Nailed It!

I saw an interesting face mask on one of your blogs a few days ago.

Appearing to be made from the zipper area of jeans, one can unzip and take a sip from a drink.

During yesterday’s decluttering project, I ran across an old pair of mom jeans and thought to give making that mask a try.

Taking a break from clutter management, I pulled out the sewing machine and voila!

Nailed it!

Well, kinda, sorta, because it’s sloppy work. Online research did not produce a pattern to follow, so I winged it. And not wanting to break the needle of my machine in trying to sew through heavy areas to make the edges all tidy like the example in the photo, I decided to leave the edges frayed. After all ... frayed jeans are the thing these days.

The end result is not something I’d wear out in public, like to the market or craft store ─ preferring my glitter masks but, once I’m allowed to get back to training at the Pain Cave, inasmuch as I have to hydrate between sets, which necessitated pulling up a side of my mask to take a drink, I might use this mask instead ... open the fly and sip.

Snitching, Part 2

Walking into the market yesterday, I stopped and began staring at an old guy, also walking in, that wasn’t wearing a mask.

As our eyes met and he realized I was staring at him, it was on the tip of my tongue to ask, “Where’s your mask?” But then he disarmed me with a pleasantry ─ he smiled and said “Hello. How are you?”.

Damn him for being a sweet old guy, when I was primed and ready for an incident that would probably end up on the internet because, in my mind, the confrontation would end up with yelling, culminating by my having to pepper spray him.

There’s always a person stationed by the door to enforce the “no mask no entry” rule. Sometimes it’s private security, sometimes a worker. That day it was a worker, a young woman who was asleep at the wheel, looking at her phone.

So, as I stood in stunned silence as old guy went on his merry way, walking up to another worker, asking her a question and she, instead of saying “Sir, you cannot be in here without a mask” began leading him to the item he was questioning. It was then that the snitch in me came out again.

I walked over to little miss asleep at the wheel and said, “That guy doesn’t have a mask”.

She immediately came to attention, picked up a small box from her station, ran after the guy and gave him a mask from the box.

I didn’t wait to see if he actually used it.

I’m a person that doesn’t like to get involved, but here I am snitching twice in one week. First was when I pointed out, to the chopper, the direction that guy running through the complex went, and now this.

I’m hoping not to make a habit of this snitching, getting involved, because my position has always been that of a drop out, a watcher, observer ─ not being fully invested in this world, but rather standing on the outside looking in. However, now I find myself not only getting involved by snitching but, for the first time I actually did that Census thing.

It left a bad taste in my mouth that I actually gave into the constant barrage of notices that I’d not completed and returned the Census, but I capitulated, went through the online process, and got those census people off my back.

And not only that but, unable to sleep last night, because I couldn’t clear my mind of how surreal it is that an unarmed Black man defied the police by walking around to the driver's side of his SUV and got himself shot seven times in the back BUT a white kid was allowed to walk around with an AR-15, shoot and kill two people, injure one, and got a bottle of water and a thank you from the cops. So, after finally falling asleep along about 2 a.m., waking up late at 11:00, I jumped online and registered to vote ... for the first time.

You read that right. At 76 years of age, this will be my first time voting.

Shocked as you all might be, it won’t compare to how shocked my girls will be. I can’t wait to tell Twin 2 that I’ve registered because she used to get into arguments in class discussions when she’d say her mom won’t do jury duty and doesn’t vote because her mom didn’t like "wasting her time" (my explanation to the girls for my choosing to opt out of social obligations) on those things.

On another note, our quad is full again.

On Tuesday, I was coming down the stairs and greeted a woman I saw walking through the quad. She greeted me back and, just to make conversation, said, “It’s difficult to breathe in this mask”.

“Especially when it’s this hot”, replied I.

When I saw her turn into the walkway towards the unit Nosey occupied before passing away, I asked, “Are you the new neighbor?”, to which she replied she was.

