A question of a (Tibetan) coworker:

"Should I move home?".

She's been here 5 months through her sister-in-law, but is already wondering if she should move back to India.

She just doesn't know what's happening with Trump, and if it's worth it to stay here.

Since she's a citizen of India and can always move back at any time, I advised her to wait until after the November Congressional elections, and things would be clearer then.

Another story of the resthome: A smell in a room.

The other week, I was in one resident's room, and the place smelled just awful with a bit of a carpet-cleaning smell layered on top of it, but I couldn't figure out what it was.

Later, I found out that wet wipes had been flushed down the toilet, and the resident had flushed the toilet late at night by themself and it had gotten clogged with the water running, so shit water had kept overflowing onto the floor and everything was soaked with shit water by the time they ended up finding it.

"So now when I leave I have to hide the wet wipes," the one personal aide was like.

Too, a (Tibetan) coworker said that that smell was so strong the morning after it happened, that her throat began to hack like she was throwing up, and she had to run downstairs a couple of floors to a toilet, where she actually did throw up.

A story of the resthome: How a resident was feeling.

Lately, this one resident hasn't been feeling so good, so after I came in after a few days not working there, I made sure to ask how she was, especially since she still wasn't looking so good

"So how are you feeling?," I said to her, as soon as I saw her.

"Wonderful," she said, very slowly and with great pain.

Then, after a short pause, she was like, "I lie a lot," and gave a small smile.

A person on the subway:

A (large) (older) (white) man with unkempt white hair and in a rumpled shirt and shorts, with big sunglasses on, who holds his head like he's looking out blankly at stuff, and after he's there for a while, I notice a weirdly strong undertone of cigarettes in the car that makes me vaguely nauseated as I do my crossword, and as I continue to do my crossword, he starts jiggling his feet as he's sitting just opposite of me, so his feet are in motion just above where my eyes are as I try to do my crossword.

After a bit, I think the cigarette smell is him, so I get up when the subway rolls into the stop, and go and move down the car.

Ingrained fear of the arbitrary.

I think my lease is expiring soon, and right away when I thought of that, I began fearing that my landlord will jack up the price and I can't afford my rent.

I think that that fear goes back to my experience in academia, where you could lose your job or people could go after you for no reason, and I've been carrying that fear of the arbitrary forward into post-academic life, here and there.

Thankfully, I can recognize that fear for what it is, and dismiss it.

Objects bumping here and there.

Lately, when I've been in my apartment, I've heard small strange bumps, often at night.

Once, it was a card falling off my fridge, and the magnet falling to the ground and clattering, it turns out.

Another time, it was a wine bottle that I had set up a while ago in the sink to drain after rinsing and that for some reason went and slid down, though I had set it up a while ago and it must have just stood there for like ever, before finally clattering down in the sink at some random time and making a big noise.

Between that and my weird dreams that I've had lately, you'd almost think that I have a poltergeist around, or a presence.

Disintegration of my toothbrush.

Twice when I've been brushing my teeth recently, I've felt something in my mouth, and I go in and I pull out a small orange rubber tip.

Each time, it was one of those little rubber tips that go here and there around the edge of some fancier toothbrushes, though it's not ever clear what they do exactly, beyond making the toothbrush look all high tech.

The first time, I thought it was just an accident, but after the second time, I realized, my toothbrush is disintegrating.