End of Summer Luau

No bad dreams last night, but woke up at 2:00 sharp just the same.

Go figure!

Gave up trying to go back to sleep and instead putzed around playing Candy Crush and reading blogs until 4:30, after which I hopped back in bed to give sleep another try. This time, however, not wanting to finally fall back asleep and wake up as late as yesterday (9:00), I set the alarm for 7:00, which would give me plenty of time to take my time getting ready for today’s back-to-back activities.

Activity Director showed up today, per schedule, albeit a half hour late (actually, three hours late if you count the fact she skipped picking up pizzas herself and just showed up later for the luau), but the point being she’s still on staff.

This morning's Pizza Tuesday was the same old same old, with two new residents picking up, delivering, organizing in Activity Director's absence, and the afternoon “Luau” turned out to be just a fancy name for “yet another potluck” – hamburgers and a few dishes, brought by residents, which dishes can’t be identified but which I’m assuming are cultural in nature.

Would have been nice if dishes had been labeled as to who made what.

Would have also been nice if Activity Director had livened up the event, which was well attended, with leis and Hawaiian music, but noooooo. And the only decorations were those purchased by the Residents Volunteer Activity Committee, which turned about to be a few lanterns, the cloth and banner underneath the serving area.

Looking at those dishes that can't be identified, I was glad to not be able to eat anything.

About the only things that looked good, and which I recognized, were melon, chips, potato salad and The Baker’s macaroni salad, all of which I love but, so conditioned now to clean eating, that I had no problem staying away from.

On the other hand, it was painful to see Banana Pudding (provided by Church Lady), and not dare to indulge.

What stopped me from digging in is the fact, as good as it probably was going to taste, no way would the taste be as good as not being sick for a week would feel.

So, that's it for the End of Summer Luau. Hopefully summer will cooperate and also end, so I can get back into my walking routine.

No word on The Seer's supposed birthday party this Thursday. A birthday card was passed around for signature, but neither The Seer nor Shadow graced us with their presence at the luau. If, however, The Baker follows through with baking a cake, I'm sure The Seer, followed by Shadow, will come to the Community Room to bask in being the center of attention.

This homie don't play that, so I'm going to try my best to make myself scarce that day, including not answering my phone.

Saturday, Sunday, Tuesday

After a fitful sleep, caused by weird dreams – one of which was so disturbing that it snapped me awake at 2 a.m., followed by first being unwilling to fall back asleep and see that again, then unable to fall back asleep when I was once again clear, I finally did evidently sleep because I found myself waking up at 9:00 a.m. thinking I had only two hours to prepare for Pizza Tuesday, to be followed by the End of Summer Luau.

So, quickly jumping in the shower so I could wash my hair, I began to think, because of a night of sleepus interruptus -- third night in a row actually, that I really wasn’t up to rushing around to do all I had to do to prepare – breakfast, makeup, fresh manicure, and would skip Pizza Tuesday all together and just drop into the afternoon Luau, take a few photos for the facebook page, then head back to my unit.

A short while later, I began to think …. WAIT! Is this Tuesday or Monday? What did I see on TV last night? Realizing it was Big Brother and Preacher, both of which are on my schedule for Sunday night, I breathed a sigh of relief that today is Monday, not Tuesday.

Later still, trying to figure out why I’ve had three nights of exhausting dreams, I realized that instead of meditating just before bed or reading something enlightening, I’d been reading Omarosa’s book … Unhinged.

Even more telling is the fact the part of the dream I found so awful that it woke me up had to do with one of the Orange Traitor’s sons going off his nut and first stalking a woman then doing something to her too terrible to mention, except there was screaming.

Putting aside the politics, the book is well-written and interesting, quickly reaching the hard to put down level, even though I’ve not yet gotten to anything disturbing or new – except I never knew Omarosa had a pageant and beauty queen background.

It would have been nice to see photos in the book covering that period of her life. But not only are there none of those, there aren't any photos at all, which one would expect in a biography, which is more like what this book is -- thankfully more about her rather than him … thus far.

At any rate, now making the correlation of three nights of disturbing dreams to three nights of reading Unhinged, needing a good night’s sleep tonight so I can be ready for tomorrow’s events, I’m going to have to go back to my regular schedule of meditating or reading something enlightening tonight.

I’ll be sacrificing some of my daytime needlepoint time to reading Unhinged, starting today, right after breakfast which, inasmuch as I got a late start and it's now after 11:00, appears breakfast will be more like brunch.

Rumor Mill

After checking in with the seniors on Pizza Tuesday, I learned “Everything is confused and the two people in there (pointing towards the office) are not talking to anybody”. Consequently, with no facts to rely on, the rumor mill is coming up with its own explanations for missing staff.

