Comic persona at the resthome.

The other week at the resthome, I was assisting the one resident with a good sense of humor who I joke with about being a partier, and she accidentally knocked a plastic cup of water onto the floor when she went to go do something.

"Please!", I was like to her. "Your drunkenness, your filthy mouth, that I can take, but throwing things at me is a step too far."

Another mundane dream of broken things.

The other week I dreamnt -

I pull out a black plastic ice cube tray from the freezer in my apartment, and I see that like almost half of the little ice cube tray compartments have little tears in the bottom toward the edges and the corners, like they've been burst open.

I know that I have somehow been using the ice cube tray irresponsibly, and now it's broken to the point where it's largely non-functional.

. . .

Anxiety reducer.

I was getting pissed at the waits for subway trains recently, but you know what helps?

A free German vocabulary app that I downloaded.

It's easy to pull out and use when you have a few minutes to spare, and now the time flies and the delays don't really bother me.

A while ago I saw on Twitter someone saying that you're so much better off in life, if you approach your emotions as information rather than just feeling them.

I think what got me was the wasted time on the platform, since I'd look online on my phone, but it was too inconvenient to pull out a book and read like I do when I get on the subway car.

Two nights of recent subway interference...

...and their consequences:

1) One night after a shift at my one assisted living client's with disabilities, the trains going my way aren't picking up at the stops near me, instead you have to go northbound to the end-of-the-line and *then* head south, which isn't a good idea because of crime there at that time of night.

So, I check out one of those docked rental bikes that they have in cities now, and I enjoy a leisurely bike ride to like 8 or 10 subway stops south, to pick up the train there.

After like half a mile, a (young) (biracial?) girl who's biking without a helmet cuts in to the lane next to me, and she has this great music playing on her big speaker that's attached to the side of her bike bag.

So, when we're stopped at a light, I compliment her on her music and ask her what the last two songs were, and she tells me, and she says that the second song is a deep house cut.

"Speakers are better than headphones," she was like, "You have more conversations that way."

We then talk for the rest of the ride, until we have to split off in different directions at where our road hits a T, and at that point she gives me a pointer about how I can connect up with another major north-south road that will get me to the subway station that I need to get to.

2) For like a week after my shifts at the resthome, the trains going my way aren't picking up at the stop by work and the stop just south of that, so I have to check out one of those docked rental bikes that they have in cities now, and bike to like three stops south to pick up the train there.

One night, I *just* can see a train a ways ahead, and I realize I'm going to miss it at the stop up ahead, so since the night out is so nice, I decide to leisurely bike down another stop, just for the hell of it, so I can enjoy a night ride some before waiting for another train at the different stop one stop up ahead.

Then, after I pass the stop I was originally going to and as I'm going to the next one, I see the train crawling through the section of tracks parallel to me, and suddenly I remember that it does that for a bit due to another section of construction, and I wonder if I can beat it to the next stop, so I bust ass peddling for block after block after block, and though I'm out of breath, I finally dock the bike at a rack at the station and I run into the station and I get to the platform just as the train is pulling in.  I make it!

Like two days later, too, the same thing happens with timing, only now I know that I can beat the train to the next stop, so I bust ass as soon as I see the train a ways ahead, and I get to the next stop with like a couple minutes to spare until the train pulls into the platform.

Racing the subway trains on a bicycle on a quiet city evening...  As a young person, I don't think that I could ever have thought that my life would be like that, one day.

Two recent watery happenings...

...in one day at the resthome:

1) There's a ton of rain that you can see through the window coming in on the subway like six stops south of the resthome, but at that stop itself, the pavement isn't wet, and I can't figure out if it hadn't rained there, or if it had rained and the water had evaporated from the hot pavement that quickly.

(I asked - it *had* rained there, and the water had evaporated that quickly.)

2) At the staff meal, I go to put more Italian dressing on my salad, but the dressing is super watery and when I pick it up and bring it in, some sloshes really quickly over the edge of the little black plastic takeout cup, and it spills some down the front of my scrubs and onto my pants, which are also scrubs.

A reflection on resthome life.

The other week at the resthome, I saw the one elderly (Japanese) resident, who I hadn't seen in a while.

"Hey, how are you doing?", I was like.

"I am okay," she was like.

She then explained that as of this month, it has been a year since she moved in.

"I was thinking," she was like, "I am not happy here, I am not sad here, what am I?  And then I realized, I am at peace, that is how I am here, I am at peace."

Rainbow fun.

Last month when I was at work at the resthome, a huge storm swept through the city in the evening, with just a huge downpour and strong winds, too.

Then, after I assisted someone getting ready for bed, I was walking down the hallways, when suddenly I notice all this light coming in the window and it's totally super bright out for that time of evening like right at dusk, and I look out and the sun is shining so strong, and there's this huge brilliant rainbow in the sky.

Then, I go to hurry off, and I bump into my one (cool) (Muslim) (Ethiopian) coworker, and I get her to come look, and she does, and she's super excited.

"Want to go to the roof to look?", I was like, and she was like, "Yes!", so we scurried over to the elevator to go up to the rooftop deck to go get a better look at the rainbow.

As we're going up, I realize that the one resident who I always joke with would probably like to come, too, and her room is like pretty much right across from the elevator, so I tell my coworker, "Wait here in the elevator for me, I am going to see if [name of resident] wants to come," so she waits there holding the door, and I head in and ask the resident if she wants to come look at the rainbow with us - she does, and she had just been looking out her window at how weirdly strong the sun was reflecting off of some nearby white buildings that she can see out her window - so I grab her coronavirus mask and I help her into it and then I wheel her in her wheelchair out in to the elevator and we all head up to the rooftop together.

It was deserted there except for the three of us, no-one goes there that time of night, and the sunlight had died down a little by the time we got up there, but the rainbow was still bright, and you could see another fainter rainbow just outside of it.

 . . .

Don't I have a great job?  All that shit was on the clock.