Friday, August 15, 2003
Four years ago today, my grandmother died. I'd like to say a few words about her, because I was pretty close to her and she was very cool. Even though she's been gone four years, I still miss her.
My grandma was always "old," but she never seemed old to me. When I was little I used to absolutely love staying at her house. To this day I still remember the smell of I think something like musty carpet and roast beef that always makes me think of grandma and grandpa's house. They lived out in "the country" and it was always fun running around in cornfields or playing with the toys and the books that grandma never failed to provide. She made the best peanut butter on butter toast sandwiches ever. I used to love the smell of coffee when I stayed at grandma and grandpa's house, and grandma let me try some once, even though I was only four years old!!!
When I graduated from 8th grade as a present, they took me to a place that had always fascinated me and also seemed kind of creepy: The House on the Rock, which I initially became fascinated with after grandma brought over a book about it.
Grandma was a nurse in "the olden days" and one of her specialities was telling you something really gross and disgusting about the body and its functions while you were at the dinner table. As soon as I would say something, she would innocently say something like, "What?" very innocently. I still think she secretly enjoyed grossing people out with here stories, though.
All of my cousins and I were terrified to be around grandma if you had a loose tooth, because she would always say something like, "I just wanna wiggle it a bit," and then she'd yank it right out. I got tricked once - never again!
When I was in junior high she and I spent many lovely afternoons watching Degrassi Junior High together.
OK, two final memories I want to share about my grandma.
One is her coffee. Bleech her coffee was just so bad and weak! Of course she would complain that I made it too strong but no. Anyway, when she and my grandpa would stay over, I used to try and RUN to the kitchen when I heard her steps so I could beat her to the french press. But dammit she was always just too fast for me! We both knew about our little game, too...
Finally one of my favorite memories is when Grandma and I quickly stopped into Ulta 3, which is sort of a discount cosmetics store in the States, and we were just supposed to be in their for about 5 minutes while my Grandpa waited in the car. An hour later a crabby Grandpa came into the store to get us, because we'd been busy spraying each other with perfume and shouting, "Oooh, look at this! Look at this!" at all of the make up around the story. You'd hardly be able to tell who was the 23 year old and who was the 77 year old!
*sigh*
I miss you grandma!
My grandma was always "old," but she never seemed old to me. When I was little I used to absolutely love staying at her house. To this day I still remember the smell of I think something like musty carpet and roast beef that always makes me think of grandma and grandpa's house. They lived out in "the country" and it was always fun running around in cornfields or playing with the toys and the books that grandma never failed to provide. She made the best peanut butter on butter toast sandwiches ever. I used to love the smell of coffee when I stayed at grandma and grandpa's house, and grandma let me try some once, even though I was only four years old!!!
When I graduated from 8th grade as a present, they took me to a place that had always fascinated me and also seemed kind of creepy: The House on the Rock, which I initially became fascinated with after grandma brought over a book about it.
Grandma was a nurse in "the olden days" and one of her specialities was telling you something really gross and disgusting about the body and its functions while you were at the dinner table. As soon as I would say something, she would innocently say something like, "What?" very innocently. I still think she secretly enjoyed grossing people out with here stories, though.
All of my cousins and I were terrified to be around grandma if you had a loose tooth, because she would always say something like, "I just wanna wiggle it a bit," and then she'd yank it right out. I got tricked once - never again!
When I was in junior high she and I spent many lovely afternoons watching Degrassi Junior High together.
OK, two final memories I want to share about my grandma.
One is her coffee. Bleech her coffee was just so bad and weak! Of course she would complain that I made it too strong but no. Anyway, when she and my grandpa would stay over, I used to try and RUN to the kitchen when I heard her steps so I could beat her to the french press. But dammit she was always just too fast for me! We both knew about our little game, too...
