Tuesday, May 26, 2009

My Weekend and More


So what did everyone do this fine Holiday weekend? I worked every day-well the whole weekend and the holiday. Before you go gettin all "oh poooor Queenie, that sucks you had to work" blah~blah~blah. Lemme just tell you I work EVERY SINGLE holiday since I began this job 29 years ago tomorrow~ Holy longevity batman, thats a whoooole lotta years dealing with my cussies! So because I am a lifer with this company I cannot~CANNOT complain about having to work holidays. I am WELL compensated financially and for that I am truly grateful. There were MANY occassions where they could and probably should have fired my drunken ass, but they did not. I am grateful for that also. SO grateful.

My sister came over this afternoon for a cookout and we had a side splittin blast as usual. We get to laughin so much its a chore to breathe sometimes. There was peeing involved, and it wasn't in the rest room if you know what I mean. Yea that much fun. She seems to have made her decision about leaving her crappy situation. Come the end of school year(just a few weeks!) she will be moving in here. YAY! I will breathe a big ole sigh of relief only when I see her tucked snugly into her new room, having a good nights sleep for the first time in who knows how friggin long. I think it will be very good for her to at LEAST step away from her "situation" for a while so she can think about what she needs to do long term. I will be here for her every step of the way.

While she was here we went to a nursing home down the street to visit her best friends' Mom. What a pistol. I remember when we were young teens and sister would hang out with her friend, and upstairs was my best friend. We both practically lived in that house, we were never home. Only thing about that situation was, both households were SEVERELY alcoholic. Severe. The woman we visited is now 80 years old and boy back in the day, she could put down some pretty serious liquor! OMG! A few years ago she had a fire in her home (cause she was hammered and smoking) and got burned up pretty bad. Ever since then she has been in a nursing home where she can no longer drink or smoke. I believe that that fire probably saved her life. When I heard about the fire, I couldn't believe she was still alive because of her heavy alcohol use. I didn't know she was a half mile down the street or we would have gone a lot sooner.

So it was a good visit, but extremely sad to see people just siting around-in their wheelchairs-staring into space and I think I need to do something about the way i felt when I walked in there today. Or should I say do something about the way these patients feel sitting there day after day in a GD hallway. I know someone who works there and I am going to see if I can go volunteer to maybe sit and visit with some of them~I don't know, SOMETHING. The first person I saw was a man sitting in a wheelchair who had no legs, I am GUESSING that he is probably a veteran. Sitting in a home on Memorial Day, all alone. I will let you know what comes of the chat with my (in the program) friend on what they allow there.

Ok it's beddy bye boos time people, QUEEN....OUT

7 comments:

Patrick said...

Sounds like a good get together with your sister.

Regarding the home, I spent a lot of time in retirement communities out in AZ, they can be quite tragic at times. Not always, but sometimes.

Bill said...

Your sense of gratitude and desire to give back has lifted my spirits this morning. Thanks!!!

Gin said...

Your weekend sounds like it was fun and extremely diverse. Glad you had a good time with your sister. Perhaps since she is moving in with you it would be a good idea to invest in some depends for those laughing episodes. Either that or maybe you two can take turns moppin'... :-)

Lou said...

There is a huge need for volunteers at nursing homes. I used to go to nursing homes as part of my hospital job (for people that could not get to the hospital easily.)

You don't know how many times I saw myself in the face of a tiny, frail, alone old woman. It was really bumming me out how alone so many are, I eventually stopped doing that part of the job.

That would be wonderful if you could give a few hours a week. Or if you could arrange for pet visits, those go over great!

Anonymous said...

Well didn't we have the full weekend? You sound like a blast :) And your idea of volunteering in the nursing home is a super one. Pet therapy is good. Do you have a dog?

Syd said...

Doing something such as visiting at a nursing home is a great thing. I would visit there when my mother was in assisted living. Just saying Hello and giving a smile is sometimes so vital to people who have no visitors and no one to talk to. It makes me sad just to think of the veteran all alone.

Kim said...

Maybe you were drunk b/c you had to work all those holidays?! haha - just kidding! Still sucks you had to work! As you saw, I did absolutely nothing! Talking about lazy!! Now, I'm paying the consequences!