chassit

I am back from an extremely refreshing trip. To LAS VEGAS.

My grandmother - Dad's side - works for a pretty cool company, and they were paying her way to a trip to a conference. And she invited me along, since she could bring along one other person.

Personally, it was awesome. Since I don't want to give this word congestion, I'll just summarize into chunks.

Day one:

- Woke up at Ungodly Hour in the morning.
- Grandma came over, and Mom took us to the airport.
- We got onto the plane in time. We were seated, had our stuff stored in the above compartment.
- The plane ride was kinda rough. A lot of people felt nauseous on the plane, but I don't think people got sick.
- Landed in Las Vegas. The airport and weather was beautiful. We got a neat cab to take us to the hotel.
- It was called the Southpoint Hotel, and oh wow, it was beautiful. I loved it.
- We went to lunch later on. It was a five star place, and it was in Caesar's Palace. This place.
- I learned about the company and my grandmother's blood disease, and I spoke with the CEO. One on one. He was extremely polite and very interesting.
- We sat and watched the people walking around the forum shops. It was beautiful.
- Grandma wasn't feeling too good, so later she rested in the hotel room and I investigated the hotel. It was beautiful.
- I played in the arcade, and I crawled back into the hotel room around... well, Grandma said it was about four a.m. VEGAS, C'MON.

Day Two:

- This was a big conference day. Basically we went around to investigate the different medications for the disease she has. We had a nice lunch.
- I was pushing her downstairs and I saw the stables for the equestrian center. (This is the only hotel in Las Vegas that has an equestrian center) I passed by and I saw a beautiful horse. A guy let me go into the stable, and the people that owned the horse said it was okay for me to pet him. A little corgi was trotting around there too, and I scritched him a little. It made my day.
- Later, we had wonderful room service. The food was delicious and we had tiny little tobasco bottles and stuff. But other stuff. Everything was wonderful.
- I wandered around the hotel again, and I got hugged by a very pretty, very drunk girl. She told me cheerfully that she was getting married that night. I wanted to ask whether or not it was someone she knew before then, but I just told her congratulations.

Day Three:

- I helped pack, and later on, we went to another great restaurant. It was on the strip, and the food was... oh, wow. Delicious. Grandma thought that it was a lawyer's office first. But the restaurant was lovely inside, and the food was lovely...
- It was our shortest day in Vegas, and we left after we ate. We were at the airport and a really nice guy helped me with Grandma - I wasn't able to push the wheelchair and pull the luggage all at once. We got home at about eleven. Mom picked us up at the airport at about twelve fifteen or so.

I arrived at the nose-end of my birthday. It was a great present.

Also, I feel a little more... refreshed now, if that makes sense. I was starting to get wanderlust extremely bad, and this was a good help. I feel better, like I can start writing again. Grandma said that if I wanted to, I can go with her to Jacksonville, Florida, and Chattanooga, Tennessee. And I do! This was a great trip, though.

I drove today. Not for very long or very far, but I drove. It was in this huge empty parking lot, and I missed most of the pot holes (it was like the surface of the moon) and the cars and everything else. I got the hang of parking and the turn signals and stuff. I still have a ways to go but at least I drove.

Today was a mix of awesome and horrible. The driving was the awesome, the horrible reminded me I am not as stable as I would like to be or think I am.

I tried to write this post once before but it disappeared - but I'm giving it another shot. It wasn't very long so not much was lost.

I have stuff to do tomorrow - Tagging (which... I have been failing at) and working on stuff (I've got something where I can make money, but I would not call it a job) and stuff. Dunno.

I'm going to go to sleep now I think.

So - all of the regular readers of my journal know that my Grandpa's in a nursing home for physical therapy right now, and most people that know me know I'm volunteering there. I figured it'd be an interesting enough post, and some people actually wanted to hear about it, so here we go!

