To Be or Knot to Be

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.
Marcel Proust

 

I love my friends at the Senior Center.  They make me laugh every day.

I didn’t have a microphone available to do the lunch announcements at the Madison Senior Center  today so I walked into the middle of all the tables rather than standing at the front of the room and started “talking big,” projecting my voice to be heard over the jangle of the conversations going on at the individual tables, trying to get everyone’s attention.  Every day starts with an orientation to place and time–important stuff for a lot of Senior Citizens.

Sometimes the lady who writes these announcements throws me a curve ball and gets either the day of the week or the day of the month wrong and someone in the crowd cries out the correct information to correct me.  That used to embarrass me but I’ve learned to laugh about it and will often ask in an aside if we are all on the same page on the same day.

I was going to do that today just because I was feeling silly and wanted to give the room some extra time to settle down and listen up.  I looked up to see the three people I eat lunch with on a regular basis unfurling banners that proclaimed

and totally cracked up. I started blushing when the room erupted in applause. To Mark, Eugene and Barb and everyone else, thanks for making today special.  Barb D, you instigator you, payback is merciless and painful, you know.  Just remember that I kept your birthday a big secret.

Unfortunately I got so flustered I forgot a vital part of the set-up and  flubbed the lame joke of the day. It really, really was lame.  Pity that.  It’s actually a good joke.  So I’ll tell it here.

A string was thirsty one day and decided it wanted a beer so it walked into a bar and ordered a draft.  The bartender looks at the string and sneered “Get outta here, we don’t serve your kind!”  So the string left, feeling hurt and dejected.

However, the string was still thirsty and it still wanted a beer so (this is the part I forgot)  it ties itself in a knot, messes up its hair and goes back into the bar and orders a beer again.  The bartender looks at him with pure disdain and asks “Aren’t you the string I just threw out?  I told you we don’t serve strings!”

The string draws himself up indignantly and says, “No, I’m a frayed knot.”

Bada bump…

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Life at the Three Threes: HUD Inspections

Life at the Three Threes is ummm…interesting to say the least. I love living in downtown Madison and having the University so near. The energy of so many young people roaming the streets and patronizing the same business establishments I patronize is exhilarating. Living on the 9^th floor of one of the tallest buildings in the city is excellent. I’ve got a view! Having the Senior Center where I volunteer and socialize keeps me from becoming socially isolated. As an extrovert with introvert tendencies I really need and enjoy that outlet.

And then there is the Three Threes (the building street address is 333) itself. This building is HUD Housing meaning the rent I pay is based on my income and the rest is paid by a federal program with the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The residents are either senior citizens or disabled in some way.  The staff here is primo! We couldn’t ask for nicer and better folks in the office or on the maintenance staff. They all have an excellent sense of humor and are kind and helpful to the inmates err…residents.

Jill, in the front office, reigns with a quiet fair-minded benevolence. Gina, the resident activities coordinator and Jill’s assistant is creative and enthusiastic as well as fun to hang with. Erica, the Services Manager (she helps us get the social services we need to stay independent and healthy) is the BEST! I want to hook her up with my son.

The building is extremely well maintained and if you ask for something or there is a problem Vern and Scott are Johnny on the spot. Eldegard (I may have misspelled that—it’s Spanish) keeps the common areas spotless. They are all pleasant and nice folks.

BUT…(you just knew there was a but in there, didn’t you?) there are some things I (and most everyone else here) don’t like about living in HUD housing. Yearly inspections are one of them. A lot of people hate it with a purple passion but I’m generally pretty stoic about it. It forces me to spring clean which is a good thing and I sort of appreciate the push to do what I should be doing anyway.

But I don’t like it. It’s stressful. It takes all the fun out of spring cleaning which is that I do it because I feel like opening and washing the windows and as long as there is fresh air let’s get rid of all those pent up winter smells that accumulate. I’m in the mood and energized. Bring on the Pine Sol!

Besides that, I don’t particularly like young, healthy, physically active people coming in and judging my housekeeping skills. It doesn’t matter how nice they are. It’s unnerving.

Inspections take that away from me for the most part but whatever… I can deal. However, this year I am in the “hating it with a purple passion” camp. I have been incredibly busy for the past 4 weeks running to the chiropractor, the vet, and today I have to go see my GP. My son’s birthday was last Sunday. That may not seem like much but for me, it’s exhausting.

When I got the notice last Friday that they were going to be doing inspections THIS Thursday (that’s tomorrow), I was horrified. I was baking a cake on Saturday. Saturday night I was going out of town until Sunday evening. I had a Chiropractor appt Monday, Bridge on Tuesday, Dr’s appt on Wednesday. I need naps every afternoon. Serious two-three hour naps or I get sick. Just when was I going to find time to clean? Especially since they want the oven, refrigerator, bathroom, and carpet looking good. Oy…

If I fail this inspection then they will put me on horror of horrors quarterly inspections. Good gawd…

Don’t get me wrong, I think I am one of the luckiest people I know to live here in affordable housing that is well taken care of. I try to remember to count my blessings and not bitch a lot. Today I’m bitching.

Bless her heart my daughter is coming over tonight to clean the oven because that always triggers an asthma attack for me and needs its own day all by itself. And I’ve taken on the attitude that what gets done gets done. If they put me on quarterly inspections I’m going straight to Erica and asking her to help me find some housekeeping help. I’ve always wanted a maid.

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