After introducing myself and welcoming her to the complex, inasmuch as I never saw anyone moving in, and had assumed the unit was still vacant because I’d seen no signs of life — no one coming/going, had not seen any lights on — though I’d not really looked, and the blinds and patio doors were always closed, I asked, “When did you move in?”.

“July 29”.

She’s been here a month already and I never noticed a thing, so I said “Wow! You keep a low profile”.

“That’s because my kids don’t want me leaving the unit until the pandemic is over. They’re saying two years.”

The new neighbor seems friendly enough. Not like Illusive Unfriendly — the neighbor in the downstairs unit underneath me. Illusive has been here since April 2017 and, when she moved in, wasn’t having it when I tried to introduce myself and welcome her. She chased me away by giving me a cold hard stare, raising her voice and yelling, “I DON’T LIKE PEOPLE!”.

Except, I have noticed that though she avoids us in the quad — won't look us in the eye, walks the other way rather than speak, she doesn’t appear to have a problem liking, looking in the eye, speaking when the people are men. While sitting on my perch on the couch one day, I actually spotted her running down the walkway to catch up with and have words with Big Friendly Guy, who turned around and followed her into her unit. LOL.

Oh well. Whatever.

So anyway, plan for today was to head to the air-conditioned mall to qualify in the OC Fair Virtual 5K. However, it will have to wait for another day because, waking up so late, I’ve decided to focus on purging the unit of items I no longer need or want, because I look around and see just so much unnecessary stuff.

Snitching

There was a lot of police activity in the area yesterday. I could hear sirens going up and down the street for what sounded like every few minutes.

I thought it might be the result of possible insurrection having to do with folks upset over the latest shooting of an unarmed Black man ─ the one in Wisconsin.

And let me just say what I’ve said before ─ my unpopular opinion that instead of resisting, sometimes you’ve just got to go with the flow, suck it up, accept you’re going to be profiled, going to be treated differently, and just need to learn how to survive in that kind of atmosphere.

I’m glad the victim did not die ─ though I’ve read he might be paralyzed from the waist down. Glad because he now has time to think about the incident and how differently things would have turned out for him had he not been so foolish as to expect the cops would not do what they are prone to do when a Black person is involved. Had he not tried to show what a man he was by walking away and had just humbled himself, he’d have come out unscathed ─ emasculated as a man perhaps, his feelings hurt rather than seven bullets in his back ending in paralysis. Cops, and racists in general, love it when we play humble, contrite, stupid even (which is how I survived Corporate America), because it doesn't threaten their erroneous sense of superiority ─ which, when it is threatened is when they become dangerous, vindictive. Like I’ve said before ... it’s maddening, insulting, but you have to be smart, play that game in order to survive.

So, anyways, there were sirens off/on during the day and, at one point, a helicopter circling the complex.

I had just happened to open the door, heading out to drop the rent check in the mail when I simultaneously heard the helicopter circling the complex and saw a young guy, who obviously did not belong here, rushing through the quad, looking back, as though making sure he wasn’t being pursued.

He was so busy looking behind that he didn’t look up and notice I’d just opened the door and was stepping out, but it occurred to me that, if he was being pursued and saw me, he might run up the stairs and try to duck inside, so I got my pepper spray ready (I always have it in my hand ever since that pervert accosted me in the mail area). 

By the time I locked the door and made it to the bottom of the stairs, I saw the guy was running, headed towards the corner back of the complex. Realizing the helicopter was probably looking for him, I snitched.

Someone had once told me that the cameras on those helicopters are so good that they can make out every little thing on the ground so, when the chopper circled back to where I was standing, I pointed in the direction I saw the guy running.

I guess they saw me, because they stopped circling and headed in that direction.

Since I was outside, I took a look around to see if I could spot why so much police activity and saw a couple cop cars down the street, surrounding a car.

I’m guessing the guy escaped from whatever that situation was.

Later in the day, there were more sirens, but none that night.

