Teaching insanity.

Last time I had writing conferences with the freshpeople, I basically set up a bunch of 15 minute slots, from like 5-7:30pm on a Thurs. and then the next Tuesday.

Both days, I had worked a full day beforehand, including through lunch, so I was just very tired and not fully present.

It really was like teaching was my second job, and I was just trying to put the hours in to get the paycheck and go home.  

I did advise and I did do a good job, but the corners were cut too short.  It was just sad.  Teaching is not supposed to be like that.

My dad on Trump:

"It just drives you crazy, seeing what a f*cking idiot he is."

Doings at my hair salon.

So, like quite a few weeks ago, I get a text from an unlisted number, and when I open it up, it's from my one (trans) hair stylist, saying that she's now working downtown and giving me contact info so that I can make appointments with her if I want to.

I didn't make anything of it, though a part of me wondered why she left, my hunch being that business was bad at the salon under the new ownership of the "something ethnic" guy, so she left for better money at a better salon and snapped a pic of her client list to grouptext everyone and take as many of them along with her as she could, to smooth the transition to her new place out.

But, that new salon downtown is out of my way, so for my next haircut, I went back to the same salon as always, and I just made an appointment time and I never really asked for anyone in particular, and I ended up getting the new "something ethnic" owner, this young (white) (with an accent) guy with short hair, a pink t-shirt, and a bit of a tattoo peaking up out of his neck collar.

And, on the way in, I see a chalkboard saying they're hiring for full- and part-time work, and during the haircut he has to stop and go answer the phone now and then, for which he's apologetic.

Anyhow, when we sit down and he starts to cut my hair, I congratulate him again on the salon, and I ask him if it's his first business, and he says no, his second, and then I nudge around with where, and it turns out that he's Kosovar Albanian and was a refugee to the United States back in the 90s, and his first salon is back in Kosovo.

Then, I say that I bumped into my one (trans) stylist at a club, and she said she was working downtown now.

And, I somehow gingerly ask what happened.

He pauses, and then he says that he shouldn't say this, but he checked with the people who do his payroll, and they said that he can say it, and that he caught her stealing her hairdye colors from the store.

"She is very talented, and I wish her well, but I saved my lifesavings for this store, and I cannot tolerate that," he was like.  "If she asked, I would give to her, but this, no."

He then said that he suspected for a long time, and finally caught her.

"And she made good money, too, and all for ten dollars," he was like.

Later, we changed topics to the neighborhood and how good it is for business, and I mentioned that the kids at the college seem to be getting richer and richer.

"Of course, what does the university care," he was like, severely.  "Money talks."

He then mentioned that his girlfriend is a senior at the college, and has $250 a week from her parents for spending money, above and beyond having her living expenses paid for and a credit card set aside just to pay for stuff like lunch around campus.

"Two hundred and fifty dollars," he was like.

Part of me wondered if he was really dating her for the money because he seems a little bit older, and then I wonder too if he made up a story to save face about the (trans) stylist leaving.

He said that he has to put down on some form for the state the reason for dismissal, but he didn't put that down.

"Because I wish her well, and I'm not like that," he was like.

Which makes me wonder if there really is such a form, and if this was one big whole bullshit story and he was really ripping the stylists off and they all fled.

I can't wait till I run into my one (trans) stylist the next time I'm out clubbing, to ask her more about why she left.

My life is changing.

Intermittently, lately, I'm getting tired of weeks with like three days of ten-to-twelve hour days with working through lunch, and I just want a job where I show up for 8 hours 5 days a week, phone it in, and go home.

What is it even like, anymore, to be free at 5pm with nothing to do?

I really don't know anymore.

I also am growing bored with the (new) bars, and want to be done with that to free my energy up for socializing and cultural events and reading, like I used to.

It's going to be going on like 6 years of new bar hopping, and it feels over already.

A small downside to Mr. Clean erasers:

If you're majorly washing down a wall, sometimes you can see where you made swipes, and where you didn't.

An accent story.

The other Saturday I was at a museum here in the city with my one (Asian-Canadian) friend, and the museum guard was this young Mexican-American guy, and when we were standing near him discussing some fiber artworks, he jumped into the conversation and started speaking with us, only it turns out that he had a British accent!

I asked him about that, and he said his parents were poorer and monolingual Spanish in a pretty much monolingual Spanish neighborhood, and when he was a baby they bought this funky knock-off cable converter box that only got in international channels, so his main exposure to English throughout childhood was to British English via the BBC, though he grew up here in the city.

The story seemed true (he didn't seem like he was putting us on with his accent), and it raises a ton of questions, e.g. whether his accent is regionally identifiable or a mix of British English accents or the accent that British presenters use, or if it ever got Americanized through his exposure beginning in elementary school

What a weird, funky story.  Someone should do a linguistics / child development study on him.

Wart update.

My wart on the inside of my left pinkie seems pretty much sheered off from my repeated applications of wart solution, only the skin around where I had put the duct tape like the doctor recommended is all hard and scaly.

So, I can't quite tell when I roll the skin where the wart was between my finger, if the thickness is due to some residual wart, or from my skin being all hardened from solution.

Right now I'm adopting a "wait and see" approach, and am going to wait for the skin to return more to normal to see about starting to reapply the wart solution.