Fantasies and Thank You Notes

I took some time off work this morning to finally catch up from a busy weekend/workweek. And by catching up I mean I slept until noon. It was quite nice. When I finally made it into work I was greeted by a resident who usually thinks that I dream too big and expect too much. Often he tells me things like, "Remember, we're not all young like you. We're old. We could fall over at any minute." When it comes to the remodel his usual response is, "What do you think this is? The Waldorf?" But for all my dreaming I think he finds my enthusiasm endearing. When I walked in he made a point of asking me how I was doing. I've noticed that I have a few residents who do this. They always emphasize the "you" in "How are YOU doing?" as if to show that they really mean it. Variations of this include, "How is the place/job treating YOU?" or "Are YOU doing well?" We talked for a bit about this and that, and then he said, "There's a lot of people complaining about the TV being moved to the library. But you know what? I never see anybody watching the TV or going to the movies they play. Maybe 2 people come. Maybe 4 or 5 if it's really good. So let them complain. That's what they do here. They like to complain. So don't listen to them. Live out your fantasies here." I do love my job, but honestly I can't think of any of my wildest fantasies that involved remodeling a retirement community. But it's nice to know I have some support. I went down to my office and to my surprise somebody had tucked a note under the door. It read, "Shaun, I want to compliment you on all the new improvements ongoing here at Bethany Towers." He went on to say other nice things about the food and the lobby that made my day. The last few days have been full of moments like these. On Monday one of my employees, a woman in her 60s from Mexico, came in to talk to me about a problem. At the end of the conversation she thanked me for listening, asked for a hug, and gave me a kiss on my cheek. Yesterday, the business office coordinator came over to see what the commotion was about because I had let out a yell of excitement over finally receiving an application to become a Medi-Cal Assisted Living Waiver Provider (Hmm...maybe that guy's appraisal of my fantasies wasn't too far off after all). I ended up having to explain my excitement. "We're making progress!!" I said. She turned to leave me to my Medi-Cal paperwork and said, "Shaun, you're doing a great job here. You've really done a lot." It's nice to know that for all the critics there are also a few fans...and somewhere in between is probably the truth.