Emotive Israeli.

The other week right when I was coming into the resthome to go start my shift, it was a nice day, and this one (older) (quiet) resident came walking out hunched over his walker, and as he went down the incline in front of the resthome, some magazines and books that were on the seat of his walker spilled out and fell onto the pavement, and so as he went to go bend over and go get them, I sprang forward and was like, "No, I'll get that!", and I went and I picked everything up for him.

And, right inside the doorway was this one (emotive) (Israeli) manager and another staffer, and they had seen everything, and the (Israeli) woman was like, "Why is he carrying so much f*cking stuff on top of his walker anyways," like she was really worked up over how he did that, like all disproportionate to the fact that he just used his walker seat to carry random stuff around with him all the time.

Just total on-edge, in-your-face-all-the-time Israeli vibe, about practically nothing at all.

My first big trip to the grocery store after the coronavirus:

1) All of the front windows were boarded up with plywood, with "WE ARE OPEN" spraypainted on top of it.

2) Signs were up on the automatic doors that said that state law said that you had to wear a mask in order to be able to go inside, and a worker was seated on a stool by the entrance to check everyone who was going in.

3) Lentils were up like a third (like $1.29 a pound versus $0.99), and other dried legumes were as well (e.g. split peas were at more than a buck for just a pound bag).

4) Refrigerated cases of beer seemed extraordinarily low, although that might have been due to some sale that was going on.

5) Tape on the ground marked out where you could stand to get into lines, though not a ton of people were by the checkout area and so no-one really used it.

6) The (young) (Latina) checkout girl said that a lot of people had been saying to her that the price of lentils and beans were up, and that she had noticed it too since she knows how much everything costs, and that the prices had gone up after the initial coronavirus outbreak panic and then had just stayed there. She also said that like right after the looting had started more people had come in than usual and they had bought more than usual, but then crowds and purchasing had died right down to the new normal levels that are typical nowadays.

7) Checkout people no longer help customers bag groceries, though it seems there's now more cashiers on hand, perhaps to cut down on the lines that can form since people have to bag all of their own groceries now.

Looting (10 of 10): Uber driver.

I was going to stay one last night at the resthome so I could commute home during daytime hours, but then on Twitter a local city council member said that public transportation would be restricted again where I live the next day, so I decided to take a cab home that night, since stuff was clearer that way and since the resthome would pay for it, too.

As it turns out, my Uber driver - the resthome called an Uber for me - was a (young) (Sudanese) guy.

He said that that there was no surge pricing that night, luckily, but that there had been the previous weekend, and a lot of workers who still had to go in to work were upset at the cost and were complaining a lot when they were taking his Uber.

His guess was, was that Uber is in bed with the local government, so that the government shuts down public transportation and then people are forced to use the high-priced Ubers.

He also said that he has been driving like full-time for somewhere around five years, and it works for him, since he doesn't have a family.

He also also was showing me where the military outposts were, as we passed them on the major roads.

I also told him that I have two (half Sudanese) friends, and it turns out that he had spent most of his life in Khartoum, too, just like them.

He was very happy when I told him that I had eaten "ful" (beans made a certain Sudanese way), when my one (half Sudanese) (half British) friend (the sister of the brother-sister pair) had made it a month or two ago when an old friend of hers was visiting the city.

Since I had also told the Uber driver that my friends were (half British) - "England ruled us for fifty-five years," he was like - he wanted to know if they liked soccer and were Liverpool fans, since he said that he had never been to England, but he was a huge Liverpool fan and that he liked that team a lot.

I told him that I didn't think they liked soccer, but that he had gotten me wondering, and that I'd find out, later.

So, later that night, I texted my one (half British) (half Sudanese) friend (the sister of the brother-sister pair), and she said that they don't like soccer, but her (American) husband does and Liverpool's his team, so she's kind of a Liverpool fan through him.

Looting (9 of 10): First night flashback.

The first big night of looting and the morning after, I followed the police scanner rabidly and was texting a lot with my one art school colleague who wears women's clothes.

For example, I texted -

I can't believe these updates

- and -

E.g. 

- and -

Someone set the Dunkin Donuts tables on fire. [intersection removed]

- and -

It's the mention of chain stores

- and -

If this was a dystopian novel, it'd be lazy writing

- to which he was like -

Everything's mundane! Fat T**mpers want to go to Applebee's and blacks wanna burn down Dunkin Donuts

. . .  

The morning after the first big night of looting, then, I woke up to more texts, briefly checked the news, decided I couldn't handle it, and then decided to zone out for the day.

So, I texted him -

I blocked the net on my phone, put on Tusk, and will update Egyptian flashcards, with a break for coffee and shaving my balls.

- and -

I need to recenter.

He texted back -

Sickie LOL.

- and -

"Shaving my balls" Lololol

 - and -


Self-Care Saturday

 - and -


I have to be honest I am so dead inside and sick all the time and this is thrilling

. . .

Looting (8 of 10): New office joke.

For some reason at the resthome the week of the looting and the curfew, they had these thin plastic strips with smaller thin hooked strips sticking out at both ends, sitting in a coffee mug on the big table in our office.

(Were they like lanyards or something like that, somehow?)

So, I took one and went up to a few coworkers, and told them that we needed a new nasal sample, for another Covid test.

Looting (7 of 9): Neighborhood businesses.

The morning after my second night at the resthome, I popped into the local (Filipino) bakery I like to get myself some treats - they have really good savory buns and this sweet bun with some kind of filling from the purple ube yam, it's kind of like a (Filipino) sweet potato - and then I went to the nearby coffee shop to go sit out at the outdoor picnic tables some and read a bit before I had to go get to my one assisted living client's with disabilities.

At the bakery, there was a few homemade signs in the windows, one that said "STOP RACISM," and another one that said, "ALL PEOPLE COLOR MEN WOMEN ARE CREATED EQUAL."

There was some plexiglass dividers up above the display cases, too, and fewer customers, but otherwise it seemed like normal.

I asked the one lady at the counter who I know by sight how everything was, and she said that she was hopeful for the business.  She also said that her husband made the signs, because he wanted to do something.

At the coffee shop, the (younger) (hip) (Vietnamese) girl said that she had to get back to work since it was tough to go more than 2 months without income.  She said sometimes she has a hard time understanding people because she can't see their lips under their masks, and that her business didn't qualify for any loans since it's just her and another person who run it, and 2 people is too small according to whatever standards the government set up.

Unlike the bakery woman, she didn't seem hopeful, just resolved.

Addendum.

Reportedly, it's really bad luck to have sex in cars, and if you do that, your car will always have problems.

"My husband told me that," my one (white) (townie) coworker was like, "And I didn't believe him, but then that car had problems!"

"So, who knows, maybe it's true," she was like.

. . .

(My coworkers are so much more awesome now, than when I was in academia.)