Zurich, Part One (and Photo Friday!)

I left Indianapolis on Monday, October 19th after being delayed for about an hour from our original departure time. We then sat on the tarmac for another 40 minutes before taking off. (Which I think totally sucks....why didn't they just leave us comfortably sitting at the gate?) Come to find out, we left Indianapolis late, sat on the tarmac for 40 minutes, and then circled Newark for 40 more minutes because apparently the vice-president was at the airport. I understand the need for security and all that....but how can one guy be responsible for me nearly missing an international connection when I had a 3½ hour lay-over built into my intinerary? BUT, why complain? All's well that ends well! I didn't miss my connection, I met up with my awesome Boss and we boarded the plane to Zurich about ten minutes later.

The woman sitting beside me on the Indianapolis to Newark leg was on her way to Romania, where she had been living for the past five years. She was an IU graduate who had majored in opera, when she decided she wanted a new life and relocated to Romania to work for an organization who helps orphans. Four years ago, she fell in love with an orphaned baby boy and is now going through the process to adopt him. In order to adopt a child in Romania, you have to first establish residency...which means you must live and work solely in that country for 60 months. That's SIXTY, not six. People have such amazing stories...and here is the "turn lemons into lemonade" segment of this speech...I would have never known this woman's story if we hadn't circled Newark for 40 minutes.

To say I felt like a pile of poo when we landed in Zurich is an understatement. I couldn't sleep on the flight, partially because I was excited but mostly because the guy across the aisle from me had the worst set of adenoids I've ever heard and I spent most of the nine hour flight fighting my gag reflex everytime he snored in a big loogie.

Upon making it to the hotel, taking a shower and drinking eleventy cups of coffee, I started coming around , so we took off on a walk down Bahnhofstrasse. Bahnhofstrasse is touted as one of the world's most exlusive and expensive shopping avenues. I just liked looking at all the watches and expensive chocolates! And I'm not sure it's all that exclusive, anyway....a quarter pounder by any other name is still....a quarter pounder.

Later that night, we met up with our group for the first time for an outing on the fondueshiffe, or Fondue Boat. Uh, YUM. Seriously, what could be better than an entire dinner of cheese and bread? I was a happy, albeit tired, Hoosier girl.

After taking the tram back to our hotel we were invited by two of our new Austrian friends for a "sleeping drink." At this point, I could have slept standing up, and I knew that a drink of any sort would be my total undoing...but how do you say no to one 6'4" Austrian woman and another Austrian woman who rolls her own cigarettes, both of whom you just met? Yeah, you don't! So the "sleeping drink" was actually grappa, and it was served by a German-speaking Indian man at a Thai restaurant. Think about that! Isn't that funny? Or was it just funny to me because I had been up for two days? Well, regardless, this German-Indian-Thai-guy poured us all grappa and everyone raised their glasses saying prost and I took my first sip. WOWZA!!! I didn't know it was legal to serve diesel fuel as an alcoholic beverage in Switzerland.

Even as bad as it tasted, I somehow managed to finish the "sleeping drink."

And then, before I even knew what was happening....I fell asleep at the table.

Happy Weekending!

Alive

Because I have descended from a long line of Irish/Italian Catholic guilt, and I don't want to feel guilty about my big bro worrying about me, here's a a quick and generic post. I'm here and well. Except for a bad case of bronchitis, compliments of sharing airspace with 200 hacking, sniffling, sneezing people on the way home from Zurich.

The experience in Switzerland was incredible. I have much to write about, but first I must uncover my desk from ten days worth of neglect.

I will be back. Tschuss!

Living in a Dream

It's been nearly a month since I posted, which seems impossible. That's how utterly busy life has been. So busy that an entire month has passed in what seems like two days. I'm out of all my regular routines and I feel almost like I'm living in someone else's life. Like a dream, I guess. It's weird.

But awesome.

An overview:
Home. My parents had a mini-disaster at their house three weeks ago. They were away for a long weekend and came home to find a pipe had broken in the bathroom, which resulted in a pretty tremendous mess. The bathroom was a total loss, and the basement...well everything in it was thrown away...including the furnace, washer, and dryer. Due to the extent of the damage they are unable to stay at the house, and are (wait for it)


Living with me and Hubby!

