Halloween

So which is scarier? Is it the ghosts and ghouls of Halloween? Or is it the fact that the Republicans may retake the House on Tuesday? I think the later.
Halloween used to be a night for costumed drunken debauchery. It was great. Sue2 (I call her Sue 2 because I've always added her to my conversation as sort of an afterthought, like, "Oh yeah. And Sue, too.") So she started signing her name as "Sue2". Anyway, Sue2 and Susan Craft and I would go out "Trick or Drinking" every Halloween. We always chose a theme and then made costumes for the theme. David always created my my costume and fixed my makeup. I had some real kickass costumes. One year we were bugs, and he made me into a really pretty butterfly. We were at Dulin and had choir practice on Halloween night, and he let me wear my butterfly costume. Here we were as Wizard of Oz characters.
One year we dressed as witches. We had an especially debaucherous celebration that year and ended up at a bar. As we walked home, Susan Craft started sweeping both the sidewalk and unlucky pedestrians with her broom. She spent the night at our place, and left sometime before we got up. Sue headed down the long hallway staircase to go to work the next morning and found Susan's witch's hat abandoned on the stairs. She brought it back in to me, saying, "I think she melted."

party

I have lots of stuff to tell you today, but limited time. I've wasted a ton of time searching for my cel phone. I call it from my other phone, and I think I have the ring narrowed down to some where either behind or under the bed. How it would get there I don't know. Someone called me a while back. If it was someone whom reads this blog, I'll call you back when I find the phone.

Ron and Sue and Shirley and Martha and I went to the Hermitage for Mom and Dad's "welcome" housewarming party. That place is so much nicer than this place, it is just plain in a different class. Mom has worked like hell, and they are pretty much unpacked and their rooms actually look like "home". She even has her little decorative pieces placed and her "africans" laying on various pieces of furniture. (David always said that, in North Carolina, instead "afgans", they called them "africans". So his dad would come in and say, for insance, "I think I'll curl up on the couch under an african for a while."

Anyway, I think they can be veru happy there.

excitement

They are having a big "virtual dementia" conference here today. I guess they are probably learning to deal with people like me!

That's funny, but it's also indicative of why this place is intolerable - the staff treats every resident as if he/she is incapable of having a rational thought. On a certain level, one starts to believe it must be true. After all, it is what everyone else thinks! So I run just as fast as I can.

Today I folded stuff at church. Tomorrow I'm in Alexandria again, because I got all the way to Alexandria Tuesday, and then they called and cancelled class and rescheduled for tomorrow. This is actually OK by me.

I have a funny story for you. Sunrise has a wee, tiny circular brick drive out at the front entrance that exits onto Broad Street. On Tuesday, the Metro Access bus was waiting for me at the top of the short driveway. A bread delivery truck was there, also. I got on the bus. There was a work crew in the middle of this tiny brick driveway. They were tearing out and replacing bricks. As my van sits there, two more cars pull in from the street. They idle as they try to figure out where to park. Then, lo and behold, two huge firetrucks scream up with sirens blaring. They pull in the driveway entrance. My pal Bill, an older guy in a wheelchair, comes out to see what all the excitement is about. He sits right in the middle of the circular part of the drive. So, to sum up, we have a Metro Access van, a bread delivery truck, two passenger cars trying to park, a crew tearing up the pavement, two fire trucks, a guy in a wheelchair...

...and a woman runs up from the back parking lot screaming, "Its an emergency! I have to get out!! I have to get out!!"

Apparently there was no fire or emergency requiring firemen (imagine if they'd tried to fit in an ambulance!), so the firemen managed to get everyone out! Bill stayed until the last minute! I bet he felt he'd had great morning!

Oops!

Oh dear... You know what? Ron Mussleman is a real nice guy! Here is his picture with my sister.
I had a trip scheduled for today to the National Gallery for no reason (other than self preservation!) But, much to my dismay, Bob Ryan said last night to expect rain all day. I decided that would not be a good day to make a junket, so I tried to all Metro Access to cancel, but they had some sort of phone phone outage. To make a long story short, I ended up taking my phone to bed so that I could call them at 6:00 AM.

