Tuesday! Methodist w/ Kathy & Barb, Open Door w/ Italia, Julia, Amanda

December 19, 2023

SO, I didn’t do this yesterday because I was exhausted at night. I think you’ll understand why when I tell my story. In the morning, I was expecting Methodist to not be great because I was scheduled for the afternoon shift, not the morning shift, which usually has more hispanohablantes come in.

BUT THEN Methodist really surprised me with how great it was, and that's why I took a photo there. Basically, what happened is I worked most of my shift normally, and then at the very end, two HUGE groups of Ecuadorians came in, and I had a great time talking to and registering them. After the first group, I had the thought that I wished I had asked them what city they came from, so I asked the second group... The second group was from Quito!

At the end there, close to the time I left, I told the second group of brand-new Ecuadorians that I had first learned Spanish from coworkers and an ex-boyfriend who live in Quito. I told them the name of the university that he and all the people who worked at Valleyfair had gone to, and they knew it! (La Universidad San Francisco de Quito.) They asked me if I was still with the boyfriend who taught me Spanish, and no, I am not. They ALSO told me that they’d arrived from Ecuador three days ago, which is something I asked that I also wished I had asked the first group. 

The photo I have there is a random BeReal I took with Kathy/Barb at the front desk, since the BeReal literally went off while I was in the middle of translating for the Ecuadorians, so I got no extra posts yesterday. I enjoy it when I miss a BeReal because I’m being real, lol. Anyways, I worked the afternoon shift, so I only had like 15 minutes at home before leaving for my Open Door shift at 4:15pm. Open Door was also good, bit it didn’t surprise me with how good it was, like Methodist did yesterday. I had good talks with Italia and Wendy to start with, telling them what I good time I had “at my other food shelf.”

I also talked to a lady named Amanda, a front desk greeter. She told me that she works as a "wound care nurse," so I absolutely had to pull up the back of my shirt and show her my staples. She said they looked like they were healing well, but maybe a touch inflamed from having the staples in there so long. I told her that was perfect because I'm going to be getting them out on Friday, at Mayo Clinic. 

Also at Open Door, I met a girl who works there who I’d never met before. Her name is Julia, and unfortunately I didn't learn too much about her. Italia didn't even know her before yesterday either. I know she said that she’s worked there for a few years just while she's on breaks from school (didn’t figure out what she studies yet). She does some "mobile lunchbox stuff,” and will be there every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday that she happens to be free.  

At Open Door last night, there were a bunch of new hispanohablantes at the end, and I had to tell them that Italia would call them to schedule their future appointments, since they and barely had time to fill out the registration info form that she's made for new clients to make registration easier. That method is one of Italia's best contributions to Open Door since she started there, which was several months ago, more recently than when I started (February 14th, also my last day at Fogo lol). NOW we usually have new clients fill out a laminated copy of this sheet with all their basic information in permanent marker so we can reuse sheets. 

Another random thing is that two different women both commented on liking my green eyeshadow, which I'd worn specifically to match my green Slytherin sweater yesterday. I think it was a pantry assistant named Bonnie, and also a greeter named Amanda, who I also have a photo of signing their wall. The other thing with that wall yesterday was that I decided to sign it in my left hand too, which you can see slightly to the left of where Amanda is writing in the far right photo. 

Lemme jump back to describing the photos I have! First, I have the BeReal I took of Kathy and Barb, then I have Italia sitting at her table/desk at Open Door, a photo of the kids' drawings she's decided to hang up on the wall there, and finally a photo of the greeter Amanda signing the wall (with her right hand, not the left, which I did yesterday.) You can see my left-handed signature around the middle of the photo I have here now.

Oh God, I'm just finishing this the next day while I'm at the Minnesota Brain Injury Alliance, but I'll talk about that event in my next post, not this one. 

Yesterday, meds after Open Door at 7:33pm with some leftover pot pie that my mom's friend Kathy had made us. Wasn't even too far from my 8am morning meds, even tho I'm no longer tryna do them exactly 12 hours apart, since that's more restriction than I need.