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No longer on the river and, again, an empty nester. Back to living on Fleming Island and making some more friends!

Wednesday, July 28, 2010

How do you solve a problem like Marlena?

Only, there is no problem! Marlena, who works for The Club, is the most amazing woman I have met in a long, long time. Not sure where to begin but I can work backward in today alone. Marlena is about two years older than I am and thin as a rail. When I was leaving to come up after water aerobics and lunch poolside, Marlena was consolidating the trash from the outside cans and wheeling one toward the dumpster on the north end of The Club. This was after she had taken our lunch orders, plus those of others poolside, served us, and then sat for a minute to show us her photo album of when she taught baton and 'color guard' and synchronized swimming to Pioneer kids back in the day. She wants to do baton twirling with fire at The Club but cannot get insurance for so "dangerous" a sport. Funny, she said it was not dangerous when she learned it as a child and never had an incident when teaching other little ones...
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Prior to our water class she was cleaning the pools using the long poles and nets, and swept the area surrounding the pools, of which there are three. She does more before breakfast than most do in the course of a day (me!). She has the permission of the managers to institute just about anything at The Club to help stimulate involvement, except for playing with fire, I guess. While we were eating our meals, she asked Randy if he had an electric keyboard. Randy, age 75, does, in fact, have such a thing so she proposed to him that he bring it out to the cabana on Friday and Saturday nights. Not only would he play, but she, being a classically trained soprano, would sing the standards and Broadway tunes. Holy cow! What else can she do??? My question is, 'Who will wait on us?' but I should not be so short-sighted, or selfish! As long as they are not too loud, this could be an excellent draw. Randy will finally have someone to sing while he plays, but Marlena cannot sit up on the keyboard!
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Marlena, believe it or not (remember, she is rail thin....), is also a health-food nut and used to run/work for a health food store in the plaza where the 'old' Wal*Mart used to be on Blanding and Filmore. I never knew there was such a shop over there, but then, why would I? She was going to buy it when it came up for sale but when she found out Wal*Mart was moving further south, there was no way she would buy in, losing the anchor store like that. Wise move.
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Let's see, what else about Marlena? Oh, yes, she is retired from the Navy after 20+ years. She was in the aviator sector of the service, part of the team that transported people and things from point A to point B. I do not believe she was a pilot but I would not be surprised if she was! She did actually fly though, so was perhaps a navigator or similar. So add world traveler to her list of accomplishments. She also home schooled her son, who she considers her 'opera partner' as he is musically inclined as well. Her son is training to be a Navy Seal. She adopts injured and displaced animals, having a mess of dogs and cats in her home at all times.
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When Marlena is not working outside caring for the pools and serving us on the weekends from the cabana, she works inside The Club as lead waitress. Actually Lead Server, to be politically correct. It is also her responsibility to dress the tables with the fresh flowers ordered weekly and to see to it they remain fresh looking throughout the week. It is not unusual at all for her to have 12 hours a day or more, depending upon the event or function.
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In case you think this is a high paying place to work, it is not, according to her (shhh.....) so she supplements her income by working two times a week at the Golden Corral on Blanding. She shares her home with her mom, and takes her to church on Sunday to Advent Lutheran. Marlena, I believe, does not attend but likely cannot due to her schedule of serving at the cabana which opens at 11:00 a.m. Danny, the cook out there, is usually unloading supplies and getting set up when I leave for church around 9:00 a.m. Whew!
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Are you tired yet???? And she never, ever complains...what a treasure she is to The Club!

The floor is being replaced in the elevator as well as the tile surround at the opening to the car. This blue tile is evidently 'original' to the building, as the former tile was beige with blue. I learned at the pool on Sunday night that flocked wallpaper is coming back into style. What??? The lady owns a wallpaper and fabric shop in San Marco and said she has some beautiful flocked paper coming in. Oh, if I had only known it would come back into style, we would have had to only strip four layers of wallpaper from my family room walls!!! I think we did the right thing....