Hamhanded editors.

Like last month I was going over edits for a type of word puzzle that I like and that I had made a version of and that I had submitted to a puzzle society that I belong to to publish in their monthly newsletter, and the editor had a lot of good stuff to say, but with some of the clues, he like completely came up with new ones in alternate and potentially better ways, which was nice, but also sometimes very infuriating, since it's like he was writing the puzzle for me and he sucked the air out of the room with the ideas that he came up with, when instead he should have tentatively suggested something striking out in a new direction and seen what I could come up with, with whatever hint or new idea that he had provided me with.

I was telling this to my one lawyer friend from (Missouri), who I've been teaching to do this type of word puzzle over the phone with photocopies I had mailed her as a pandemic-time distraction that she had expressed a need for - I thought she'd like this particular type of puzzle since she likes puns - and she observed that a good editor is someone who maximally leaves you be or brings out the "you" in you, or does something like you would do it, and not insert themself into whatever you're writing.

Like my one art school colleague who wears women's clothes says, "#Truth".

Addiction to old newspapers.

I really am one of those people who saves old piles of newspapers since I always think I'll get to them, though to be fair to myself, sometimes I do, at least with some of them, sometimes.

I don't keep major newspapers, though, just the local alternative ones, since some of the concert and movie stuff is ephemeral, but a lot of the feature articles about people and places age really well and if I skip an issue, more often than not I miss out on finding out about something that's very cool that I feel like I should know about.

Excrement, then piss.

1) A few weeks ago when I was leaving my one assisted living client with disabilities's, I was waiting after shift at like 11pm at night up on the above-ground subway station that's near her house in order to get onto the first car for safety since that's the one that's nearest to the conductor, and up towards that part of the platform at the exact part that juts over the major street beneath and is visible from way east and from way west up and down the road in both directions, there's just this huge pile of human excrement, with a few pieces of tissue stuck onto it in a very desultory way.

2) Like a week after that, I head into downtown early before work in order to get some office supply stuff from a Staples, and as I walk up above ground from the subway, there's a guy huddled in the corner of the above-ground structure that arches over the subway exit where the escalator comes up, and he's just standing there and pissing, at like 2pm in the afternoon, in the middle of the city.

Addendum.

As a private aide in assisted living for a while now, I certainly see why my client's sister made sure to ask around through friends and find me through our mutual ones, and then meet me at her home and get a sense of me, and then introduce me to her sister my client, back when I got hired.

It's a huge level of trust to have a key to someone's home and be in there while they sleep.

Two days at work (2 of 2): Crouching.

The next day after that, I was back at my one assisted living client's with disabilities, and when I arrived, I found that she had left me out a note not to wake her up until later that day, since she had slept like crap the night before.

So, when I went to go give her cat a treat, the cat was also by the side of the bed again, and I knelt down again and got out a treat again, and I just kind of flicked it out onto the floor under the bed so her cat could chase it, since she likes that game.

Then, just as I was getting up and was like in this half crouch and rising up at the foot of her bed, my client stirred, and I suddenly realized that if she was groggy and looked up, I'd maybe look all looming and unexpected and weird like Bob from Twin Peaks or something.

Luckily, though, she just stirred without waking up, so I didn't scare her.

. . .

(Even if I come on shift and she leaves me a note like that, I have a few tasks to do in her bedroom, so my presence there would not be inappropriate, but still...)

Two days at work (1 of 2): Cat.

A few weeks ago at my one assisted living client's with disabilities, I went to go find her cat and give her a treat at the start of my shift like I usually do, and she was by the side of the bed and took a few steps forward as soon as I knelt down and opened up the treat jar.

My client was lying down, so I was like, "Let's ping this off of mommy's ass, for little [her cat's name]!", and my client chuckled and was like, "Go for it."

So, I took the treat and waved it around and got her cat's attention, and then I tossed it in a long arc to on top of the bed to near my client's butt.

And, her cat followed to where the arc ended, only she ran under the bed instead of hopping on top of it; she had mathematically figured out what the arc was, but had forgotten that the bed was a hard surface that the treat would stop on top of.

"[Her cat's name] needs some help with spatial reasoning," I was like to my client.

"Yeah," she was like.

Sleep cycle peculiarities.

This winter, I've noticed peculiarities in my sleep cycle, or at least aspects of it that I've never noticed before.

In particular, I seem to have very very heavy sleep in the last hour or two right before I wake up.

I've noticed this because I've had a hard time getting out of bed from tiredness an inordinate amount this winter, but a handful of times the kids upstairs were noisy or I needed to take a piss like 3-4 hours before I was due to get up, and I wasn't particularly groggy at that point when I got up, but I totally was when I tried to make myself get up the final time for the day.

As best I can figure it, those two different times of coming into wakingness came at different points in my sleep cycle, the first point of time when it was easier for me to get up, the second when it was much more difficult for me to do so.