hairy

yesterday was a hairy day.  the kind of day when just as you are about to start your early morning scripture study you get a text that someone hasn't shown up for their early morning work position and you just so happen to be a person who covers  this work position when members do not show up and you leave the house with your tooth brush and paste in a little pouch that you throw on the seat of your car beside you, because brushing your teeth can happen later and you arrive and start sweeping offices and halls upstairs and down, behind doors and under desks and between garbages and you get all hot and sweaty because they keep their offices warm enough for the elderly and then you run off to do your grocery shopping for the food you will be making that day at work, which is a bigger than usual grocery shop because this is the first day of your new menu and everything, all sides and sandwiches is new stuff, and then you make it to work and pile the groceries in the elevator and drive up and park in your spot, and you go in and remember to brush your teeth and immediately begin to set up for your day, writing a list of work to be done to make all the foods happen, and one of your staff is working later and your other two staff are going grocery shopping for the week and there is a lot to get done, and you go over the grocery lists you are giving your 2 staff and help them find members to go with them and where are all the members today??? and when they leave after the morning meeting you are alone in the kitchen and you know you cannot possibly make beef dip sandwiches, cornbread, apple pear crisp, roasted autumn veggies, and chicken enchilada filling all by yourself in 2 hours so you go about nabbing people to help you, first by dumping the beef dip sandwiches in the dining room and step by step telling the two ladies who like to sit there from early on how to do it and every time you see a person begging them to help you and setting them up with tasks and giving them instructions while simultaneously doing many other things at once and don't forget to put the trolleys in the elevator for the shoppers coming back with the groceries, and get the fries in the oven on time and make sure everything gets cooked and kept warm and help the returning shoppers put the groceries away and sell this member a lunch card and start serving early lunch, and sit down and eat your own lunch and discover that your member who was making the apple pear crisps put a cup of salt in the topping instead of a teaspoon of salt and laugh about it and take apple pear crisps off the menu for the day and eat quickly and get up and take the memory card out of the tv in the dining room and do the slide shows announcing what is for lunch and any other announcements and put the remaining beef dips in the oven and then the remaining fries and sit down for a second because your back and your bum foot are both hurting and then get up and serve lunch because it's 12 and somehow get through the rest of your day and talk to people about your new position which you feel nervous about and give a hedgehog to your friend who also applied for the same position and who loves hedgehogs and you saw a little one in norway that you got for her but now you are afraid to give it to her because you don't know exactly how she feels about you getting the job when she didn't and you noticed she couldn't look at you or face you during the morning meeting but you give it to her anyways and make her laugh and then you go talk to your program director about who can possibly be hired for your current position and talk over the different options and then as you are leaving her office be called by your friend who you are taking her position and talk about the exact same thing and then go talk to your staff and sign your letter of offer and then your staff is feeling very dizzy and you realize she might have taken 2 different medications that do not work well together and call the nurses hotline and are on hold for ten minutes and talk to the nurse who finds out your staff didn't eat since 7am and you go make your staff a grilled cheese sandwhich and she drinks a juice and at the same time you are posting an add for your current position in house and on a job board and when your staff starts to perk up after eating but still feels pressure in her chest you talk to her about it more and if she should go to the hospital or if it is stress and then when that is sorted you go home and feed your cat and get your voting card and go out into the stormy night and park in the crowded parking lot of the local baptist church and line up and vote and despite making a decsion about who you were going to vote for, last second almost changing your mind but you stuck with your original vote but are still not sure that was the right decision and go back out to the pouring rain and home and avoid those big drops from the gutter and up your back stairs and back inside where your cat bugs you for food and you wonder why right now she is avoiding all dry food and you make yourself some annies cheese and shells and watch election coverage and feel blessed to live in a country where free and safe elections are normal and were politicians respect the democratic process and gracefully defer to winners and watch a few episodes of a new show and every time you move you feel your back and every time you get up your bum foot aches and you hobble off to bed and sleep the sleep of the dead.  that kind of day.