A very Off day.
First of all let me start off by saying 12 crazy Chernobyl sized crickets entered my room last night as dinner guests for my new leopard gecko "Willow". They are LOUD. Horribly, obnoxiously LOUD! Willows terrarium light timer kept going off last night (her habitat is in my room), so my bedroom kept lighting up at seemingly random times all night long. Worried about having my fan on with my window open for Willows cold blooded sake….my room was HOT. So every few hours I got a chance to glance at my alarm clock. Surprisingly I had adopted the uncanny ability to do so with precise hour to hour timing!
I woke up tired at 5:07am.
Cherry didn't have to be to work until 8:30, instead of 8:00am. We have officially tapped out our $$ until next payday as well, which meant we didn't need to leave a half an hour early to hit up the Express Espresso.
Have I mentioned that my service site is not only the grantee of my AmeriCorps team grant now, but also physically houses it? For this reason it is more reasonable for Cherry to take the car team meeting days. After all I have but to walk down the hall to get to the meeting. Fridays are team meeting days. Every 3rd Friday of the month is a 3 hour team meeting. This is a huge change from the last 10 years of AmeriCorps wherein team meetings have always been held on Thursdays and a 3 hour one was unheard of.
Having my car where ever I may be whether at work or play is a security measure for me. I feel trapped and at a disadvantage when I don't have my car. It's something I have to work through. So at 8:15am Cherry dropped me off to work and I didn't see her again until noon.
All morning until team meeting our team leader Mr. Gray worked on preparing an amazing lunch for us! Brazed Beef, fresh fruit salad, sautéed peppers and onion and horse radish sauce made from scratch. The pub buns were even warmed!!! I have to say, he's an amazing leader. My respect for him runs deep. And not just because of the delicious lunch;)
Well, about a half an hour into the meeting Cherry gets the call that Grandma Jane is in the ambulance heading for the hospital. She takes a minute to fill me in on her way back in to the room. We get admonished with a "Your side conversation is really distracting" from our Director. This kind of infuriates me at the moment. 1)My emotions are running pretty high. 2) We NEVER SIDE TALK!! It's one of my biggest pet peeves, and so even when Cherry has tried to do it with me I either ignore or discourage through gesture. So this one time I actively engage in it (while many others do it consistently...albeit not on this years team so far)...and she targets us. Well, it felt wrong. But I do agree, we could have handled the situation better by leaving the room. And her admonishment wasn't particularly harsh.
After team meeting we decide Cherry has more flexibility at her service site then I do. She calls in, gets the ok and to the E.R. Meanwhile, after reading the orientation packet for the fundraiser my service site is holding tomorrow, and for which we are both volunteering...I discover we have a mandatory meeting at 3pm. Call Cherry, and she returns at a quick check in at he E.R.
Now, I know what you may be thinking. She blows off service site but not a pre event meeting. Umm…no. This isn‘t just “a“ fundraiser. This is “the“ fandraiser. More on that subject at a later date when I’m more mentally up to the challenge of being respectful, honest, politically correct…and careful about what I say!
Cherry returns back to the office about 2:50. I’m sure if our director sees her there without explanation she would have a fit. So I suggest she explain the situation. She does. She also lets the director know about the meeting, as she didn’t know about it. The AmeriCorps director got cornered volunteering for a few hours. At my service site “everybody” does extra to help out for this event. And well….and…well…her attitude to this is a hilarious tale for another time! Let me just say however, that the director from the first 10 years was called, asked for help and showed up with a gracious and exuberant attitude. I miss her.
Oh yes...and did I mention that our benevolent director was mere seconds away from losing 2 more team members? Oh yes. For not the first time...she began to go in to the "There are other people to take care of your grandma" speech! Umm...no there aren't. It's us. It's us or my grandma would be in a medicare grade nursing home and my terminal mother would be living in her freaking car. Mann....I am shaking from the emotion "that" particular nasty lecture illicits!Moving on…we go attend the meeting which is over at 3:30pm. I am supposed to get off at 4pm. We make the joint decision (there are a lot of joint decisions) that by the time she got the hospital, she would just be turning around to come back and get me at four. She’ll l stay until four and we’ll leave together.
The office building must be immaculate. Work spaces must be clean and presentable for the office tours that take place during the event. I have a few loads that need to be taken out to the car temporarily. Cherry starts in on those for me, while I finish helping with the glasses.
Suddenly I have 2 different women who work at the office asking me why I’m still there and not with my grandma. I say “I don’t get off until 4. One says (and this one is very high up on the totem pole) “I’m sure Director would understand.” She seems a bit mortified. Lol. She really doesn’t understand the dynamics between me and my direcotr. I say “Yeah, but with the fund raiser and all, I don’t feel right about taking off.” The other women says (A fellow Americorps member) “Well, with you and Cherry being the decision makers…you need to be there.”
I don’t want to seem like a heartless bitch, and I already feel like one because I’m still at work. I’ve never been one to choose “anything over family”…but being mature, making money to support my family…well, I’ve learned simply that “When your poor you just can’t afford to always live by your preferred code of conduct and morals”. Anyhow, they win. I win by letting them win. And Cherry and I take off for the hospital.
We are there for maybe an hour when grandma gets sent up stairs. She’s admitted. Her heart is raising like crazy. Her lungs are rattling. They don’t know why. I’m not going to get into this part, it makes me emotional. It’s midnight, I’m tired and don’t feel like I can go into it. If I feel like it later I will update with a link.
We leave the hospital at 8pm. Have dinner. Go back at 9pm. She still hasn’t seen a dr. Her symptoms are only being managed. But the nurse staff are fantastic. And quite literally this is the only hospital we have ever felt comfortable leaving her “alone” at. We come home.
I spend a half an hour trying to ease my shitzus ear problems. It stinks. It’s radiating heat. It itches. I use peroxide, water and qtips with a promise of making her vet appointment as soon as I can.
Now I’m typing this up.
The fundraiser starts at 6:30pm and goes until 9:30pm. We are to be there at 5:30pm. We should be at the hospital ASAP in the morning. Mr. Gray would like extra help Sunday morning cleaning up. I really feel like we should go. But crap…I don’t want to start this no weekend B.S right off the bat. And plus there is grandma. We might, we might not. It all just depends.
Some day, when I’m not typing this up fast, at the end of the day, when I’m mentally and physically exhausted to the point of apathy…you folks will get a chance to see that I can actually write. That I don’t always sound like a chaotic, illiterate whiney bitch. But for now…that is what I’m presenting. So I suppose I will just have to be ok with your impressions;)