“Assistant Complex Manager is on vacation”.

“Assistant Complex Manager is sick”.

“Head Maintenance Guy is taking time off”.

“His mother bought a house up the street. He’s spending time there with his new baby”.

“The people in the office are not from a temp agency. They’re from HUD (Housing and Urban Development. The complex has been taken over by HUD”.

That rumor was so ridiculous that I dismissed it on the spot, telling the rumor spreader that it didn’t make sense.

“The guy in the office is from Corporate, the girl is a temp employee”.

That rang the truest and came from the most accurate source, who’d actually charmed her way into the guy’s office, talked him into loosening his lips enough to identify himself and also saw he was wearing an ID Badge.

So, Corporate is in the house but your guess is as good as mine as to why regular staff has gone missing.

I do know for a fact that Corporate does not have a replacement for Community Manager in mind, and it will be a long time before one is appointed, because the position is posted as an opening on the Corporate’s Career site, which means Corporate has to first accept applications then interview candidates before deciding on a hire.

We may get lucky as former office assistants, whom we liked and who liked us and only left because a previous Community Manager (Nurse Ratched) was impossible to work with, may be interested in the job.

That is ... IF any of them know of the opening and IF any of them can handle the Corporate politics.

I was happy to see Activity Director walk into the room carrying pizzas and stuff when I went down Pizza Tuesday. So, she’s still here.

Residents hurried out to help her unload her car, but what happened to the residents she had picking up pizzas for her?

Did they get fired from the volunteer activity because they refused to fill out that form Corporate had requested, which form included a background check OR have all these staff disappearances prompted Activity Director to hide the fact residents were continuing to pick up and deliver without filling out the form OR is she just now seeing the need to prove her worth ... “Look how hard I’m working”.

Activity Director is usually very chatty about what Corporate wants, what Corporate is doing, but she’s not talking now -- we’re getting the distinct impression she’s been warned not to.

At any rate, she’s planning on an End of Summer Luau for us in two weeks, on the 21st. Potluck, of course, so I’m not expecting much. But I’ll go, take photos. That is ... if the Luau actually happens because, from the way things are going with Corporate, a lot can happen in two weeks.

Lastly, after checking in with the folks, I headed out to the tire place where I’d previously purchased tires for the Saturn. Having not really paid attention to the sign, when I use to pull into the bay to get the Saturn tires checked, this time I noticed it said “free tire pressure check” ... free ... period ... no purchases necessary ... no strings attached.

Woo Hoo! because this having to do it for myself on the Jeep was a drag.

I will however carry the portable air compressor in the car and, it in the case of an emergency where I have no one to rely on but myself, I’m sure I’ll figure it out.

Happy Labor Day

Day 8 of no A/C, but cooler calmer weather outside downgraded indoor heat from bearable to pretty close to normal.

Question of the day was to mingle with other residents at today’s End of Summer BBQ or not to mingle and, while loading Taylor Swift’s new song onto the iPod, what to do with my day became clear … I headed to the indoor mall, hunted Pokémon and walked 3.12 miles to qualify for the second in the series of hashtag medals.

Front

Back

The mall was an obstacle course. All the stores were open, shoppers showed up in droves, moseying along window shopping, totally unaware of their surroundings -- who they were blocking, who their sudden change of direction was about knock over; whole families stopping in the middle of walk space blocking the isle. Trying to log in a decent pace, I found myself tempted, more than once, to yell “Get out of the way!” or to elbow someone, but I didn’t. I just slowed down, sometimes completely stopped, waited,  and ended up putting in my slowest time ever, but I finished and earned another medal for the board.

With all the shops in the mall being open, and observing so many businesses open on the drive to/from the mall, I began to wonder why we even have a holiday to celebrate workers if so many don’t get to have the day off.

Clear and Balanced

The replacement coffee came in yesterday afternoon … by Fed Ex, rather than mail. This time, the box was appropriately sized to where there could be no mistake as to its contents.

To make sure my Karma is clear and the Akashic Records balanced, I promptly authorized Amazon to retract the refund.

The good news is … I won’t have to purchase butter coffee for a long long time.

Pizza Tuesday went very well.

Activity Director solved the issue of folks helping themselves before she arrived by picking up and bringing pizzas with her.

She also solved the problem of food safety (folks opening lids and handling pizzas, dropping pizzas), and those taking more than their share by labeling boxes and stacking by type of pizza, i.e., cheese, pepperoni, meat. She then had residents line up, state which they preferred, personally handed the box over to them – with the caveat to return after everyone had an opportunity to get a pizza and help self to what was left. Bread bags and containers of chicken were likewise distributed.

