On reading a book about the R. Kelly case.

Like last week, I found myself being incredibly anxious because of national news and everything, as it turns out that a lot of people were.

And, I've been taking an extra day off of work every week all this month to clean up stuff and get stuff done and whatnot, but like last week, I was so stressed out, that I found myself on that extra day off just sitting around my apartment all not doing shit except reading a book about the R. Kelly case.

And, I was telling this to my one assisted living client with disabilities, and she just started laughing.

"You know the world is bad when you relax by reading about R. Kelly," she was like, and it was only then that I really realized what I had been saying.

Coworkers' political interests.

This week at the resthome, the one retired nurse said that she had been talking about the DNC with my one (edgy) (Ethiopian) coworker, and it turns out that she had made a point to watch Michelle Obama's speech, since she really likes her.

"She doesn't do much for me," the one retired nurse was like, "But then again, she doesn't have to. I found her speech a little bit like talking to a girlfriend. Perhaps it's something that black women enjoy."

Later that day, I found out from a (black) (middle-aged) private aide who works with the one retired professor that my one (cool) (Muslim) (Ethiopian) coworker had read Michelle Obama's memoir Becoming and had really enjoyed it.

She also said that the other day when she was leaving work, that the two of them were in the lobby at the same time, and she had realized that they were different people.

"But the one wears a veil, and the other doesn't," I was like.

"But they look so much alike!", she was like. "They said it was because they come from the same country."

She also gave me back the R. Kelly case book from the library that I had loaned her, and she said that she had read it twice.

"It's crazy to read everything and you remember so much of the stuff that was happening and where you were when it was happening," she was like. "Like they discussed the bootleg DVDs of the sex tape, and it was like, 'Oh yeah, I totally remember that, they were selling that on corners!'"

Luau day at work.

The other week at my resthome job, they had a modified version of their annual Hawaiian party for the residents.

When I got to work, a few administrators were walking around with this little cart dressed up in green crepe paper with a selection of leis on it, and between a golden one and a dark red one that both looked good, I ended up choosing the golden one, in part because I feel like it's something you'd see a (Hindu) cultist wear, and wearing it made me almost feel like I was in some sort of (Hindu) cultist Halloween costume, where I was some crazy (American) guy following a fucked-up guru who just kind of ended up in India.

When I went into the office right after that, I saw that they had left a selection of leis out on the main table in our office, and so I offered some to my coworkers.

My one (cool) (Muslim) (Ethiopian) worker took a dark red one, and she wrapped it up around on her veil, so it was kind of like a necklace and a headband at the same time.

And, there were a couple neon green flower ones left, and I offered one to my one (Chinese Filipina) coworker, but she made a face, and I was like, "What, you don't like neon green?", and she made a face again and was like, "No," and she said she'd wait till later to find another one.

Then, I offered a neon green flower lei to my one (older) (shorter) (Tibetan) coworker, and she gladly took it, and when I picked it up, two small neon green flower bracelets fell out, so I offered them to her too.

"Here, put it on," she was like, and held out one wrist, and then after putting one on, I asked her if she wanted the second one on the same wrist, or on the other one.

"The other one," she was like, and she held that wrist out and I put it on there, and right away she lifted both her arms up and did some little hand motions to show off her forearms, just like a hula dancer would do.

Later that evening, when I was helping the one (totally chill) resident to get ready for bed, she looked at me all of a sudden and was like, "Nice necklace."

Also later that evening, I asked the one resident who's a retired school nurse if she enjoyed the pina coladas that they were handing out, and she was like, "Yes, but they needed more rum."

Grocery store achievement.

Last month I went to the grocery store with my little granny pushcart to go stock up on groceries, and my grocery bill ended up being $125 flat.

Resthome humor, with the one resident with the good sense of humor.

The other week at the resthome I came into the room of the one resident with a good sense of humor to check on her, and she was sitting there in her wheelchair watching TV, and the call button for help was tied to her wheelchair, since someone had gently knotted it there instead of leaving it out on a table nearby where she could reach it.

"They chained you to the wall?!?!," I was like.  "They chained you to the wall?!?!"

And, she got a laugh out of that.

Then, I was like, "That's the side of the home that they never show in the [name of the assisted living facility] brochures," and I put on a grave face and shook my head as if in deep disgust.  "It's all people smiling with their families and watching a concert, they never show you the part where people get chained to a wall."

An actual resthome tidbit:

The other week at the resthome, my one (Tibetan) coworker with an inappropriate sense of humor was like, "Here, eat some dry cheese, it's from our country," and she pointed to a small half-size Ziploc bag sitting out on the table in our office, where there was a bunch of little white rubbery-looking cheese cubes all strung together on this off-white piece of string.

"But they're on a string," I was like.

"Pull off one, eat it, it's good, it's from our country," she was like, and so I did.

And, the cheese was surprisingly dry and not even that rubbery, and it had no real taste apart from maybe some vague sour milk taste and a strong lemony bite, maybe from something that they use to preserve the cheese to keep it from spoiling when they probably string it up on strings to dry out in the open air.

And, as I ate it, I thought about how my coworker always says "our country," although she was born in India to her refugee parents and has never actually been to Tibet.

I think she shares food because she's nice like that - Tibetans are very a nice and well-socialized people, like Mormons - but also because it's a way that she stakes out being a Tibetan, since other more obvious ways are closed off to her.

I wonder how much of the Tibetan diaspora is like that.

Two resthome coworker tidbits:

1) The other day, my one (Filipina) coworker called out to me in the hallway as I was about to go into one resident's room, and she reminded me to check the windows and maybe close them, since that particular resident likes to open his windows wide and a storm was coming in.

2) Last month, my one (Tibetan) coworker with an inappropriate sense of humor told me that she really likes this one commentator whose name she kept saying but whose name I didn't recognize, though she kept saying it like his name is a thing, and so she ended up pulling out her smartphone to show me, and it was some Facebook video by a (like early 20s) (know-it-all) (kind of church-y) (black) guy, saying that LeBron James wasn't thankful enough to be an American.

I think she was honestly into it, and maybe even assumed that the guy was a reference point in American culture.