old woman who lived in a shoe

2nd day of the online conference.  it was ok.  kind of boring.  i had it going on a different computer and was working on my computer during the workshops. took some more christmas card photos in my stairwell studio.  printed the latest edition of the Wow--your weekly portal to a state of wow.  all ho hum.

but then.  i was put on a new te site.  my 2 other sites have been dead since covid.  well i was put on this janitorial one at the food bank.  for some reason i was dreading it and i hadn't gone for training yet.  then colin told me he needed to add someone to this other one where you walk around and pick up garbage.  he gave me a choice.  god help me but i chose the garbage one.  this is my reasoning--it's flexible hours so i can go when it's convenient.  there are no people besides the people in the office.  and i don't mind being outside in all sorts of weather.  so terry, the guy on the site has hurt his back or something... we need a new guy.  in the mean time we cover it.  so j9 is also on this site and she was doing it today and i was all, i'll go with you and learn the job!  

we started off in good spirits.  the garbage pickers are kind of fun to make slapping sounds with.  we walked the route, finding garbage here and there... even picking up cigarette butts.  it was all fine.  kind of fun to be out and about actually, even in my gorgeous neon safety vest.  but then we came to the building, or the set of buildings they called "the furniture store".  it was a big complex.  i suggested to j9 that we split up and meet around the back.  she kept the garbage can on a dolly and i grabbed the bucket dustpan.  again, everything was fine.  until i turned the corner around the back of the buildings.  it was just one long block of trash and junk.  i filled my dustpan without gaining any ground.  i went in search of j9.  my back was starting to hurt.  we tackled it together.  the garbage clapper lost it's novelty.  my gripping hand ached.  it was so gross behind there. we renamed it 'hellgate' .  there was just weird things like big jugs of milk and ketchup, big twisty metal things, piles of sopping cardboard, empty take out bowls...plastic bags...styrofoam...it was nasty.  j9 and i laughed and groaned together and made a pact to always do the site together as moral support...and physical support to be honest.  

when we got back i was taking of my neon vest of beauty and the velcro had attached to my hair and it just hung there.  another reason i need a j9 with me. when i went to get into my car--lol, usually i swing my leg up and hop up and in.  but i couldn't lift my leg.  my back was too sore.  so i had to inch my butt up and shuffle myself in to place.  we found jimmy a ball and disinfected it.

back at work the walk in freezer was possibly dying and since i know all the service establishments we use from when i was manager of that unit, i was helping tajana out, giving her the number and stuck around in case we had to transfer all the stuff from the freezer into the cooler.  that's not a job you want to do by yourself. but luckily the temp started going back up so i left and went home. and died.  ever movement of my legs was a twinge in my back.  gah.

i had young womens at 7.  i told the girls that i had a sore back and was going to be zooming from my bed.  they are so cute.  i got a lot of i hope your feel better sister clarke, and i was all i'll be ok, i'm just an old lady.  adrie said to cassie her sister "i thought sister clarke was in her 20s."  how can i not love them?  it was poetry night and it was lead by adrie.  she first went over a few different poetic devices like aliteration, hyperbole, and simile.  then she went over some different kinds of poems.  then we had to write different poems and share them with the group.

first we did the 'grateful' poem.  on each line you increase the amount of syllables by one.  here is mine:

 

warm

cozy

wild winter nights

soft squishy pillows

piled high on my giant bed

sinking deep—losing myself

to that gooey chocolate lava

sensation, melting into pools of

slumbers and dreams of warmer days and---zzzzz.

then we did haikus.  mine:

bent over shuffle

twinges of pain with each step.

when did i get old?

cassie wrote 4 haikus in the time it took the reest of us to write one. lol we then wrote a free style poem on the topic of remembrance day and we were supposed to use a poetic device.  i used repetition.  i remember..., i remember...  blah blah blah.  it was fun.  they were just quick little poems but it reminded me how much i used to love writing poetry.  especially those years at malaspina when i took the two poetry creative writing classes.  i used to walk around campus composing poems in my head and not notice anyone else around me.

and now i wait for maria to send me her essay to edit. such a literary night.