Rocky Horror vs. Sound Of Music

     Page One Hundred Ninety-Six.
     For the last few months, I've had an Indian medical student roommate who's here, in Cleveland, doing a couple rotations at University Hospitals, one of our fine, local hospitals. He's leaving tomorrow and is hoping to come back in 2016 for his medical residency.  His stay has been pleasant. He's made friends and experienced some American/Cleveland culture. I've taken him to a few plays downtown at Playhouse Square; we've gone to a few museums in University Circle; I've taken him on numerous architectural tours and we've gone out to eat at a few places. All in all, I've tried to get him out and about as much as I could during one of Cleveland's most brutal winters in recent memory and I think I've been reasonably successful.

     I've also watched movies with him. I have a decent collection of DVD's and regardless of anyone's  cinematic taste, they'd eventually find something they like on my shelves. Just last night we watched Rocky Horror Picture Show. Afterwards he asked if that was pretty typical of American musicals. Ummmm, uh...

     I do know a little bit about Bollywood and Indian culture's taste in movies, but not too much. We had a long conversation about American musicals versus Indian ones and how Rocky Horror isn't typical of anything. So then I popped in The Sound Of Music. Half way through, he declared, "I like this movie better than Rocky Horror". Gee...

On Feeding An Indian Roommate

     Page One Hundred Eighty-One.

Nainital, India

Nainital, India. Evening.

     I currently have an Indian roommate. He's finishing up medical school back home and he's here, in Cleveland, doing a medical rotation as part of his education. Raja's only here for a few months, but is hoping to come back and start his residency in 2015 at University Hospitals of Cleveland, the hospital he's doing his short rotation at right now. I've been driving him around and showing him the sites, museums and so forth (in spite of our Cleveland winter, God help me). 

     He's enjoying his time here very much but does complain that American food is difficult to get used to. He thinks it's, well, for lack of a better word, "flat". His home region, Kashmir, is known for their flavorful dishes in the first place and apparently his mother really pushes her spice usage over the edge. So, of course, when you've been eating that style for 23 years, hamburger and french fries can seem a bit bland. (He will eat beef.) His uncle, who's a doctor in Las Vegas loves American food. But Uncle has also been here for a couple of decades and has gradually acclimated to our flavors. Raja realizes that and is looking forward to acclimating too. He's being a trooper though. While I was perfecting my homemade pizza dough and pizza sauce for the pizza party/bridal shower last week, I did lots of taste tests. Raja was gleefully happy to aid with that dubious chore. I also make myself lots of rice & bean dishes to which I add Tabasco sauce and other extra stuff. One day I splashed some Tabasco into a spoon and gave it to him. He was impressed by its fire.

    I've made Indian cuisine a few times over the years, but am not at all fluent in it. So, I'm not yet comfortable offering to make him "food like Momma used to make". I have been blessed by being an extremely quick study in the kitchen, though. So perhaps I should offer one of these days. I think Indian food is all about the sauce. If that sauce is correct, you just pour it over lamb or chicken and white rice and call it supper. Unless, of course, you're dealing with a vegetarian. Then simply pour your sauce over lentils and rice. Either way, just stabilize that sauce and you're home free.  

     Raja is staying until early March. But, he's recommending me to a med school buddy back in India who's also coming to Cleveland for a rotation. That buddy is arriving just as Raja's leaving. So the buddy wants to move into my place for the month he'll be here. That's fine with me. I can't stand looking for roommates.   

     I can just see my place turning into an annex of the Cleveland India Community Center (which is 1/2 mile away). But if this does happen, I really should become a gracious host and learn their cuisine preparation. It would make all these ridiculously young medical students feel warm and cozy on the inside.

Cleveland's Wonderful Street Fares or How To Get Fat And Really Enjoy The Process

