Chit-chatting with two (Mexican) workers.

The other week I was at my one disability care job, and I had to take down a lot of recycling to the bins behind the building, for my one client who I was working for.

There, there was some kind of work going on, and two (Mexican) guys had two manhole covers open, and there were tubes going into them and they were doing something with all of that, them in their dirty t-shirts and me coming out hauling all that recycling, in two plastic bags and one paper.

"Hi," I was like as I went up to the bin and the one guy opened it for me from the other side where he was standing, and then I said something about the work they were doing, to which that same guy replied something about them flushing some system from the building or something like that.

"Oh," I was like, "Just remember, when you finish, don't close them up and come let me know instead," and then, after a dramatic pause just when they were looking puzzled, I was like, "I want to put my mother-in-law in there."

At that, the one guy who had been speaking with me laughed immediately, and a split second later the other guy did too, since probably his English wasn't so good and it took him a second to process it.

Then, the one guy with the better English was like, "Me and you both!", and he pointed to the open manhole covers.  "One for you, one for me!"

And at that, he laughed heartily.

. . .

I would be a good politician, that situation was nothing till I talked, and then we bonded.

Comment of my one (half Sudanese) (half British) friend, on a mid-20th c. play.

The other week, I caught a mid-20th c. play with my one (half Sudanese) (half British) friend.

At one point, a minor character who's a doctor pines for a career in research that he never took, since his wife said it was too risky with money and so discouraged him from it.

Afterwards when we were chit-chatting about the play, my one (half Sudanese) (half British) friend burst out with a theatrical British comedy persona-like face and was like, "I was like, 'Research, nooooooo!', don't try to live the dream, take the job, take the money, take the house in the suburbs!".

And, he said that comedically, but he was dead serious on what he meant.

He then commented that we're in exactly the opposite situation from the mid-20th c., because then people pined to follow their hearts, but now people are pining just for a stable decent job with a decent income that allows for a decent life.

Night on the subway.

The other Saturday night after work, I stopped and had some pho and read a book a bit at a Vietnamese restaurant near my one client's house, and then I took the subway home.

Almost just south of downtown, the subway stopped, and there was some triggered pre-recorded announcement about how the train was stopped since the operator had left the car.

We all waited a while - maybe ten minutes? - and then a pre-recorded announcement happened again, only this time they said that there was a delay due to a medical emergency.

It was like ten-thirty or ten forty-five at night, and then next thing me and the other passengers know, there's fire department personnel and EMTs walking down the platform, one now, and then another, and then wait a minute, and then a few more, all straggling here and there whatnot, but all going down the platform in the same direction, probably to go help someone out.

Meanwhile, I was on the last car on the train, which can always be a little more crowded, and it was like all (black), and one of the recent passengers was this (tall) (dreaded and bearded) (chubby-faced) (like maybe early 20s) (black) guy, who was pacing around a bit at the end of the car, and he had an open bottle of vodka in his hand.

He kept pacing in and out and sometimes just out of the car entrance, and when he did that, he was looking down the platform to see what was happening.

Then, he kept that up, but every time he stepped out side the car, he started yelling down the platform, "Bitch, you get on and drive this train, you messing with my schedule bitch, don't make me come down there and hit you, bitch," etc. etc. etc.

And, at that, (black) people who had looked around humorously at each other exchanging glances like people do when there's something wacky happening on the subway, all those people kind of tensed up, and their glances suddenly became a lot more nervous all of a sudden.

So, the guy did that a few more times, and then a (black) (male) train conductor walked up very calmly, and was like, "Sir, we're going to have to ask you to stop using profanity," etc. etc. etc., at which point the guy was like, "Don't make me shoot you, I'm a gangbanger ass motherfucker."

At that, me and a few other people got up and left the car through the entrance on the other end, and I circled around and went down to a car further down, to where I thought I'd be far enough away in case shooting happened and someone started running and firing.

Like a minute after that, from the direction where the medical emergency was happening, they wheeled off a (young) (black) woman with her head all tucked around with blankets, and this (young) (black) guy next to me said he had heard it was a seizure, when I asked him if he had heard what was happening.

. . .

In any case, by that point, the guy seemed to have stopped doing his erratic anger thing at the conductor, but the (male) conductor was still hovering there, and then the train was about to get going, but they announced that it was going to go express all the way from the next stop to way south of my stop where I have to get off at, so I ended up getting out and just sticking around for the next train, anyhow.

I had my work satchel and my little takeout container of pho and everything, me and a few other people on the platform waiting for the next train, which we could see down the line waiting since it had been backed up.

Drunken confession of someone who I found out was (still is?) an evangelical.

The other week I went out to the suburbs and caught up with a (middle-class) (Republican) (white) guy who I know from college, who I haven't seen in years.

First off, I found out that he was raised evangelical, which I had no idea about at all.

Second off, towards the end of our evening of drinking, he told me that all during college, he was secretly reading books about the historical Jesus, and that no-one knew at all...

Honestly, evangelicals can be freaky like that.  Their deconverting is totally like "a thing."

Imagine him, going into a big college library and just checking out these books about something so mundane, and having it be all weird and forbidden, just because he made it like that.

Evangelicals really do have such a weird headspace, sometimes.  I really just don't get the appeal of their tradition, a lot of times.

A tale of Germany.

The other week I got to my one home health care job, and the client was outside smoking with another caregiver, her (lesbian) sister.

"Go right up if you need to," the (lesbian) sister was like.  "I know it was a long ride on public transportation and you usually have to pee a lot."

First off, I thought that that was super considerate of her, to not only have noticed that, but to have remembered that and put it out there like that.

Second off, I didn't, so we stood around talking, first about pee and how women can't pee standing up, but then about random people who go around and piss when they're drunk, after I made a joke about marking my territory.

"You know what they have in German," the one (lesbian) sister was like.  "This special paint that they patented, and they put it on walls under a sign 'DO NOT PEE HERE.'  Then, if someone pisses there, it splashes the piss right back at them, so they get soaked, if they go piss there."

"Wow," I was like, and I said that I thought she was going to talk about this one German town I heard about, where they have posts that emerge from the ground, that are actually tiny urinals that you can pee into, that they installed to cut down on public urination.

"Oh, I heard of that!", she was like.

Then, she was like, "I wonder why Germany has a big public peeing problem, in particular."

Further signs of a decaying economy?

The other Thursday after I got out of my one home health care job, I popped into a local bar a few blocks up from my one client's home, for a drink and to do a crossword.

When I got there, a trivia night was dispersing, and I started chit-chatting with the (affable) (middle-aged) (white) (gay) (male) bartender, who said he was tired and his back hurt, but there was still hours to go, unfortunately.

"I got here and we were slammed," he was like.  "It was the busiest night I've seen in a long time."

I asked him about that, and he said it was just randomly busy.

I then pressed him a bit further, and he said that business wasn't bad per se, but that for the like the past year or so people were starting to go to different bars based on who had a special, just so they could save a dollar or two.

"It didn't used to be like that," he was like.

A favor, returned.

The other week when I was going to the local grocery store, I walk up to the cart rack where you have to put a quarter into the top in order to take one out, and just standing there is this cart, taken out from the rest and with a quarter in it and ready to go, so I just went and took that one.

After my shopping, I just left it there again for someone, instead of re-racking it and taking that quarter that somebody had left in there.

It seemed like the right thing to do.