We have been trying and trying to come to grips with the whole idea of a phone in the memory care setting. There is a common phone available to all residents that want to make a call or to receive a call. One of the challenges we had here was to find there were late night phone calls made to others. Most people didn't mind, but the sheriff did.
After I went and visited this past Saturday and saw how content she was, I decided that the phone would be more of nuisance than a benefit. So, today I put on my big girl pants and let everyone know that there will be no in room phone, nor will there be a cell phone. It is the best way for her to learn to trust those who are there to care for her and it will keep her from calling the sheriff.
Now on to my day. It is Sunday and we went to church as a family for the second time this year. With SIL safely monitored in her new apartment we can try to get back to normal... whatever that is. While all the chaos is starting to settle around SIL and the home itself, the adoption scene is getting heated. For the life of me I just do not understand how things can get so tangled. I guess there must be something going awry for me to keep a pulse going.
This past week I had to go get copies of our custody papers as threats were made and demands filed with the courts. While there I decided to pick up a copy of my DD 214, well one of them anyway. As my daughter and I entered the area that we needed we noticed that it was very quiet. At first, I thought they must be closing for the snowstorm that had started. Every desk still had an occupant, so we went ahead and took numbers. I realized that I had taken the wrong type of number, some were for getting a copy and some were to make a copy and still some were to ask a question. Government at its' finest I suppose.
As I sat here the desk on the right got up and walked away
My view from where I sat first after taking a number
The desk that took my daughter's number
The area where we sat because the sign said to
suddenly every desk became vacant
When we arrived in the door, I took a ticket for making copies and she took a ticket to get copies. After thinking it through during our initial 10-minute wait, we traded tickets. She got called by a machine to go to a certain desk. As soon as she sat down the clerk stood up and proclaimed she would be right with her. Ten minutes later she was. Now she never left the general desk area, nor did any of the other "desk sitters". They just quietly looked at each other, then at us, and then started talking to each other as if we were invisible. After the 10 minutes she asked my daughter how she could help her, (this was progress at least) until her phone rang.
After talking to whomever for a few minutes, she returned to the conversation with my daughter and explained that she had to go to another part of the building and make an appointment to be seen for her copy. We had been to that desk already and they sent us here she explained and that got her nowhere. I sat in my chair for this conversation and then my daughter went back to the previous desk in another part of the building. (Yes, I was snickering a bit, but it was somewhat funny to watch) I felt much like a Dr. Suess character as we sat there, we two, with nothing to do, we sat there and waited and waited we two.
Alas, my number it hadn't been called, so I sat there and waited, alone after all. Then in a free moment the lady glanced up and said may I help you? I explained I was waiting for my number to be called. She asked what is your number for? Once I explained, she exclaimed Oh you are sitting on the wrong set of chairs! You must get up and move over there! I glanced at the board that sounded off the numbers and got out of my chair to sit over there. It was far from the board and alone I sat still as the desk ladies got up and mingled again. In 10 minutes, my daughter returned and just as she did the board called out my number. She printed my copies and bid me adieu and we left there just laughing, it was all we could do.
And that was my day for what should have been a 10-minute visit at the clerk's office.
Comments
Post a Comment