it started raining in the afternoon, a cold miserable rain, one of the rare times this summer when i wish it wasn't raining, but see all the pretty late summer flowers in the neighborhood, i didn't mind all that much.
fortunately i was enumerating some chauncy apartments and spent the next 2 hours safely indoors, dutifully finding proxies for 10 cases. one problem with working multiple cases in an apartment complex is sometimes subsequent cases are potential proxies. what happens if i use them for a proxy, but then later need to enumerate them? i discovered these apartments were actually connected together via a "secret" underground passageway. i briefly got trapped underground, until i bumped into the superintendent who told me which unmarked door to exit. he was a nice guy, could care less i was in his apartment, "do what you got to do," he said. by the time i left those apartments, it'd stopped raining.
i'm starting to love proxy cases. they take longer to do because i have to find eligible proxies, but it makes the times go faster, and more often than not, i can find someone to talk to who will give me some info about their neighbors. most people want to help out i've discovered. it's the rare neighbor who's worried about privacy concerns and won't divulge any details. everyday that i work i can work on my power of persuasion.
in the afternoon my advisor sent us a new group chat. she said it included some new people that were added to our group but at the same time removed those that had resigned. i'm sure most enumerators have thought about quitting one time or another, but i didn't realize there were those that actually did it! i looked through the name list to see if anyone i recognized was missing.
i came home at 3:45pm for my break. recharged my phone, took a shower, drank some water, then snacked on some guacamole and chips while watching a bit of the late afternoon news broadcast. i ended up taking the bicycle for the second half of my shift just to save some time. i parked it on a street corner while i continued enumerating.
i knew it was a good day because i almost didn't want it to end. i managed to get into another large apartment complex with a handful of cases. but time was running out and i only managed to attempt one case, didn't have enough time to open any others (as they all required me to find more proxies). i returned home around 7pm.
for dinner i pan-seared three defrosted chicken thighs before adding them to a smaller pot filled with chopped onions and covered with an indian korma sauce i got from aldi's a while back. i also prepared a cup of jasmine rice in the rice cooker. the korma was good, but i wonder if the flavor would've been better if i used smaller cuts of chicken.
i started watching trump's speech on the last night of the RNC, but after i few minutes i couldn't stomach it anymore and turned off the tv. when i turned it back on close to 11:30pm, trump was still talking.
i finally decided to buy a laptop table after looking at several options over the past 2 weeks. one choice was the lap tray; although i like the close proximity, i think it'd be a pain if i had to constantly get up and go and need to set the lap tray somewhere with the legs extended. a laptop table wasn't all that much more money ($20 more, $52), and it meant i could just the laptop as is and not having to move it every time i leave to go somewhere in the house. even if i end up not using it, it'd still be useful for other places in the house.
i also bought a new vacuum cleaner for my mother: a shark apex duoclean corded stick vacuum with zero-m self-cleaning brushroll and 6 tools for $110. granted, it is factory refurbished, i didn't see what kind of warranty it had, but brand new the vacuum retails for $250, so i'm getting a near 60% discount. i use a shark vacuum myself and i find it better than the dyson canister vacuum my parents currently use (which i also recommended at a cost of around $400, which in hindsight seems like a waste of money).