There are many moments the past few years I’ve spent as an activity director that jump out as surprising or unpredictable, but what happened this afternoon just may take the cake for a while.
I was playing a dice game with five of our members and every so often one of them will rub the dice on the back of her head for good luck before she rolls. She rubbed the dice on the back of her head every turn this afternoon, and the lady sitting next to her, let’s just call her “Ms. Smiley,” wanted to try it out too. Her next turn she rubbed the dice on her head but alas, no luck. The next time it became her turn Ms. Smiley took the dice to her head again, but there was no luck on that roll either. So the next time around, and believe me, I was totally unprepared for this, she takes the dice and rubs them on her chest! And by golly she rolled the biggest roll of the day!
The other men and women with us were chuckling and a little stunned as Ms. Smiley turned bright red and couldn’t keep herself from laughing. I’m not sure, but my face might’ve turned a shade pinker as well. When the dice came around to the lady who usually rubs them on her head (I guess we’ll call her Mrs. Hair Lady) she took the dice and rubbed them on her chest as well! This sent Ms. Smiley into a riot of laughter and Mrs. Hair Lady rolled the dice with no luck. I asked the group, “What is going on here? Did they put something in the water at lunch?” and Ms. Smiley tried to cover up her inappropriate behavior by saying quite solemnly as she pointed to her shirt, “I have good luck because I rubbed it on my heart…It’s the heart, you see.” I’ll have you know that Ms. Smiley is probably the worst liar in our entire facility.
Just then my co-worker came by, I stopped her to tell her things were going hay-wire. “What’s wrong?” she said. Ms. Smiley said, “Oh, we’re just rubbing the dice on our hearts for good luck.” I turned to my co-worker with wide open eyes, “That’s not all they’re doing,” I said. Mrs. Hair Lady jumped in and said, “Watch.” She demonstrated their new technique and my co-worker’s jaw dropped halfway to the floor. “Ahhh, no luck for me. I guess you really need bigger ones to make it work.”
I thought I’d seen or heard it all, but today’s the last day I’ll be thinking that.