Well, I tried, but it is DARK at 6 AM! I pushed the button that I thought would call Metro Access, and the next thing I hear is, "Hi. You've reached Ron. Please leave..."

I hung right up, of course, but he called immediately, and was very nice about it all. He sounded relieved. I guess probably normal people only call their friends at 6AM if there is some sort of emergency! At that point, I decided that the recent turn of events meant that the fates must want me to go, so I went, and I had a wonderful time!

I'm really down on this place today - so lets get out of here! This morning I went to Starbucks (I'd rather pay an arm and a leg for coffee than to drink it here!) Yesterday I went to the National Portrait Gallery. Today I have class in Alexandria in the afternoon. Tomorrow I just called to get a bus to the National Gallery. Thursday I get to volunteer at church. Guess this is my atones for being stuck in a rest home.

She blinded me with science

The weather here in DC was wonderful today (Saturday, 10/23)- cool in the morning, but warm and sunny all afternoon. Luckily, I'd planned something wonderful to do in the nice weather. I went down to the Mall, where they were holding the US Science and Engineering Festival. It was like a HUGE science fair with hundreds (literally) of white tents, each of which held a display demonstrating some different type of scientific work or discovery.

I, of course, know nothing of science. I had Mrs. Mahoney for chemistry in the 11th grade, and that was as advanced as my scientific education ever got. I have never even used a Bunsen burner. Mrs. Mahoney was quite elderly, and dyed her hair bright red. We kids swore that she must have mixed up the dye herself in the chemistry lab. I once saw her (really!)in the grocery store saying "wheeee!" as she ran down the store aisle pushing her grocery cart. She then jumped up on the rack that was on the bottom of the cart and rode the cart as it whizzed down the aisle.

So I don't know a whole lot of science.

Lloyd would have loved this, though. He is a pharmacist and thinks scientifically. He can also do Texas Line Dancing. My Aunt Patricia would have loved this, also. She is a college level science professor. She also makes beautiful Appalachian ceramics. (Which she sells, if you are interested!)

I generally just tooled around in my wheelchair and enjoyed being out on the Mall on such a pretty day, There was only one fairly minor disaster. I went over a metal thing that covered electrical wires across the road and got stuck in the street, but two passerbys saved me.

There were some really cool looking displays. NASA had a lunar rover and a spacesuit.

The another display that interested me was the one from the people that make the Rubik's cube. I got Lloyd a brochure about how to solve it, although I bet he can do it without a brochure! I looked at the brochure, but got no further than step 1, which was "get to know your cube"!

Class

I went ahead and signed up for the Nov./Dec. session of my Spanish class. In a way, that's too bad, because the class isn't particularly good. If I continue to be the only student in the class, though, I guess two hours of one on one instruction for 16 hours, which is worth $239.00.

I had found and signed up for a class that looked more serious - more like a real class - with Fairfax County Adult and Community Education (ACE). It was about the same price, and met twice a week in a real class room. I was all signed up for it, but then it was cancelled due to lack of interest. (Not lack of interest on my part, but lack of interest by the population as a whole.) Now I know that they exist, though, and can be on the lookout for new classes starting in December or January.

I'm also kind of unexcited also because I've sort of "done" the highlights of Old Town... although, even as I say that, I realize that it probably isn't true. I've seen just a few things, and those I've seen only very superficially. I''ve never even been in Christ Church... And one could spend days in the Torpedo Factory and it would be different all the time, because the artists are always creating new stuff.

The George Washington Masonic Memorial is something Ive never been inside, and it created an amusing moment a while back. My Metro Access driver was overwhelmed by the beauty of Alexandria at night. As we came up King Street and saw the Masonic Memorial at the end, he was beside himself. "Oh my God. It is beautiful. What is it?"

Try to imagine yourself explaining to a man from Sudan what a Mason is. I don't think I really even know what a Mason is. If it ever hapens again, I'll say it is a Church!

Jean

I think I'll tell you about one of the caretakers here, a good one.