     Page Ninety.
     Summer is upon us and here in Cleveland that means many things. Birds are singing, flowers are blooming, people are outside jogging and most importantly, neighborhood festival time is here! Cleveland has some glorious neighborhood festivals with their multitudes of sights and sounds. Young artists are out selling their wares and street musicians are walking around, entertaining passers-by. In theory every one of our street fairs exists for some cerebral reason, whether it be religious, cultural, ethnic or what have you. But really, these street fairs exist just to feed the masses.
     Cleveland is widely known to have very strong ethnic food. This is because we attracted so many immigrants from the early-1800's to the mid-1900's. Cleveland has no history of being white bread, vanilla or Presbytarian. People nowadays don't know that from the 1880's through the 1970's Cleveland was one of the ten largest cities in America and it attracted a more diverse immigrant community than practically any other inland American town. Honestly, I don't know why it attracted such an array of nationalities, but it did. Cleveland has 'em all... and their food. All the usual suspects have their Mom & Pop restaurants or grocery stores here (we strongly poo-poo national chain food in Cleveland. It's here, but we don't really like it.): Chinese, Japanese, Thai, Italian, French, Mexican, Jewish, African-American, etc, they're all here. Now, the thing is, we also have: Ethiopian food, Hungarian, German, Vietnamese, Indian, Lebanese, Spanish, Russian, every South or Central American culture and  all things in between and really good versions of them, too. In short, if you want great ethnic food, come to Cleveland. (Unfortunately, we have a severe shortage of 5 star restaurants of any variety. But we have more than our share of terrific ethnic eateries which serve any world food you could possibly want.)
     Which brings me back to our street fairs.

                                                                   Oh My God, Is The Food Good!!!

     I'll tell you my favorite Cleveland festival. It's the Feast of the Assumption in Little Italy. The Feast of the Assumption, celebrated on August 15th, is the day that devout Catholics believe Mary was assumed up into heaven. Cleveland's Italian community adopted this day to create Cleveland's largest festival, literally. It gets about 1/3 of a million attendees over the four day party and they're all really happy. It's also the only Feast of the Assumption with a party of this nature in the world. Weird but true. And the Italian food isn't to be believed. It's overpriced, of course. But who cares? I typically attend, maybe, three or four times each year. It's in Little Italy which is a ten minute walk from me. So I walk down Mayfield Hill to Little Italy, get lunch, then walk back up the hill and come home. But more importantly, I usually go down on Saturday night with friends and hang out for a few hours. It's just one of those annual get-togethers that I really enjoy.
     The reason I have street festivals on my mind right now is because the season just began a week ago. The first one, The Hessler Street Fair, is also located very near me. It's in University Circle which is the cultural hub of Cleveland. The Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals of Cleveland, Case Western Reserve University, The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Cleveland Orchestra and a few dozen more cultural and educational institutions are all in this relatively small district. University Circle is also at the bottom of the hill. So I can walk down to Hessler (one of Cleveland's long-time artist colonies), look at all the art, get a bite, walk back up and go home. It's easy as pie. (All this walking is how I can rationalize eating so much crap.)
     So there you have it. I don't know the street fair situation of any other city but I certainly hope that it's rich, diverse and worth waiting for where you live. (I just wish they wouldn't charge a million dollars for a glass of fresh-squeezed lemon-aid.)

Nursing Home Fashion Shows

     Page Thirty-Three.
     While working at Fancy-Shmancy Nursing Home, from spring of '03 until autumn of '06, I ended up making a name for myself on a couple different fronts. I was technically in charge of activities for the two dementia units. But, I also started some new whole house activities; created some unusual Christmas decorating and established a vintage hat collection. Concerning the whole house activities: I started a series of fashion shows and I established a series of high teas. Today, I'm going to talk about the fashion shows.
     I actually discovered the concept of nursing home fashion shows while working at University Hospitals, my previous job. U.H. had an association with one of the local private girl's schools whereby the students came in once a year and strutted around in their finery. Where that tradition began, I'm not sure, but I then ran with it. 
     At Fancy-Shmancy, I was bored one day and told my boss about these shows and suggested that we do them. "Sure, Jeremy. Wonderful idea! Get right on it."
     "Who me? That's way too much work for MY delicate system."
     "Yes, you."
     So I called around and got in touch with the headmaster of a local girl's school, explained my need and he put me in touch with the student council president. She simply LOVED the idea. I forget if this was spring or autumn so I can't tell you if the initial offerings were prom or homecoming fashions but either way the girls and the old ladies all had a "simply marvelous" afternoon. I have a theory: all teenaged girls love to show off their clothing and all old ladies love to look at pretty teenaged girls who are dressed beautifully. If you disagree with my theory, that's okay. It's just a theory.
     My shows were always on Sunday afternoons and had light refreshments accompanying. Also, to elongate the afternoon's entertainment, I created a series of  slides. I would then supplement the live models with a slide show which illustrated more fashion: current, old Hollywood or ridiculously high-end - anything fun and exciting.
     I was always the host and commentator but the girls wrote out my cheat sheets in advance so I didn't have to work too terribly hard. Occasionally, I had help hosting. I had a co-worker who, in a previous career, worked in high-end fashion retail and she helped me comment on at least one occasion and maybe more. As a team we were great. For another show,  I phoned around and got a well-known fashion expert who used to own one of Shaker Heights' finer dress shops to come on in and comment.
     It got to the point where I printed up flyers and advertised, letting family members know about the shows. A lot of family showed up too. People had a great time. All in all, these shows, for all the work they took, were original and entertaining and the old ladies loved them. They were also low budget, always a plus in a nursing home.
     

