Monday, August 31, 2009

The Little Things

Tonight, I took Mom outside to sit and watch the traffic. It's one of the few things she enjoys doing. We rolled out to the sidewalk and parked in an indentation in the Sherrill Houses property brick wall. It's her "favorite spot" she says. We had the same conversation that we always have out there. The one where she says "we can go inside when the bus stops here" and I say "the bus does not stop here". Then she argues with me for a few minutes until the bus passes and doesn't stop there, but stops up the street. I show her the poll in front of her where there is no bus stop sign, and she insists that that must not have been the bus that stops here..."Let's go".

During our outing to the sidewalk, she told me that she lost her phone numbers.

Last night I called her, and right away she insisted that I call Julie to find out why she didn't visit at the precise time she said she would, and to tell Julie to call her. I told her to call Julie herself. She said she couldn't find her numbers, she said they must have fallen on the floor. I urged her to get an aide to help her find her numbers, she didn't want to bother anyone. I said "If you don't want to get help to find your numbers, perhaps you don't want to call Julie bad enough". Then she asked me what Julies number is. I reminded her that she has been calling Julie at the same number long enough that she should know it by heart. She said "1 6 1 7 is that right?" I said "That's right, what are the next 3?" She told me the next three, and the four after that. She remembered Julie's number! I made her repeat it to me, and we hung up because she had a hair across her ass to call Julie.

I called Julie about 20 minutes later. Mom called her without using her phone numbers! I guess she was so intent on ripping Julie a new one that for one furious moment she had some mental clarity.

Tonight, after we got back to the room from our stroll, I saw the phone number cheat sheet right there on her bedside table. She then told me that she found it in the drawer. I reminded her that not more than 1 hour ago she had told me that she lost it. She denied it, vehemently.

Also tonight, it took her 5 tries and 15 minutes to dial Kathy's number. Go figure.

4 comments:

  1. Go figure, is right.
    I'm thoroughly confused as to how her brain is working or not working. I can only guess that it's a lot of confusion, impatience, laziness and a shit load of memories with no time line swirling around. How dizzying.

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  2. "I guess she was so intent on ripping Julie a new one that for one furious moment she had some mental clarity." Hilarious, heartbreaking, truthful :)

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