Livin the Busy Life...

The gaps in my blogging, while apparently annoying to my sister, are always refreshing for me because they mean that I have been busy, a wonderful thing!

The week started well, with office time to get caught up after the new year! On Tuesday at Newington Day Centre I had a rough morning. I am a little bit embarrassed to share this with you, though I am slowly accepting that I didn't do anything wrong. I was asked to walk one of the members to the barber shop at the top of the road. PJ and I have become buddies, so I was okay with the task. He walks with a cane, but its fairly mobile. As we walked up the street we chatted about the weather and our holidays. I lightly held his arm as we crossed the street and warned him of the step up of the curb. My warning came a little too late, as his foot slipped and he began to stumble.

His feet got tangled and he began to fall, unfortunately not towards me. I panicked but had enough sense not to yank his arm out of the socket or bruise him trying to brake his fall. Somehow, with the support of my arm he gracefully lowered himself to the ground and thank goodness was not hurt. My immediate reaction was 'OH GOD what have I done!' A Taxi driver who does lifts for the day centre and new PJ stopped to help along with another woman. I was mortified, blaming myself. I was thankful for their help, as I couldn't lift him alone and he was in the middle of the road. The saint of a taximan drove us across the Antrim Rd (the big road) as to prevent us from having to manage traffic. I was very thankful. Once we got into the Barber shop, I inspected PJ's hands to make sure he hadn't hurt them when he caught himself and asked if he felt okay. He apologized profusely for scaring me, to which I assured him I was just glad he was okay.

The whole experience seemed very foreign to me. I have very little experience working with or even interacting with elderly people. I have enjoyed my time at the day centre very much, but it is still work that I have to admit is not the most comfortable. Not only do I sometimes not know what to say to the members, when things go wrong I feel the very least qualified to help. Rosemary and the Newington staff assured me that I did the perfect thing and had I not helped the fall go more gently it could have been way worse. I am still working to find the value in that experience. I am thinking so far that theres something about 'you can't really control everything' in there somewhere. Or maybe just prep for when M&D get old!

I attended my first F&M Badminton Club meeting last Wednesday night and had a great time learning how to play with some of the ladies of the church and one lonely youth of mine.

Last Friday was the Castle High School production of Oliver that I have been working on since early October. I spent more time at school than I have in a long time, with extra rehearsals and the full cast missing all classes Thursday and Friday. I helped back stage during both performances, getting the stage set, making sure mics were on and off when they needed to be, and helping to wipe away nervous tears and cure the stage fright. The evening performance was attended by 320 friends and family members to the cast, a whole lot more than we expected. It went beautifully. I have a video of 'Consider Yourself' from the dress rehearsal, that I think I can get up on webshots, so check for that! Here are some pictures, I am working on getting more of the ones I took on the school camera...


Afterwards, I was glad it was over. There was high stress all day Friday with extra rehearsals between the shows (the first one didn't go all that well in Act 2) and cranky, cheeky students. Plus, we were all exhausted. No one should ever be at school from 9 to 9.30. I am unsure now what I will pick up at Castle, but I am hoping to keep up my involvement there. I finally feel like I know the kids and they are finally beginning to respond to me well. There is a girls football club (soccer) that I am thinking of working with, partly because the teacher who leads it and I have gotten to know each other. There is also some talk of some one-to-one tutoring. So we shall see.

Saturday night I was invited by my friend Michelle, whom I know through Newington, to celebrate her 21st birthday with her and her friends. Her mom and sister were surprising her with a limo, dinner, and dancing. I have never been in a limo and am excited to be able to say my first limo ride was here in Belfast! Living the simple life, huh? haha. I had never met any of Michelle's friends nor family, so it was a great time getting to meet them. I am so thankful to have a friend like Michelle in Belfast- someone pretty independent from my job(s) here since she no longer volunteers at Newington because she is in Uni. She has been great to me, always checking in on me and inviting me along to things. I told her she will have to take advantage of my house in the States and come over for her first trip to America, so I can repay her kindness.

The Birthday girl!


Some new friends


Gettin into the Limo!

So that's me. I also have one final bit of super exciting news. Although it's not booked, I think I can be safe to say that I will be spending 27 March - 10 April exploring EGYPT with my dear friend Bryce who is teaching in Spain! I am so, so excited! But wondering if I can bring an Easter basket along with me... haha. More details to come soon, I have kept you long enough!
xoxo