When Grandpa first moved in there, the first time we went and stayed with him, I told Grandpa, Mom and Grandma that my legs were getting twitchy, so I was going to go for a walk to get a decent understanding of where everything was. Grandma told me not to bug anybody, and Mom told me to keep my phone on me, and I said yes to both but didn't quite follow the first one word for word.

So I got to stretch my legs and I figured out where everything was at, basically. The Lutheran home has one long hallway that branches out into others, with a nurse's station at the 'crossroads'. There's a large, lush green dining room with a piano, and there's a sitting room with a TV, as well as one that's connected to a little courtyard and has a swinging bench in it. In the room with the swinging bench there's beautiful dollhouses, and there's a stunningly beautiful bird cage - made of wood and glass, with little songbirds and a couple of doves. (Recently, a couple of birds had babies. I got to see three little fuzzy heads sticking out of a nest and begging for food, which they got.)

I got to the very front of the home, where most visitors enter, and saw a lady in a wheelchair next to the nursing station. She spotted me and asked "Do you work here?"

"Uh, no. What do you need?" I asked, completely breaking the promise into a thousand little shards, although she was the person who talked to me first.

"All I need is a push to the TV room. Can you do that for me?"

There were no nurses around at that time, and I figured I could do that and not get in too much trouble. So I took the handles of the wheelchair and we went along, talking a little bit. I told her my name, she told me her name was Alice. We went to a couple of different rooms, and we went to the TV room and sat down. One of the ladies there (who I guessed - correctly - worked there) looked at me after we said hi and said "Are you a relation of hers?"

My response was as follows: "... Uh. I can be if it gets me out of trouble."

After a few minutes of giggling, another employee said "You know, I think you'd make a good volunteer."

Before I left, I said I'd ask Mom about it, and I did - Mom and Grandma said they didn't have a problem with it, so the next time I went I picked up a sign up sheet and I filled everything out. After that I had a snazzy red vest with "Volunteer" on the back and permission to wander around and talk to people. (I've done more than that, I've helped pick up finished meal trays and helped with Bingo.)

For the most part, it's awesome. I made friends with a lady who's ninety six years old when I was looking for the cat that lived there (yes, they have a cat there. There's a dog that lives with its owner, although I haven't seen the dog in a bit). A lot of the time, we sit and watch Judge Judy and gossip about the people on the show. Also, I have come to the realization that old ladies always think you need to eat something. Some of the ladies really appreciate me hanging out with them, and I guess it makes me feel like I'm making a difference, even if it's not a big one.

And of course, sometimes it sucks. Sometimes a person won't remember you, and you know the reason why. Or you can't understand somebody, and you hate the fact you can't really have a conversation with them because of that. Or hearing a lady say "I want to go home" and threaten to break the fingers of a nurse when they try taking her back to her room (it's worse if you've had a conversation with her when she was lucid, and she said "I just met you and I love you."). Also trying to beat feet past the Casanova of the nursing home without trying to obviously do it is difficult, but hey.

Generally I end up talking to my Mom about my day, because chances are something new will have happened and generally it's good. Sometimes it's a mixed bag.

One day I had dinner with one of my friends, Alice. She said she couldn't eat all of her food, so did I want some? I am not good at saying no, and she was already cutting the sandwich in half. I asked a nurse about it and she said this one time it was okay. (The next time Alice offered me half a sandwich, I was able to turn it down, partly because I told her that I was going to have dinner with my Grandma after we left.)

And then there's days like today, when you hear a lady screaming to be taken home and it's really heartbreaking. But then you meet a lady and you talk with her a little bit, and all she really wants to do is sit and hold your hand and talk about the birds.

So I guess that's my first post on the whole volunteering thing. It won't be my last, but I wanted to get out a good, kinda serious post about it first. I'll probably put up more talking about random encounters, like the one I had with the Casanova of the place. But that's a story for another time.

