great that that's carried through to her social interactions now.

Mostly, that loss of executive functioning causes people to be mean or blow up over small things, or to behave inappropriately sexually when they see someone attractive.

Instead, with her, it's like she's warm, and just radiates love to everyone, and quite genuinely, too.