Hawaii Week and Hard Jigsaw Puzzles

It’s been said more than a few times that living in a Continuum Care Complex compares to being on a cruise ship and not just about this place where I’m at. I toured another facility up by where I used to live and their director used that term when he gave his sales pitch to the group of seniors I was with to tour the place and to have lunch. They have a piano bar and happy hour every night and the bartenders all wore ship captain's hats and white uniforms, trying to sell the happy vibe of the place. Oh, yes, these kinds of places are in competition for our dollars and with 4-5 new ones in town they are all hoping to win over the Baby Boomers by pleasing taste buds as well as keep us entertained. Chefs in these places are getting top dollar now and we have three working here. 

Our most recent newly hired chef is going to fatten me up even more than I already am with his nightly specials. Monday's offering of pork, sweet potatoes, veggies and pineapple had me moaning so often I finally understood the term, food organism. Best. Meal. I. Ever. Ate. The next day they had a coconut shrimp special that I couldn’t eat because I’m allergic to shellfish but I got to listen to a whole table full of woman having food organisms. 

Those two dishes back to back were by design for the complexes’ Hawaii theme week. Every fifth or sixth week they have a theme week which seemed silly at first. Each day we’re supposed to dress a certain way…like Hawaii shirts day for example but eventually you get into the silliness of theme weeks and find yourself at Lane Bryant buying an ugly Christmas sweater for 60% off for next years’ Merry Week. The food and entertainment follows the theme too. Hawaii Week so far is/was my favorite. One day it was free Margarita's Day and another day it was cruise ship bingo with coconut themed food prizes. Another day it was a PBS virtual tour of the natural wonders of the island and the Friday night the movie was South Pacific. 

But the highlight of the week for me was a Live Steel Drums program put together by a music therapist who also belongs to a steel drum band of 100+ members. She goes to Trinidad every year and has for 30 years to take part in a steel drum competition. We saw a ten minute video of the competition but the rest of her time was spent teaching us how to play---or rather six volunteers from the audience and two draftees. I was one of those drafted to play one song because they wanted all the Jean’s on campus to play together with the teacher who was also named Jean. It was harder than I thought it would be to get the drum to play loud enough but we had colored stickers inside to help us cheat on the notes, and the scores were written out and held inside the drum with a magnet. 

One woman from my book club really shined on the drums, learned quickly and played two drums at time; she was kept up front the entire time. Our Life Enrichment Director also put on an enthusiastic show while those of us in the audience tried to keep beat with hand-held percussion instruments. I've loved the sound of steel drums since the late sixties when I first heard then in the Bahamas so this event brought back lots of great memories of the islands cruise I was on, of being happily drunk enough to kiss every taxi cab driver we came in contact with one night and of another night dancing on the beach in the wee hours of the morning with a Italian tourist named Matteo who couldn't speak English. At the time the extend of my Italian was to count to ten and the words: arrivederce (see you later), grazie (thank you), prego (you're welcome), capisci (do you understand), ciao (hello/goodbye) and Si (yes)---all learned from my dad, the son of Italian immigrants.

During Hawaii week I also got obsessed by Charlie the RedCat, a puzzle that is advertised as the “world’s most difficult jigsaw puzzle” and it’s certainly the most difficult I’ve every run across and I’ve worked it every winter since 2001. It’s only 15” x 15” and 529 pieces but it took me five days, which is a long time for me. 

What makes it so hard? Several things like it has “the same picture is on both sides, offset by 90 degrees from each other.” And it’s cut from both the front and the back making it impossible to tell one side from the other by looking at the edges. There are only two shapes of puzzle pieces and some pieces seem to be the same front and back but really aren't. You can’t, however, figure that out until you’re down to the last three pieces. Those last three pieces took me an hour and deconstructing parts of the puzzle to figure it out---happens every time I do the puzzle. Even the border pieces are ambiguous; several times I’ve had to dissemble parts of the border pieces and exchange them for others. I only work puzzles in the wintertime so I’m hoping by making this the last for this season I can hurry spring along and maybe use the time for other hobbies. Wish me luck with goal. ©