Waste of Time, Energy, Money

That waste of time, energy, money was today’s St Patrick’s Day Potluck, hosted by the Activity Director.

The day started off bad when, reading Yahoo’s recap of Sunday’s episode of the Walking Dead, Robert Kirkland -- the show’s creator, indicated he was working on how to eventually kill Rick.

WHAT?!

THEY’RE GOING TO KILL RICK?!

I can’t take that and figure I’d better opt out now.

THEN, I went down to the Community Room at 1:00, expecting to see corned beef, cabbage, baked potatoes, and found it was BBQed hot dogs, chips, mac and cheese, potato salad, sodas.

They did supply turkey dogs for people like me with sensitive stomachs, but my gut is extra special sensitive and will only endure uncured meat, so I went without.

Except for one 95-year old who complained to me, upon seeing hot dogs for St. Patrick’s Day, that she was sick and tired of how cheap current management is, got up and walked out, the seniors who attended didn’t seem to mind and enjoyed themselves, which isn’t saying much because the occasion isn’t as important to them as is an opportunity to pig out. And pig out they did as there was plenty of everything, plus there was also Pizza Tuesday earlier that morning.

I did go down earlier for that and almost lost my cookies when I observed a new resident I’d met and welcomed to the community just this Sunday, pick out one of those hard-cold frozen pizzas then, instead of nuking in the microwave, to soften and refresh, pull out a slice and eat it as was.

Once the potluck began, Activity Director and Community Manager did the plating of hot dogs and sides for residents, residents then had their choice of toppings, including sauerkraut and, once seniors had been served, the two made plates for themselves, announced “There’s a lot extra so help yourself to seconds” and went to their offices to eat.

I didn’t know if they were to come back later, announce ice cream sodas for desert or not, figured no one would be there if and when they did return so, feeling uncomfortable, I took a few photos and eased on out because there was so much bad energy in the atmosphere that I felt like I didn’t belong.

The bad energy began with the 95-year-old who unloaded her displeasure on me, then there was the shock and awe going around the room upon hearing from Church Lady that Assistant Maintenance Guy was no longer an employee, everyone saying what a wonderful man he was, so respectful, such a hard worker and Church Lady saying “There’s more to this. Something’s going on. I smell a rat. A big one”.

I interjected that, in all fairness, he was failing at the end, walking off the job, not responding to on-call emergencies and, in the last analysis, everything happens for a reason, but no one wanted to hear that.

Then there was learning of the suspicious death of Apache’s neighbor – a double amputee (both legs) who was found in his unit with bruises on his chest quite some time after having passed away.

It was said Assistant Maintenance Guy and one of the temporary workers had entered his unit at least a week ago, saw him sleeping peacefully, didn’t realize he was dead, did what inspection they were there to do and left.

Once his death was discovered, and I’m not clear on how it was discovered, Apache was interviewed by the police and reported having heard others in the unit after the resident was reported to have died, that the guy had a new caretaker, and the caretaker had not been reporting for duty. Consequently, with the bruising, the absent caretaker, voices Apache heard, the police are looking at it as a suspicious death.

Since I was told the guy had been dead for at least a week, maybe two, my first thought was the smell, but Apache said, when maintenance went in, they evidently didn’t notice a smell and that he himself didn’t notice it until the police arrived and opened the door.

The Guy has no family, no friends, he died alone under suspicious circumstances, I found the whole thing depressing.

Then there’s the new guy in the complex. He’s not terribly attractive, but very friendly and has met all the guys and a lot of the gals.

I was the first to meet him when I was getting out of the car Sunday, returning from the Locktician. He and his helper were unloading furniture, heading towards the quad to the right of mine, stopped, stared at me. Their staring felt awkward so, to break it, I said, “Working hard?”

“Yes. Moving in. Me (pointing to himself)”.

“Well welcome”, said I.

He was in attendance at the potluck and had come earlier to Pizza Tuesday, but was run out by the other bully – let’s call her Loosie Goosie.

Loosie Goosie has run people out of the Community Room many times with her loud argumentative mouth and negative energy, but that wasn’t what ran the new guy out. It was the fact that she likes men. She was Creepy Guy’s girlfriend and, when he went to a facility, she approached Apache and asked, “Do you need a girlfriend?”

Apache declined, but there have been those who did not decline, thus the nickname Loosie Goosie.

At any rate, Loosie Goosie saw new guy walk in and was all over him like white on rice to the point where he asked The Woman Who Wears Braids, “Can you help me?”

She suggested he leave and go back to his unit.

He did.

However, he returned for the potluck and, when I left, he and Loosie Goosie were seated at an outside table, just the two of them, and he didn’t look like he was in distress. So maybe she sensed she was coming on too strong and is trying a kinder softer approach.

There was also the drama in the Community Room of so many not getting along – not that there’s open warfare, but there’s a lot of this one talking about that one, that one talking about this one, some not coming to the event because so and so was in attendance, The Seer in the middle of it all – at odds with Church Lady, at odds with the two bullies, at odds with President of the Resident’s Volunteer Activity Committee, the Nail Salon Lady taking sides with President of the RVAC. Made for a lot of tension in the atmosphere and being a sensitive, I saw the eye rolls, the back stabbing, heard the whispering, felt the negative energy and was anxious to escape to the sanctuary of my little unit.

It’ll be a long time before any of them see me again and, if I do go down to take photos for the Facebook page if and when there’s another potluck, I won’t bother with contributing anything.