The ones that get me up in the morning most weekdays are really good at their jobs and are usually in a good humor. The first one I'll tell you about is Jean. She is the lead. She is a tall, thin (but healthy!) woman from Jamaica of about 40 years old. She always seems to be in an "up" mood, and is usually singing and laughing and dancing. She is very proficient at her job, and acts professionally.

I try to learn jokes to tell her because Broken English is her first language, and therefore she understands them. She tells lots of stories from her childhood in Jamaica. It seems to have been a place where the kids really had to toe the line and listen to teachers and parents. The school principal, she tells me, was a bad man who said all the teachers were "caca".

The other day, I asked her to tell me a joke, and she she told me about a time when she was a girl. She was at the top of a hill, and the latrine was at the bottom of the hill. She wanted to use the latrine, but she looked down and there was a man in a big hat, sitting in there, nodding up and down. She waited and waited and waited. Finally she went running, yelling, "Pa! Pa! There is a man a big hat who is just sitting and nodding in the latrine." So her Pa came running, and he went down to the latrine and found that what she was seeing was the shadow of a banana leaf.

Alexandria

I got good news and bad news yesterday, and they were both the same news. They called when I was on the bus going to Spanish class and said yesterday's class was cancelled. That is both the good and bad. bad because class didn't meet, but good because I now get to go to class on Friday, and, as you may have realized, I love going to Old Town, and eating out at La Madeynes.

I had lots of time to kill yesterday. I went in pretty much all of the accessible shops on King Street. Many of the shops have one little brick step in front of the door. I still managed to buy some stuff I absolutey don't need to be getting right now. For instance, the Christmas cards you will be receiving in a few months time were purchased yesterday.

Probably I won't go quite as early Friday as I did Tuesday.

The Torpedo Factory is always fascinating, though. I actually saw one of the artists painting a picture of a boat on the Potomic. Whoops - gotta go.

Donde esta mi classe?

I have my last Spanish class today with Spanish Now in Old Town. I wasn't especially impressed by the quality of the instruction, so I've signed up for a class that starts next Thursday, offered by Fairfax County Continuing Education. It meets Tuesday and Thursday from 6:30 to 8:30, which fits my schedule great, because Tuesday and Thursday are the two days they won't give me a shower. If you can't beat them, run as fast as you can!

Lincoln Assassination

Something that I found really interesting about John Wilkes Booth but forgot to mention yesterday was that he had individual photos of 4 girlfriends in his pocket when he shot Lincoln, and he carried them on his escape. That was back in the days when photos were a big deal.

This is a picture of the boot I mentioned in the last post that they have in the museum and they Mudd had to cut off Booth's leg to fix Booth's fracture after the assassination.

I also found it interesting to look at the photos of John Wilkes Booth and the rest of the conspirators. They are so young! The museum guard called them the Al Queda of their day!


Do you know what the Entertainment Tonight reporter asked at the theater door?
ET: Well, other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, what did you think of the play?

Ford's Theater

That was scarey - I wanted to write in the blog, and I couldn't find it for a while. I guess that shows how entirely disorganized and computer illiterate I am.

Sabrina Fair was well done show and fun in it's way. It was very well-acted, and quite witty, and I enjoyed it.

It just isn't the type of show I usually choose. I guess I usually go a musical or racous comedy. This was more like what you call a "comedy of manners".

It was super cool to be in Fords Theater. Lincolnn's box seat was draped in red, white, and blue bunting. They have a museum downstairs thats full of stuff about John Wilkes Booth, including his diary and a boot he was wearing at the time and which was later cut off his leg by Dr. Mudd.

this and that

I had a difficult time here last evening,

BUT

this afternoon I'm going to Sabrina Fair at Ford's Theater. If you can't beat them, ignore them.

I just heard on TV that a man got his drivers licence at DMV, then went out, got in his car, and crashed into the DMV building.

