The other week, I dreamnt -
I was being hired to teach beginning language instruction in Italian to college students, but I didn't know the language.
Yet, I tried to hazily remember a verb conjugation, and could picture a table with "vai" in it.
. . .
Saturday, July 28, 2018
Friday, July 27, 2018
It's incredibly touching, to see people be campaign volunteers for me.
It's incredibly touching, to see people be campaign volunteers for me.
The other night I hit up my old neighbor who's a Katrina refugee from New Orleans and another friend who lives in the neighborhood, and we met at a local bar and had beers and stuffed envelopes for over an hour-and-a-half.
And, they both said they'd do it more for me, just to let them know.
I just find it incredibly touching, that people would believe in me as a candidate so much.
I can't even imagine what it's going to be like when the campaign scales up more and this happens more regularly with people who I've never even met... It must be weird and surreal!
I just find the whole thing very touching, it's totally that being a representative really is a public trust, when you get down to it.
I wonder how many candidates and representatives feel that, and how often.
The other night I hit up my old neighbor who's a Katrina refugee from New Orleans and another friend who lives in the neighborhood, and we met at a local bar and had beers and stuffed envelopes for over an hour-and-a-half.
And, they both said they'd do it more for me, just to let them know.
I just find it incredibly touching, that people would believe in me as a candidate so much.
I can't even imagine what it's going to be like when the campaign scales up more and this happens more regularly with people who I've never even met... It must be weird and surreal!
I just find the whole thing very touching, it's totally that being a representative really is a public trust, when you get down to it.
I wonder how many candidates and representatives feel that, and how often.
Thursday, July 26, 2018
A schtick at the resthome, with a (Tibetan) coworker.
Later at night when people are in bed and it gets quiet right before shift change, one of my (Tibetan) coworkers sometimes pulls up (Indian) music on her iPhone and sits in our little office or in a lobby chair on one of the floors and listens to it.
(Most if not all of my Tibetan coworkers were born in India or Nepal, since them or their parents were refugees there from the Chinese invasion of Tibet.)
Anyhow, whenever she does that and I stumble upon where she is, I immediately stand in place and break into a little boogie and am like, "Dance party!", and she laughs.
I think her and one of the other (Tibetan) coworkers really gets a kick out of it.
(Most if not all of my Tibetan coworkers were born in India or Nepal, since them or their parents were refugees there from the Chinese invasion of Tibet.)
Anyhow, whenever she does that and I stumble upon where she is, I immediately stand in place and break into a little boogie and am like, "Dance party!", and she laughs.
I think her and one of the other (Tibetan) coworkers really gets a kick out of it.
Wednesday, July 25, 2018
The pleasures of campaigning.
The other week I was campaigning door-to-door in one of the major public housing projects in my neighborhood.
I'd walked past it a ton, but I'd never been in it, and then there I was, going door-to-door and knocking on doors and talking to parents out by the playground.
It was funny to think back to my youth, and to me here, now, knocking doors in the big city in a public housing project, and chit-chatting with the residents.
The vagaries of fate, and the connections!
Half the trouble in the world is that people just don't meet each other.
Even in my neighborhood, it's like this little unit with distinct boundaries, and people don't cross them enough, even though everyone's lovely.
I'd walked past it a ton, but I'd never been in it, and then there I was, going door-to-door and knocking on doors and talking to parents out by the playground.
It was funny to think back to my youth, and to me here, now, knocking doors in the big city in a public housing project, and chit-chatting with the residents.
The vagaries of fate, and the connections!
Half the trouble in the world is that people just don't meet each other.
Even in my neighborhood, it's like this little unit with distinct boundaries, and people don't cross them enough, even though everyone's lovely.
Tuesday, July 24, 2018
The power of campaigning.
It's very interesting the power that the social situation of being a candidate gives you.
You show up to people randomly and have a sheet of paper with your name on it and your picture on it, and then out of nowhere you can stir up people's deepest thoughts and values all quickly, like you rile them up and get them pissed off about the big banks.
It's like you're creating a new social situation de novo, through sheer force of will, and drawing all this shit out of people.
It's very fascinating, and very fascinating to experience.
It's not like you control them or what they think, but you touch a chord and hold it, or something like that.
You show up to people randomly and have a sheet of paper with your name on it and your picture on it, and then out of nowhere you can stir up people's deepest thoughts and values all quickly, like you rile them up and get them pissed off about the big banks.
It's like you're creating a new social situation de novo, through sheer force of will, and drawing all this shit out of people.
It's very fascinating, and very fascinating to experience.
It's not like you control them or what they think, but you touch a chord and hold it, or something like that.
Monday, July 23, 2018
Annoying curtains.
Although I like my one apartment that I've been living in for a few years now, the curtains on some big windows in it really annoy me.
They're like those weird hanging big plastic strips that you can rotate so they can let the light in, or that you can rotate until they're at a right angle from the window and then you can pull a cord so that they part in the middle and bunch up at the sides of the window and you can have a full view through it.
For some reason, the slats in the exact middle have their tips overlap, since when you rotate them they somehow get overlapped in the wrong way, and it's really really tough to get them overlapping the right way again, you have to bend them a bit and pull them out, and even the plastic at the top bends in an unhealthy way, to the point where the top bit of the slat broke off and the slat came tumbling down twice now.
I had to repair them with duct tape, too.
They're like those weird hanging big plastic strips that you can rotate so they can let the light in, or that you can rotate until they're at a right angle from the window and then you can pull a cord so that they part in the middle and bunch up at the sides of the window and you can have a full view through it.
For some reason, the slats in the exact middle have their tips overlap, since when you rotate them they somehow get overlapped in the wrong way, and it's really really tough to get them overlapping the right way again, you have to bend them a bit and pull them out, and even the plastic at the top bends in an unhealthy way, to the point where the top bit of the slat broke off and the slat came tumbling down twice now.
I had to repair them with duct tape, too.
Sunday, July 22, 2018
More resthome levity.
The other day, me and the one (Jewish) resident who's over 90 years old and has a great sense of humor were talking about politics and Donald Trump.
At one point, she paused and got very serious.
"What I don't get," she was like, "is why God took two Kennedies and left this one."
At one point, she paused and got very serious.
"What I don't get," she was like, "is why God took two Kennedies and left this one."
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