Bionic Teutonic

In the building I work in, there is a strange cleaning arrangment that involves an older woman (who looks like perhaps she is a little mentally handicaped?) and a younger woman who follows her around. It’s very odd. The younger woman never helps out or does anything besides walk behind the older woman as she sweeps the sidewalk or cleans the windows. The younger woman looks bored out of her skull, although maybe I’m just projecting. They also spend what seems like the majority of their time sitting in the lobby reading magazines, so there obviously is not enough work for two people, or even for one apparently. This morning when I got to work, there was an additional young woman following the older one around. Is young woman number 1 hiring a replacement? Is she just lonely and bored and needs a little company? I have no idea, and honestly I don’t even know if the older woman is mentally handicapped but it’s the only way I can explain this strange arrangement. I have questions.

At work lately, I’ve been putting in fewer hours than normal. I’ve been going to the gym during lunch, sometimes taking and hour and a half for yoga or to lift weights, and I’ve also been taking little walks up to the market in the afternoon to buy the great fruit they have there. And the thing is, I’ve been getting more done during the hours that I am at work than I have in quite a while. Being there less means that I don’t get into ruts where I’m doing nothing nearly as often, and inertia seems to be a powerful factor at work for me. If I’m trying to stretch 5 hours of work over an 8 hour period, I often don’t do much of anything. While if I am trying to get 3 hours worth of work done in 3 hours, I often suprise myself and get even more done than I was planning. I feel like at some point, somebody is going to point out that I haven’t been in the office as much and I wish I could have an honest conversation about how it’s actually benefiting them to have me there less, but somehow I’m not sure that would go over well. Which is too bad, because I think it’s a better deal for everybody involved.

Last night Ariel and I were awoken by the sound of two gunshots. It sounded pretty close to our house so I went to check if I could see anything (nope). I called the police to report it anyway (my first 911 call!), but what exactly can they do? Drive around after the fact and not find anything? Somebody else had reported it as well according to the dispatcher though which made me feel like I did the right thing somehow, even if it felt sort of pointless. I’ve hear other sounds that could have been gunshots at our house before, but they have always been far enough away that it could have been a car backfiring or something else entirely. This was very distinctly two gunshots. Hmm. I guess that’s even more incentive to figure out how to get back to the city.

Apparently, my weekends are now given over to doing homework. Which is fine - I knew that was coming, but I find myself at the end of a Sunday sort of mentally exhausted and feeling like I need a break that I probably won’t find get a while. And damn, this textbook I’m reading right now is dense. Sometimes I have to go over the same sentence 4 or 5 times until I understand what the hell it’s saying. It’s hardcore mental calesthenics at times.

Today coming in to work I saw a woman whose entire face was bruised. The whole thing. How would something like that even happen I wonder? At first I thought maybe she had been abused or something, but then thinking about it, it seems like abuse bruises would be a little more site specific probably. Maybe she just fell flat on her face or ran face first into a wall or something. I was totally curious, but didn’t really feel like I could ask a stranger how they got their massive facial bruising.
Also, yesterday during soccer I got elbowed hard in the left bicep and my arm went dead for about 10 seconds. It was a strange feeling. I couldn’t really move it at all, which was a little startling. I have no bruising yet, but my arm is pretty damn sore today and I’m just waiting for the bruise to start showing.
One of my co-workers is currently on crutches because his Achilles tendon tore during a squash game. Ouch! Injuries are everywhere today. Although when you think about it, it’s amazing that the body holds up as well as it does, given the abuse it receives.

Today I registered for the second Anatomy and Physiology class at South Seattle Community College. I took the first one about a year ago, and figure I need to keep going if I’m really going to do something in the medical field somewhere down the line (how’s that for clear direction?). I’ve signed up for an on-line class, which I’ve never tried, but it allows me to be at home and do the work whenever it fits into my schedule. However, when I tried to log in tonight I couldn’t and was told by tech support that I wasn’t in the system and need to contact my school tomorrow to get it sorted out. Doh! I guess that’s the danger of an on-line class - if you can’t access the on-line portal, you’re kind of screwed. Hopefully I can get that all straightened out tomorrow. Between school and all the circus classes I’ve got going on right now, I’m pretty much going to disappear socially for the next 10 weeks, but I’m sort of looking forward to  buckling down and making some forward progress in my life.