she is an ex-cop and she is bubbling over with effervescence.

which is actually a somewhat redundant statement.


the woman in charge of my training today was incredibly jolly.
her wing-woman was also pleasant, though at first spoke to us as though we were all bad at speaking english/five years old.

you know, that louder-than-normal tone and over-simplified word choice?



one of the women i am working in the deli with is kind and well-meaning, but also naively ignorant.
we will be working in the kosher deli together. her name is Tanya.

i had mentioned to the store director that i am Jewish and have kept Kosher in the past. i think word must travel quickly, even though it is a big store.



Tanya comes up to me. we have spoken before, but this time she seems hesitant.
"um.........so are you, like........are you, like, a Jewish person?" she asks me.
"yes," i say. "i am."
"oh." she looks around nervously. i think maybe she is unsure how she is supposed to ask these kinds of things.



today we happened to be next to each other in the sandwich line during our lunch break. again she seems cautious, though a bit less so.
"so........do you come, like, from Israel?"
i reply no, i have never even been there. i don't think Tanya has met many Jewish people in her lifetime.







a few days ago, ab was giving me a ride home. he mentions the upheaval in Iran. i am wary; i do not discuss politics with ab.

he says that Obama is being too soft, he should go into Iran and intervene. i try to be diplomatic, i say that i feel Obama is taking a softer course because he is trying to regain the respect of the Arab nations. intervening in Iran is not the way to do it.
ab says that by writing their signs in English, the Iranian protestors are purposely making a statement to the world that they want help.
i say i think he is over-anylizing the situation.
he says the Decleration of Independence was the same thing. while on the surface it may have been telling England off, in reality it was screaming "HELP!" to the rest of the world.
in my idealist mind, John, Thomas, and Benjamin are not so yellow-bellied. but i only say "i guess...." and try to discourage further political discourse.



i am taking calculus again, and it is poop.







i live next to a rehabilitation center. it is mostly unclear what they are rehabilitating, but it seems to mostly cater to the elderly.

every so often, i hear a man yelling "help!" and then a pause, followed by another "help!" and so on.
either this is a bed-ridden old man who is sorely in need of a buzzer to summon his care staff, or this is one of the hobos who nest under the trees across the street.


probably it is the former of the two.

in my mind he is a disagreeable, grumpy old man with incredibly bushy eyebrows and snow-white hair. the nurses are turning him over so he doesn't get bed-soars, but he loathes both them and their care. he cries help, because he longs for the day that someone will believe he is in peril and will come to save him from the tiny nurses and their scrub-clad shoes.

maybe all he really needs is someone to sit by his bed and listen to his stories. i'll bet his family just left him there to rot, and that is why he is so bitter.



not that i have anything against care-homes. this is just what i made up in my head. and i do have something against those who abandon their relatives in care homes. for crying out loud, at least visit once a week. would it kill you?