A story and a memory of my one client with disabilities: Her uncle's memorial service, and her uncle.

A while ago, the second husband of the aunt of my one client with disabilities passed away, and while she went to the funeral then, she recently went to a memorial service for him, since he was in the armed services, and since although it sounds like he was a distant relative, he really was close to her and a cool person, since she comes from a small family and the people who hit it off in it are always super tight.

Anyhow, her aunt is super cool and when the honor guard folded the flag and kneeled down to hand it to her, they said something about it representing the gratitude of that branch of the armed services "and the President of the United States of America."

"I about bit my f*cking tongue off," she told my client later.

My client also said it was nice to see this big gaggle of squirrels outside the chapel when they went there for the memorial service, since her aunt's second husband had loved squirrels and had rigged up a "squirrel circus" in the backyard of the house that they had lived in for years, with a string between trees and then some strings from that dangling some old cans with some nuts in them.

She said that after a while the squirrels figured out what to do, that the best thing to do was hang on the main line and then pull up the can full of nuts, since that way you could still eat them but a lot less of them  spilled to the ground, like would happen if you tried to go down to them and maybe jostled the can or tried to put your head in it.

Saying of a resthome resident.

The other day the one front desk worker from Wisconsin was joking with one resident who I was escorting from the dining room whose second husband was a dentist, and they got to reminiscing about some saying of hers that she had told him once a long time ago.

"What was it, 'Liquor is quicker'?", he was like.

Finally, they remembered what it was:

"Candy is dandy and liquor is quicker, but sex doesn't rot your teeth."

That was a saying of her second husband's, and she was so glad that he remembered it.

"I'm surprised that you remembered that!", she was like.  "I haven't thought of that in a long time."

Staff appreciation at the resthome.

The other week was some kind of sector appreciation week, so everyday at the resthome during the week there was some kind of little event with food.

The one day I worked, they had a snack buffet up on the rooftop level, with candy platters and veggie and fruit trays and fruit kebabs. as well as some bowls of dried fruits and nuts and trail mix.

That evening, the desk worker asked me if I had heard about the catered lunch the next day, and since I hadn't, he opened up some email and read me a list of Costa Rican food that they were getting brought in.

Since I was working as a private aide the next day but I was starting later than usual because my one client with disabilities was away at a doctor's appointment with her sister, I asked him if he thought it would be okay if I maybe stopped through for a late lunch on my way to work at my other job.

He said it was, and so I did, and it was these really nice fried plaintains, like a Costa Rican coleslaw kind of salad, and some mixed vegetables, then two kinds of this really tasty rice, and a steak/onions/peppers dish that has soupy juice and was totally awesome, and some spiced chicken and garbanzo bean dish, too.

By the time I got there, the steak and the rice was demolished, but I managed to scrape out a spoonful of each to try it, and I ate a lot of the rest.

It was so good and so nice!

Like, they had crisp green beans with a ranch dip, and all the almonds you wanted.

I know there were similar days and things in academia, but it just felt different.

Like, the day before with the snack buffet, a (Tibetan) coworker who was working a double put together a snackplate for her coworker on the night shift, and then later I heard that some afternoon shift workers complained that people who worked nights could never come to the food events, so kitchen and dining put together a mini-buffet of non-perishables to leave out for them, too, and they left it out in the building's main lobby.

Isn't that just nice?

I really am so lucky with where I work now.

A walk to the subway stop the other day.

The other week when I was walking to the subway stop near my apartment to go into work...:

- a (middle-aged) (black) man scootered by down the center of the street on a gas-powered bike as I was walking on the sidewalk, and I watched him fly past ahead of me and disappear into the distance, still on the same street that we were on.

- a(n old) (short) (Asian) man with baggy clothes and a beige floppy middle-size-brimmed cap walked down the subway platform ahead of me, holding out a cigarette that spiralled out plumes of smoke.

Exchange with the one resthome resident who wants to die.

The other week I checked in on the one resthome resident who's been wanting to die, and there was another worker in her room, who pointed out that we should water her one miniature rose plant more often, since it was getting brown and dying.

"Okay," I was like.

Then, after I talked with the resident some, at some point where it was appropriate I slipped in a comment about how she's a beautiful rose who beautifies our lives, but she wants more to be like that one rose there that's dying.

That got a smile out of her.

"I want to be like that one," she was like, smiling and gesturing over to her one dying rose plant that we had just watered.

Allergies resolution.

I thought I had mostly outgrown my allergies after my teens, but my seasonal ones have been back with a vengeance the past few years, what with global warming making allergy seasons longer and worse where I live.

(Thankfully, the cat ones are not.)

Anyhow, it's just so embarrassing to be an adult with a tissue wiping his nose everywhere.

And, I got those sinus headaches and shit that made me miss work twice like a month ago.

This summer I'll have to set up a doctor's appointment to get a reference to an allergist or something, so I can maybe get allergy shots or whatever and hopefully not have to go through this crap again.

Sigh.

Books and papers everywhere.

It's pretty amazing, it's been like a month since I've cleaned my apartment top-to-bottom, and there's already books and papers everywhere on my kitchen table.

The sink is getting dirty and my big main bookshelf's getting dusty, too, and I've had to re-clean the bathroom a few times as well.

I need to integrate regular "spot cleaning" into my life, to make my cleaning low-key and manageable and not this big every-once-in-a-while thing.