Highlights of yesterday:

- peaceful highway
- seeing Lansing Skyscrapers
- signing in
- getting a sign
- getting a clipboard to help people sign in
- "Semper Fi"
- "Here's my card."
- 1950's styled diner
- Hippie Hash
- "Your reaction to that was awesome."

Downpoints of yesterday:

- Waking up really early
- "I'm supposed to feel my toes, right?"
- "Grandpa's in the hospital, but he should be out tomorrow."

Will say more tomorrow. Won't be terribly good at writing about it right now.

This is the end of a decade? Really? I can remember when 1999 turned into 2000. I remember being confused as to why this was such a big deal, then thinking it was pretty cool when it was explained to me.

Resolutions? Oh man.

1: Write more.
2: Read more.
3: Walk the dog and bike ride every day it's nice out.
4: Remember to eat. That was a bad thing I did last year - forgetting to eat.
5: Help grandma out more.

Uuugh, what else? I'll probably think of something else. But right now those seem to be good resolutions.

Yesterday I ended up helping an old lady with her groceries. She looked tired, so I put them on the counter for her, and she said thanks. We were in a Family Dollar (I'm trying to get mom to be thrifty) and Mom and I went to the car, and put our two or three bags in the back. After that, I took the cart and put it inside the store, since leaving carts right out in the middle of the parking lot annoys me. I saw the lady had had her stuff bagged, but not in the cart, so I put it in the cart for her. At which point she declared that she had to give me a tip, to my protests. I went to the car with her (it was right next to Mom's) and helped her put the bags in the backseat. So, I felt a little guilty still, but I knew better than to try to change her mind. My experiences with Grandma have taught me this.

So, on Thursday, a couple of friends I haven't seen in a while took me and Mom out to go bowling. A lot of people were there, and it was fun! I sucked. But it was fun. Mom said not to worry, since it'd been the fourth or fifth time I'd gone bowling.

Only a few hours and it'll be 2011. What'll happen this year?

ZOMBIE PROM TONIGHT ZOMBIE PROM TONIGHT.

... uh well. I've known about it for a few weeks, and it's for teenagers and stuff, and essentially it's what it sounds like. Needless to say, I have a dress I tore up, makeup, and fun stuff like that. I AM EXCITED. There are going to be prizes for stuff like best costume and eeee. There'll be a DJ and snacks and drinks.

The library holding it is AWESOME. I'm excited! There will be a post about what happens later. Possibly pictures!

So! Tonight was awesome.

At the library they were having a "Hunger Games Night" thing. Now, for people that haven't heard of the books, they're a series a bit like Battle Royale. In this post-apocalyptic North America, named Pandem, there are Districts, and the way the government keeps people in line is by taking two kids from each District and making them battle to the death, on TV. A lot like Battle Royale, kinda.

Anyway, I'd heard about the books, but I hadn't read them yet. I was like "Should I even go if I haven't read them, or will I just stick out and be annoying or a poser?" for a couple of days, when I finally came out with the idea of returning a couple of CDs I'd taken from the library when I went, and 'discovering' that it was going on. ... I'm neurotic shuttup.

I went in and saw it going on - I asked a lady if it was only for people that had read the books, and she gave me a 'no' answer, and a punch card so I could go to the districts and learn stuff. One was knot tying, one was 'archery' (a nerf bow and arrow), one was filtering water, one was making a tiny bow and arrow and a 'symbolic arrow' which is neat. There was also an area where you had to tell a guy which plants were safe to eat and which were poisonous.

Apparently only one other person had gotten them all right. There were a few plants, and apparently only four were safe to eat. A couple I instantly knew as poisonous.

I looked at them, and I finally picked "Lotus, Cattail, Thistle, Agave." I remembered one person on my flist mentioning lotus paste, and I seriously hoped they were being literal. Fortunately? I got them all right. One of two people. I felt really smart and kind of bragged a little, I guess.

