A conversation with a high school friend (1 of 2): "Go buckets."

So, I was recently catching up with a high school friend who now teaches high school math, and he was telling me that recently his school where he teaches started a new school shooting initiative, where each room is outfitted with a "go bucket" right by the door.

I immediately thought it was like stuff to take with you in case a shooting starts happening and you suddenly have to hustle out the door, but immediately he went on to explain what it was, and no, it's actually the opposite, it's if a shooting happens and you're barricaded in the room for a long period of time, it's what you can haul out and use so someone can go to the bathroom in it if they need to.

. . .

A comment of my father...

...after he first spelled "rappel" as "r - e - p - e - l" for me when I asked him how you spell "rappel" for a crossword, and then when I told him it was the other "rappel" like going down a mountain and he properly spelled it "r - a - p - p - e - l", and then after we checked the dictionary to make sure he was right and I said that we didn't even need a dictionary, he was so good:

"Well, sometimes you need it around to double-check yourself."

. . .

Two recent perspectives on professions:

1) A retired (low-level) administrator from higher ed who I tangentially know was saying on social media that she used to recommend to people to consider moving into higher ed positions like hers for a career, but she doesn't, anymore, because they're just not as dependable or well-paid as they used to be.

2) A colleague from my doctoral program who got into non-profit work was saying that remote work was good when she needed it, and it's a hair better than the $50K in-person jobs that are basically what you can get around where she and her husband live, but there's no mobility, and she's actually seeing the previous upper-level jobs that you had hoped to move into liquidated, and their duties redistributed downward to the lower-level jobs, with no increase in remuneration.

. . .

(I had been texting the latter that I crunched numbers from my first full year at my one restaurant job at the one [Thai] restaurant where I work now, and I'm making $19.50 an hour average, which would be equivalent to a $45K desk job if you assume 45 hour weeks for 49 weeks a year...  And who knows, that actually might be more this year, considering that I got moved into better shifts.)

My mother's online research:

She uses the Air B&B site to see which nearby vacation homes have been converted into Air B&Bs.

"I'm not nosy," she's like, "But I like to know where there can be strangers around."

An impression of my childhood home...

...when I was on a trip to see my parents:

The temperature inside was so high.

. . .

Mildly passive-aggressive but also justifiable work correction...

...at the one (Thai) restaurant where I work now:

The (wife) owner with the (tired) face reminds me to keep my drink glass not in the corner outside behind the counter, but rather in the little wall-mounted wire basket in the short hallway going to the kitchen, and then a few days later when I don't do that, I turn around and my glass of (diet Coke) has disappeared, and I go and I look and I find it there.

. . .

Waiter meta-commentary.

Lately at the one (Thai) restaurant where I work now, I have begun to make occasional, very gentle waiter meta-commentary.

Like, some parents are there with their young kid and they order a basic (Thai) fried rice with chicken spicy level zero, and I dutifully record that on my notepad and then am like, "Yes, chicken fried rice, spicy level zero, I've seen that one before," to their mild but appreciative amusement.

Around (Chinese) New Year's, too, we had a special pad thai where we used (Chinese) lo mein noodles instead of standard pad thai noodles, and when I'd go over our meal specials with people, at one point I started telling everyone when I indicated that dish, "It's kind of like the regular pad thai and people say it tastes the same, but it's a different kind of noodle.... When you live in a town this small, you have to make your own fun, and this is what we chose to do."

. . .

(People are really eating this [shit] up, it's like I disrupt the customary script and allow us to momentarily stand outside of our usual roles as server and client.)