"I want my life, my work, my family to mean something. If you are not making someone else's life better than you are wasting your time. Your life will become better by making someone else's life better. Be inspired. There is a concept of loss and how we react to loss. We think of things in a straight line: birth, life, death. And then you think, oh i die, it's over. it's not really how it works. Take the ends and bend them in a circle. It's birth, life, death, REBIRTH. So you have to be prepared...when you lose something... you go though adivorce, when your mother dies, when you lose your house, you have to understand that nature has it no other way. There is a rebirth. The death is painful. There is no changing the pain of the death. But you have to stay awake and stay focused for what's the rebirth that God is about to offer you." Will Smith

I am sitting here on a rainy Wednesday watching recorded episodes of Oprah. Most of the episodes lately focusing on the election and the outcome of the election. Anyway, I really found Will Smith's words so poignant. I love personal training because of the impact and the change I bring to these people's lives. and now, I am going to pursue nursing and have even more chances to make someone else's life better.

Thursday, Nov. 6th

I love old people...especially those with dementia. I know that sounds awful, but I'm being endearing. I train an 84 year old woman named Mimi and she lives in an assisted living community called SunRise. The population on the first 2 floors are "memory challenged" and the third is a secure, Alzheimers ward. This particular facility is small, but they are building a much larger one on Meridian (this will be important later)...

So, I go to train Mimi today and she was in her room...(sometimes she's wandering around and I have to find her). We chat and I lead her out of her room to walk and to do some warm up exercises in the hallway. While in the hallway, we run into Slyvia and Frances.

Sylvia has completely lost her marbles and is a complete riot. She has no filter and says whatever she wants. She, of course, remembers my face but never my name or who I am. Sylvia is built like a linebacker...she's about 5'5" and has breasts that would give Dolly Parton a run for her money. So, anyway, not that you have an idea of Sylvia....she approaches me in the hallway and as she walks up to me she says "how did you get so tall? I thought I was tall" and grabs me so hard she nearly knocks me off my feet and pulls next to those Dolly Parton breasts. Oh My! I told her that I got so tall by drinking lots of milk. Then she asks me if I'm a model...I'm so tall I must be a model!

Frances...Frances...is "rotund" as Mimi calls her. She uses a walker, but she doesn't "hold it", she "leans on it". And, yes, Frances is rotund. Mimi and Frances were for a short time "suite mates". Mimi didn't like living with Frances because she found Frances to be brash, curt, and to have a poor standard of personal hygeine. And to be honest, Mimi doesn't remember living on the second floor with Frances.

Mimi asks both Frances and Slyvia if they would like to see her room. (they both have seen it) Sylvia goes marching in ooo-ing and aaah-ing about how pretty her room is and then amazed that Mimi's room has a bathroom. The reason Sylvia was on the first floor was because she "doesn't have a bathroom" and had to come from her second floor room to find it. Side note...Sylvia DOES have a bathroom!!!! Then, both Sylvia and Frances are shouting questions at Mimi which she doesn't respond to because she doesn't have her hearing aids in. I finish this whole crazy scene by telling the ladies that I have to take Mimi but not before Frances tells Sylvia that she has to go sit with her in the parlor and talk to her! Oh goodness!

This is a good one too...last week, I went up to Sylvia and said "Hi Sylvia" and she says "oh, you remember my name?" and I said, "well of course I do". She looks up to me and says "what's your name" (again, she remembers my face, but not my name). And I tell her "Amanda". She says "I knew that. I was just testing YOU!" HAHA!

I also train Mimi's grand-daughter, Zoey. Zoey is beautiful, dark featured, 13 year old ballet dancer. Zoey has been going through some tough times at school and understandibly, being 13. Last week, I sat down and chatted with Zoey about life as a 13 year old and told her that things would get better...yada yada yada. Tonight after I trained her, she walked me to the door and as I started to walk out, she says "hug" and outstretches her arms. It was so sweet. I can't believe that she reached out to me.

And finally, Dan and I decided tonight that we would start planning a wedding for August 9, 2009!

Monday, November 3rd

Well, it's been an eventful day! My baby sister had her sonogram today and the baby looks great. I got good news from Starbucks....it's a long story, but there was some mix up as to when my paperwork was due. At first they were saying it was due October 8th. If that was the case, then my leave of absence would have been denied and I could possibly lose my job. Today, I spent 35 minutes on the phone with a Family Medical Leave person and told them the situation. He (Dennis, who was fabulous) said that apparently there was an outbound phone call made to me on the 8th stating the due date for my paperwork was the 13th. I had actually spoken to someone at FML that day because I had had an unpleasant encounter with my assistant manager that day. She told me that I could not return to work until I was 100% and I told the FML person that and that I had an appointment with my doctor on the 13th and that we then could determine a more appropriate return date. BUT, I had received 3 letters from Starbucks in the days following that phone call stating my leave was denied and that corrective action would be taken up to and including termination. So, I have been stressing about this for weeks. Not only that, I still didn't know the status of my short term disability pay. I got a letter today stating that it had been APPROVED!!!!! YEH! I hope to get a paycheck by Friday and it couldn't come at a better time! Persistance pays off!

On a lighter note, Lily left the yard....we (dan) didn't put her electric fence collar on her. In fact, we haven't had to use it in weeks/months because she wasn't even going near the fenceline. Well, today she walked down to the creek, under the bridge (so she could get across the street) and visited an old friend and returned with 2 large dog bones. Dan was so mad that he threw them away, but he just left so I am going to see if they are salvagable and give them to her. I am, though, going to have to give her a bath to clean her dirty paws. Pictures to follow.