On my first day at the rehabilitation center, I had the feeling of butterflies in my stomach, but an uncontrollable smile on my face; it was the kind of feeling you would get before starting a new job. The itinerary for the day was provided to me by the head nurse, who greeted me with a cold death stare on her face. The cold eyes reminded me of the medusa stare and snakes coming out of her head. She frightened me. Much to my surprise, she received me with a warm smile and welcome hug. She assigned me to finish setting up the dining room so that the residents could have breakfast and converse amongst each other. .
Each round table was set up with name tags for place setting and beautiful white thorn-less roses welcoming the residents. It was my job to place the napkins and silverware next to each plate. The nurse walked up to me with a box of utensils and said "You only place a spoon and fork, not a knife because the residents might accidently cut themselves." She went on to tell me that the food is cut up into cubes for the elderly to make it easier for them to eat. As I finished setting the tables everyone started to come in with the help of the nurse. My grandmother was wheeled into the dining room by my grandfather. I was so excited to see her feeling better. She happily sat next to my grandfather and was talking to another elderly woman named Margaret. The patients were getting antsy so I served them their coffee. Due to the strict diets some of the patients had, I had to use a list prior to dispensing creams and sugar. Margaret reminded me of the funny, critical, arrogant Marie, the grandmother from the comedy sitcom "Everybody Loves Raymond." She had bifocals perched up to her nose and pearly white hair up in curls. According to the list she could only have plain black coffee, no cream or sugar. At the sound of that, she became flustered. Her face was turning bright red and she glared at me with dislike in her eyes.