Bigger or Better: Life outside of Texas

 In early January, while taking cardboard boxes down to the recycling bin in our apartment complex's underground parking, I noticed a cat-sized furry animal make a break for the back corner of the garage. Following up on this highly-suspicious occurrence led me to discover, behind a lean-to of plywood and sections of drywall, a cat [cats tend to be cat-sized, so I wasn't exactly surprised]. While I had, months earlier, seen a mouse in the garage, I doubted it would keep this feline fed, so I went across the street to the convenience store and bought a can of cat food.  Thus began a multi-week venture of me feeding the kitty. Though skittish at first, he would purr up a storm once I started scratching his head. I was smitten. He never tried to bite me. He never tried to scratch me. But I could scarcely fail to notice that my nitrile-gloved fingers would come away black with soot and dirt after petting him.  I decided to fix this. I got some old hand-towels, a torn-up shee...

I think, as a member of a privileged group of people, I am guilty of obliviousness. Right before starting local enrollment in a COVID vaccine clinical trial, I was trying to explain to another nurse practitioner--who would be working with me on the study--that it would be pointless to get fitted for the N95 masks that the primary study site had, as we would be in a mobile clinic with a completely different type of N95. That turned out to be wrong, because through most of the recruitment phase we worked right at the primary site, but the logic itself is sound. There were several other instances like that with this colleague, but what exactly they were doesn't matter much for my point. What I do  want to say is that she later brought these instances as examples of times I hurt her feelings or insulted her. And honestly, although I still  don't understand how she does not grasp what I was saying, I also have to admit that, at least in not understanding her, she has a valid compla...