A good civilized plan. However, the minute Activity Director’s attention was diverted, the old guy on a cane, who’d already been served, snuck back, began opening lids, even though boxes were labeled and what was remaining were all the same -- cheese pizzas. At one point, the old guy reached into a box, picked up a slice, changed his mind, put the slice back, closed the box, put that box back on the table, opted for a different pizza, grabbed a few more items, then hobbled away on his cane.

Those of us observing couldn’t understand why he’d put the one he’d handled back inasmuch as it was exactly the same as the one he walked away with.

At any rate, the pizza he’d handled was taken out of rotation and tossed in the trash.

I don’t know if he returned later for the BBQ, because I headed to my unit when I smelled deliciousness coming from the grill, so I wouldn’t be tempted to eat something I shouldn’t. But, in spite of so many BBQ’s having been scheduled this month, Tuesday afternoon’s BBQ looked to be a hit. The room was full, residents excited and having a good time.

Earlier, I’d presented the completed needlepoint landscape to The Seer.

She loved it. Said it lifted her spirits.

The resident I refer to as The Helpful Lady must have thought I was in the habit of creating needlepoint artwork and giving away, which is not the case. I’ve only done so twice and only because I had fun working a project, but didn’t want to display the completed, and knew someone who’d expressed an interest in owning. At any rate, Helpful Lady walked over and said, “The next one is for me. I’ll pay you.”

“Sorry”, said I. “I’m keeping the one I’m working on now and I have two others waiting in the wings that I plan to keep. I’m booked up for the next three years.”

“Well, after three years, I’m next.”

I think she’s serious.

Treasurer of the Resident’s Activity Committee, my good buddy Apache, indicated a 50’s Party is being bandied around. Asked my thoughts, I said sounded like a fun idea, but had no faith at all that residents would dress appropriately because I was the only one who showed up in costume for Halloween.

“We’ll print on the notice, “No admission unless dressed for 50’s”, said Apache.

“Doesn’t matter. I don’t trust them. They’ll show up to eat and won’t be dressed”.

Of course, if a 50's Party does materialize, I'll give them a chance to redeem themselves, make myself a poodle skirt and show up. I'd just better not be the only one appropriately costumed or I'll be too done.

Size Matters

Having made the appointment for the manicure/pedicure just the day before, I wasn’t able to get any of the nail technicians I’d previously experienced.

They were all booked.

I ended up with two older ladies, and they were rough.

The older nail technicians tend to be no-nonsense heavy handed, while the younger girls are gentle.

In the final analysis, the pedicurist did a great job so, rough as she is, I’d request her in the future.

However, the manicurist did less than an A-1 job. The polish looks okay, but the nail tips don’t feel smooth. There are little rough snagging areas I’m having to smooth out with an emery board.

Plus, she kept trying to talk me into gel polish saying, “It will last longer”.

“I know gel last longer”, said I, “But I can’t get it off at home to change polish. I have to come here, and I don’t like the removal process. It’s too hard on my nails.”

Yet and still, she took every opportunity during the process to bring up gel nails again, to the point where even the pedicurist made eye contact with me, grinned, shook her head and rolled her eyes.

Leaving the salon, it occurred to me I should have complained about the less than A-1 job at the front desk. It might have resulted in a voucher for a free treatment. But complaining is not in my nature. There have been times I've felt so deeply about something that it was worth my time and energy to complain. However, as a rule, I’m more an avoider than complainer. I just won't allow myself to be booked with her again.

My not being a complainer also colored the decision not to bother myself with the mail carrier, the post office, or to post a sign at the mailbox. Instead, the plan was to eat the cost and reorder.

I did, however, let Amazon know the mail carrier screwed up, and Amazon is replacing the coffee at no further cost to me.

It turned out to be a good thing I didn't make a big deal of it because, when I went down to collect yesterday’s mail, there was a lock box key. Inside the lock box was a big box.

“Interesting”, thought I. “I’m not expecting anything big” because I’d already received the big box, which I'd assumed contained the medal hanger I’d ordered.

Planning on not hanging the item until I was certain I’d not have to move end of year, that box had been set aside for later, not opened.

Then it hit me, “If this box is the hanger, then what's inside the unopened box must be the coffee.”

Sure enough.

Color me embarrassed, but I’m chalking it up to mistaken identity caused by size … of the box. Why such a huge box for such a little item?

