What're You All About

So you guys remember when I had to have hand surgery at County years ago, c'mon sure you do of course it was some horse accident it always is.

But at County you have to go there in the morning and basically wait all day to see the doctor as punishment for being poor. So ok I did it and it was hours and I took a bag with like snacks and books and knitting but really ended up listening and talking to the dudes around me. Like the cook from the Greek Theater carrying a salad who had taken a dive down the stairs and broken his wrist. And the guy he was talking to who drove trucks but had shredded his finger in a tire explosion. Those guys are what I remember from County. Also the day they ripped the metal pins out of my hand bone with no numbing meds. Thaaaat was hard to forget.

Why are you telling us this Jules well I'm back at County sorta. Working at the school bagging up 3000 lunches from 6 to 11 a.m. When you're tying that many knots in bags and hurling them at the guy with the lunch suitcase that takes them all upstairs to the line of cars full of hungry people, you learn a lot about the people around you. I thought I hated people til this quarantine then I realized without people I don't have anything to talk about. So behind my mask I get to hear how MANY people cannot conjugate verbs. But aside from that, there's this gigantic special ed aide who also raised his three girls by himself. And the bus driver who doesn't talk but helps you lift things. And the lady with a 20 year old and a 6 year old. And the lunch lady who's just SO kind like everyone's gramma and you know if you were gonna get hit by a bus she'd pull you out of the way and then go rip the bus driver out the window and beat the shit out of him. These are the people we need.

I was telling my neighbor maybe I'm overqualified but then I think I am where I am so I can feel the people and talk about them and who they are. I only worry about their grammar because some of them are actually teachers. But maybe we are all the same person, the quiet bus driver, the super jock lesbian SF fan, the huge single dad who makes pancakes even though he worked the night shift, the guys unloading and loading shit, the people, all of us, making food for other people because we're all here on the planet right now and you gotta eat.

Masks make people nicer. You can tell a lot about someone with only a strip of their face showing. Imagine when we can see everything again. Like a whole face. The beauty might be blinding.