On Becoming An Activities Professional

     Page Ten.
     As somebody who gets bored easily, I tend to collect professions, and education.
     In the summer of 1998 I'd just finished school... again. This time with a B.A. (my second) in Art History. I enjoyed learning about Art History very much and found it a useful tool. With it, I imagined, I'd be the perfect party guest. With my first B.A. (Interpersonal Communications) I learned to speak with almost anyone. Now with this second degree I had something to speak about. After all, just about everybody likes art, right? So my two degrees prepared me to be a great dinner party conversationalist. I was thrilled.
     Dinner party conversationalists can get paid a lot of money too, if they attend the right parties. Therein lies the problem. I didn't attend the right parties. So I became a hairdresser.
     I've been a licensed hairdoer since 1981 and occasionally find myself actually doing hair. Such was the case in the summer of '98 after graduating. It was really a case of "nothing else to do, so I'll go do hair."
     That particular salon, the one where I worked from summer '98 to summer '99, is a separate story; but come spring of '99 I was getting antsy.I really wasn't looking to leave, but I was getting bored; I simply needed some additional incentive to wake up in the morning. In one of my "flashes of inspiration" I decided to go to a hospital near my home and start volunteering. Innocent enough, right?
     So I called University Hospitals of Cleveland which is four blocks closer to me than the Cleveland Clinic and asked to speak with their volunteer department. I introduced myself very politely and explained that I'd like to volunteer to do arts & crafts with the sick children at Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital. The Nice Lady and I  talked for a little while and the Nice Lady explained that that wasn't a volunteer position. However as it happened, on the prior day there was a resignation in the Hanna House Activities Department. Hanna House was U. H.'s post-operative step down or recuperation hospital, she explained. It was primarily geriatric and had a very quick turnover of residents (patients). The average stay was 12-14 days 'cause most people were simply there after receiving their new knees or hips. Some residents were there for other various and sundry medical experiments; new heads, new souls, etc. but really it was a lot of hips and knees.
     Activities Professionals are the cruise directors of the hospital she explained. They're the people who provide the cherry smiles, the Bingo boards, the radios and the parties and by law they must be in every nursing facility. Hanna House's licensing was technically that of a nursing facility. She though I should apply for the job and transferred me over.
     I left a message on Miss Leigh's voice mail explaining my situation. She called me back and I went in for an interview the next week. The interview went pleasantly but she explained that the job wasn't even posted yet, so the situation needed to be handled with proper protocol. Before Miss Leigh could make any decision, the job availability needed to go out to all hospital staff and she had to interview anyone interested. About four or five weeks later, Miss Leigh called me back and offered me the part-time job. She explained that I would start the second week of July so I could be scheduled for the proper orientation. All in all, from my first innocent phone call to the volunteer department to my first day working at Hanna House it was about twelve weeks.  
      I was really quite nervous about working in that environment. During the twelve weeks of forced contemplation, I thought a lot about this potential career change. I certainly had experience with elderly, Lord knows, but not in a hospital - such an official capacity! Also, my professional experience was with people who primarily required companionship, not outright care. But I didn't let Miss Leigh know of my serious concerns. After all, I collect experiences and stories. I love to live on the edge and challenge myself.  I wasn't going to let a potential new boss know that I was scared to death to actually receive the job that I was applying for.
     So that's how I started in the activities field. It was totally out of left field. But basically the profession was a good fit. It took advantage of many of my strengths. I don't know that I'll ever go back into it, but I also know that if I ever try to predict and bet where my life's path will wind, I'm guaranteed to loose my investment.