Haha! I know that sounds like some people's version of hell on earth, but for me this has actually been really fun! I love drinking coffee with my mom in the mornings. I love coming home late from work to the smell of her potato soup (that only tastes right when SHE makes it), I love that someone else will empty the dishwasher, and mostly I love the fact that I'm lucky enough to still have both my parents and am able to let them shack up with me. So far the only downsides are: No naked house walking, toilet seats being left up (cut that out, Mom!) and staying up too late because we talk too much. Not bad at all, I'd say.

Work. This place is crazy busy!! We are at the highest occupancy we have ever been and people are calling and stopping by nearly every day for information and tours. It's amazing and I love it, but I've worked waaaaaay too many hours lately. Which is why I'm not going to feel bad about being away for ten days while I'm in Zurich.

Yup, that says ZURICH! WHEEEEEE! I'm going to Switzerland!!! I've been invited to attend an International Symposium on Validation Therapy for people with Alzheimer's. This is an incredible opportunity to meet some world re-knowned people in my industry. Actually, this is such an incredible opportunity that I don't even have my head all the way around it yet. It's unbelievable.

Again, like a dream. Sometimes, when you're busy minding your own business and taking care of your old people, something really great happens. According to Gladys, anyway. :)

Nuggets from the Ridge

Joseph told Assistant that she could "hold it for a minute" when she assisted him to the bathroom. Very thoughtful, no?
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Gladys fell. She didn't break any bones, but she is very sore. She doesn't remember falling, doesn't remember getting x-rays, and she doesn't remember that she hurts until she tries to move. It's awful. Every time she tries to get up or move we have to remind her what happened, which usually causes her to be very upset that she doesn't remember something as serious as a fall. It's a vicious circle. But, true to her personality, she still has a great attitude. She was lamenting about what was going to happen to her and that she was "no good to anyone," when I told her she didn't need to worry about any of that and to just sit there and look pretty. Without hesitation she looks at me so seriously and says, "Well, you'll have to find me a fake face if you expect me to do that!" Have I ever mentioned that I love her?
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Because she is so sore, the staff have been helping Gladys get ready for bed at night. One evening as Gladys sat on the toilet, Assistant was gathering her night clothes. "Do you need clean underwear?" Assistant asked.
"I don't know. I'll have to check," Gladys replied as she bent over and took a deep sniff at the crotch of her pulled down panties*. "Nope. Guess not!"
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I was helping take orders during lunch. A fairly new resident, who is not only confused but also grumpy (and ready to die, as he repeatedly reminds us) was being somewhat cantankerous. He is also hard of hearing. Because I was speaking to him in a calming voice, I had to lean in close to his face so he could hear me. He looked me in the eye and said very loudly, "I don't know what you're saying to me, but if you get any closer I'm going to kiss you."
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Ya can't beat old people for a smile!
Happy Weekending!

*Gladys doesn't wear underwear. She wears panties...usually pink silk. She rocks.

There's a reason Sir MixaLot didn't sing about liking BARE butts

We've lost a couple of employees these past two weeks, and although their leaving has been an overall positive thing for our team, it still presents a difficulty in covering shifts until someone new can be trained. In the interim, Assistant and I have been chipping in with meal service and resident care. While I am proud to be the type of administrator who would never ask a WorkerBee to do something I wouldn't do myself, I've decided during the challenge of the past two weeks that just because I will do something, doesn't mean I want to do it.

I can serve lunch every day for a year and really not mind it one bit. But helping someone pull their pants down and putting my hands on their bare hips to guide their exposed derriere to the john? Standing in the bathroom until they've finished "producing" (as one sweetheart resident would say) only to hand them toilet paper, help them get up off the john, and pull their pants back up? Or even worse, helping them into a dry Depends? Yeah. Not loving it.

