In my opinion "Orientation" was extremely relatable. I've had a job since I was 16 years old, and every time the orientation is crammed full of information that in all honesty goes in one ear and out the other. The paragraphs were structured to relay this hurried dose of information. Like the new employee trying to pay attention, I found my mind would often wander during tedious safety explanations and procedure charts during my orientations. I love how the narrator explains intimate details about each coworker-- I've found that I too learn way too much about people I work with too, whether I'd like to or not (for example I once had a co-worker who wore bar-bell piercings through her nipples so she and her husband could have kinky sex.. WAY too much information). Despite being able to relate to this on a certain level, the causal mention of the serial killer was stunning, and it made me appreciate the monotony of the rest of the piece.
"Car Crash While Hitchhiking" made me feel like I was on the same drugs the actual narrator was on. The changes in perspective and the narrator not being able to tell the injured man what was real was just really bizarre to me. The line "It felt wonderful to be alive to hear it. I've going looking for that feeling everywhere" struck me the most. The narrator says this after the injured man's wife discovers her husband is dead. While the appreciation of such a cry as the woman had seems quite morbid, it offers a little insight into the character of the narrator in my opinion. It seems to me that in the woman's agony he realizes the love he wishes to have and has tried to find through drugs and alcohol, yet hasn't been successful. The rawness of her sadness strikes him and makes him feel actually present in the moment instead of in a drug haze.
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