Is a Puzzlement

Things are "different" somehow at Atria these days.  She is more often than not out of her room, and may have become one of the "wanderers," which means I often find her walking around, which is a good thing, I guess.  As I was signing in yesterday, I saw her kind of shuffling by.  I'm wondering if this is the result of the meds that are keeping her anxiety under control (apparently she is not refusing them any more, which is a relief).

We sat in the entry hall for awhile and then, inexplicably, she got up to look at something on the sign-in table, then walked to the opposite end of the hall and sat down to read.

 

At some point she looked up and saw me and was surprised to see me there and why didn't I tell her I was coming and it had been so long since she saw me.  Though I know it's pointless, trying to explain to her that we had been sitting together minutes before and that she had left me, because she can't process that much information, but it gives me something to talk with her about.  I moved over to the chair next to her.

I had brought a 100 piece puzzle with me to see if I could get her to work a puzzle.  It took awhile to get her to understand what I was suggesting, but eventually she said that she'd like to work on the puzzle and that she used to work puzzles all the time.

We walked down the long hall to the "den" (what I call the room which has a couch, a TV on a bookcase, and a table that will seat 4 people).  When we got there there was a woman sleeping on the couch, but other than opening her eyes a sliver when we arrived, she went back to sleep.

I set up the puzzle on the table and we were quietly starting to work it when an aide came flying down the hall and into the back room, slamming the door behind her.  The sleeping woman woke up and glared at us and demanded to know why we had broken into her house to work a puzzle.  But she went back to sleep.

 

She is someone new.  I'm seeing lots of new faces around the memory unit these days, and few familiar faces.  Not sure why.  Suddenly there seem to be lots of empty rooms in the place.  My mother is still alone, since Marge moved out to be closer to her family.  Which is just fine, considering how unpleasant Marge was.

At first, the puzzle totally confused my mother.  She said "just tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it."  So I told her to make sure all the pieces were turned over to the right side, and while doing that she found a couple of pieces that went together and it suddenly seemed like she was starting to remember how to work a puzzle. 

I thought it was going so well when suddenly she looked out into the yard and said she wanted to check on something.  She went out the door...and never came back (getting up and leaving me seems to be becoming a "thing" with her now!)

I waited awhile and then realized the puzzle idea was not going to work, so I packed up what we had done and left the puzzle on the bookcase in case someone else wanted to work it.  I may not try again.  We'll see.

I went down to her room to see if she had found her way there, and she had not, so I took the opportunity to go through her drawers and see if I could find a little scrapbook that her nephew had made for her many years ago...and I did, so I took that out and left it for her to "find."  She always loved looking through that book because it has so many photos of her older siblings.

Finally I decided to just leave and I started walking toward the entry hall and when I got there, turned around and was surprised to see that she was following closely behind me.  I sure don't know where she came from!  She was so pleased to see me because she hasn't seen me in about two years and where had I been?

 

I told her I was going home and she was very upset.  Couldn't we sit and visit for awhile?  So I sat with her for a few minutes, but really did have to go, so I signaled one of the aides that I was ready to have her open the door for me. By the time I got up and gathered m stuff, my mother was already walking down the hall, totally oblivious that I had ever been there.

Well THAT Sucked!

I wrote recently about what happens as I'm falling asleep and that if I have not yet written this entry, I will go to sleep writing the entry in my head, which I will then write when I get up.

I decided I would write about my first trip to Hawaii.  It was after I graduated from high school and would use the money my godmother left me when she died.  I was going to go into the convent in September and this way I could have a last fling, paid for by my godmother.

I knew right where my scrapbook from that trip was and it would be fun to include the photos.  I even knew which photos I wanted to use.  I would title it "Aloha."

Well...that's not quite what worked out.  First, when I went to get the scrapbook I was thinking of -- I knew right where it was -- I found it just fine...but it was a scrapbook of my trip to Los Angeles after I won an award.  I don't know where the Hawaii book is--or if I even made a separate Hawaii book.

OK.  Well, I could still write the entry without the scrapbook and I was pretty sure I might have posted a couple of photos form the Hawaii trip on this journal in the past. 

I cannot tell you how many times I have thanked whatever it was that made me decide to keep a database of all of entries all the way back to the first one (18 years ago next week).  The data base has the title of the entry, a brief summary of what it is about, and a list of the photos I used in the entry.

I put in "Hawaii" and discovered  that on June 14, 2009 I wrote an entry titled "Aloha" which tells exactly the story I intended to write this morning.  Heck there are even parts of it which are identical to what I mentally wrote as I was falling asleep.

This is not the first time this is happened.  I will get a great idea of something to write, and then discover I wrote it before.  The interesting thing is that all the wonderful bon mots that I am tickled to think up, feeling I am such a wonderfully clever writer, I had used xx years ago when I first wrote about it.

It's an interesting quirk of my brain.  I discover that with reviews all the time.  I usually read my old reviews when I'm reviewing a show I have seen before and it's amazing how many times that really clever thing I thought of to add to the review is word for word what I wrote five or more years ago.  The database of my mind.

So anyway, there is no journal entry about Hawaii, but I do encourage you to click on the link above and read it if you haven't read it before.  It's a good story, with nice photos.

So that leaves me with "what did I do yesterday?"  Walt works on Wednesdays so he left at 11 and was home around 4.  "What did you do exciting today?" he asked me when he came in.  I had to stop and think.  What did I do all day?

My plan had been to go to Michael's craft store.  I am starting a new junk journal and feel the need just to look around.  Also, Michael's sent me a 50% gift certificate for my birthday that I had not used.  I've had this craving to go to Michael's for a week now and still haven't been able to get my butt into the car and head off to the store.  It's an even more appealing project because the store is a long drive away and it would give me a chance to listen to a chunk of my audio book.  

I decided I would go after I cleared off a bit of our DVR.  I had recorded two episodes of Call the Midwife, a show I love and decided with Walt gone I would watch them.  Well, that's a 2 hour catharsis.  I dare you to watch that show without a box of tissues nearby.  It always kind of offends me that the show starts with a parental warning that some of the material might not be appropriate for younger kids....the only thing would be the births, but what's wrong with children learning where babies come from?  But let it pass.

After that I did some cleaning up of the piles of crap around here.

I have lately become addicted to the 100! Puzzle on my cell phone (I have similar puzzles on my iPad and laptop).  I realized recently that it really is becoming an addiction, so yesterday I was going cold turkey and did not play the game all day (I didn't go into withdrawal either).

So that meant I wasn't just sitting in my chair with a marathon of something on television while I played the game.

I actually did get some straightening up, though around here, it would take an explosion before any "straightening up" would be noticeable.

But I was happy to have sort-of organized the crap on our kitchen counter, and cleared off a lot of the levels of paperwork on the table between the two recliners (not noticeable because the base layer is all still there, but things aren't perched precariously any more), and I managed to find the top of our kitchen table.  

I also wrote to Lacie.  I had sent a letter to Brianna the day before and today I needed to make sure I wrote to Lacie.  It's more difficult to write to Lacie--it will be easier when she can read well and is a bit older.  But I got a letter written and sent off to her.

Otherwise, it was a quiet day and in the evening we watched the PBS special on Mister Rogers.  It was the second time I'd seen it, the first time for Walt and we both loved it.  Jeri is going to be here next week and I'm going to make her sit down and watch it with us.  I think she will love it -- so much music!  I didn't realize Rogers had a degree in composing. My favorite part might have been the bit where a young YoYo Ma plays a duet with his young son.  The adult son reminisces about how special that was.

So that was my day.  Today will be about as exciting.