Amusing Myself

My daughter stopped by to visit me at work today after her class.  This particular class is Pop Culture and she was talking about it.

The instructor has said that pop culture is basically what anyone around you happens to say.  For example: You go to college and you call this college because everyone else does.  However, if you came in here and everyone said it was a bank then it would be a bank not a college. 

Then she was telling me how they have to do journal entries.  So of course, my mind goes to what she has just explained about her instructor so here is my 'journal entry' for a pop culture class that meets twice a week.  Please keep in mind - this is just to amuse myself. 

Day 1 - Bank Receipt
 
    I am depositing this receipt into my filing cabinet for the day.   Please add this to my balance and advise me of the total accumulated interest I will receive at the end of the class.  My journal entries will be known as Bank Receipts. My class record will now be known as the filing cabinet. Accumulated Interest refers to my grade in the class itself.


Day 2 - Bank Receipt

   Another deposit for the filing cabinet.  This one can be labeled 240 words for content collection.  Because I say that have 240 words in this deposit it is so.  The class is in agreement.


Day 3 Day 4 Day 5 - Bank Receipts
   Filing cabinet receipt submitted for the day.  This will count as three (3) submissions because I am to busy to do the next two that are required after this.  I have gotten all my fellow classmates to agree to this so it is sufficient for Pop Culture. 

Day 6 - Bank Receipt

  Filing cabinet submission -- I will attempt to do a better job at submitting these receipts in a more timely fashion in the future but please accept this as submitted on Day # 6 with a word count of 314. I had trouble getting this one done - please refer to previous receipt indicating my schedule conflicts. Again, I have gotten my fellow classmates to agree to this.

Day 7 - Bank Receipt

   Filing cabinet submission -- Class is becoming more and more interested in my concept of pop culture and will start filing their own bank receipts effective immediately.  We will be submitting a formal document signed by the entire class renaming this Banking 101 and this will become part of our official transcript because we all agree that Pop Culture was not the Humanities course we thought it was going to be.

Day 8 - Bank Receipt

  Yet another filing cabinet submission -- Class is becoming restless and is considering restructuring.  We have determined that instructor is not a proper name for the person who is 'leading' the class.  We therefore are going to refer to you as our Personal Banker. In addition, we have decided that 8 am is to early for class and we prefer sleeping in so if we do not make it to class until 9 am we will still be considered as present and accounted for in regards to any classroom work. 

Day 9 - Prescription

  The class has gotten tired of bank receipts so we have decided we will now submit prescriptions to the pharmacy.  This is something that is very appealing to us so we will continue this throughout the rest of the semester.  Pharmacy hours are as follows: Monday and Wednesday only from 9 am - 10:30 am.  In addition, we will be calling ourselves penguins instead of people.  We feel that being a penguin would be a lot more fun than a person.  It's even more fun to say. So from now until the end of semester your penguins will be submitting daily prescriptions for you to read. 




I hope that you all have enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it.  What is your concept of Pop Culture? 

Reflections

Watching someone you love age is hard.

I've seen family and friends go through the process of watching aging family members with dementia or Alzheimers. Or perhaps failing health.

I've seen people complain of having to deal with their aging parents.  I want to slap them.  They are fortunate to have their parents and to be able to assist them. It's a privilege to be able to assist someone who did so much for you.

This is a part of life that you expect though as you become an adult and your parents age.  Role reversal - you are now taking care of the ones who took care of you.

I think as a child it's something that you realize.  You will probably have to take care of your parents as they age. I also think that most people are more than happy to do so.

Watching your sibling age I think is harder.

You expect your parents to age. You don't expect someone you grew  up with to.

This is your partner in crime when you were kids.  You were a team for football games.  They know your childhood and you know theirs.

We fought each other, we fought for each other and always knew that if anything was needed we could call.

That's what family does. You take care of each other. No questions asked.

You're close in age. If your sibling is aging does that mean you are to?  In some ways I believe this is sadder than watching a parent age.  I don't know this personally but you expect your parents to age and need you. You don't expect your brother to be almost defeated.

Now before anyone gets the wrong conclusion - No - none of my brothers have dementia nor any major health concerns at this time. It's more a matter of realizing that perhaps it's best to move closer to family for asistance with some activities.

I spent last week with my oldest daughter helping my oldest brother do just that.  That was a hard week.  We went through personal items and packed and loaded a rental truck in a day and a half.  Then my daughter drove that loaded truck cross country pulling my brother's car.  We did a lot in a short time frame. 

Should it have been done sooner?  Possibly, but until he was ready it couldn't be done. 

Was it worth it? Yes  My brother is happier now than he has been for a while.  I no longer worry about him as much as I know he is within 2 hours of family if anything is needed. And another brother and I agree that he sounds so much better and happier.  So yes it was worth it. 

Would I do it again?  Without any hesitation YES - YES - YES  Family is family.  I will do anything I can for any of my family.  Including driving 15 hours one way to take care of you.

 And knowing that my daughters are there if needed when I call them to help with their uncle is what family is all about.