Week 2 of production, here we goooooo!

Here are the latest happenings at Town Village North (TVN), the retirement community where we are filming in Dallas:

1. SAM’S BIRTHDAY! It was Sam’s 89th birthday (88th maybe?) on December 2. Happy Birthday, Sam! He had a nice party, mostly friends and family over for a Pei-Wei Buffet. As he read his cards and blew out his candles, I could tell that he was processing (almost) 90 years of memories. I can only imagine how exhilarating and overwhelming that must be!

2. ELECTIONS!!! Two of our subjects are running for Residents Council–Sam and Ed. Who will be elected? Oh, the pressure! Four in all will be elected, and these four will basically be a voice for the residents and whatever they want communicated to the TVN administration.

Voting took place 3 times today, and will continue through tomorrow. It felt like people really came out of the woodworks for their chance to vote–the main hall was really buzzing tonight as people strolled by (cane in hand) or whizzed by in their scooter.

3. POKER GAME! Today’s Men’s Poker game had an unexpected bump in the road (and at least 30 minutes into their playing time!): there was an extra 7 of Diamonds found in the deck!!! Nooo-ooo! As the cards were inspected by the men, you could have cut the tension in the room WITH A KNIFE! But once that extra 7 was tossed out, the betting continued as before.

Today’s Jeer: We found out today that (prior to our arrival) a woman whom we had hoped to chat with and tag along with at TVN has had a series of hard-hitting bouts of pneumonia. We were also informed today that her children have decided to put her into physical therapy/rehab. According to this woman’s circle of friends at TVN, sometimes the next course of action for an individual like herself is be put into nursing care. While strange and almost sad for me, this is definitely one of the realities many seniors face.

Today’s Cheer: Jared and I have accumulated quite the group of characters–there are still some, however, who we would like to involve in the project: one individual is a 107 year-old woman who is sharp as a tack and loves to dance! Secondly, there is a married couple who actually met at TVN and got married there! I can’t wait to hear about this love story!

fun, status update