Awkward Turtle

I led a trivia activity this afternoon where we played a game of Scattergories, a game I'm sure most of you have played before. I had eight categories listed on the dry erase board, and as a group the residents came up with an answer for each category starting with a letter from the alphabet. A resident with mild dementia (who has always creeped me out a tad to begin with, two points for honesty) was sitting next to a very high-functioning African-American resident. The letter we chose was B and the categories included things like "Animal", "Girl's Name", "Country", and so on. Every time I announced a category and asked them to think of an answer that started with B, the lady with mild dementia would say, "Black Lady". Every time. I told her that her response was inappropriate and that there wasn't an animal or country named "Black Lady", and she just smiled at me with her creepy eyes. After the fourth "Black Lady" answer, the other resident (who is the nicest woman in the world) turned to her and asked if she was prejudiced. The lady shot back, "No, are you?" Seriously? I break up the little tiff, and try to remind the resident that "Black Lady" will not fall under any category. Ever.

It gets better.

We finish up the trivia activity and I begin to take residents from the activity room back to their rooms or the living room. I return to the activity room to find that the lady with mild dementia has taken her shoe off and is sticking her foot in a male resident's direction and appears to be asking something of him. He shoots me a panicked look and asks me to move him or her, either way as long as I moved quickly. I asked the lady what she was doing and she responded, "I want him to rub my foot." Ew. I told her that he was not going to rub her foot, and that he would never be available to rub her foot.

If my residents knew what the Awkward Turtle signal was, we would have all been doing it. With the exception of one.