Tuesday 09/22/2026
Laundry day, housekeeping day. I spent the morning tidying up and running the laundry. Then at 10, went to the auditorium for a presentation on dealing with dementia. The writers group had postponed its weekly meeting because several of us wanted to attend this one-time class.
One of the many resident-organized volunteer committees here is The Buddies. This is composed of residents who commit to frequently visiting a “buddy” who resides in the Lee center, that is, someone who needs assistive care. Some of those are at some stage of progressive dementia. The Buddies had asked for training on how best to interact with a buddy in that condition. Staff had organized this presentation by two women who had been in elder care for more than 30 years each.
The presentation was based around the “best friends” approach advocated in the book The Best Friends Approach to Dementia Care. A lot was stuff I had read at some point, but some were new and enlightening to me. Bottom line, you could say it’s all about taking extra effort to be a decent, caring human being.
Then I met with Bert and Kass to learn about the plan for the Appreciation Fund Kickoff. I am going to have to assist with the rehearsal, although Bert will run the actual show.
Joanne and I took a nice walk up to Town & Country to talk, go over our schedules for the upcoming days.
I ate a sandwich in my room and went to the 11th floor to prep the music and tv system there for the planned Contemporary Music Exposure meeting. And the stupid 11th floor TV would not talk to my computer. Piece of junk. People were starting to gather and I couldn’t get it to work. Bert came around but couldn’t think of anything helpful either. So I said, let’s go to the auditorium. Then somebody said, Tuesday night, they’ll be showing a movie. So I said, ok, cancelled. Then Marcia called from the auditorium — no movie tonight, come on. So I and all 25 people who had come for the event went on downstairs and I set up there.
And we listened to all of Arianna Grande’s new album, Petal. Which I don’t think anybody liked. I certainly didn’t. The music production was boring and simple-minded, just synthesizer chords and percussion. And her lyrics were not great either. One person said, If I was her mother I’d be heartbroken, this is a girl in mental trouble.
Anyway I have learned my lesson, future CMX’s will be in the auditorium. I had resisted that, wanting the more intimate group setting upstairs, but the equipment is not to be relied on, and the whole think worked fine downstairs.