When I was making the 'symbolic arrow', this one girl struck up a conversation with me, and she told me "Just between you and me, there is no district thirteen. But if there was, it'd be underground." I grinned and said thanks, but I didn't manage to go to it in time. She told me that she told me because I was nice. I felt all warm and fuzzy.

The games started, and basically what went on was - There were a bunch of chairs in a circle, and you were given a card with your name on it and a skill. I can't remember the name I got, but I got 'Strategizing.' and figured that'd be pretty good. Some people got 'archery', one person got 'camoflauge', stuff like that.

There was also a big cornuocopia in the middle of the circle, and there was stuff in it. These were also cards - basically it could say 'sword', 'needle and thread', 'tarp', stuff like that. There was also, however, 'instant death', which meant you had to leave the game and be in the audience. The winner of the games would get a prize. And to throw a wrench in the works, there were 'the gamemakers' who could say "There's been a harsh, cold wind and anybody that can't p. otect themselves dies." or "There is an avalanche." and stuff like that.

The GM had a spinner, and you had to walk as many steps as the spinner said to another chair. If there was no one in front of the chair, you could sit and be safe. If there was, you'd have to 'fight' them. If you had immunity, you instantly won, which is how I saved my ass a couple of times.

I had one girl step in front of me, and her skill was 'strength.' She said "Uh.... I could hit her in the head really really hard?" and I said "I have strategy. I could see her weaknesses and use them to my advantage." I was about to quote The Art of War, but the GMs agreed that I won (plus they didn't like the girl using 'really' twice, but she handled it well). I didn't end up being the last chick standing, but they had prizes left over and said that if people got trivia right, they could get prizes. One of the GMs said that he thought people that won the plants section should win.

... So I got a free book, I had a great night, and it was free! Plus I walked out feeling kind of smart.

I had a good night.

Today, I woke up at seven o'clock and quickly woke my Mom up after. We'd been planning this, so she wasn't terribly grumpy at me waking her up at a time that we usually never saw except for fleeting glimpses.

There was a Red Cross Walkathon in Downtown Monroe, and I wanted to do it, so we got the dog, got up early, and left, almost thinking that we would be late. We actually ended up early, an amazing experience for the two of us, who are chronically late.

In any case, we chose the medium loop - the two mile one. But we walked, and I gave ten dollars (which was given to me by my Grandma, since I didn't have any cash on me), and some people petted Dresden and said he was pretty. One person said that she had three dogs, and none of them were the size of his head. We said that the three dogs could probably eat Dresden before Dresden even noticed.

When we hit a water station, the two guys taking care of it got a paper cup and gave Dresden some water. They also gave him a health bar, and we laughed and said that Dresden would gulp down anything if he could.

So this morning I kind of felt like I did something good. And plus, I got to walk, listen to music, and see some gorgeous houses as I did.

I suppose that's the only thing really important that happened today, but here are two links I think everyone should read -Internet's Operation Birthday Boy is a Success!, and The Money Tree.

sooo, this is my day.

Happy Friday the thirteenth, first of all. My day was pretty good, but I still remember that a lot of the time I can be really socially awkward.

I went to the ice cream shop in Downtown Monroe, got some ice cream. Then I wandered idly over to the library - they didn't have the book I was looking for but they could get it, and would call me when they had it. I got another book, though, and it's a good thing because I finished John Dies At The End when I got home. I went to a little store and got some tea that's supposed to help you with sleeping, soooo, here's hoping. After that I hung out at the coffee shop and read a little. It was pretty nice.

I found some books about dreams in the Book Nook. Tomorrow Mom and I are going to the Art/Jazz festival so I might get them then.

Also, I have a couple of books I could probably give to the library. Anyway.

And, should everything go right, I'm going to a concert on sunday! It's a Tegan & Sara and a Paramore one. I like Paramore, but I like Tegan & Sara more. Also, the place where the concert is taking place is where a couple of my cousins live. We'll be visiting them, probably.

Anyway. I'm gonna play dorky games now. That seems like a good ending to the day.