Neil Diamond Christmas

At the moment I am sitting in Insomnia (my favorite coffee shop here which ironically closes at 6pm every night...) with Kaitlyn and Lennart. The cleaners are at the house so we're hanging out til it's safe to go back. We just made plans for Paris! I am so excited to go there in two weeks! I have dreamt about going to Paris ever since I saw The Hunchback of Notre Dame! (And then there was the four years of French I took in school...) I wish my stay would be longer than three days, but I'm sure we'll get to see most of the important sites. It will be Kaitlyn, Lennart, Erin, and myself going and we will be meeting up with Gabriele for the first day. I can't wait to see him! It's been a while and we miss him in the house.

I can't think of a smooth transition into talking about the group so I'll just jump right in. The members started showing up at the house starting at half three on Friday. I wasn't too excited about this group because it consisted of all elderly people. Now before you get judgey let me explain why I don't like these groups. I don't like to group people by age because even though they were all similar ages, they all had different intellectual levels. But the activities we planned were based on ages, not abilities. I was with Dora, a very sweet woman in her 50s. She is very young at heart and loves to stay up late. Most everyone else went to bed early both nights and she was left with no choice but to follow. She really needs to be in a group that is more lively and energetic. But anyways, I'll move on. Dora has cerebral palsey which keeps her in a chair and has limited her voice to a soft whisper. That was my biggest challenge of the weekend. It was very hard to hear her a lot of the time, but she is very patient and she would repeat herself until I understood. Dora has an amazing personality! She loves fasion and is always wearing at least 10 bracelets. She is also unbelievably obsessed with Patrick Swayze. (Who could blame her?) It was so funny to hear her reaction when I tried to say that someone else was more attractive than him. "Oooooooh no! No way!" Kate let me borrow her iPod and we listened to the Dirty Dancing soundtrack both nights. She wanted "She's Like the Wind" (the song that Swazye sings) on repeat but after six or seven times I couldn't take it anymore! She bought his autobiography and we spent some time yesterday reading it. I was getting into it and now I want to read the whole thing! Male dancers have it rough...

The weekend was slow and long, but being with Dora was fun and I didn't mind. That's another reason why I like a mix of ages... it's good to have variety in the house. Anyways, shopping with Dora was the best. I normally don't like shopping with the members because most of them don't really enjoy it. But Dora loved to shop and she knew exactly what she wanted and was in and out of stores. Just the way I like it! We picked out some fun jewelry and other items. We went to see Fantastic Mr. Fox (a repeat viewing for myself) and most of the members liked it. When we got home Collie showed me the CD he bought. Neil Diamond Christmas CD!!! I was so excited, you don't even know. You just haven't lived unless you hear him sing "Silver Bells." :) I normally don't let myself get in the Christmas spirit until after Thanksgiving, but it's really hard to ignore all of the decorations everywhere and then the CD just pushed me over the edge! I'm trying not to think about missing out on my first Christmas at home, but it will be amazing to be in Germany so I'm focusing on that.

It was hard to say goodbye to Dora yesterday. She really hates the hospital she lives in. She says the food is bad, the people aren't friendly, and I don't think they care for her well. The last time she came in she had a bad infection that looked uncared for. She hates her roommate. She shares a room with a woman who doesn't stop talking. I would go crazy too if I were Dora! She told me that the TV in their room is her roommates, but she says it's hers so she can watch what she wants! I laughed so hard at that. She also said that she tells her to be quiet all the time, but she never listens. She said the wall would take notice of her before her roommate would! It was funny to hear Dora say these things because she is so sweet and quiet. She always cries when she leaves the house, but this time I assured her we would be seeing her twice in the next few months and there was no need for tears.

After everyone left we were all relaxing and doing our own things. I was getting ready to go out in a few hours with Kaitlyn and Erin to O'Neills when the power went out in the house. I was glad I was planning on going out! I did have to do my makeup in the dark though... O'Neill's was really fun! I love the band that plays there, although I was outside with Federico for a while and missed my favorite song that they sing. It's the band that has two old Irishmen and a young polish woman on the fiddle. They are amazing! We met these women from Connecticut and they bought us a round! They were on a long holiday weekend here scoping out places to buy a summer home. I was happy letting them buy me a drink! Erin is from Connecticut and when she told one of the women that, she was offered her son for when she comes home! It was a good night. :D

So now we are back to the present time. Full circle. :) I'm still in Insomnia, but it's time to go now. Love to my friends back home,
Claire