Overthinking or Gut Instinct?

The Usual Suspects are nicer/kinder than myself, do not want to put a lock on the refrigerator. Instead, Crafty Lady asked me to make signs — one for the refrigerator, which she herself cleaned on Wednesday …

One for the microwave, which she also cleaned on Wednesday …

Mention of the cameras may be all it takes, but we’ll see.

When Crafty Lady first texted, asking me to make the signs, she offered to donate for paper and ink. I declined saying not necessary, that flyers and such are my way of supporting the community.

She was to have picked up the signs yesterday, on her way to 2:00 bible study in the Community Room …… there’s a group of residents that meet every Thursday to study scripture, led by the Bible Thumper that so got on my nerves a few years back.

When she didn’t show, and I later saw her on the walkway headed to her unit, I figured she’d forgotten.

Sure enough, a little while later she texted she’d forgotten, asked if I would be home today.

I’d replied no, that I had to make a run to Sprouts, but would drop the signs off at bingo (which I figured would be in progress by the time I returned).

She then texted, "Do you go to Sprouts often?"

"Oh, oh" thought I. Sensing she might want to tag along next time and me being a person that doesn't care for tagalongs, I answered without answering, said that Sprouts is the only store that offers products my sensitive stomach can tolerate.

She then texted that she’d been trying to find alfalfa sprouts, could she give me cash to buy for her.

I said sure, no problem, I’d purchase, let her know the cost after.

I was impressed with the Halloween display at Sprouts.

Wish I’d thought of adding a garland of fall leaves to my patio display — intertwined in the railings.

Returning to the complex, I popped into bingo, gave Crafty Lady the signs/alfalfa sprouts, told her to pay it forward (because, inasmuch as she gives us craft supplies no charge, not charging for the alfalfa is the right thing to do).

Instead of saying thank you, she said "Give me a hug", stood up, spread out her arms, wrapped her arms around me, pulled me in for a hug that lasted a little too long.

I found it unnecessary, really weird and strangely uncomfortable.

I feel Crafty Lady is trying to get too close and familiar with me at a level I would not like.

I question her reason for doing so.

Not only did she early on send me a Facebook friend request, which I declined, she always greets me in text and in person with "Hey, beautiful".

I don’t know folks. You can probably guess by now what my gut is telling me, while my head is saying no, you’re overthinking it because she has children, grandchildren, but I’m not so naïve as to not know that doesn’t mean what my gut is telling me can’t still be so.

I’ll still attend Crafts on Monday, hope what I’m sensing and what my gut is telling me is simply overthinking, and if it's not overthinking, that she has the good sense to pick up, understand and respect that I’m strictly dickly before she crosses the line.

Recognizance

Made my way to Crafts yesterday to check on the outcome of no one showing up for No Pizza Tuesday.

Crafty Lady tells me that after Kesha had her text us to come down and we didn’t, Kesha said that if no one shows up next Tuesday, she is going to knock on doors, that it’s part of her job to reach out to residents.

Fine by me if she knocks on random doors, lets the resident know who she is, what she does for the community, encourage them to come down on Tuesdays, but if she only knocks on the doors of us Usual Suspects — which she knows our units from her sign-in logs, then I have a problem with that.

If I hear a knock on the door next Tuesday, I’m going to assume it’s Kesha and pretend no one is home.

Inasmuch as the Activity Calendar had indicated "Fall Craft: Join in the Community Room to create a festive fall craft", I asked Crafty Lady what crafts did Kesha bring.

"None", said Crafty Lady, that Kesha had expected her (Crafty Lady) to use her own personal supplies, lead a group in crafting because, as Kesha said to Crafty Lady, "You’re my craft person".

SAY WHAT! Management won’t give Kesha money for activities she is to perform, gets credit for performing per what’s on the Calendar, so she’s expecting a resident to provide the supplies, do the work for her …… FOR FREE.

Seems Crafty Lady saw it coming, did the right thing to not support Kesha, move Crafts to Mondays and Wednesdays.

I regret what I said about the dirty dick and sandy petroleum jelly.

Other news gathered at yesterday’s Crafts session, is that Manager will be out for a while …… she’s ill, has been hospitalized.

I haven’t wished her any ill will so, if anyone is working a voodoo doll on her, it’s not me.

No info as to what her illness is, but I told the group, "She’s probably just sick of us".

I also learned that Halloween falls on a Bingo Friday. Instead of the games and costume contests we usually have, it's going to be regular bingo, but with Halloween themed bingo cards.