When I went in for my Social Security Disability interview, I fell down getting in the car in the parking lot in full view of the Disability Office windows, and Sue had to call the Fire Department to get me up. I got the benefits, no problem.

a blast from the past

I went and voted absentee today. That took a bit of courage, because I haven't been back in the office since the electoral board from hell fired me for being in a wheelchair. They had everything set up for absentee voting exactly the way I used to set it up. So they must think I had it set up correctly, right? (Except that they didn't have a sample ballot posted on the door, which is something I always used to do, and which is something that seems like a good idea to me.) I never used a paper pollbook and wrote voters names in it when conducting absentee voting. I always assumed the absentee ballot applicant list was the pollbook. The evil and incompetent and ill informed Secretary of the Electoral Board from hell made it a big deal that I wasn't using paper pollbooks and put on a big show of demanding that they be used, but now I see that they aren't using them again. Could it be that she found out that she was wrong?

The reason I went to vote is because Jim Moran is on the ballot, and I feel he's always done an excellent job.

Voting is so important and such a unique privilege and so easy to do that I can't believe that anyone would not vote. But, from what I know of my blog readers, I am probably preaching to the choir.

Once David let loose with one of his frequent heartfelt and poignantly correct sermons during rehearsal. One of the basses raised his hand. "Yes, Stan," David said. "David," said Stan. "You are preaching to the choir."

Artsy

I had Spanish class yesterday. I went to Old Town in the middle of the day and stayed through class. The weather was gorgeous - around 70 degrees and clear (no llueve y no nieva, en espanol). (I think probably I just said 'no rain and no snow'). (I think)

I went down to the waterfront and read for a while - "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo", still. I'm finding this book hard to dive into. I sat at the water for a bit, and watched the boats go by and the planes take off, and the ducks paddle. Then I went in and looked through "The Torpedo Factory". This building used to be an actual, working torpedo factory. It is three floors tall and divided into hundreds of small studios, where artists work and then sell their finished pieces. It was really wonderful. I found a lovely piece that would have been nice for Mom and Dad's new place, but it was $400.00. They have enough pictures. don't you think?

nurse

Moving day seemed to go well, I guess, although I wasn't there for a lot of it. The movers took FOREVER to get them packed, so they didn't even get to the new house until after 3:00. They've been there a couple nights, now, and all seems to be going along O.K.

Well... except for the nurse... She is a perfect example of a person who has let her tiny bit of power and influence go straight to her head. Sue fought with her on moving day. I fought with her yesterday, and then the dumb nurse callled up Sue to tell on Mom and Dad for doing what I said instead of what the nurse said. So Sue got furious and told the nurse that Mom and Dad had a doctor, so she (the nurse) wasn't actually in charge of their medical care, (which is basically what I had said), and that, from now on, whatever Mom says is what she should do, and not to ever call her up again expecting her to negate one of Mom's decisions.

Moving day

Moving day! Mom and Dad are making the big move from Idylwood Towers to the Hermitage. The weather is supposd to be beautiful today - a GREAT day for moving. Not cold and not hot and not raining!

Thank God for Sue! Mom has worked herself ragged packing, but Sue has been helping all along, and worked like a slave all day yesterday. I talked to her last night, and she said they are still far from through. The condo fee is paid through the month, though, so she's hiring a cleaning crew to come in next week and spruce the place up before Tina actually puts it on the market.

Thank God for Ron, too! He's also working hard to implement all this. Ron and Sue together have just sort of taken over responsibility and are making sure this happens!

As for me, I plan to go over to the Hermitage later today and try to stay out of the way and show my support. Maybe there will be something I can actually do...? At least least I'll be there in case there is. When I actually will be useful is later, when Sue and Ron will be at work and I can hang out with them as Mom unpacks.

Won't it be wonderful to actually be able to manuver my wheelchair into every room in their house! They have rooms I haven't seen in years!

I sure hope they are happy there! It kind of seems like a real nice place for them to live!

On the road again...

My endless search for meaning led me today down to the Mall, mainly because I was too lazy yesterday to arrange anything more clever. When I got there, I didn't even specifically know which museum I wanted. I wandered into American History, and some woman volunteer in a pink shirt came up and started telling me all about one of the scientists that the exhibit was about, including cute anecdotes about her. Maybe I'll find out more about how to volunteer for that. It might be fun.

