Blessed to Have a Job I Love

I spent three hours today giggling with a little 73 year old lady. We are quite the pair. At 56 years old, I am her caregiver three days a week. Her name is  Lou and she is  such a joy to me.  We have the most fun two “mature” women can have with a “G” and sometimes a “PG” rating.

When I get to Lou’s in the mornings, I generally go into her room, take off my glasses and talk for a minute before I make her breakfast. If I don’t need to read anything, I just leave my glasses in her room until I need them. I don’t need them to make eggs , oatmeal, omelets, things like that. Now, if I’m serving sausage and biscuits, I need them to know how long to microwave them, you know. But, this morning, it was eggs, toast, and oatmeal- raisin and spice, if you please, so the glasses weren’t necessary. 

I took the first season of House DVDs for us to watch. Lou had been a registered nurse, so when I saw House at Half Price Books, I knew she would love it. She has that kind of dry with House has -that I have and I knew she would find the stories intriguing. Just in case, though, I bought a Bob Hope DVD. Sometimes, she’s in a comedic mood. Today, however, it was House. She had never seen the House series because she prefers the ID channel to most other ones. She, like me, loves a good murder story. It’s just these happen to be true. Anyway…I’m beginning to think I need to get my glasses. House is a good looking man and if I’m going to watch it, it is he I want to see.

I got up, ambling into Lou’s room looking for my glasses, when I saw a pair on her tray. I picked them up and realized straight away they were not mine. It was then, I knew  she was not wearing her glasses, but mine! I’d given her my glasses! I mean , I didn’t have them on, so it wasn’t like I could see all that good. They are not the same color, not even similar in shape! I kinda giggled and said, “Lou, are you able to see out of those glasses?” 

“No,” she said questioningly, ” and I can’t understand why.” 

I burst out laughing and said, “Because you are wearing mine and I have yours here!” She gave me the strangest look as I held her glasses in my hand so she could see them.  We cracked up. 

“What a pair we are, ” I laughed. Truly, the blind leading the blind.

We laughed and laughed and laughed. Every now and then she would chuckle all over again. I love that I have a job where I can make a mistake and we can laugh and laugh and laugh.

 

However Dysfunctional, There was Fun!

Everyone’s family has a bit of dysfunction in it. It’s okay. Ours was that way too. But, I like to think we put the “fun” in dysfunctional. We all loved to laugh- my mother most of all. So, you can imagine how confused I was when my mother declared my lifelong friend, Kim Gibson Wallis and I “as silly as blackbirds.” I mean, after all, where did she think I learned it ? No matter, the truth of the matter was that Kim and I thought it incredibly funny! Funny, funny, funny.

As long as I can remember, we had dinners for my mom’s side of the family at our house all the time. My mother and her sister, Ginny, alternated years as to who would host the Christmas dinner. It really didn’t matter, I don’t think to us kids where it was, just as long as it was.  It was our time to see each  other and play like the wild kids we wished we could be all the time.

If we were at Ginny’s house, then my cousin, Matt would be in charge of what we played and stuff. After all, he did live there and he would be the one to get into trouble (mostly) if we did stuff we weren’t supposed to. Younger readers may be confused because we were actually outside, in the sunshine, running, chasing, playing and teasing one another. Yes, that’s what I said- Outside. Sunshine. Playing. All those things kids barely know the meaning of anymore. Well, anyway, no matter whose house we were at (Texan phraseology, i’m afraid), one game was a constant- “Big Kids Run From the Little Kids.” I never was much of a runner, in fact, I was the last one chosen on a team of any sorts at school recess, but I could outrun the little kids! When Gary, my mom’s brother’s kid, his sisters, Jayne and Amy got to come, it was so much fun! Gary, Matt, Phil (Matt’s brother)  and I ran away from poor Jayne and Amy.  Of course, it wasn’t long til Jayne was “one of us.”

A Holiday dinner at our house

Oh my gosh! Our parents could just look at each other and start laughing- something their offspring can do as well. It was always fun to know someone else was thinking the same thing at

Being silly and laughing was a genetic trait for us

the same time. Ever happen to you?

Of course, with all of us, there was the “odd, but lovely” relative. This would be our Aunt Dillie. She came to be Aunt Dillie because someone as a baby couldn’t say Nellie. So, Dillie it was. We kinda made alot of fun of poor old Dillie, because she could sniff more times in a row than anyone else in the world!  Not only that, but she could burp louder than a guy and we thought it was hysterical. Of course, not to her face. We held it til we were out of the room and then we’d really let the hysteria go.

Turns out, poor old Dillie, unbeknownst to us at such an early age, had been set to marry a young man and he left her at the alter. So, these interesting traits of hers probably came about after the fact. She never married or had a gentleman suitor again. Tragic, really. However, as in Shakespeare, some tragedies are comedy and we thought she was plenty funny.

I am reminiscing because my cousin , Gary, will be spending the weekend with me. For the Fourth of July. I haven’t seen him in years and I am so excited to see him. Because it is a holiday, it reminds me of being a kid, looking out the window , waiting for him to arrive- waiting impatiently for the fun to begin!