Sounds boring, so I may or may not check in to see if Halloween bingo is more lively than regular bingo, wear my skeleton leggings (from the Mission Inn 5K), and the new matching top.

If I'm the only one in costume so be it. Sometimes one has to make her own music, her own good time.

I was low energy yesterday, watched the others craft, took photos for the Residents’ FB page but, not feeling creative, I did not take part in String Art using beads.

Showtime!

It’s finally the 1st of Halloween.

Skelly is happily on the patio, basking in the sunlight in his cowboy outfit.

I set Skelly up a few days ago, but tonight will be the first night I turn on the patio's Halloween lights.

I’d previously posted how Next-Door Neighbor had knocked on the door, said the skull on the doormat almost scared the life out of her. Well, the day Skully made it to the patio, she knocked on the door again, pointed to Skully on the patio, said, "I don’t care for the company you keep".

She seemed serious, actually looked a little angry.

I don’t know if it’s her illness and worry about how to care for self after her operation that’s causing her to be such a pill, but inasmuch as she knows and has seen me decorate at the Month of Halloween for years, knows I go to the macabre, nothing is new.

I gave her a break because she's ill, let it go with the obvious …… "You should be used to it by now".

She has no idea how I restrained myself …… didn’t put a scary cover on the door, didn't purchase a frightening doormat I’d been tempted to buy.

I'm still tempted to buy that doormat for next year and may yet do so.

Yesterday was No Pizza Tuesday.

I walked through the Community Room last Tuesday, to see if anyone showed up for Kesha, found just one resident — the Upstairs Lady.

Yesterday, around 11:15, a mass text went out from Crafty Lady — "Good morning, just asking if anyone is coming to the Community Room".

Only three of us replied to the text — the Baker, Painted Rock Lady, myself, and we all said "no".

Then came a follow up from Crafty Lady — "Okay, I was told to ask by Kesha to see if anyone was coming. It’s supposed to be crafts, but I’m not doing them, my days are Mon and Wed, see you tomorrow".

I checked the Activity Calendar and, sure enough, listed was "Fall Craft: Join in the Community Room to create a festive fall craft".

It's kinda sad that Kesha was so desperate as to ask Crafty Lady to call folks to come down, and I wonder how long it’s going to take before she realizes she's been cancelled.

Lesson for Kesha here …… notwithstanding the fact that as a Black woman in the workforce, you need to be smart about what you say, do, how you interact with others, tone yourself down, in some cases dumb yourself down is that it's a fact of life that you catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.

As for Crafty Lady doing crafts twice a week, Mon and Wed is a little too much communal crafting for me, as I've got my own projects here in my unit to complete.

However, I do plan to join into Crafts this morning, just so I can gather intel as to what happened after we all said no yesterday …… did anyone else happen to meander down, did Kesha use the downtime to clean out the refrigerator?

To do so would have created some good Karma for her, erased some of the negativity she's created for herself around here by having backed up management's stance when they were hard lining us on keeping the refrigerator locked.

One Step Forward

We got our refrigerator back.

Checking into crafts at 11 this morning, I made a point to check on the refrigerator, found the lock off.

The Usual Suspects verified that "yes", management turned it back over to us, but they didn’t clean it.

No wonder they kept it locked up, didn’t want us snooping around inside, because it looks a bit like they’ve been keeping a science experiment up in there.

Hopefully, the Usual Suspects will toss everything out, sanitize to the umpteenth degree, maybe bring in a HazMat team before placing any of our items inside.

I suggested we get a lock of our own to keep management out.

They laughed, but I’m dead serious.

As for the situation with the pool bathroom, turns out we have two — one for men, another for women. Manager must know the law says a facility must be provided at the pool because what she did was to take over the women’s facility for staff, turn the men’s restroom into an all-gender.

I didn’t go over to check, but the Usual Suspects tell me the all-gender has one of those sliding thingies that indicate when the facility is occupied or available for use.

None of the ladies seemed thrilled about it, because there’s a big difference between a men's bathroom and a women’s bathroom ...... and not just that there are no standing urinals in women’s bathrooms. There’s also the smell and level of cleanliness.

No disrespect to male readers, but us ladies have all had brothers, uncles, dads and or husbands/boyfriends. We know how you guys don’t always shoot straight.

At any rate, there is still a bathroom in the pool area, so Manager wins this one.

Now that we have a refrigerator to hold foodstuff for our events, the Baker says bingo is back on. Not only is bingo back in play, she and her team are already planning the Halloween event.

Woo Hoo! I get to be a skeleton after all.

