Saturday, January 10, 2009

So week in review:
I have been poked, prodded, stabbed, weighed, blinded, xrayed, and billed.
Glad to have that all out of the way and to have come out fine on the other side, apart from being a disbelieving hypocondriac with far too much free time.

I am still lined up to get 5 fillings, 4 extractions, and my first pair of glasses that my doctor insisted I don't actually need. But truthfully I am just getting them for dramatic effect when looking down at the children. An added bonus would be if they stop trying to get me to stay in line for the school buses after school and treat me like a grown up. We will see how that plan works out.

Currently I am grading student writing projects and providing detailed feedback and praise for those showing any effort and skill. I am continually amazed with the writing styles and abilities of students who are so close to heading off to highschool and college and how many of them do not even observe the practice of capitolizing the beginings of sentences and instead choose to use that strategy randomly thoughout their work, which is often the incoherent ramblings of thoughts that passed by that moment, with no connection to previous topics (quite similar to my own style...).

In other news, in the last post you might have seen that the title to my current vehicle just arrived in the mail, further proving that I need to keep track of my financial obligations a bit more closely, as I would have been content to mail them checks for the rest of my life with little thought given to the practice. I suppose it is excellent to have that taken care of in a manner which seems ahead of schedule to me and am thrilled to be dedicating previously mentioned funds elsewhere.

Other observations for the week are that grandma is living with a couple of crazy people. Lately I have had the misfortune to whitness her declining health and her falling prey to needy family members. As of late, a family of distant relatives settled in to her cozy home and truthfully ran it into the ground. They had a large dog, some unemployed less than savory adults, and a young boy that was content to destroy everything within a mile radius of our complex. On more than one occasion I found him wandering the parkinglot unsupervised, like Denis the Mennace breaking what ever items had been left by the dumpster for others to take. The height of this was when he single handedly began dismantling a queen size box spring matress with a hammer. After I inquired as to what the hell he thought he was doing, he just replied, having fun and being a kid.

It set me back a bit to hear that, and I realized that this place was nowhere for a young boy to be spending his time; doing all that he could to entertain himself by lighting things on fire.

Thankfully the parasitic family returned to their welfare program and sought housing elseware, leaving only two misplaced grown ups in Grandma's care. Lately I ran into one of them out walking a small furry dog. I made the mistake of not running away as is my usual practice and accidentally fell into the radar of Grandma's latest guest. She was amidst a full conversation with her dog when she saw me, sparing no expense in thuroughly explaining every aspect of the world to this small creature. "That's a bush. Yes, its a bush... And that's a door, yea you smell all the people don't you? That is where they go to do their laundry..." At the point when I realized she was actually explaining the concept of laundry to a dog is when I took my cue to discretely start backing up slowly in the direction of my home.

Poor Grandma, she is really too sweet for her own good. Though at times I suffer from the same affliction. I can relate that it is easier to bend over backwards in an attempt to appease the masses than it is at times to be more straight forward and tell people how you really feel, or even to lay out the scenario that what they have in mind is really not in your best interest. Instead I take on the role of head Care Bear, showering the people who diserve it least with the most of my time and affection. But that is a simple enough thing to fix, and we will burn that bridge when we get to it.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

It's hard watching people you care for being used and disadvantaged - you have to wonder in Grandma's case if she's dropped a card or two when things like that start happening. It's good to have a heart to be helpful to others, but...keep practicing the "N" word, and use it as needed. Sometimes terminally nice people fear they won't be liked or valued if they say "no," assert themselves, or insist they be respected. Safest bet -never be afraid to be real. Those who matter will stick with you no matter what.
Sorry you've been on the busy end of the dentist's drill (shudder). Glasses -boo! I can relate - I've recently gone from 20-20 to needing glasses to find my glasses; reading fine print with glasses AND a magnifying glass. I fell over a poorly placed chair at work the other day - didn't see it because I was wearing my crappy unbreakable three-for $18 Costco reading glasses. You can't break them, but that doesn't stop you from wanting to. Silver lining - finally an excuse for being a klutz. Sorry Officer, I didn't see that building coming at me...