tonight i'm sitting here with four electrode thingies stuck to my chest and side, connected to a britney-esque clip-on heart monitor. finally a doctor is looking into these fuckin' palpitations. i'm sure i'm lacking in potassium, or it's nothing.
i've been to the doctor twice this week. seeing a lot of sick people. i got home tonight and asked JJ how it felt to see his 31 year old wife hooked up to medical equipment. he summed it up best. it makes it seem real. indeed.
but.
i'm not obsessing.
ok, maybe just a little.
reading back through the life of this blog?
go ahead and read some of my first posts.
i'll wait.
do you see how carefree and silly I was prior to June 2005?
you all know what happened then.
i became the corporate whore.
sold my goodies to the highest bidder.
one year later.
look where i am.
still nuts.
just too fried to be silly about it now.
My mom's mom turned 80 last week. The family threw a party for her this weekend with the whole fam there along with a bunch of old people I didn't know. We even wore name tags.
Unbeknownst to the grandchildren (9 of 12 present at the party), we were asked to tell our favorite grandma story from growing up. Ugh - no time to prepare - childhood memories are such a blur when put on the spot. My sister bailed on standing up in front of the 40 people present (as did a few other cousins), but I got up there with Liv and spouted off something or other about her being wonderful, a great role model, always there for us, yada yada - but felt bad because my grandma deserved better! She deserved all my loving childhood memories because she's always been my favorite grandma. So, JJ suggested I come blog about it since, of course, even in the car home I started thinking of some memories...
1) She always stood just outside her door or in the driveway and waved goodbye to us until she couldn't see the car anymore
2) She makes the most wonderful creamy, buttery mashed potatoes. Thanksgiving and Christmas at her house were the best! I would eat nothing but mashed potatoes (no gravy, only butter), rolls (with butter), and turkey.
3) She is the central repository for family addresses. She keeps up with every one of her grandkids and sends birthday cards religiously even to all the grandkid spouses.
4) She was happy and excited to watch Liv when I went back to work and needed someone to help. She loved it when we spent the night and had dinner together. She'd do anything she could to help any one of us out.
5) I love Grandma's laugh. She has a wonderful sense of humor and appreciates my sarcasm. I think I'll always hear her saying in my mind, "Oh, Tricia!"
6) I was attempting to make a quilt for my best friend. And, did not plan it well nor did I have enough fabric, etc. I ended up being a royal mess. Well, she and my aunt rolled up their sleeves and helped me figure it out, and made a fantastic looking quilt.
7) I'm riddled with headaches - started when I was a kid. Grandma gives the best neck and shoulder massages.
8) My sister and I would earn extra money in the summers by going with her to clean houses. Hard, hard work - and my grandma did it year round.
9) In thinking back, there isn't a major family milestone that my grandma wasn't a part of. She was there for all the birthday parties, all the graduations, all the weddings. It was a big deal for her to miss my sister's college graduation (the first college grad on that side of our family) when it conflicted with my cousin's wedding.
10) Great big kisses and hugs upon arrival and departure of any meeting.
She's just a kick-ass grandma - the kind every one of us should have. Here's a picture of me and her from the party this weekend.
