Happy Birthday Stephanie

How to describe this day... happy, strange, happy, full of friendship, happy, sharing photos with Arvin. That ought to do it.

It began with a call from Betty. I'd like to be clear about one thing. I really don't blame any of the mixups regarding the reverse mortgage on Betty. Several have commented on her need to get more current but the truth is, she got really useless information from Carmen. So Betty and I in trying to figure out what I should do, got it wrong. So I had a bunch of things to resign this morning, which I did. This time somebody other than Carmen sent the paperwork and they clearly indicated exactly what I needed to do to sign for Arvin as his Power of Attorney. This was the first time that information was clear and I hope Betty and I nailed it today. I said to her, "if this is wrong, I think we should shoot ourselves." She replied, "No. We need to fly where they are and shoot them." I know this is quite a drastic statement and neither of us was the least bit serious, but this is the third time I've signed closing papers so there is a tiny element of frustration here. (Read a lot!) And both Betty and I had a really hard time understanding the information given to us by Carmen. So she is my candidate for redundancy, as they say in the UK. In any case, I think we were able to do what was needed this morning. I sure hope so.

We got done in plenty of time for me to drive over to the Olive Garden to have lunch with some of my wonderful Alzheimer's Society support group friends. We were celebrating Stephanie's birthday and we had a great time. I haven't laughed that much in a very long time. We all had tales to tell and hugs to share. You can't imagine how great it is to have a group of friends who really only met because their loved ones have Alz and they are caring for them, who mesh so well. We are really close and love to spend time together. I count myself lucky to have such great friends.

From there I went to visit Arvin. He was in the middle of a Bingo game and was not a bit amused. To be honest, he didn't get the point of the game at all, not one little bit. And he was feeling angry and frustrated because the whole thing seemed just plain arbitrary to him. He didn't understand why he could put his place holder in one spot but not in another. This was another eye opener for me. Sadly he is really losing it. He was having trouble coming up with words and sentences to talk too. So we walked a bit and then sat in the lounge area to have something nice to drink and relax. I took out my phone and we looked at a bunch of pictures. He kept saying that this was bringing back memories and thanked me for sharing the photos with him. I stayed about two hours and then headed home for a quiet evening by myself. I had some things I needed to do to prepare a painting for a show. I'm now finished with that and dinner and am relaxing by myself. Turns out I don't mind that one bit.