A Typical Day
Tom Mazanec

I thought that I would take this opportunity to describe for you a typical day in my life.
I wake up late morning, and spend my first few hours daydreaming and drinking diet pop.
I sit on my bed and think of whatever obsession I have at the time. After a couple hours,
I pop a two pound frozen dinner into the microwave and eat it, as well as some salad and
Italian dressing. I then drink a little more pop and, if the weather is nice, go out for
a walk in the park or in the neighborhood. If not, I read or daydream a little more, or I
surf the web, especially if it is my day off. In mid-afternoon, I go to a restaurant and
purchase my dinner, which I take down to work and put in the refrigerator. I start my
workday by touring the building and seeing if anything is out of order and all the 
bathrooms have paper towels and toilet paper. I fill a mop pail and take it to the top 
floor with any supplies I have to distribute, I clean the toilet in the basement, then the
top floor bathroom and work my way down. I leave the mop pail in front of the door so
that nobody walks in and leaves tracks or slips. While the floor dries, I do some small
errand like circling the building looking for trash. I finish at dinner time and eat my 
dinner, then I wipe down the metal edges of the stairwells. By the time I am done the
residents are out of the dining room. I wipe and dry all the tables, first the dining
room and then the meeting room. I next change the mop water and take the chairs out
of the meeting room, sweep and mop. I put the chairs back and then do the same to the
dining room, storage room and kitchen, cleaning any food off the chairs. I change
the mop water and do these rooms twice...they have a lot of sticky dirt and it is
especially important to get them clean. I then sweep down the hallways and stairwells,
and then I mop them too. I also receive education, screen visitors, handle emergencies,
help my boss Diane with computer problems, and do other duties as they are assigned.
This finishes up my day. I go home and go right to bed, so I can get up early and do
any shopping or other errands (on second shift one must get up well before work to do such).
On Saturday I attend Vigil Mass and often Confession. On Tuesday I try to arrange to be
with a friend or family member if I can. I take my medication and say my prayers.
I pray for my father's soul, then for my mother's, then I say an Act of Contrition.
Next, I mentally walk through Brendan Manor, saying a Lord's Prayer for each of the
residents and for my boss as well. Of course, things happen at work, and I have to take
these into account. There are meetings, activities, and as I mentioned, emergencies.
I once found a dead body. Once, before I came there, a resident took all of his medication
in an attempt to commit suicide. He was sent from hospital to hospital and they would
not even pump his stomach. By the time he got help he could have died. One resident 
tried to smash his head through a wall. Another trew a staff member (not myself) into
a refrigerator hard enough to put her in the hospital. The basement once filled with
sewage and took over a week to clean out. Three fires have been set on the grounds 
by kids (none of them serious, fortunately). My boss once got locked out on the roof
for a long time...noone would come to her aid because they thought her cries for
help were "the little voices coming out of the light bulbs". Ceiling plaster has fallen,
and once while I was cleaning a wall if fell apart (it is an old building). These are
just some examples of what happens in such an adult group home. We are unique in
northeast Ohio in that we accept residents without regard to ability to pay, so we are
perenially short of money. Please consider a donation if you wish to help others.

DRIZZLE DRAZZLE DRUZZLE DROME
TIME FOR THIS ONE TO COME HOME