activities

I told you before about this miserable old woman resident that sits down in the lobby all day and yells at people. Usually I just speed past her, but lately I've been answering if she asked a logical question. But no more. That just encourages her.

Today she yelled after me, "Is my family coming today?!"

I said,"I don't know."

She said, "Do you know anything at all?"

Much of the problem is that the residents don't really have anything at all to do here except eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner on schedule. For the most part their time isn't structured at all. There are occasional bingo games, which are well attended. The activities director plans stuff like word games and supervised discussions, called "socials", and there is a core group of residents who participate, but many of the residents aren't interested. Often people just sit aimlessly in their wheelchairs in the lobby or in the "ice cream parlor", which is actually the big activities room. I don't know why they call it "ice cream parlor". I've never seen ice cream served there!

Actually, I drive the activities director crazy because I've never participated in any of her activities. They are all geared toward the mentally compromised. I guess that pretty well sums up the difficulties I've encountered here - the entire staff assumes that being in a wheelchair affects mental ability.

I was out on the front porch this morning reading the Post on my Kindle. The activities director came out and said, "It's going to be too hot to sit outside later." I said, "Uh-Huh". but thought, "Which is why I'm sitting out now, Lady!" She said, "This afternoon we're playing Big Word, Little Word, a game where we all make as many words as we can from a big word. It'll be FUN! Why don't you join us?"

So what does one say to that?

What I said was, "No thank you."

What I wanted to say was, "If I'm ever in such poor shape that I enjoy playing Big Word, Little Word with a bunch of octogenarians, then just shoot me and put me out of my misery!"

Except that I doubted she knew what "octogenarians" meant, and I really didn't want to start a whole new conversation.

Everyone doesn't need to write and tell me not to be so sensitive and thin-skinned, and to have a more upbeat attitude. I know all that. I guess I just wanted to illustrate the point that being assumed to be slow-witted all the time creates a very hostile environment. To which I guess I react with hostility. But I've been here for a long time, paying LOT of money. There are probably less than 50 residents in here. She is a professional staff person. Isn't it her job try to get to know the residents and to provide apppropriate activities?


Anyway. lets go back and talk about the Kindle, which is the wireless reading machine that Amazon sells. I love mine. I can carry my whole library around all the time. It is much smaller and more compact than a book or newspaper, and it has a dictionary built in, so it is easy to look stuff up. I love it that I can carry my whole library all the time. What I don't like so far is that it doesn't have the Post's death notices or editorial cartoons.

I love edritorial cartoons. The funniest I ever saw showed 2 Arabs and Michael Jackson standing in the desert. The caption has one of the Arabs saying, "So, Ossama, where did you get your plastic surgery?"