Resthome conversations (1 of 4): Social distancing.

Last month at the resthome, my shift just overlapped with my one (Tibetan) coworker with an inappropriate sense of humor.

For a while now we've had a social distancing joke going, where we firmly and dramatically tell each other "six feet" every time we're around each other, and sometimes one of us says something like, "For you, twelve feet," especially when other people are around to overhear us.

That day, though, she was running around to leave work and she rushed by me in a rush inside of our small office, and then just as she passed me she whipped around and flung out a finger at me and was like, "You, keep away!"

Cat treat levity.

Last month, my one assisted living client with disabilities was resting in bed and eating her dinner, and since it had been a busy night with chores and I hadn't had a chance to finish off my snacks, I stood outside her bedroom door and ate my apple and my orange there and we chatted maskless at a safe distance as we both ate.

And, once a seed fell from my apple and clicked onto the hardwood floor where I was, and another time a seed fell from my orange and clicked onto the hardwood floor where I was, and each time her cat just jumped to attention and looked to where it fell and hit, since she thought it was a cat treat like I sometimes throw onto the floor for her so she can chase it.

The next time I was at work, I got her cat's attention with a cat treat and set it up on the armrest of a high wooden chair, so she jumped up and tried to eat it, but she accidentally knocked it off and so she hopped onto the floor to go get it.

Since that was so cute, I set another treat onto the armrest of a folded-up wheelchair sitting kind of next to that very same high wooden chair, and she ended up hopping up onto the chair, leaning over and knocking the treat off of the folded-up wheelchair armrest with her paw, and then hopping down to where it had ended up on the floor to go eat it there.

So cute!

I think this also provides entertainment and intellectual stimulation for her, and kind of mixes up her day.

On reading (4 of 4): My current reading philosophy.

I love reading a huge dense classic book before bed, like the Decameron or the Divine Comedy or whatever.

At some point your mind shuts down and your eyes start to close automatically, so you get to sleep faster.

And, at some point you also finish it, so you also end up more educated, incidentally.

It's like night and day to read something modern; Mrs. Dalloway kept me up for a while the first time I read it, and I had to make myself put it down in order to try to get to sleep...

Also, on another note, I think like over 4 or 5 years ago, I read all of Don Quixote.

That was another fat classic book that I've read.

On reading (3 of 4): Recent accomplishments.

A few years ago I was really into story collections, and so I got a big fat Penguin edition of Boccaccio's Decameron and I read it over the course of like a year or so, if I remember correctly.

After that I went on to Chaucer, but Canterbury Tales can suck ass sometimes, so that book is sitting like half read on my dresser, and a few times since I set it down I've tried to jumpstart my engagement with it, to no luck.

Then, back when Covid hit in March, I realized that Canterbury Tales wasn't working for me, so I pulled out my old copy of Arabian Nights, since I'd read bits of it for a class I'd taught once, and I really wanted to read the whole thing.

And, I read it.

I then had a great hunger to read the Divine Comedy, so I read a bit about standard translations and I went out and bought a used copy online and I had it shipped to me, and I've now finished that, along with a copy of the Vita Nuova that was included in the volume.

I'm currently reading Mrs. Dalloway as a palate cleanser, but I'm wondering what to read next, then, in the spirit of what I've been doing?

I was thinking Rabelais's Gargantua and Pantagruel or whatever it's called.

I should also get back to Canterbury Tales and finish that at some point.

I also started cracking open my academic study bible back in the lead-up to the election, since it's transporting to read the prophets, and I've been keeping that up, since it's also a dream of mine to read the entire bible...

I'm now like almost entirely done with the prophets, and then I'll go on to like Ezra/Nehemiah and the deuterocanonical stuff before doubling back to the Psalms etc. and then Genesis through like Kings.

I've read the entire New Testament in Greek and several entire books in Hebrew, as well as huge chunks of the Hebrew Bible in translation, but it will have been nice to have read the whole darn thing, even in translation. I'm getting so much out of it reading it now, knowing what I do now about biblical literature and the religious traditions that use the texts.

On reading (2 of 4): Well-read.

Years ago my one professor friend who studies (modern) (Czech) literature told me that I'm very well-read.

I do read a lot, but I'm not sure that that's completely true?

I really couldn't tell you much about current authors, although I have done a fair amount of reading in classic literature, and still make some progress there.

As a teenager I used to read the New York Times Book Review every week, and I think I got a lot of mileage out of that.

On reading (1 of 4): A sad situation.

This summer I was talking with a (Caribbean) acquaintance who was finishing her Ph.D., and I mentioned some book that I had been reading for fun.

"I wish I had time to read for fun," she was like, sighing.

. . .

How sad is that, that people supposedly leading the intellectual life, don't have time to read broadly.

Spicy food.

Last month at the resthome, my one (skeptical) (Mexican) coworker was saying that she had been cooking a lot on her day off, so I asked her what she was making, and she told me about some tostadas thing with red sauce and spicy peppers.

"But I thought that you don't like spicy food," I was like.

"Noooo," she was like, "I love spicy food, but spicy food does not love me," and she held her stomach as she said that last part.

She then explained that in so many words that she felt lucky, so that's why she decided to try cooking up some spicy food.

We then went on to talking about tortillas, and out-of-the-blue she started praising this one local brand that everyone talks about as being exactly like homemade, and she said that it was exactly like you'd get if you made them at home in Mexico.

I said then that's the brand I get if the store has them, and I keep some frozen in my freezer to take out whenever I need them to thaw out and eat as a snack with hot sauce, and she said that she didn't know that you could freeze tortillas like that.

I also mentioned another local brand that I had tried and didn't like so much, and she was, "The taste is weird with those, I don't like them."