My Perfection

I suppose I've neglected this blog for the past two weeks. I'm not really sure why except that I was floating through them trying not to reflect on my thoughts because Kaitlyn was leaving. Now that she's gone the effort is no longer needed.

We had a kids group two weekends ago. I was with a little five year old girl named Perfect. I've spoken about her before because I was supposed to be with her in the last childrens group. She arrived on time that Friday afternoon with her father. I instantly fell in love with her. She is very small...the size of a normal three or four year old. Her disability is delayed development, both physically and intellectually. She doesn't have much speech, but she was still able to express herself well. Mostly Perfect just wanted to cuddle or to play with my hands and face. The first night was a little rocky because she scratched me a lot with her little kitten like razor nails. But we cut them and then it was much better! She had a way to connect with people (or get their attention) by putting her hand under her chin in an adorable pose. When anyone copied that pose she would then move her hand to the top of her head, and then to the side, etc. It became her game, and it really never got old! Because she was so mellow, I was able to enjoy watching the other kids being crazy. Billy and Darren were up to their usual shenanigans, including taking turns marrying Kate and Kaitlyn. Luke was treating Lennart like a set of monkey bars. We took them swimming on Saturday. Perfect was scared of the water and I didn't want to push her. Khadija kept pushing though, which annoyed me at first. But then we realized that as long as I held her in my arms she was okay floating in the water. I was glad because walking her around the aquatic center would not have been nearly as much fun as floating around the pool with her in my arms. Every once in a while she'd get splashed at and she really didn't enjoy that. Overall it was a fun day. Sunday was kind of a struggle for me for reasons I won't get into. But Perfect was great. :) We went to see Astro Boy (yikes...) and I was happy that she sat through it with me. We came back to the Malahide house for lunch and send the kids on their way. Perfect's father came early, which was sad. We all could have spent a lot more time with her! After she left I sat with Kaitlyn on the couch. Darren came up and sat between us. He looked back and forth between the two of us and said, "Sexy my ladies! Two sexy ladies!" I probably should have told him that it was inappropriate, but it was hard to do so when I was laughing as much as I was. :P Then Kate came and he pulled her on the couch. He yelled, "Hey Luke! I got TWEE!!!" ("Three" with his little Darren lisp.) Probably the funniest thing I've seen him do.

I don't think that any of us didn't anything interesting during our Monday and Tuesday off. Wednesday was a full day of meetings, and Thursday was filled with visits. Kate and I got stood up by Mairaid who was supposed to meet us for lunch. I went to Baldoyle afterwards to visit the regular St. Michael's gang. Sharon (our big boss from Cork) came up on Friday for a meeting regarding the long group. We all said the same things. We think that the four days work okay as long as there is a lot of planning involved to make sure that the right people are brought in and that we have enough activities to provide a good group. Jose and Kaitlyn made closing comments on their time here. Jose began by saying that he had good times and not so good times here. He then when into a speech about the management's attitude about us volunteers and how it could be improved. I though Sharon's eyes were going to explode out of her head. I thoroughly enjoyed his speech, and I couldn't hold that in. I was beaming with a smile. When he was done there was at least 30 seconds of painful silence. Then Sharon slid her intense eyes at me and asked if I had something to add, presumably because of my big smile. I just told her that I was surprised by Jose's comments, but that I completely agreed. He deserved to have someone else back him up on what he said because we all feel the same way.

Friday night was the first party of the three we had for Kaitlyn. We all went to Kathleen's (our office manager) house for dinner. She made us a wonderful meal and always made sure our wine glasses were full. :) We had a great time! The next day we took it easy and played pictionary before heading over to Gibney's for a bit of craic. Sunday night we went to O'Neill's for Blondie's last night with us. She wanted to hear our favorite band one last time. It was a quiet start because Kaitlyn was trying to cover up her sadness with bitchiness. Eventually Lisa yelled at her to stop being mean to everyone and just enjoy her last few hours. Then she started to cry! But after that she was much nicer and really did enjoy the rest of the night. We were all in full support of Lisa's attack. :P We went to The Temple Bar after that, but soon got bored with the crowd there. It was one in the morning at this point, so we were ok with heading home. The taxi ride was awesome! Lennart told the driver that he was from Oklahoma. His hometown in Germany is Wuppertal. So he told him that he was from Wuppertal, Oklahoma. Then Kaitlyn called him a dumb redneck to which he replied, "Why would you call me a redneck!? That's so offensive!" Then Kaitlyn said, "Oklahoma is the seventh circle of HELL!" Without skipping a beat Lennart came back with, "Your MOM is from the seventh circle of hell!" I realize that this might not be funny to sober people who were also not there in that moment, but I still can't think of it without giggling. :) Our taxi driver also got stopped to take a breathalyzer test, but passed with flying colors. We went straight for the kitchen when we got home and devoured the left overs from our meal earlier that night. We ended the night at three because we were all going to get up at seven to say goodbye. Kate and I went to the airport with Blondie, feeling sleep deprived, hung over, and incredibly sad. I came home and went back to sleep for a little while. We all had a full day of visits again. I went with Erin and Jose to see Tony. He is in his 60s and had a stroke a few years ago. He talks a little bit, but mostly he likes to play dominos and drink Guinness. (My kind of man!) It was a rocky start because we got lost due to the lack of street signs overly friendly elderly that will gladly give you directions even if they have no idea if they are right. After 45 minutes of walking in the cold, we finally made it to the Dowling's home. Tony was ready to go and knew the way to the shopping center. We sat down for lunch at a cafe, but as soon as he was done with his coffee and scone he looked up and said, "Pub." :) So we took him downstairs to his pub and we played some dominos. It definitely brightened my bleak day. After we took him home we ventured on the DART again, this time heading to Monkstown. Going to Monkstown is my favorite visit! There, I get to spend time with Paul Lockery, my number one favorite member. Paul is the one who likes to arm wrestle a million times in one sitting. I had a lovely time chatting with him and beating him (twice!) at arm wrestling. I even got my favorite response, "You're VERY strong!" When we left he gave me an extra long hug and a kiss on the cheek! A very happy ending to what could have been a very hard day. Another reason why I tell people that this job is so rewarding for us volunteers, not just for our members.

Today was just a regular group prep day. We have a mid-week group that starts tomorrow at two. I am with a woman named Maura. She has schizophrenia and literally talks non-stop. She is awesome. :) The morning after the group I fly to Rome with both Kates and Jose. I'm so excited! My two dream destinations for the longest time before I moved here was Ireland and Italy. My dreams are coming true for me this year! :)