(no subject)
Carol, the Executive Director at HP asked four of us from the dining staff if we could work this extra this weekend for about four hours in the evening to help out the nursing staff because they are low on staff at the moment. She said they have hired six new people, but are still doing background checks. She said she needed someone in the main building and someone in Memory Support from four to eight. All we had to do was just help with chores and cleaning while the nurses attended to the residents. On Saturday Barb worked in MS and Shelby worked in the main building and on Sunday Brittanie worked in the main building and I was in MS. I had volunteered MS just because it was something different and a change of scenery. It had been a long time since I had last been over there. I had never actually worked over there; just taken something over there a couple times in the past. (It is in a separate building).
I knew a few of the residents since some of them start in the main building, then head over to MS. One lady who really needs to go over there is Dee. I heard she is going to go over there once there is an opening (there are only 20 spots and it is full). You will take her order, then someone else's at her table and she will ask if you can take her order. Or you will take her order and two minutes later, she will walk to the kitchen demanding she get her toast right that second even though you tell her she needs to wait because you took someone else's order before her and need to get that person first. (This is a true story which is why it was so specific!) It will be nice once she goes over to MS because she drives me CRAZY, especially when we are busy and she's hounding us every two minutes.
I put away some laundry for Shirley who I knew. Her closet was jam packed with clothes. I was putting all her tops and blouses (she had a lot of zebra print clothes, lol) on hangers and she must have had over 100 tops hanging in her closet, I am not kidding! I had to squeeze everything in there. Her room looked like a teenage girl's because there were clothes strewn about everywhere and her closet was just brimming with clothes, shoes, and purses from top to bottom and I saw earrings scattered on her nightstand table.
There are two small dining areas with two round tables where five people each sit at so I set those up and made coffee. The coffee maker is different over there then at the main building where you just put in the coffee filter and push a button. I couldn't find a button to push so I asked Ashley and she said I needed to add water. I never make coffee for myself so the only coffee machines I have ever used are the ones at work (and Mom's Keurig!) While the nurses dished up the food, I poured and passed out waters and coffee and other drinks they may want. There was one poor woman, Francie, who sounded like she had a frog stuck in her throat and asked for hot tea.
After dinner, I swept the floors, wiped down the tables, put the dishes in the dishwasher, took out the trash, went next door to do an ice cream run, took back the dishes to the main building, and put the dirty rags and napkins in the washing machine and folded the clean, dry ones. I also walked Jackie back across the street. She lives in the main building, but her husband lives at MS so she often has dinner with him. He always wants someone to walk her back which is just the cutest thing ever so I volunteered. Jackie said she could have easily done it herself, but her husband insist she have a chaperone. I told her it was fine; that I needed something to do anyway! All that may sound like it took a lot of time, but not really. For about an hour and a half I sat in the main room that has three couches and a TV where it was on a channel that plays old-timey Christmas music while holiday-themed pictures are shown (like a screen saver). There were about six residents (including Shirley) and Ashley found this toy that looks like a potato and there's a sound box where it talks. Well, it was a Hot Potato and you pass it around and have to get rid of it quickly because it's "hot". Shirley had the best response when she caught the potato because she would say, "HOT! HOT! It's HOT!" and when she would pass it to the next person who didn't seem to have the same urgency as her, she would tell them, "Pass it, it's HOT!" Then there was Mary Lou, who used to be over at the main building but it had been a while since I last saw her and she has gotten progressively worse. I almost didn't recognize her when I first saw her because she was in a wheelchair (she used to have a walker) and had lost a lot of weight. She was very soft spoken when she talked and I had no idea what she was talking about. Whenever Charlotte, the lady I was sitting next to, would pass the Hot Potato to Mary Lou (who was next to her), Mary Lou would hold the potato to her ear and say, "Sweet potato, sweet potato" and pet it and I would joke, "Oh, it must have cooled down by now." After a few times of this happening, Charlotte would just skip Mary Lou and toss it to Louise, this lady I thought wasn't having any fun because I never saw her crack a smile but she was participating.
We also played with a Question Ball which is a big plastic ball that has questions written on it and whenever someone tosses it to you, you read a question and everyone answers it. One question was "What would you do with a million dollars" and Shirley says she would buy jewelry which didn't surprise me at all because she's always decked out in costume jewelry.
Around 7:30, two residents got up and said good night (old people be going to bed REALLY early!) and the nurses took Mary Lou to bed. I could hear this screaming and when they came back they asked me if I heard screaming and I said yes and they said it was Mary Lou. Apparently, she is really difficult to get to bed. She had scratched Ashley really good on the arm so she had to attend to that. Nina said she had scratched her the other night AND had bitten her. Good lord! Mary Lou was so sweet when she was at the main building; I don't know what happened to her. I don't think I would want to work over at MS..there may be less people, but you have to deal with a lot more. When I first arrived and Alyssa was showing me around, this lady named Ruby stormed up to her and demanded to talk to an "authority figure" and was cussing Alyssa out because she said that somebody was stealing her stuff.
I left a little before 8. It was fairly easy extra money but I don't think they needed my help that much because they had four nurses there already, but I'm not sure how many nurses they usually have over there.