Checking the local news online to ascertain if all that activity had anything to do with protests or looting, I found no mention at all. So, perhaps police activity in the area was preemptive ─ to prevent what happened after the last incident (the murder of George Floyd), to chase off people who even looked like they might be planning something.

We don’t get that kind of police presence in this area ─ they usually only come when called; so, if it was preemptive, I’m impressed.

I played a dirty trick on a new cashier at the market the other day.

We’ve got a lot of young newbies manning the cash registers. I overheard one asked, by a more seasoned cashier who appeared to be training the person, “How long have you been out of checking school?”

“Three days” was the reply.

How interesting, thought I. I didn’t know there was a school for that and, with only three days of training before assigned a store and a register, that’s a pretty quick turnaround. But it’s good to see people, who must and need to work, being able to work. Some of those young people may be supporting their entire family.

At any rate, a newbie casher held up one of my items and asked me, “What is this?”

“An ostrich egg”, replied I.

It wasn’t, of course, an ostrich egg, and I’ve no idea what made me say that it was ... where that reply came from. I was just being funny, and it took everything I had to lie with a straight face, until I saw the puzzled look on the young cashier’s face, whereupon I burst out laughing and fessed up to the item’s true identity.

Just out of curiosity ... is it just a young person’s thing not to know what this is, or are some of you reading this not able to name this item?

Well, Now I’ve Seen Everything

“Oh no!! I am sorry to hear this”, was the reply I received yesterday to ratting out the unsanitary unsafe conditions at the craft store the day before. “The safety of our customers and staff is our number one priority. Please rest assured that your voice has been heard. I have directly addressed your concerns with the store leadership to ensure that they are aware of all the opportunities they may have to improve your experience going forward! Thank you for bringing this to our attention!”

I can’t believe the “store leadership” had to be told to sanitize the carts during a pandemic, as I’m sure “store leadership” must have observed how carts are cleaned for use between customers to avoid contamination in other shops/stores. I also can’t believe that, with all the long line of shoppers I’ve seen lined up to enter the craft store, these many months, that no one else brought up the issue.

Maybe they did ... in person and were ignored. It’s not so easy to ignore internet complaints that go beyond “store leadership”.

So that’s the end of that, but I’ll be sure to check on compliance next time I’m in that area ─ which won’t be for a while.

Under the category of  “now I’ve seen everything”, my friend the Archeologist commented yesterday on my facebook posting about Snoop Dogg’s wine ... “download the app so the label talks to you on your phone!”

What’s she talking about, a talking label? thought I, but okay, I’ll look into it.

Following her suggestion, I came away with just the coolest thing I’ve ever seen

So cool in fact that I went to the adult building next door and asked a friend of granddaughter’s, who works there, to record what was coming up on my phone so I could show you.

It’s augmented reality (AR). The phone scans the label and it comes alive ... talks to you.

The app indicates that every face on 19Crimes' bottles are real flesh and blood people. “Rebels and poets. And each was sentenced to punishment by transportation, banished to Australia for committing one of the 19Crimes. Download the experience to hear these historical convicts tell their incredible stories”.

Maybe it’s me, maybe I’m easily fascinated by such things but, next time I’m at Sprouts, I’ll have to check out the story behind two other faces I took photos of because they looked interesting and I'd wondered why they both looked so rough and what they'd done to earn a spot on the bottle.

Death by Chocolate

That trip out of the area to pick up a gift from Sprouts led me down an unhealthy side trip.

Remembering that, last time I checked to see if and when See’s Candy Store was to reopen, I learned it’s open already ─ but to online orders only.

Jonesing for See’s for some time, and since my trip back to the complex from Sprouts was going to take me within a block of See’s, I decided to see how online worked.

The way it worked was I couldn’t say give me two of this, two of that and end up with a small manageable bag of candies. Instead, in order to get the candies I prefer, I had to order a custom mix box, the smallest box being one pound.