The thing is, though, that it is worse for the residents! Being in the role of caregiver changes the dynamic of my relationship with the them. I'm the person they come to with concerns or ideas for the betterment of Rock Ridge. I'm the person to whom they can express their opinions and feel like they are having an intelligent and productive problem-solving conversation. We talk about things that make them feel like they still have value as a human being. It makes them feel important and useful. When they hold their Resident Council Meetings and ask me to give the Administrative Report, not one of them wants to watch me talk and have to think "she's seen my naked butt." I hate that for them.

And being totally truthful here, I hate it for me.

Because I now know exactly what my ass is going to look like in 60 years.

Yeah. Not loving it.

TGIF Photo Friday

Much has been going on administrative-wise, which basically means I've had a really boring office job lately. Luckily I have Gladys to break up the monotony. She had a dream the other night that one of the Workerbees told her she stunk. When she woke up, she thought it had really happened and was she ever upset. I consoled her and assured her it was a dream. Before she left the office, she got up close and whispered "Could you smell me, just to make sure?"

Running. I've run twice this week and plan to go 7 tomorrow. I'm finally back on the wagon.

Photo Friday. Today is the 15th anniversary of the closing of our house. We moved in the very next day...and have been working on it ever since! We've re-wired, re-plumbed, remodeled, knocked out walls, built a deck, put on new siding, fixed the roof, replaced every window, and have loved every minute. The photo is a picture of a painting of our happy house. I had a local artist paint it for Hubby as a Christmas gift a few years ago. The landscape has changed since then (it's much better), but I still love the painting.

And the house.

Lost and Found

I've been in a meeting this afternoon and just returned to my office. This is sitting on my conference table. No note. No explanation. No idea.

This place is so weird.

Random Thought for Thursday

Back in April when we were in Boston for the marathon I had a delightful conversation with another runner at a bar. (We are now considered the founding members of the Apres Expo Drinking Club. Hopefully we will reunite next April, so if anyone would like to consider membership in this exclusive club just drop me a line.) Part of our conversation was a discussion based on the number of tooth "pik" flosser thingies we see on the street while on a run. Seriously, those little suckers are everywhere! Everytime I see one, I think of Moe in Boston and ponder exactly why it is that someone obsessed with their oral hygeine wouldn't also be a little concerned with the earth's hygeine and take the time to throw their gross little tooth pik into the freaking trash instead of on the ground. But I digress.

I do 99.9% of my running on a trail, so I rarely run on the street anymore. I did, however, take off running from home last week because I was short on time and needed to get one in. I had forgotten how entertaining running on the street can be! Not only did I see two tooth piks and the normal trash one would expect (I HATE litterbugs!), but also a CD, one pink knock-off-brand Croc, money, a shirt, a cassette case, a smashed GI Joe guy, and a glove. How does stuff like that get on the street anyway? One shoe? Seriously? What about the shirt? How does such random stuff like that get on the side of a street? Am I weird for wondering?

Wednesday Nuggets

One little guy with dementia (who is so sweet he gives me a tooth-ache) woke up really disoriented this morning. When WorkerBee suggested he get up and go to the bathroom, he sighed and said: "All right. If you want to hold it, you can."
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I hate wearing shoes, and usually kick them off under my desk. Yesterday, as I flounced through the lobby in my bare feet, Garnet remarked that I was "Better Foot." "Do you mean barefoot," I asked? "Nope. I mean Better Foot. My kids used to call it that...and if you think about it, it really is better." Agreed! I love it.
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Gladys thinks that Naomi* has stolen her vacuum (every single day) and she keeps coming to my office to "report" it. She gets really upset...which is one of the reasons her quick wit always catches me off guard. The last time she came to tell me about it I promised her I would contact Naomi's family and get the vacuum back for her. Gladys responded with "That's so very nice of you, but I think the whole situation sucks." I laughed all afternoon.
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*still dead

TGIF

Freddie just told me he liked it when I wear dresses. "You do?" I asked.

"Oh, yes. I can see your legs A LOT better. " Almost inaudibly and with an ornery twinkle in his eye he added, "And I like to look at them."

He has to be the horniest 97-year-old I've ever met.


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Running! I went twice so far this week, with a five-miler planned for tomorrow. Yippee!


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Photo Friday! A couple of goodies from our Circus Week celebration at the Ridge. Who has more fun than old people?

Happy Weekending!