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the census assigned me only 46 cases today - the least i've ever gotten - with a start time of 2:45pm. they were all addresses to the west of my location, in a tight 8 block radius. with such a late start i could afford to sleep in but i still woke up before 9am. ever since i started doing census work, i've been waking up early. i don't know what it is, maybe some minor anxiety before each day's work.

i biked to the cafe to deliver a few things i got from chinatown yesterday as well as 3 shirts for my 2nd uncle that arrived at my house. i ended up staying and doing some "yard work," pulling up all the weeds along the edge of the buildings, along the sidewalks, and the perimeter of the parking lot. i returned home by noontime with some food my mother had prepared for me for dinner. before i got home though, my mother called to warn me that the rice might be undercooked and told me to cook my own rice instead.

i noticed my supervisor had left a message and i called her back. she said one of my cases got flagged again, when she read me the address, i knew exactly what it is. it was the harvard divinity school, the ghost town of a location, where i couldn't find any proxies and i had to search online for places to call. in fact, i texted her this morning regarding these exact cases. she told me that unless i can actually speak to someone on the phone who can definitely tell me one way or another, they don't count as proxies, which need to be face-to-face.

i wasn't going to start 2:45pm, and my supervisor said i didn't have to start at that time either. originally i thought maybe 2pm since there weren't that many cases, but i was already finished with lunch by 1pm so i decided to head out at 1:30pm, figured i could clear my case list and get home early by 6-7pm.

temperature today was moderate and dry. i hardly sweated, which made me want to go on a bathroom break by 3:30pm after i drink so much water before i left the house. that was also the time when i noticed something with my case list: the census had secretly added 20 more cases on top of what i already had. so it was going to be impossible for me to finish my list today and go home early, which is a good and a bad thing.

prior to my break, i found a 4 quart mason jar, minus the lid. it was stuffed with used badminton shuttlecocks, which i threw out when i got home since i only wanted the jar.

once my break was over, i went back outside, but was intercepted by renee, who wanted to gripe to me about her first floor indian tenants. they were probably listening because i saw the rustling of the living room curtains, and renee only has an outside voice, incapable of speaking quietly. these tenants have turned out to be nightmare tenants, storing used mattresses in the basement (which renee said probably has bedbugs, but i think she was overdramatizing the situation), and threatening her with a health inspection. renee was asking me if i had any ideas, and thought she could shame them into behaving, because somehow indians are more susceptible to public shaming. "if only they were chinese, you'd understand them more," she told me, a little racist. i told her to kick them out, but she said there's a moratorium on evictions due to the coronavirus and with so many people without jobs. i get the feeling she actually needs them to stay for the rental income, since it's very unlikely she'll be able to find renters this year with so many nearby universities doing distance learning.

today i got good at revisiting inactive cases, i didn't realize you could do that until probably yesterday. i also called a few landlords and maintenance associations to get info on their tenants from back in april. if i ever encounter another in-mover who doesn't like the status of the previous tenant, i will ask them for their landlord's contact info so i can call them to find out, since they would know better short of asking the previous tenants themselves.

i don't think i had any memorable census encounters today. i got some old cases, a few of which i managed to close. one woman whom i enumerated asked me to sit down with her on a bench on her porch; even though we were wearing masks, there was no social distancing and i felt a little uncomfortable, to the point that when she went inside briefly, i stood up so i couldn't have to sit next to her again. later i had a few cases where i managed to get into a locked apartment building. the last case in that complex was the penthouse apartment. a woman answered from behind the door, she said i don't want to come inside. i assured her we could do the census with me outside and her inside. she told me she had covid. i said i'd leave a notice-of-visit outside her door. who knows if that's true or not, she could just be lying to get me off her case. but i put a note in her case log with a red stamp, "respondent said she has covid."

i didn't think i had the endurance but i ended up working until 8pm. one of my last cases was pretty memorable, a chinese girl and her friend were about to leave their apartment when i caught them. she said she filled out her census, but when i started questioning her, she wasn't sure, but agreed to do the census survey with me. we had a playful banter, i was a little punch drunk from being a bit tired.

the moment i stepped inside the house i started cooking 3/4 cup of rice with 1-3/4 cups of water. the lunch i made for lunch (1/2 cup of rice) had too little water (3/4 cups of water) so the rice ended up sticking to the pot. besides using more water, i also greased the inside of the cooking pot with some oil. after that, i stripped out of my clothes and hopped in the shower. i had the rest of my leftover lunch for dinner once the rice was cooked (it didn't stick this time).

my supervisor scheduled a face-to-face meeting this saturday afternoon at a local park for those who can attend. at first i wasn't going to go - i prefer all my census duty on weekdays so my weekends can be free - but figured if i was going to get paid, that's an extra 1-1/2 hours of additional census income, so i told her i'd be attending.