Tuesday, December 20, 2005

4 Days 'til Christmas?!

Would anyone really mind if let Christmas come a little later this year?
It seems that I am really behind on everything.
I have made a dent in the Christmas shopping. Tip: One stop shopping at the bookstore.
I had this wild and crazy (thoughtful, I thought) thought that I would make scrapbooks of the wedding for the Mothers. Well, I only JUST got some of the photos back yesterday, and spent 4 hours today before going to work getting started. I am doing three scrapbooks at a time, and there are only 10 pages, and they are smaller scrapbooks, but, seeing as I have never scrapbooked before in my life...I probably should have started about a month ago.
The good news is, is that the first two pages of these scrapbooks are done, and really are quite pretty. I like them so much, I might even have a hard time to give them away! But, the bad news is, is that I have to work evenings this week, and that is taking up my valuable time. Oh, to not have to work for a living!
I'll just keep reminding myself how well I do under pressure.

Now, I have to tell you all something else. And, unfortunately it's a bit sad. Nat is not doing very well.
He has a bad case of Alzheimer's and has been deteriorating quite rapidly. A few Friday nights ago there was a knock at the door, and there stood Nat. He had a red leather glove in his hand which someone had dropped at the elevator. Now, Nat, ever the gentleman, took it upon himself to knock on all the doors to see if any of his neighbours may have lost it. It wasn't mine, but he then decided to invite himself in. Which was fine. He shuffled in admiring this and that, and then he asked if he could see the bedroom! Well, of course I found that quite humourous, as did our company, but nonetheless, I didn't mind. He admired the bedroom (thank god the bed was made!) asked me my name, said good night to my guests, and then left as he had to find the owner of the red glove.

Today I saw his wife Betty in the lobby, and I was so shocked because she looked so awful! I had overheard her talking to the concierge about Nat, and I already knew that he wasn't doing well. I was on my way to work, but something told me to stop and talk to her.
Well. Poor Betty has been up at all hours of the night with Nat. She says that she doesn't know what to do, that he has gone downhill so quickly in the past few days, that she can't leave him alone anymore, and then the poor lady started crying. And she was so embarrassed.
So, I gave her my number, told her to call me day or night, and that I would knock on her door tomorrow to see how things were going. That made Betty cry harder and in between dabbing at her eyes, Ever The Lady, she said "oh that would be so nice if you even just come for a cup of tea."
It looks like I've turned into the Residential Nurse. First my neighbour, now my neighbour's neighbour.
But hey, people need to use whatever resources they have, right? Right. And what kind of nurse (person) would I be, if I ignored someone who needed my help?

And, I guess the scrapbooks can wait.
And, no matter how much I'd like it to, Christmas probably won't.