Me with a one pound box of candy is suicide the hard way, but what the heck. My gut has been acting up for no reason at all. I might as well give it a reason. I placed my order and, while getting dressed to head out, wondered how long it would take to get notification ready for pick up.

Didn’t take long at all. Pick up notification came while I was still getting dressed.

First on my list of errands was to drive past the closest Sprouts to the furthest because that’s where I saw a bottle of Snoop Dogg’s 19 Crimes ─ a wine Snoop put out for the summer. They might have had it at the closest Sprouts as well, but I didn’t want to take a chance of aggravating myself if they did not, so I drove a few miles further out of the area to where I knew it was in stock.

It was the eye-catching photo on the label that grabbed my attention, but I didn’t think to purchase it as a gift for Twin 1 ─ the drinker in the family, until I was back at the complex. Thus, having to drive all the way back today, but I got it.

A bottle for Twin 1, a souvenir bottle for my non-drinking self.

Now I’ve got to go online and research the best way to preserve a bottle of wine because I won’t be delivering to Twin 1 until it’s safe for me to travel and be around people again, or safe for people to visit me.

Before stopping off at See’s to pick up that box, I gassed up the car and what a joy it was not to have long lines at the Costco gas pump now that so few of us have to gas up. Same with the craft store.

I’ve not been inside a craft store since the pandemic began but, when driving away from the gas station, I passed the craft store and saw no line outside, I parked and walked right in to pick up two floss colors that were getting low. There was a third color. They didn’t have it in stock, but I can easily order online from another source.

Though it was nice to be able to shop instore again ─ and there were only seven other customers, I felt icky and unsafe because staff did not sanitize the carts. A fact I realized after I began walking with the cart and noticed that as a customer exited, placed her cart back in place, the next person to enter would get that unsanitary cart ─ like I probably got the cart used by the last customer to place it there.

I thought of abandoning the cart, returning to the car and disinfecting my hands with the wipes I keep there, coming back in and wiping a cart down myself but decided it best not to walk in, shortly walk out, turn around and walk back in ... because of the optics.

When one is Black, one must ALWAYS be aware of the optics.

Having experienced store employees eye me suspiciously for no reason at all ─ just because I was me; that time a security guard went from leaning casually up against a wall to standing at attention when I walked into a clothing store, then glaring at me, never taking his eyes off me as I shopped; the time I spotted security up high on a staircase, looking down, watching me as I sat outside the store, looking through purchases; the time security followed me at a craft show; and multiple other instances of shopping while Black, including the security guard at Best Buy last year/year before. It’s maddening, it’s frustrating, insulting, but it’s something I’ve learned to live with and minimize, as best I can, by doing nothing to draw further attention to myself. I carry no bags inside, wear a fanny pack instead so it’s obvious I don’t have anything to stuff other things into, and I wear tight fitting clothing ─ leggings and athletic top, to make it also obvious I’ve no place to stash anything.

It doesn’t always help to avoid being profiled, still I’m conditioned to always being aware of the optics. To try not to do anything that looks remotely suspicious. Something I wish the younger generation would be more aware of instead of saying to hell with the optics, expecting Karens, Kens, stupid cops to change and, instead, getting themselves roughed up, shot, killed.

Like that fool walking around Walmart with a toy rifle he’d picked up from one of the shelves. A customer called the cops, thinking the rifle was real because ... you know ... Black guy. He ended up shot dead while shopping by responding cops.

I’m not saying getting killed was his fault ─ though Kahlil Gibran does say in The Prophet that “the murdered is not unaccountable for his own murder”, but it kinda was his fault because, as a person of color, you have to know when to hold ‘em, when to fold ‘em, when to put the toy rifle in a cart ─ take the optics into consideration, because you can’t change other people’s perceptions. One just has to be aware others do have these perceptions, be cautious of where one goes, and what one does once one gets there.