Baker says she’s still upset with Kesha, as it was not the Assistant Manager who cut her off and said, "NO, THE REFRIGERATOR STAYS LOCKED! AND I'M NOT COMING HERE ON FRIDAYS TO UNLOCK IT!", it was Kesha.

The Baker says, "I’ll not tolerate being spoken to that way". So, though we’ve got our refrigerator back, you piss off the Baker, you piss off all of us.

Kesha remains persona non grata. We won’t be coming to the Community Room on Tuesday, when Kesha is on duty. She’s destined to be like the obsolete Maytag man.

Today’s craft involved stenciling.

We were given a plain board, paint, various stencils, miscellaneous items and let loose.

Results varied.

I have a feeling you readers know me well enough to pick out which is my creation.

The L Word

The 1st of Halloween only three days away, Skelly decided it was time to shake off the inactivity of being sat in a corner/turned into a lamp for months, begin training for the main event.

Word on the streets is that the office has caved …… the refrigerator in the Community Room is being returned to the Community, management is purchasing and setting up a refrigerator in their own area.

Previously, it was always "no" when the suggestion of management having a little refrigerator in the office for their lunches was made. As to what caused this, as yet unconfirmed change of heart …… it could be that, when the Baker blew up, Manager might have realized she’d been going too far in punishing us seniors because Di had stolen one of their lunches from the refrigerator; what the ramifications would be if an elderly resident was injured transporting stuff for events back and forth from their unit to the Community Room because Manager locked the refrigerator.

As to why Manager might have begun to think of ramifications, might be because a resident I’d never seen before mentioned the L word in the Residents/Management Meeting — Lawsuit.

It wasn’t in reference to the refrigerator, but an issue another resident was having with the floors in her unit.

From what I gathered, management was dragging its heels on a solution to the flooring situation; whereupon this woman I’d never seen before said that if the resident tripped and injured herself, "That’s a lawsuit. You can sue them".

Even though it’s not illegal for Manager to lock the refrigerator — just not a good look for management, maybe just maybe the Baker blowing up and mention of the L word made her think she should do something to calm the natives down.

Thus far, like I said, I’ve had no confirmation on our getting our refrigerator back, it’s strictly a rumor. However, if later proved to be a fact, I’m not sure that, at this point any of us, including the Baker. even cares. It may be too little too late.

Time will tell.

Another unsubstantiated rumor is that Manager has changed the lock on the pool bathroom — which residents use not only when at the pool but also when having to potty during events. Rather than travel all the way back to their units, they use the key we’ve all been issued to the pool bathroom.

Now I’m being told Manager has declared "It’s her bathroom", changed the locks, our keys will no longer give us access.

No matter to me, because I have never used that facility, prefer to rush back to my unit; but losing access because Manager wants it designated for her and office staff only, is just another bad look, a further thing to inflame the masses.

Heading back from running errands on Wednesday, I ran into Hubba Hubba Awooga Silver Fox, who I’d not seen out and about since May.

It’s funny how the Law of Attraction works. When I was interested in him, I’d run into him every time I stepped out the door, but the second I lost interest, the invisible energy that was drawing us together ceased operating and I no longer saw him out/about.

Poor man looked terrible …… Lost weight, hair now more gray than silver, seems to have aged. Four months isn’t that long for so much change to have occurred.

"Long time no see", said I.

"I’ve been in the hospital a couple times".

"Oh my gosh, why, what happened?".

"Diverticulitis".

He explained to me what that is and spoke as though he thought he might not be much longer for this world …… said something about he’s just not the same, having a hard time adjusting to becoming old, that we all have to go eventually, that he’s prepared and at peace with whatever.

(Nurse DrumMajor: Is diverticulitis a death sentence?)

It’s scary seeing how being hospitalized changes folks, and not for the better.

Endings

Shortly after yesterday’s Residents/Management meeting, the Baker sent out a group text making it official …… "I will not be doing bingo or any other activity up at the clubhouse. I love all of you very much and I will still be around outside of that clubhouse. But I will not tolerate being talked to like that and not even given a chance to calmly talk to them about things that we need to have a comfortable life. The next bingo is on October 3, if anybody decides they would like to continue bingo all the bingo things are in my garage. Please forgive me, but I have to stand up for myself".

The "being talked to like that" refers to Assistant Manager cutting her off in the meeting with a firm, "No. The refrigerator stays locked", like case closed, and no way is anyone else going to take on the responsibility of carrying on with bingo, so that’s dead.

