This afternoon I looked at one of our residents and wondered if I would lose my job if I calmly glued her mouth shut. Not with super glue, just ordinary Elmer's. It wouldn't be painful. But maybe, just maybe, I could have a couple minutes of silence. I decided against it in the end. Her name will remain anonymous, but I'll call her Jane to make blogging easier.

Jane is our newest resident. She's a warm, funny woman and she loves to talk. Not just chatting with people about everything under the sun. No, I mean loves to talk as in doesn't stop to breathe. Because she has some MR her speaking style is a bit ... cyclonic. She asks a question, then gives what she thinks might be the answer, then asks the question again and then gives another possible answer. Before you can answer she shoots off on another tangent and begins to ask questions about it. She also has a habit of leaving out crucial sentence structure parts. By the time you've been at work for an hour, you're not sure what day it is, what time it is, or even what your own name is.

Jane is very sweet and very fun to be around. As long as you are around her in small doses. Or if she has an activity to keep her focused. Today we were doing fine until all the residents and I sat down to watch "Annie." I was expecting Jane to be quiet for a little bit. That's where I went wrong. The other residents seemed to have no trouble tuning Jane out. I, however, was not so fortunate. For each scene there was the question/answer/question/answer/new question sequence. It took all my patience to remain calm. I did it -- and was proud of myself.

I gotta tell ya though, when 7 pm came (time to go home) I was tuckered out. And glad that I have tomorrow off. Phew!