We decided that we have had enough fun, so leaving on Thursday instead of Friday as originally planned. Got up about 7:15 to get dressed and go down to the complimentary breakfast(which means you cannot complain about what they are serving, and you have to mind your manners and remember to be complimentary, say 'please' and 'thank you' when you get what you get/don't complain). It was the same every day we ate it: make your own waffle, or have instant oatmeal, or cold frootloops or raisin bran with milk, plus some micro'ed egg-y like things and sausages that obviously had been nuked as well. Two kinds of juice, all the hot coffee you can drink (before you get in the car to drive 300 miles and your bladder pops from too much caffeine.
Then we were ready to load up and hit the road.... unfunny at the time, and laughable later:
I told him he should go to on out and load up his powerchair, and I would take a little cart and go back up to the room to get all our belongings gathered up, and meet him in the parking lot. Well, of course that did not suit him, so he came up on the elevator driving his little chair, to oversee my loading all our gear onto the trolley I borrowed from downstairs. The elevator was so wee that the trolley and the powerchair with driver could not fit, so he went ahead after deciding I had been sufficiently supervised. As I was walking out the door of room 602 ( why we were on the sixth floor is a complete mystery, as there were about 12 vehicles in the parking lot the whole time we were there - and probably 20 rooms for guests on each floor), I remember my leftover 1/2 turkey sandwich from Wed. tucked in the fridge.
I reach in the fridge and get my lunch, add it to the armload I am carrying: book, box of pills, etc, with one hand free to push the luggage-laden trolley. I make it to the elevator, push the down button and wait for it to return to the sixth floor. When the doors open, and I go to step in, I drop my box full of supplements I take every day. It has a little plastic compartments, labeled with days of the week, on 14 little doors so you can fill/open for each day as you need to take the meds. Nothing in my little box is Rx, all just supplemental stuff that I have decided I need to take for various reasons, protecting bones, warding off effects of arthritis, brain health, etc. Maybe 10 or so capsules/pills in all. So here I am with one foot in and one foot out, completely unprepared to play Hokey-pokey. Stalled in the doorway, knowing someone else has pressed the button on another floor and tapping their footses, waiting, wondering: 'what is taking that dang elevator so long?'
I start raking up pills by the fist-full, not knowing what to do with them when I do get a handful - so just drop them helper-skelter back in the little compartments, all willy-nilly with no sense of organization whatsoever. Arrgggh. I finally get them all gathered up,tossed willy-nilly into the bus with no discretion as to days of the week in total disorder. Then press the button to take me down to where the guy has to power chair loaded: probably sitting there in the car, with engine running, drumming his fingers (as usual) on the dash, waiting, wondering 'what happened? Where is she? Did she get stuck? Hijacked on an elevator? Kidnapped and forced down the laundry chute by the housekeeping staff?'
And when the door opens on # 1, I realize I left my trolley full of belongings back up there on #6!! So here I am chuckling to myself, amused at my folly, thankful no one else is there to witness my amusement, as they would be baling out, rather than being stuck with The Crazy Person in an elevator that is about 4x8. Punched the button to take me back up to the sixth floor, and the doors open to a family who was awaiting a ride down to breakfast, having pushed my loaded trolley aside. I apologized, and think they probably looked abit uneasy as I got off and they got on. I knew the trolley wouldn't fit in that small space with other riders and had to wait till they got on, to push the down button to try again. Noticing while I was waiting for the metal box to return for me, that I had left several miscellaneous pills on the sixth floor, rolling about under the wheeled trolley. So I picked up what was hopefully the last of my meds. and, still laughing, got on the elevator to finally get the luggage out the parking lot an and loaded up to head for GA.
I don't usually tell on myself. having deliberately raised family with a reminder that 'you don't have to tell everything you know', but this was so funny, as it was happening, and even now, hours later. I wanted to write it down so I would not forget to remember to laugh... at myself.
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