Shady Grove

For those of you whom I do not encounter on a weekly basis ( and if you do, i guess you can read this as well...) I wanted to keep you updated on my life here in Provo!

Sorry I can't post any amazing photos, because well...I don't even have a camera, so all of the photos of me are already on FB anyhow via Haley and Freyja and Maranda etc.

BUT I will tell you about my adventures living here in Provo, and working up in Orem at the nursing home which Maranda and I have dubbed "Shady Grove" even though it's not the least bit shady, nor is it in a grove....actually it's right by an orchard (hence it's real name).

So I've been working at this nursing home since the very end of October and I am very much in love with the people (residents and coworkers). I just started out working about 5.5 hours a day; 5 days a week, but just recently I began full-time. The building just came under new administration, and the new head-honcho likes things to be spotless (I'm a housekeeper). We all received full-time hours after they fired the 60 year-old laundry lady whom they discovered had been stealing toothpaste bulk. With her hours gone we all got to divvy them up amongst ourselves.

This past week in particular was the state survey, during which state officials come for four days and make sure that everything in our facility is under regulation. Which means that I get to clean with, what my coworker JJ refers to as, "the devils" breathing down my neck. It was really stressful the first day because they come unannounced, but by day three we all gave up the idea of being perfect. Our facility has been rated as a 5-star nursing home, and we wanted to keep up our rating from last year. So this meant I had to make sure all of my chemicals were labeled properly, that my mop water was changed out every 2-3 rooms, I couldn't clean the dining room until EVERY resident was finished eating, and a billion of other tiny things.

The reason cleaning the dining room after EVERY resident is done eating is so annoying, is because this is about sixty people all over the age of 70yrs, who take their sweet shaky-hands time trying to get those peas onto their spoon. Not that those peas make it into their mouths, because I can say first-hand that about 50% end up under their wheelchairs, smashed by their wheels as they're wheeled away. This is a very common occurrence, most especially with our resident who will be 107 this coming summer. Eat your cheerios every morning like this woman, and you too may be able to live to be 106.

Just yesterday I was sweeping said dining room when I overheard one of the social workers interviewing one of the residents who just came back from the hospital.
"If we find you unconscious and not breathing, would you like us to resuscitate you?"
She promptly told her "No", which seems depressing, but at the same time I would have to say the same thing in her situation. I give all of you reading this blog permission to take a can of Raid to my face if I am ever unable to use the bathroom unassisted, and/or find my most pleasurable entertainment to be staring at a parking lot. Don't hesitate.

Wheeling my cart around the building, hurrying to do my cleaning, I often hear bits and pieces of conversations throughout the building. My most favorite one so far was about a week ago, wheeling past one younger resident (probably only 60) who had just struck up a conversation with one of our dementia residents approaching maybe 75 or so. All I heard was
"Did you have a bowel movement today D?"
*nods head happily
"That's great! Because I know it's been a few days."

I know he's trying to be supportive, but I don't want my conversations to ever revolve around bowel movements. Ever.

Because of various reasons, a lot of the residents can't really talk. I need to take these pictures, but there are a few hand-written signs throughout the building that the CNA's/ Nurses leave to each other to remind them of routine things with each resident. For instance in one room, next to a resident's bed, it says really large " Did you remember to take out Mary's teeth?"
It's always there so I assume it's a daily thing to take out Mary's teeth. I don't know what will happen if they don't remember.
And my favorite sign is also by a resident's bed. This one says " My name is Helmut. Please put MY clothes on me. Thanks."

Can you say 'P'?

I figured that since I don't talk to all of you all too regularly that maybe I should blog at least one post to cover the last six months of my life. I was accepted to start college at BYU-Provo for summer term, beginning June 20th! Which just so happens to be one week (count it; seven days) after I graduate from high school. So I'll be in Utah in a couple weeks for Genuine's graduation, and I'll be scoping out all of the hot spots....if they even exist. I'm just kidding, I think I'll have a good time. I have fond memories of visiting the Provo campus as a kid and I can't wait to take some revenge on some nasty geese.
Other than preparing for college I am still working as a receptionist at the same hair salon, but the whole salon is preparing to move to LO about five minutes away from our current location. I've already told them I'll be leaving as soon as June. I hadn't realized how attached I'd gotten to some of the stylists until some of them started finding new work before the move. Some of them decided to try out other salons and found this time of moving the perfect opportunity to start anew. I hadn't realized how much I would miss them when the time came!
Besides THAT, I'm contently finishing the last few months of school, and my last day is June 3rd! And then I graduate June 13th! and then I start school ALL OVER AGAIN the 20th! Fun times.

