caution: wet floor

this morning we had an incident. nothing major, but enough to write about. ernest was having our new staff member, madeleine, check his chore to make sure he had completed it.

...sidenote...
i have realized that each of our clients has a "badge of honor" of some sort. don't we all in a way? but here is what i think each of our clients' badge of honor is and then i will tie it in to the story.

einstein: his intelligenc & ability to know unimportant facts about everything and nothing.

chester: his sticky fingers & sneakiness. he can steal stuff without batting an eye and think he can get away with it. (unfortunately for him, he doesn't realize that we are going to check under his mattress EVERY TIME.)

ernest: he has been here 3 years in september. that's right, 3 years. and he touts this like it has made him a celebrity or is wearing the sheriff's star on his ripped t-shirt. when in fact, in real life...it makes him the opposite. (but shhh. don't tell him that.) he loves to brag about knowing all the past clients & family teachers. all the rules and secret hiding places in the home. which is what made today interesting...

so since he has been here almost 3 years (which BTW the years just continue to grow, all of a sudden we overhear him saying to a client, "yaaah, i've beeen here five years an' it's gonnnna be six sooon." in his draaaaaaawl), he knows that he is supposed to vacuum the rug, move the couches and sweep the entire living room floor and hallway, then mop. and although madeleine is new, i've already prepped her. so she says that he hasn't moved the couches and mopped the entire floor. he gets disrespectful and tries to bring me in on it. i refuse, saying that she is a staff member and he needs to be respectful to her. he continues to escalate, getting confused on "the facts" and closing his eyes like he is trying so hard to remember exactly what he said to her just 30 seconds ago. he continues to get frustrated and i ask him if he needs time to calm down and to go down to his room.

he yells, "I DON' NEED NO TIME!" as he pounds the cupboards in the kitchen. well clearly i am wrong. he is completely calm...or not... so i again ask him to speak respectfully. he stomps off into the living room, whipping around the mop and slamming it all over the floor. then he picks up one side of the couch and turns it over onto its side. i'm still being nice at this point, prompting him again to remove himself so that he doesn't make things worse. just then chester asks me to check his chore. i say sure, and walk down the hallway.

and suddenly hear a huge SWOOSH. i look down at ernest, who has just dumped the entire bucket of mop water all over the floor. it's going everywhere. down the stairs, on the rug, the overturned couch. well that was IT from the nice fairy. i walk up there, sloshing around in about an inch of water and say,

"okay, so obviously you just want to throw this little temper tantrum in front of everyone instead of handle it like the adult you claim to be, in your room. once it's over and you've calmed down, help yourself to the towels and get this cleaned up."

about 10 minutes later, he apologizes & i help him mop up the mess. i had told him that we needed a "wet floor sign" and he says with his slow laugh, "weeell, why don' ya just lay me down on the flooor 'cuz i'm wearin' a yeller t-shirt. huuh huuh huuh." i told him if he starts acting again like he just did a few minutes ago, that i just might think about it.