Monday, July 31, 2017

volunteering vs employment...

... not suprisingly, the non-paying jobs won out over the gainful employ. I went in to work this morning at 5 a.m. To leave at 9:30 and go pick up a man who needed a ride to get to his cancer treatment appointment at 10:15. My understanding was that his allotted time for transfusion would be thirty minutes, meaning he would be finished at 10:45, when I would drive him back home. Not enough time to do anything else so I planned to take my book and sit in the lobby, wait for him to finish.

I waited and waited and waited. He didn't come out, and didn't come out, and didn't come out. I finally went to ask the security guard to go and check on him, thinking: 'maybe he is sitting in the rolling chair and expecting me to come and pick him up at a different door?' After the guard left to try to track him down, he finally appeared: at 1130. I was pretty annoyed. But what can you say? Nothing at all to a  man who is struggling with a death sentence, trying to delay the inevitable. Hoping to postpone his own funeral. He apologized when he finally got finished, and came out to the car at 11:45. What could I possibly say in response? "Oh, not a problem."

So that was my morning. Then someone who I know from master gardener program called to remind me I had agreed to help her with flower arranging at botanical gardens. Oh. Ratz. I got my patient delivered back home, and went to the gardens to spend two more hours volunteering putting flowers in vases, to decorate the house/homestead at the gardens. By the time I got back to my actual work, it was over.  There I was, ready to get back to being employed, expecting to work several more hours. So I sat on the bench and had a visit with my pal, M., while he was on his lunch break.

A residual effect of getting up at 4 a.m., is the necessity of a nap in the afternoon. Just long enough to get me through until bed time. I came home from all that not-working/volunteering and had a little quality time with the couch.

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