Today I got a package in the mail from my Aunt Jane and she told me to open it BEFORE Christmas so I did and it was a beautiful snowglobe with a cardinal inside:
I need to get an alarm clock because the one I have now (which I paid a hundred damn dollars for...so not worth it!) doesn't work anymore! When I came home from Thanksgiving at my parents', the electricity had gone off and all my digital clocks (and when I say "all", I mean both because there's only my microwave clock and alarm clock that are digital!) were blinking and when I tried to reset my alarm clock, it wouldn't work! I tried again today and still won't let me reset it! So fucking annoying. I've been using my iPod touch to wake up.
I knew a few of the residents since some of them start in the main building, then head over to MS. One lady who really needs to go over there is Dee. I heard she is going to go over there once there is an opening (there are only 20 spots and it is full). You will take her order, then someone else's at her table and she will ask if you can take her order. Or you will take her order and two minutes later, she will walk to the kitchen demanding she get her toast right that second even though you tell her she needs to wait because you took someone else's order before her and need to get that person first. (This is a true story which is why it was so specific!) It will be nice once she goes over to MS because she drives me CRAZY, especially when we are busy and she's hounding us every two minutes.
I put away some laundry for Shirley who I knew. Her closet was jam packed with clothes. I was putting all her tops and blouses (she had a lot of zebra print clothes, lol) on hangers and she must have had over 100 tops hanging in her closet, I am not kidding! I had to squeeze everything in there. Her room looked like a teenage girl's because there were clothes strewn about everywhere and her closet was just brimming with clothes, shoes, and purses from top to bottom and I saw earrings scattered on her nightstand table.
There are two small dining areas with two round tables where five people each sit at so I set those up and made coffee. The coffee maker is different over there then at the main building where you just put in the coffee filter and push a button. I couldn't find a button to push so I asked Ashley and she said I needed to add water. I never make coffee for myself so the only coffee machines I have ever used are the ones at work (and Mom's Keurig!) While the nurses dished up the food, I poured and passed out waters and coffee and other drinks they may want. There was one poor woman, Francie, who sounded like she had a frog stuck in her throat and asked for hot tea.
After dinner, I swept the floors, wiped down the tables, put the dishes in the dishwasher, took out the trash, went next door to do an ice cream run, took back the dishes to the main building, and put the dirty rags and napkins in the washing machine and folded the clean, dry ones. I also walked Jackie back across the street. She lives in the main building, but her husband lives at MS so she often has dinner with him. He always wants someone to walk her back which is just the cutest thing ever so I volunteered. Jackie said she could have easily done it herself, but her husband insist she have a chaperone. I told her it was fine; that I needed something to do anyway! All that may sound like it took a lot of time, but not really. For about an hour and a half I sat in the main room that has three couches and a TV where it was on a channel that plays old-timey Christmas music while holiday-themed pictures are shown (like a screen saver). There were about six residents (including Shirley) and Ashley found this toy that looks like a potato and there's a sound box where it talks. Well, it was a Hot Potato and you pass it around and have to get rid of it quickly because it's "hot". Shirley had the best response when she caught the potato because she would say, "HOT! HOT! It's HOT!" and when she would pass it to the next person who didn't seem to have the same urgency as her, she would tell them, "Pass it, it's HOT!" Then there was Mary Lou, who used to be over at the main building but it had been a while since I last saw her and she has gotten progressively worse. I almost didn't recognize her when I first saw her because she was in a wheelchair (she used to have a walker) and had lost a lot of weight. She was very soft spoken when she talked and I had no idea what she was talking about. Whenever Charlotte, the lady I was sitting next to, would pass the Hot Potato to Mary Lou (who was next to her), Mary Lou would hold the potato to her ear and say, "Sweet potato, sweet potato" and pet it and I would joke, "Oh, it must have cooled down by now." After a few times of this happening, Charlotte would just skip Mary Lou and toss it to Louise, this lady I thought wasn't having any fun because I never saw her crack a smile but she was participating.
We also played with a Question Ball which is a big plastic ball that has questions written on it and whenever someone tosses it to you, you read a question and everyone answers it. One question was "What would you do with a million dollars" and Shirley says she would buy jewelry which didn't surprise me at all because she's always decked out in costume jewelry.
Around 7:30, two residents got up and said good night (old people be going to bed REALLY early!) and the nurses took Mary Lou to bed. I could hear this screaming and when they came back they asked me if I heard screaming and I said yes and they said it was Mary Lou. Apparently, she is really difficult to get to bed. She had scratched Ashley really good on the arm so she had to attend to that. Nina said she had scratched her the other night AND had bitten her. Good lord! Mary Lou was so sweet when she was at the main building; I don't know what happened to her. I don't think I would want to work over at MS..there may be less people, but you have to deal with a lot more. When I first arrived and Alyssa was showing me around, this lady named Ruby stormed up to her and demanded to talk to an "authority figure" and was cussing Alyssa out because she said that somebody was stealing her stuff.
I left a little before 8. It was fairly easy extra money but I don't think they needed my help that much because they had four nurses there already, but I'm not sure how many nurses they usually have over there.
Today I got a package in the mail from my Aunt Jane and she told me to open it BEFORE Christmas so I did and it was a beautiful snowglobe with a cardinal inside:
I need to get an alarm clock because the one I have now (which I paid a hundred damn dollars for...so not worth it!) doesn't work anymore! When I came home from Thanksgiving at my parents', the electricity had gone off and all my digital clocks (and when I say "all", I mean both because there's only my microwave clock and alarm clock that are digital!) were blinking and when I tried to reset my alarm clock, it wouldn't work! I tried again today and still won't let me reset it! So fucking annoying. I've been using my iPod touch to wake up.