Rewind

Hello, lovelies!  I've been gone for a while, but I have lots to tell you.  Let's work backwards.

Yesterday

The day started off with a rendezvous with my arch nemesis, 6:00 AM.  I had to be at the Red Cross at 8:30 to take my test for my CNA certificate.  I'm official now!  I passed on the first try, which is such a relief.  But, the day wasn't without drama...thankfully for us.

The letter I received said to be there at 8:30 for registration & the test would begin at 9:00.  It's a state run test, so they're not lenient about being absent or late.  Well, 9:00 rolled around & someone still wasn't there.  His coworkers were, & were in contact with him.  He was from a nursing home about an hour away & had gotten lost because Mapquest sucks ass.  The evaluator waited for a few extra minutes, but we had to get started to she shut the door & started passing out our test materials.

And that's when it happened - the lost guy arrived, & started pounding on the door.  When the evaluator opened the door he tried to push his way in, & the screaming match started.  Although he was late, he didn't accept her answer that these were the rules & she couldn't just let him in.  He assured her that the rules didn't matter & she could.  This escalated to the point where she threatened to call security, & he called her a horrible person before stomping away.

After the written exam I went back to the waiting room only to find irrational guy still there.  Turns out, he was still able to take the skills exam that day...and he was my partner.  FML.

But, in the end, it didn't matter.  I passed! 

The weekend

DJ & I were in West Chester this weekend for Mechanicon a dork tournament he was participating in.  Now that I have my jab in, I'll admit - it was a lot of fun.  It was a tournament for a tabletop game called Warhammer that DJ plays.  It's kind of like Risk, but not really.  The back story of the game is this:  it's 40,000 years in the future, & Earth is gone.  The universe is populated with what I can only describe as "leftovers," who all hate each other.

So, the boys all pick an army & then spend months (& sometimes years) collecting everything they need, assembling the models & painting them.  This is the result:

In addition to the armies themselves, the boys make intricate terrain to put on their play tables.  The game itself is all strategy.  They roll dice to move their armies & attack the other person's army until only one person is left.

There were 50 total people playing in the tournament.  DJ didn't win (nor did he expect to) but he had a great time with his friends & meeting new people.  However, the gaming club that he & his friends are a part of had a separate, smaller tournament during the weekend & DJ was the overall winner! 

I enjoyed  "celebrity" stalking, which I'll talk more about in a later post.

Friday

DJ left for Mechanicon Friday morning, & I met him there after work that night.  My Friday night at work is what there is to talk about it.  The day I have been dreading finally arrived.  One of the residents on my unit passed away during my shift.

This guy was, in no uncertain terms, a pain in the ass.  He usually wouldn't eat anything expect vanilla ice cream, or sometimes strawberry if he was slumming it.  There were behavior issues, & at times he was violent when a nurse or aide was giving care - so people started bribing him with ice cream, & he caught on pretty quickly to how things worked.  After they created the bad behavior, the nurses tried to correct it...which didn't go so well. 

After seeing that his ice cream was being limited, he would sit in his room for hours on end just saying, "Help," over & over & over & ov.....you get the picture.  This was mild, actually.  He used to throw himself out of bed, so he had bed alarms.  After that, he graduated to ripping the alarms out of the wall & throwing them out into the hallway.

But the point of my story was not to complain.  Sometimes working with him was so frustrating, but when he passed away the silence coming from his room was deafening.  In the instant he was gone, he was already missed. 

He has very little family, & they were not able to make it that evening.  There was so much going on that day that I didn't have time to go in & talk with him before he passed away, which I regret very much.

And so, I'm sharing this sad story with you ladies hoping that my words will find him wherever he is.  There's also some closure in saying the things that I didn't have a chance to that night.  Here goes:

Dear D,


You were loved.


xoxo