I sat down to eat last Friday and the woman next to me turned and said, “I don’t like your attitude.”  I have no idea what I had done to get a attitude-notice like that.  I hadn’t even said anything since I had sat down.  Maybe I unfolded my linen napkin wrong???  

There are all types of people here.  You have to keep changing your dining room table to find out who the nut cases are.  Eventually you run out of tables.  But this is not a “sick-people” place.  Almost all of the people are just unable to cook and take care of themselves--thus, the name “assisted living.”  It’s not a nursing home.  At least half of them are like me.  They were alone, and just got tired of trying to fix their meals and hiring people to help them.

I already knew a lady at the table I’ve now moved to. (Since I didn’t want to stay at the other table and waste a week trying to figure out what kind of new attitude I needed to adopt) She and I have been going to the same beautician for the last few years.  So I have found one person who is normal to sit with.  

Most of the people who come to the dining room to eat are nice.  (A lot of people eat in their rooms.) But every now and then you sit down next to someone who wants you to get a “new attitude,” so you find a new table.  One table I sat down at had a person tell me not to talk to her with my mouth full of food--all before I sat down.  It sure isn’t like a group of church people.  There are all kinds of people with all kinds of idiosyncrasies here.  Of course I don’t have any. (Ha-ha)