At any rate, I take back what I said about the mail carrier, dishonest neighbors, and I now have to rectify the situation with Amazon -- tell them I made a terrible mistake and pay for the replacement shipment.

So there’s that.

Today is Pizza Tuesday and, even though I can’t eat pizza, I’ll take my latest needlepoint project down to work on in the Community Room while I watch the show, as Pizza Tuesday continues to be a source of amusement.

This Pizza Tuesday should be especially interesting, as Activity Director has once again scheduled a simultaneous event – a Summer BBQ Potluck.

Doesn’t make sense, especially since there was supposedly a BBQ Potluck on the 2^nd, and management is throwing another on the 28^th.

Me thinks there may be a competition going on between the various groups – Next Door Neighbor’s Residents Activity Committee, the Activity Director and Complex Management.

At any rate, I didn’t want to risk a gut episode by participating in the first one, won’t be risking gut issues by participating in today’s second one, or the third at end of the month.

Summer BBQ Potluck

After an easy morning of having nothing to take care of, other than picking granddaughter up from the bus terminal, dropping her off at the market for groceries, meditating in the car while waiting, then dropping her off at her apartment, it was Starbucks for coffee and home to prepare for the 1:00 potluck.

Having signed up for coleslaw, I’d switched to the old standby deli potato salad when, at the store yesterday, I found slaw doesn’t come in 3 pound tubs like potato salad, and the cost of having the deli put together an equivalent amount of slaw was too costly.

So, putting together my personal care package …

… consisting of a container of oil/vinegar dressing, organic relish, jalapeno mustard, and chopped onions, I headed to the Community Room at 12:45 with that tub of potato salad and two packages of Jennie O Turkey Franks, because I don’t eat beef hot dogs and others seem to enjoy the turkey as well, so whoever was grilling could add them to the mix.

I’m what you might call a careful healthy (for all the good it does since I never lose weight) finicky eater, bringing my own condiments, but that’s only because I know what I like, want to make sure it’s available, and don’t want to hassle in a crowd to get it.

So walking into the room, I found the grill off and a room full of residents eating, some already on dessert, some (I was told) had been and gone.

Looking dumbfound I said, “You started early? I thought it wasn’t until 1:00”.

“No, we started at noon”, replied the Activity Director.

I later rechecked the Activity Calendar and 12:00 was the posted time.

Where I got 1:00 from is a mystery. I can only surmise I was not wearing my glasses when I looked at the calendar and didn’t see the 2.

But oh well, I didn’t want and couldn’t eat the prepared beef hot dogs, so I switched to chicken.

Lunch and Dinner Tonight

With two packages of turkey dogs to use up, I won’t have to wonder about what to fix for lunch/dinner for the next two weeks. There was already a tub of potato salad on the table when I arrived but, as folks made plates for later, the second tub came in handy and what wasn’t used up will go into the Community Room refrigerator for whoever wants it.

As late as I was, residents did come in even later, one of which was my next door neighbor.

She brought a Pineapple Upside Down Cake, she'd just made.

My favorite.

I couldn’t resist.

Before she arrived, we were having good conversations about this, that, the other, a lot of speculation about what Nurse Ratched could have done to have her items boxed up and herself escorted off the property, but neighbor is a politico/activist/news junkie type, likes to get on a soapbox about anything/everything, and kept bringing up Trump and the killing of unarmed Black men.

Because of my spiritual belief that everything happens for a reason, the “They meant it for evil, but the Universe meant it for good” theory, that we just hold to that no matter what we see with our eyes, hear with our ears, and wait for the larger plan to unfold, I didn't want her negativity in my head and kept trying to steer the conversation away from discords going on the world.

She wasn’t having it.

Unable to get neighbor off so adamantly expressing the need to do this, do that, I decided it was time to go.

Her cake was delicious, but not perfectly so, because she burnt the edges. Perhaps if she’d paid more attention to baking, and less time on the soap box, the edges would not have been crusty black.

All in all, I’d say the event was successful and we’re now looking forward to the Halloween Costume potluck.

Apache says he already has his costume but, like last year, is keeping it a surprise.

My plan is to reuse the Minion costume I put together for last year’s Halloween 5K in La Mirada, though I doubt many here will even know what a Minion is.

Kids and Cars

With every intention of taking the bus to the University this morning, that plan went awry when I awoke at a very late 9:30.

Quite a surprise, since I never sleep that late and wasn’t ill; but oh well, time for a new plan.

I drove and ran into a sea of kids and cars. The campus was packed, the parking lot was full to overflowing.

