It's Groundhog Day All Over Again

When we first moved into the group home in Arkansas, we quickly noticed that every day was pretty much the same as the last. We would have the same arguments, the same dialogue, the same problems, the same excitements, etc. We could almost script what the morning was going to be - we knew who would emerge from their room first, what they would be wearing and the first thing they would say. It got almost comical. At one point, when someone asked what our life was like, I answered that it was kind of like the movie "Groundhog Day" with Bill Murray.

If you have seen the movie, then you know that he repeats the same day over and over. He tries to change things up a bit, but is largely unsuccessful at changing any outcomes. That was by far the best way to sum up our lives.

One of my favorite stories is of one lady who came out every morning, looked at me and said, "How'd you meet your husband?" I would tell her the story, then she would look at Lowell and say, "How'd you meet your wife?" This went on daily. Several days into it, I started adding details here and there that were really pretty insignificant, but just trying to make it more fun. (It is a rather boring story...)

One day, I had tired of telling the story over and over, so I said, "Well, I was working at the zoo, and I was feeding the monkeys..." I proceeded to go into a long drawn out completely fictional story about how I met Lowell. She smiled and returned to her room. The next morning, she walked out of her room, looked at me and said, "You was feedin' them monkeys." She laughed hysterically and never again asked how we met. Seven years later, you could ask her how we met and she would laugh and say, "She was feedin' the monkeys!" I guess she was just waiting for a more interesting story and she liked that one.

When we left the group home, we thought life would change. And it did. Lowell likes to say that we went straight from "Groundhog Day", to "Groundhog Day on Steroids."