It is hard to get caught up when I get behind on my posts. It almost becomes overwhelming to get everything caught back up. But I will keep working at it and hopefully I will get better about it. Friday ended up being a crazy day. We went and saw Lucy the Elephant. Kinda neat I guess. Just a big elephant that used to be a hotel (really a brothel but they won't tell you that). I took one of my guys up on the tour of it. It was kind of boring but really, what can you expect froma big elephant. Next was the lighthouse. Again...kinda boring. But friday night we went to a concert in the park. That was a lot of fun and everyone was so funny to dance with and watch them get into the music. It was still a little hot and really humid but worth the trip. Of course we lost our nurse, with a car full of staff, on the way home. I don't really understand why communication with the house manager is so difficult for her. But it is improving and hopefully by the end of summer it will all run smooth. Then comes friday night. Everyone is in bed nice and sleeping and we get woken up tp a terrible storm! The house was shaking the lighting and thunder were crazy and we lost electricity. None of us realized exactly how bad the storm had been but luckily we did not get the worst of it. When we got up for the day the next morning we noticed that there was a huge tree down in the street down from us and we thought that had to of been why we lost power but it turned out that in all 3 million people lost power and last I heard there were 15 dead. It was terrible. They are saying that some will be without power for up to 3 weeks! There are still strret lights out some here but for the most part we have recovered.
Because nobody had power all of our plans for Sat were cancelled. We couldn't go shopping in Smithville, we tried the mall and the movies but it was out everywhere. We hung around the house and most people did some arts and crafts. We tried to get everyone down to the beach but only one of my guys wanted to go so the house manager and I took him. It was so much fun. He loved the water and his laugh and smile were contagious. We played in the water for a few hours and it was one of the best times of the summer so far. I was so happy we had that chance. Sat night was taco night and we jsut couldn't get everyone into it. They were all really tired from being up most the night. So we got everyone packed and off to bed.
Sunday ended up being a hectic day. Everyone was up and ready to go. The travelers floor was cleaned super fast and we had a plan for everyone's pick-ups...except the van was gone longer than we expected. We thought it would be ok since we called the train station and they said that they were having 45min delays due to the power outages (yes we were still dealing with those). So we got there right about the time the train was suppose to leave. I dropped off the 2 staff with the traveler and they were on their way to Philly to the airport...I thought. When I got back to the house I was told they missed their train. Our only option was for me to go pick them back up and drive them the Philly myself. But first I had to find a gas station that was open and preferrably one without an hour line. We got gas, the traveler and the staff and we were on our way to the Philly airport. Only took about an hr and half to get there and we had no issues until I dropped them off and went to go park...One thing to always remember when driving a van into a parking garage, you are tall! Opps...luckily this nice little worker reminded me that I am not in my little car and directed me to where I needed to go to park. I met a little man waiting for me, she had radioed him and told him I was coming, and he told me all these directions to get to where I needed to go. Now, I am not real sure what happened. I can only guess that I missed a turn I was suppose to take, but I ended up back at the nice lady who just laughed at me. I explained to here that I was clueless and we tried again. The guy laughed as well when I got back to him and he gave me directions once again. I made it this time...yea! As I was parking I see the guy walking towards me. I'm thinking "crap, what did I do now???" He just came to check on how I was parking and to tell me that I had plenty of room." Thanks guy...I'm not completely incompetant!" I waited around the airport for a couple of hours until the girls got the traveler boarded on him plane. We were trying to hurry and get back to the house because we had our farewell dinner for our staff from South Carolina. But we couldn't get the GPS to work right and we had disagreements about which way to go...I was right of course :) We finally made it back about 730pm...we left the house thinking it was a short trip to the train station at 1230pm. This made for a long day. We ran in, got changed and were back out the door, in the van in about 10 min. Dinner was pretty nice and we had cake and ice cream when we got home.
Today our 3rd group of travelers arrived and it is amazing how different they are from the last group. Last week most everyone was quiet, really low functioning and hard to get to interact. This group in loud and friendly and just love life. This is a great group to have for 4th of July week. I can't believe that it is already July. Where is my summer going? It was confirmed today that I am going on the LA trip next week. I will be gone for propably 9 days. I hadn't heard anything since the first time it was mentioned before I ever got here. But it is a go and I am super excited! I still can't believe all I am getting to do this summer!
No comments:
Post a Comment