Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff

Day started off with my bounding out of bed and putting finishing touches on that de-cluttering the closet project before I even made the bed.

I love the closet so much now.

I keep going back to the bedroom, opening the closet door and just standing there looking … I love it so much.

No photos being posted because, though the closet looks good to me, it won’t win a House Beautiful award. It’s a little closet where us seniors must store clothes, shoes and, inasmuch as there are built in shelves for all the other essentials, is where we store items such as socks, beauty products, scarves, gloves, jewelry, electronics not used on a daily basis, etc. It’s essentially a catch-all but, whereas it was so cluttered that it took like forever to find whatever I was looking for, it now is clutter-free and organized so that I can instantly locate what I seek.

Along about 8:30, I got a call from The Seer, upset and asking for my help.

The story is that yesterday, there was to be a Christmas Arts & Crafts session after the bus presentation. I didn’t stay because I had to take care of those donations but, before I left, I saw Nurse Ratched call the Activity Director from the room.

By the way, Facebook tells me yesterday was “Giving Day”, so my timing in making the donations was perfect.

So, anyway, what The Seer tells me is that Nurse Ratched, who totally controls the Activity Director, called her out of the room and gave her instructions to dispense with whatever Arts & Crafts were to be and turn it into decorating the Christmas Tree.

Not surprising. Nurse Ratched will do ANYTHING, go to any lengths, not to lift a finger her own darn self.

So 1) The Seer was upset that Nurse Ratched manipulated the situation to where residents did the tree and 2) That the tree “Looks horrible!”

I worry about The Seer.

By far and above my favorite resident, I love that she is a fount of information, but I worry that she internalizes.

Already on six different medications for illnesses related to stress, anxiety, nerves, blood pressure, she’s a crusader – gets frustrated, incensed, wants to right every wrong. Her reactions are so extreme that the mere mention of Nurse Ratched’s name sends her into hyperspace. Catching a glimpse of Nurse Ratched causes anger to rise to where she has to, as she puts it, pray herself down.

When she called me this morning, it was in one of these states of high-anxiety because the tree “Looks horrible” and, judging by my patio decorations, she figured I’d be good at fixing the tree.

Not wanting to get in the middle of undoing what the little lady who I was told did the majority of decorating had accomplished vs The Seer who thinks it looks “horrible” vs Nurse Ratched who doesn’t care, so long as she doesn’t have to do the decorating, I suggested that if the tree looks as “horrible” as The Seer said, that she remove all the decorations, leave the tree bare and put the ball back in Nurse Ratched’s court.

The Seer didn’t want to do that, so being as upset as she was, I said I’d go down and take a look. In the meantime, I looked through photos and luckily had taken a snapshot of last year’s Community Room tree.

2014 Christmas Tree

I printed the photo out and headed down to the Community Room to see what was so “horrible”.

Community Room 2015 Version 1

Except for the haphazard beading, not near as bad as The Seer let on.

My suggestion was to “remove the beads, add last year’s ribbons, I’ll check in with you when I get back”.

Returning from errands, I checked in.

Community Room 2015 Version 2

Not the best looking decorating job I've seen, not the worse. Did not go with last year's photo, just arranged the beading better and added gift boxes.

I'm tempted to buy some ribbon, sneak in and tweak the tree to look more presentable, but no. Not planning on attending the Christmas party, it won't be me rocking around it. So if Nurse Ratched is okay with her boss seeing this, then I'm okay.

I didn’t get to spend much time in the Community Room because Nurse Ratched and her assistant rushed in all of a sudden yelling that because there were active shooters at large they’d been order to lock down the complex, and instruct residents to go back to their units and remain there.

Turned on the television when back in my unit and no joke.

This is only 10 miles from here.

I'm wondering if The Seer sees, in light of today's event at the Regional Center, the ludicrousy of making such a big deal over a Christmas Tree.