Walking in, walking out of the craft store to get wipes from the car, would have looked suspicious. So, I toughed out the icky feeling and cleaned up with wipes when I finished shopping and got to the car.

But don’t think for one minute that I didn’t go online, look up the store’s facebook page and put the unsanitary unsafe conditions on blast.

After the craft store, it was off to my last stop ─ See’s.

Nothing to complain about there. I didn’t have to fight the usual ton of traffic entering the shopping center, and was able to park up close to the entrance.

Access to the store was blocked off.

I stood at the roped off area, a worker came out, took my name, went back in and retrieved my order. Easy peasy.

It was coffee and candy for lunch and yes, I did get sick, but I’m still breathing. Probably because I didn’t scarf down the entire box. Ate just a few pieces and put the remainder in the freezer for when I next crave chocolate ... or for when I wake up the day after election to learn 45 did actually cheat his way into another four years. After which, I'll off myself by drinking that bottle of wine and ingesting all the remaining chocolates.

Time on My Hands?

With no place to go, nothing to do except needlepoint, playing PokémonGo from my unit ─ don’t even have to get off the couch and GO to do so, Candy Crush and Alphabet Saga on the laptop, trying to catch up on recorded TV programs, I still find myself falling behind on to-do’s.

I’ve Woman’s World magazines backed up from October of last year, I’ve fallen behind on books to be read ─ having yet to finish Walter Mosley’s Trouble is What I Do with a new one (Blood Grove) due to release in February.

It seems being forced inside due to the pandemic ─ minimal distractions, while others are struggling with the boredom of it all, I myself am experiencing a lack of time on my hands ─ not enough hours in a day.

Prime videos are not being viewed, though the heat woke me up super early this morning and, instead of putting in a few hours on that more pressing needlepoint project ─ which I’m hoping to finish by Christmas, I logged on and viewed Anatomy of a Ballet Dancer, a documentary on Marcelo Gomes, which was worth syphoning off time from the more pressing to-do’s.

You wouldn’t believe it ─ black woman, braids, into country western music, line dancing, but I’ve been fascinated with ballet since childhood. Not that I ever wanted to dance ballet, I’ve just always been fascinated with the artistry and beauty of it and, of course, have read about and followed Misty Copeland’s career.

In fact, little known fact ─ I don't think even a fact my family knows as none of them really know me, who I am as a person, but I love not just ballet but opera. Took operatic singing lessons in my early teens. Also took piano and violin. Didn't keep up with any of those pursuits, for one reason or another, but wish I had.

Since it seems I’m never going to catch up on recorded TV programs, with new ones to be recorded ─ such as Big Brother and the upcoming Fargo, I’m going to have to make decisions about what’s important to view, what is not.

For instance, today I’m going to delete Worst Cooks in America, because that series is over and a winner announced already.

Hell’s Kitchen is still in production, but I’m pretty much done with Chef Gordon Ramsey yelling at folks, so I’ll delete all those.

I don’t know if Barskins, “the story of indentured servants transported from Paris to the wilds of New France in 1693 to clear the lands”, finished Season 1 or just went off the air, but I can delete those as I’ve lost interest.

I’ve just about completed viewing all the episodes of Murdock Mysteries and am so hooked on that series that I’m anxiously waiting what’s next with him.

With all those deletes, that will clear up my to-view’s for newer shows. The reading isn’t likely to be caught up until after I complete the needlepoint project, at which time I’ll be an entire year behind in Woman’s World reading and books up the ying-yang.

It’s too hot to go outside today, but I passed up on an item that called my name last time I was at Sprouts ─ not something for myself, but something I know someone else would love. The item won’t let go, so I’ve got to take a drive out that way to pick it up.

Oh, and by the way, I am not watching the convention and I’m staying away from anything having to do with the election because it’s just all too upsetting ─ all the things No. 45 and his minions are doing to cheat their way into another four years.

Wake me when all is said and done. Wake me when it’s over.