Even though my life isn't all too exciting, I might as well update for those people who don't see me everyday.
Now that Fletcher is gone it's just Haley and me with the 'rents. Haley is leaving for school at the end of this month, so then it'll officially just be me left. People keep asking me about how i 'feeeeel' now that Fletcher's gone....but he never talked much in the first place, so it doesn't 'feeeel' much different, like at all.
It's almost back to school for me in september, I'll be a senior. I know strange right? I just turned seventeen! When I was young I remember my older sisters being seventeen and thinking they were adults, with thighs! Now I'm seventeen and I feel young and kinda scrawny. Maybe I'll get thighs later into my seventeenth year.
For my birthday my friend Spudge threw me a surprise swim party. It was tons of fun, and I have never had so many consecutive chicken fights in my life! Complete with friends, a pool, cupcakes, and presents. I got a hammock from LCl and now I need to find a time and place to put it up.
Work at the salon has been good. I've been working there since spring break, and just within the past two months they hired a second girl to split my hours so my paycheck is sadly about a $100 less than it was before, but I don't really mind since I get much more free time. I used to work basically everyday, and my friends complained they never saw me. Now I only work two or three days max per week.
I mainly answer phones, greet people, bring them water, alert the stylists of their time shifts and problems. I haven't made any major mistakes yet because I'm very careful to ask for help scheduling anything that may even cause the slightest problem to the stylists. I think they prefer you ask them for help rather than being surprised the day of work when they need to 'adjust.'
Other than that I'm pretty lazy most days. I got my top braces off in July, and I get the bottom braces off on the 25th. My abnormally small teeth that I had next to my front teeth were what I like to call 'corn-dogged.' They filled in the gaps on either side with 'bony material' and now they're regular sized and I got a new retainer. I call it corn-dogged because the original tooth is there, but the new stuff was put around it...kinda like how the corn meal is deep fried around the hot dog.
So with that out of the way, I need to get my senior picture taken. I think Haley wants to do it with her fancy Nikon. Although I always imagined Audrey would be the person to go to.
Anyway, that's all I've been up to. If I've forgotten anything just let me know.

I seem to have misplaced my boyfriend....

I had a very interesting conversation with one of my young women's leaders as she was driving me home from Camp Kick-Off on Thursday. JSi has to know what's going on in my life at all times so she began with asking me about my boyfriend, whom I've been dating a little more than two months now.
I am infamous for losing things. Most everybody knows this about me because I have gone through 4+ cell phones, losing one to a dish washer, one to a washer, and two more that I just abused to the point of death. My brother at one point, while discussing my getting a car, pointed out that I would probably lose the car. He took it back for a second saying " I doubt you could misplace an entire car.....no wait....I bet you could." So you see, I have a bad reputation. It's not that I don't care about these things, I'm just oblivious to when they are not where I think they are.
So, with this reputation in mind, JSi asked me how my boyfriend and I were doing, and I said we were doing fine. Then she asked me if I had lost him yet. "Lost him? No....he's very much still around" I said.
I went on to tell CSm, my boyfriend, about this. He responded with " Probably because I have a mind of my own. I can't be left and forgotten in pants and washed, or dropped in a dish washer."
I do feel that if it was solely up to me, and he didn't have a mind of his own, I would've lost him ages ago. " What ever happened to that one guy.....CSm? Yeah him."

I had my first rball league match on saturday a week ago, and it was amazing. I was really, really nervous at first and lost my first split-n-go match against a girl from la salle, which placed me in the losers bracket with around five or six other girls, but I don't think I'd have gotten very far in the winners bracket anyways. So I was at the MAC from 10-3pm but time flew like none other. They told us we'd be bored and want a heavy lunch so I was freaking out, but I hardly touched my lunch I was so busy the entire time! Anyways, I lost my first two matches before Dad decided to leave for some reason, can't remember why, and as soon as he left I won my first match. Then I won the next two! Dad+Presence= Bad Luck. So I ended up winning three out of my total six which I think is pretty good for my first year ever playing. What I've noticed is that the serve can determine a winner. Some of these girls are crappy runners and hitters but since they've perfected their serves they will win. I never really focused on my serve, I've done it the same as day one and apparently it's pretty good. I won my first match 11-0 because she couldn't return like 80% of my serves to the corner. It isn't fast or all that accurate but it kills some people.
P.S. I was thinking about a warning label today, you know how things commonly say "Keep away from open flame"? Well....shouldn't you be more concerned with concealed flames? Because then it's less expected!