Fortunately, when I’d tried to find side street parking last week, I ran across an area off campus, by a field, with no parking restriction signs. Unsure if it was okay to park there I’d passed on it but, checking back today, cars were lined up and none had been ticketed, so I took a spot, set my Lucky Egg for extra points and began the next stage of Pokémon Go -- Evolving.

What evolving does, besides earning me points, is it transforms a creature into a new being.

The egg was only good for 30 minutes of extra points, 15 of which was taken up by the evolving process because I had quite a few I could evolve, the remaining minutes of which was me walking across the field to get to the University’s PokéStops, capturing Pokémon and PokéStop items before extra points time ran out.

By the time all was said and done, I must have collected points in the thousands because I leveled up from 13 to 15.

Campus was so alive with activity that I hung around, logging in 1.44 slow miles as I took it all in remembering that the plan after retirement was to go back to school. For what specifically, I didn’t know. It was just that I had a thirst for knowledge. Looking around, I was glad that didn’t happen because I woke up, spiritually speaking, realized that road was not for me and, looking around heard myself say to myself, “What was I thinking. Why would I have wanted to put myself through this? To what end?”

Inasmuch as I’d had that thought earlier in the day, I had to laugh when I logged on this evening and saw Mage had commented on the last post, “You could take a class”.

In addition to kids and cars, there were sorority tents, vendors, free ice cream (I declined), and bus loads of elementary school children on what I surmised was a field trip.

Leaving campus an hour or so later, walking slowly back to the car on an out-of-the-way narrow path between what looked to be maintenance buildings, I heard rustling behind me.

Looking left, right, I didn’t see anything and decided the rustling sound were leaves hitting the ground, as it was quite windy.

The rustling continued and something told me to turn around.

I did, and there was a woman driving a cart.

I think she thought she’d scared me (she didn’t), that I thought she was going to run over me (I had no such thought) because she said, “You’re alright. I make it a point never to drive faster than the person in front of me is walking.”

She pulled up beside me, held out her hand and introduced herself as J from Risk Management.

Knowing I was walking someplace I shouldn’t have been anyway, I felt awful that I’d been walking so slow, holding her back and said, “You should have honked. I’m just here hitting up your PokéStops”.

“Oh do you play? I play too.”

We chatted game for a bit, I said “It was nice meeting you”, she went back to whatever it is Risk Management people do, and I headed to the market to pick up turkey dogs and potato salad for tomorrow's "Summer BBQ Potluck", here at the complex.

We had all summer to do this but the powers that be decided to do it the day after the official start of Fall.

ROFLMAO!

I Spy Something Blue

Waking up to walk able weather this morning, but too lazy to get myself together and get out, I planned on a day indoors, working on the needlepoint project and catching up on recorded television programs.

Standing at the kitchen sink along about 10:00, I caught a glimpse of something blue on the neighbor’s door.

Two thoughts went through my head in rapid succession: 1) If there’s something on her door, there’s something on my door and 2) That can’t be this month’s Activities Calendar. Today is only the 1^st of September and management never posts calendars to our doors in a timely manner … this early in the new month.

I opened the door, reached for the blue paper on my door and what do you know … it was the calendar.

Surprise, surprise. Management is getting its act together for a change, thought I.

With the exception of a Disaster Preparedness class tomorrow, and a Summer BBQ Potluck on the 23^rd, no activities.

Because of all the fires, I’d better attend that preparedness class. I’d also better hurry for the easy way out of the potluck BBQ, which is to sign up for deli potato salad before someone else does.

There was a full page letter added to the calendar with corporate’s logo, signed by the Regional Property Supervisor, the partial text of which read, “Dear Resident(s): We regret to inform you that … is no longer managing …. We will miss her very much and wish her well on her future endeavors ….”

WHAT?!!!

NURSE RATCHED IS GONE?!!!

I quickly dressed and headed down to the Community Room to get the details from those in the know.

She’s not transferred to another property – which is what we’d hoped for, she’s fired and, when I entered the Community Room, I saw a locksmith was changing out locks in the office area.

That tells me she must have been caught doing more than just lying, being mean to residents, being uncooperative, threatening, terrorizing residents even.

Residents in the know observed one of the big bosses from corporate on the property yesterday. He walked into the kitchen area, unlocked cabinets, found a box, and took the box to Nurse Ratched’s office.

Having worked in Corporate America, seeing a box go into someone's office and that person escorted out, The Seer announced to those present, “She’s gone” and sure enough, this morning we get a letter announcing her departure.

For now, the Assistant Manager – the one who was so fearful of Nurse Ratched that she made herself ill, is in charge – with help from office staff of other locations.

Hopefully, whoever takes Nurse Ratched’s place is someone who doesn’t hate old people.