I actually heard a tourist say today, "They should call them 'aren'tifacts', because they sure aren't 'art'."

Blahhhhhh...!

Old Town

I just read again my last few posts, and I've realized something you've probably known for a long while - i.e., I am seriously off kilter. It probably doesn't lend much validity to this blogs entry yesterday about human integrity and values to realize that the day before the I went on a tirade about having prevented a woman with a disability and using a walker (and wearing a hideous yellow pantsuit) from boarding the Metro Access bus.


Yeah, but that doesn't count though, right? That was different.... That was ME!

Excuse me...!

Yesterday I had a great day. I went down to Old Town real early because my theraspist movedd my appointment, so I had some time before the class, I went down to the waterfront and sat there and did my homework and watched families frolic (there were a few there, even on a Monday in October!), and tour boats drift past and ducks paddle about placidly and seagulls scream and scavenge. Occasionally wild new-age music drifted out of the Torpedo Factory. I didn't go to the Torpedo Factory, and haven't been in a while, but I believe I'll go next week.

Tea Party Rhetoric

Wow - just read a very well written and frightening editorial in the Post. Maybe you read it also? If not, I'd suggest it. Its a reminder to us, in this age of Tea Party virulence that words can, and do, kill ordinary Americans, as they did in Kent State. To continue the theme, we find it also in Birmingham Alabama in 1963, in the death of Matthew Shepherd, and in tons of other horrible events.

How does one join in the fight against such dangerous ignorance? All through my lifetime, I've believed that words and songs were one venue with which one might raise consciousness. I've heard Dad preach often unpopular social justice sermons every Sunday of my life. I've grown up inspired by the challenges of Peter, Paul, and Mary.

BECAUSE ALL MEN ARE BROTHERS
Bach/Glazer- Amrita Music Corp. ASCAP

Because all men are brothers wherever men may be
One Union shall unite us forever proud and free
No tyrant shall defeat us, no nation strike us down
All men who toil shall greet us the whole wide world around.

My brothers are all others forever hand in hand
Where chimes the bell of freedom there is my native land
My brother's fears are my fears yellow white or brown
My brother's tears are my tears the whole wide world around.

Let every voice be thunder, let every heart beat strong
Until all tyrants perish our work shall not be done
Let not our memories fail us the lost year shall be found
Let slavery's chains be broken the whole wide world around

metro access tale

I've had several "interesting" Metro Access situations lately...

For one, I was waiting for my ride at Ballston Mall the other day, and a Metro Access van pulls up. The driver asks if I am Debbie Taylor. I said, "yes", and he gets out of the drivers' seat to come over and pull down the ramp for me...

... AND this pushy bitch on a walker wearing a yellow jumpsuit barrels up and tries to shove her way in front of me. "Excuse me", I say. "This is my ride."

"I've been waiting for them all day," she insists.

The driver has reappeared by now. "She is my passenger." he says, indicating me. He lowers the ramp and motions that I should get on.

I do so.

"I've been here much longer than her," she continues.

"Did you call them to reserve a ride?" I ask, as I am elevated past her by the motorized ramp. (Isn't it always a good feeling to rise above one's enemies?) (Please keep reading this blog! I promise never to do that again!)

The driver calls the dispatcher on his radio, speaks for a moment, then tells the woman, "Sorry, but they've never heard of you."

I snicker softly to myself as I see her fold up her walker and place it in a cab. (Which, by the way, is something I'm not able to do.) I gloat silently as she and her ugly yellow jumpsuit drive away.

joke

All these entries about old folks' homes reminds me of a joke which my Pastor told me.

A guy had to put his dad in a "home", and he felt really guilty. So, when he leaves his dad there, he says, "Dad, I have a suprise that you'll be getting later tonight." The Old Man says, "OK", and forgets all about it.

Sure enough, at about 7PM there is a knock at the door. The old man answers, and finds a beautiful woman standing there in a bikini. She says, "Your son sent me to offer you super sex."

"OK," he says. "I'll have the soup."