Not just bingo is ending but, because the Baker sphere headed all the other activities us residents have enjoyed, it’s also the end of the BBQs, Halloween Party, Christmas Party, and all the other parties us residents have thrown for ourselves.

I had planned to be a skeleton for Halloween, but looks like I can donate that costume, and my many other costumes, to the Salvation Army Store.

All that’s left for us are the three events management squeezes into the budget — End of Summer Party, Thanksgiving and Christmas Parties.

No bingo and no other parties is going to make my life a little easier insofar as flyers and posting photos to the Residents’ FB page. There will be nothing to post, so the FB page is dead as well, but I’ll let it lie dormant so folks can enjoy seeing photos of what fun we used to have.

Just before the Baker sent out her missive, Crafty Lady included me in a group message, "Hey friends, Arts and Crafts tomorrow 11:00 in the clubhouse".

I don’t really know how group messages work, like are there names so the sender knows who they are messaging or is it just telephone numbers?

If it’s a list of telephone numbers, Crafty Lady might not know she’s including me, but with the Baker refusing to step inside the Community room ever again, I guess it really doesn’t matter as the bell seems to be tolling for Craft Day as well?

Later, Crafty Lady herself replied to the Baker’s resignation letter that, "Tomorrow we will do arts and crafts there, but I’m going to figure out a way to do it away from there".

In solidarity for the Baker, I don’t see any of us wanting to congregate in that room any time soon.

It won’t have an impact on Management, but it will make us feel better — a protest of sort.

There’s a seating area outside the Laundry Room where the Usual Suspects like to gather — it’s the equivalent of the old water cooler where folks gathered, chatted. I expect that’s where I’ll run into the Baker and others, instead of in the Community Room on Tuesdays.

Speaking of Tuesdays, with first no pizzas, and now Crafts moved to Monday/Wednesday or gone altogether, I don’t see a need for Kesha.

Those that attended the meeting are holding her partially responsible for the Baker quitting, because Assistant Manager said one of the reasons she won’t unlock the refrigerator is because Kesha keeps a lot of her supplies in there, Kesha has a key.

What supplies would that be? We’re not getting served anything, so is it just her lunch along with management’s lunches?

At any rate, no one is going to show up on Tuesdays to support Kesha, not even me.

Sorry, girl. You got caught in the crossfire.

As for today’s Craft session, scheduled for 11 o’clock, I assumed no one was going to show up but, on the off chance some did, heading out to run errands, I detoured through the room, found it empty.

In other news, Next Door Neighbor knocked on the door late yesterday and had me 🤣.

Leaning on the rail, clutching her heart in a pose that registered having experienced something that knocked the wind out, she accused me of "scaring her half to death".

Upon opening her door, the skull I placed in the corner caught her eye, resulted in a fear flight reaction.

Seriously, LOL.

She said it was "What the hell is that" and an immediate fright reaction.

Instead of apologizing, my legs got weak from laughing and I had to step outside lean on the rail for support right along with her.

Even now, I’ve can’t stop laughing as I try to paint the picture for you, have tears in my eyes, nose running.

I have a sick sense of humor … don’t like to be scared but laugh my butt off at seeing others get scared.

True story — the oldest of what was four brothers, one sister (all deceased now), I once convinced them that I was a werewolf, changed when the moon was full. I’d lock myself in the bathroom so as not to harm them, or so I told them, then I’d make growling sounds, while they stood outside the door both fearful and worried about me.

Bringing it up now, I realize what an awful traumatizing thing that was to do.

Once, I had mom’s fuzzy fake fur coat wrapped around my arm, stuck that furry arm out the door as I made growling sounds. Next thing I know, all five were out the front door, running down the street.

I kid you not, even into adulthood, my sister Brenda would swear to folks that she actually saw me turn into a werewolf.

NDN doesn’t know, but I have considered setting up a spooky door cover for years, but didn't because I thought she might open her door and it would scare her. It never occurred to me, but should have, that the skull might be just as bad — scare her and maybe delivery people. I should have knocked on her door, warned her it was there.

As for the delivery people, I’m sure they’ve seen worse.

Not so funny is Next Door Neighbor saying she’s looking to move.

Oh, great, more changes.

Her plan is to move before December out of necessity …… She’s having a serious operation in December that will make it impossible for her to climb stairs after she returns from nursing care.

She’s talking to the office about relocating to a downstairs unit here and, if they can’t accommodate, she says she has no choice but to look elsewhere for a downstairs unit.

I’ll be sorry to lose her as a neighbor and can only hope that whoever replaces her is clean, loves to decorate for Halloween and Christmas.