A view on the culture wars, and other topics.

Last month I grabbed (socially distanced) patio drinks with my one art school colleague who wears women's clothes.

He was saying that the culture wars have never really made much sense to him, because on the one side you have the evangelicals in their big hair and makeup yelling at you about how everything has to be their way, and then on the other side it's the tr*nnies in their big hair and makeup yelling at you about how everything has to be their way.

He also said that nowadays you have a lot of "white negro" fetishism, except that the symbol of perfect freedom is a black trans sex worker.

(Ethiopian) humor?

The other week at the resthome, it was an extremely busy shift for me, and like towards the end of it I bumped into my one (cool) (Muslim) (Ethiopian) coworker, who I hadn't seen when I was bustling around the resthome all night.

"How are you?", I was like, and she was like, "Good," and then she was like, "How are you?".

"Busy!", I was like.

"Why?", she was like, and I then told her that a handful of residents I was working with were all very confused that day, and so that was making my shift very busy.

"Be careful," she was like, "All are confused, you will be confused too!", and then she laughed.

Tales of resthome coworkers (4 of 4): Mexico.

Last month at the resthome, I was assisting the one resident who's a retired school nurse, and the one (bigger built) maintenance guy from Mexico stopped by to ask her something.

And, I noticed a simple, well-drawn tattoo of a cartoonish puppy on the inside of one of his forearms.

After he was done talking with the resident, I was like, "Why do you have a tattoo of a dog?"

"I love dogs, this is my dog," he was like, turning up his forearm to show us the tattoo more closely.

Then, he lifted up his one sleeve, and up on his upper arm there there was a more realistic line drawing of like a Doberman pinscher or something.

"This too," he was like.

"You have two dogs?", the one retired school nurse was like.

"No, four," he was like.

Tales of resthome coworkers (3 of 4): Ethiopia, again.

Last month at the resthome, this local hospice company showed up with ice cream for the staff, and we all went outside and picked our pick of an ice cream sandwich or like a hard chocolate-covered vanilla ice cream bar on a stick.

"Who are these people?", my one (cool) (Muslim) coworker from Ethiopia asked me later, as we were sitting around eating our ice cream.

So, I explained to her that they were from an independent hospice agency that people can hire for end-of-life care and that the government pays for, and though that isn't done through the resthome, they want to make sure that their business is known to us and always at the front of our minds.

"Smart," she was like.

Tales of resthome coworkers (2 of 4): Ethiopia.

The other week at the resthome, my one (edgy) coworker from Ethiopia was saying how her son promised her that when he graduated college, he would get a good job and send her back home to Ethiopia.

"Would you move back?", asked the one resthome resident with a good sense of humor, whose room we were all in.

"Yes," she was like, "If nice house. This country, no good."

"But what if you don't have enough money," I was like.

"Then find me rich man," she was like.  "If you know rich and above ninety-five, perfect."

Tales of resthome coworkers (1 of 4): Ghana.

Last month at the resthome, the one (broadly built) kitchen manager from Ghana bumped into me and pointed out some brown stain on the right shoulder of my scrubs, and then since he knows that I hate Trump, he was like, "Did your friend Donald do that?".

"Donald?", I was like, before I caught what he was saying.

Then when I did, I was like, "Ohhh," and I laughed.

Then, I said that he didn't, but if he did make a shirt dirty, he would say that it's perfect.

"Perfect!", I was like, "Perfect!".

Creative solution at the resthome.

Last month at the resthome, this one resident who can go off on tangents asked me if I had any ideas about how she can contribute to racial justice in the city, since she's concerned about that lately and she knows that I'm political.

So, I told her that the only current local campaign that I was aware of was where you call up county representatives and ask them to defund the jail, and she kind of made a little face and was like, "Naaaaah," and then she said that she's not sure that taking away money from police is the way to go, but if I thought of anything else, to let her know.

Then, like the next day, I got a text from some census volunteer, checking in to see if I had filled it out already, and asking me to remind my neighbors.

So, the next time I was in at work, I told the resident that maybe she could volunteer to send texts or call people so that they fill out the census, since people of color are undercounted and our state and city has less resources for stuff because of that.

She said that she was aware of the census undercount phenomenon, and she said that she liked my idea.