A Dream of Objects (1 of 2): Spice.

Last month I dreamnt -

I had a spice container in my hand and I turned it over, and there was a label saying "Cardinal," and I knew that that was pronounced "car-dee-NAHL" and came from Latin and meant "paprika" in Spanish.

And then, I woke up.

. . .

Resthome intercultural exchange.

Like last month at the resthome, the one (Romanian) front desk worker who only works like one or two shifts a week overheard me saying "Good night!" in (Tibetan) to my one or two (Tibetan) coworkers I was on shift with that night.

"What is that?", she was like as soon as I said it, and we all told her, and then she said it a few times, repeating after us.

Like a week or two later, the one (older) (cool) (gruff) (townie) front desk worker told me that now every night the (Romanian) front desk worker says "Good night!" in (Tibetan) to anyone (Tibetan) on shift when they leave.

"You started that," she was like.

. . .

...how often do (Romanians) and (Tibetans) interact like that, I wonder? probably not often...

Resthome favor: Greeting cards.

Towards the end of last year at the resthome, the one (nice) resthome resident who always treats me to candy whenever I'm by her room was telling me that this one other resident's husband had died, but because of quarantine, she wasn't sure how to go about sharing her condolences.

"Usually I would stop by and talk to her," she was like, "But nowadays, you can't do that!"

So, I suggested that she call, or send a card.

"Maybe I'll call," she was like, and then she added that she didn't have any cards on hand and that it would take some doing for her to arrange to get some, because of the pandemic.

So, I told her that I had some cards at home that I could dig up and bring in for her - cards that the one resthome resident who wanted to die actually gave me! - and that I would bring them in for her on the next shift that I worked.

So, like that shift or the one after, I brought in 3 cards for her, one blank but with a tasteful front, one that was a dignified all-purpose "Thinking of You" card, and one that was explicit condolences.

"Oh, I ended up calling her," she was like.

"Take these anyways," I was like. "You could use them and I don't need them, so it's a win-win situation, I get a cleaner apartment, and you get a few cards you can use."

"Thanks!", she was like.

Resthome conversation: Numbers and sex statistics.

Towards the end of last year, I was chit-chatting with this one resthome resident who has a (hammy) sense of humor, and he asked me how many people I had to help out during a shift.

"Today, eleven," I was like.

"A lot of guys?", he was like.

"Actually, no," I was like. "By the time you get to this age, it's mostly women, since the guys tend to be dead by now."

"Yeah," he was like, morosely. "The wives make sure of that."

SNAPPED.

A couple months ago when I took a few minutes between tasks for a coffee break at my one assisted living client's with disabilities, I was doing a crossword and had that TV channel Oxygen on TV, since I love true crime.

And, I couldn't think of a clue word for "Broke in two" that also meant "Lost control," and I suddenly realized it was "SNAPPED," as I watched that same show on TV, about women who kill.

Coup attempt (1 of 2): Implicit reactions.

A few days after the coup attempt, too, I got a recall notice for a more obscure Balzac novel that I've had checked out of the public library for like forever, this one called "A Murky Business."

It took less than a minute for it to click for me that the novel depicts a coup attempt and so someone out there in the city had decided to read it, just like people had decided to read Camus's "The Plague" this summer.

. . .

Because they recently waived library fines in the city and I had a few days off and "A Murky Business" is on the short side for books, I decided to keep the novel and read it a lot and try to finish it off as quick as I could, which I ended up being able to do in like three days.

It had some nice insights and aphorisms about human behavior like all Balzac novels do, but it didn't have much insight into what we know of the coup attempt so far, to be honest. I think the historical distance and the difference with political systems and circumstances don't allow for much transferable knowledge like is the case with "The Plague," which had some nice insights into the way people react to a pandemic.

Coup attempt (1 of 2): Explicit reactions.

The next time that I worked at the resthome after the coup attempt, my one (older) (Filipina) coworker with an elegant hairstyle shook her head as she was heading out and I was coming in to punch in, and she was like, "America isn't America anymore."

And, later that shift when my one (edgy) (Ethiopian) coworker asked me why troops didn't intervene at the Capitol and I told her that they needed authorization from people connected to 45, she was like, "He did it, I know," in a very authoritative way.