rally thursday

Thursday is traditionally the cursed day of the week.

I remember my first Thursday of college.  After staying up till the wee hours finishing a reading assignment, I overslept, was 50 minutes late to my first chemistry lab, got stuck with a terrible lab desk location, I was completely lost the entire time and I'm pretty sure I cried at some point.  Subsequently I was late to my next class, and totally frazzled the rest of the day, and though I can't remember specific other details I know it was a rough one.  And because I hated chemistry so much, the hating Thursday thing became a trend that continued the rest of the quarter... and the year... and forever.  My roommate at the time, who is now one of my best friends and lives in the same city as me, also had an equally terrible day that first Thursday.  It didn't take long for us to determine that Thursdays were indeed cursed, and we dreaded the stroke of midnight on that day each week.  Something terrible would always happen. I mean, oversleeping for a class isn't that big of a deal, but way worse things always seemed to happen on Thursdays...

Thursday is the day it rains when you are dressed nicely and didn't bring your umbrella.
Thursday is the day there's a pop quiz after the one night you skipped the reading assignment.  Thursday is the day you get dumped.
Thursday is the day you have a million things to do school- or work-related and have to miss out on social plans you never normally have.
Thursday is the day you get put on the spot at work regarding your performance.

In the spirit of being more positive and proactive about my life, I decided I'm going to try to start posting every Thursday about one GOOD thing that happened that day, for rally Thursday.  For one, Thursday is the day before Friday.
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Today, it was a moment with a one of my "regulars", a 91 year old resident in assisted living.  He is such a charmer!  He's got a great sense of humor and just makes you fall in love with him.  He can have his grumpy moments and times when he doesn't want to do his therapy... but all in all he is a huge sweet heart and we have developed a great rapport since I started treating him 9 months ago.

He comes to me twice a week for "maintenance therapy", and usually I just do passive range of motion for his shoulders and hands, some light strengthening, and we'll sometimes do an activity that's more fun and more active for him.  Lately, we've been playing a lot of balloon badminton while he sits on the edge of the mat, because it gets him moving his whole body (he spends a lot of time in a power wheelchair or in bed, so he doesn't get opportunities to challenge his ability to hold himself up in his normal daily routine...), working both his arms, for range of motion, strength and coordination.  But it's also working his brain because while he's playing the game, we're always chit chatting about something or joking around.

During a particularly aggressive badminton volley, he says,
"Wow, this will really take the wrinkle out of your belly."

Me: (cracking up) "What?? I've never heard that before... what's that mean?"

"Well I mean it's a good work out....  I'm stretching my belly muscles... It's good exercise!"

"Hey, now you're talking like a therapist!"

"No... I'm not a therapist... I'm a sexist....... I'm thinking about sex."

It took me a couple minutes to recover from that silent laugh where you are so overwhelmed with hilarity that you feel like you can't breathe and no sounds comes out, while you nearly fall out of your chair (in today's case, his power wheelchair)...

Aaaaaand we're ready for Friday, folks!  Hope you all get a chance to rally for the weekend ahead!