Finally one of my favorite memories is when Grandma and I quickly stopped into Ulta 3, which is sort of a discount cosmetics store in the States, and we were just supposed to be in their for about 5 minutes while my Grandpa waited in the car. An hour later a crabby Grandpa came into the store to get us, because we'd been busy spraying each other with perfume and shouting, "Oooh, look at this! Look at this!" at all of the make up around the story. You'd hardly be able to tell who was the 23 year old and who was the 77 year old!
*sigh*
I miss you grandma!
Dude, what's going on??? Crazy blaster virus, power outage in NYC and environs, looting in Ottawa... is there some sort of astrological configuration I should know about???
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
A few other things.
Feeling fairly stressed out and very very much looking forward to a week at home to "get away from it all." I still feel stressed out at work. The gossipy bitchy thing has died down somewhat, but one of my closest friends there still feels quite distant. I talked to her about it last week, and I think I'm going to mention it again today. Then I'm gonna leave it. I think part of it is the heat. It's just not fun to work in my school at the moment. It's so busy. And I knew the aftermath of all the gossipy bitching going on would leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth. And sure enough it has.
Also something has happened to my latest paycheck and I was supposed to receive it by last Friday at the latest but I still haven't received it so I'm hovering dangerously close to over my overdraft. The upside is that when I finally receive it, I'll have three consecutive weeks in which I receive a paycheck, the downside is I have no money at the moment. As we all know, that's stressful.
Anyway, bank holiday soon, and vacation soon, yay!
Feeling fairly stressed out and very very much looking forward to a week at home to "get away from it all." I still feel stressed out at work. The gossipy bitchy thing has died down somewhat, but one of my closest friends there still feels quite distant. I talked to her about it last week, and I think I'm going to mention it again today. Then I'm gonna leave it. I think part of it is the heat. It's just not fun to work in my school at the moment. It's so busy. And I knew the aftermath of all the gossipy bitching going on would leave a bad taste in everyone's mouth. And sure enough it has.
Also something has happened to my latest paycheck and I was supposed to receive it by last Friday at the latest but I still haven't received it so I'm hovering dangerously close to over my overdraft. The upside is that when I finally receive it, I'll have three consecutive weeks in which I receive a paycheck, the downside is I have no money at the moment. As we all know, that's stressful.
Anyway, bank holiday soon, and vacation soon, yay!
Where have I been, you're wondering?
Well, a few answers. One, naturally attempting to hide from the opressive heat. I think it feels a lot better today. However, I'm probably saying that because I'm working in an air conditioned building at the moment.
Two, having finished the first Harry Potter book, and having had to watch "The Chamber of Secrets" with my students at school last week, I have horribly, utterly succumbed to the Harry Potter phenomenon and have had my nose stuck in a Harry Potter book during my every free moment this week. I'm now midway through book "The Prisoner of Azkaban" and naturally need to get the next two books also. Maybe I'll save the latest one for my plane ride to Chicago, and maybe I'll take after this one and read the book I'm supposed to be reading for my book club. What is it with me ignoring the books I'm supposed to be reading? Je ne sais pas.
Three, when I've not been working or reading Harry Potter books I've obsessively been playing on friendster. It's not so much having lots of friends that interests me (though that interests me, don't get me wrong!), but having lots of FAKE friends that interests me! I love all of the fake identities on there. Makes it all like a bizarre trading card game.
So that's what I've been up to.
Well, a few answers. One, naturally attempting to hide from the opressive heat. I think it feels a lot better today. However, I'm probably saying that because I'm working in an air conditioned building at the moment.
Two, having finished the first Harry Potter book, and having had to watch "The Chamber of Secrets" with my students at school last week, I have horribly, utterly succumbed to the Harry Potter phenomenon and have had my nose stuck in a Harry Potter book during my every free moment this week. I'm now midway through book "The Prisoner of Azkaban" and naturally need to get the next two books also. Maybe I'll save the latest one for my plane ride to Chicago, and maybe I'll take after this one and read the book I'm supposed to be reading for my book club. What is it with me ignoring the books I'm supposed to be reading? Je ne sais pas.
Three, when I've not been working or reading Harry Potter books I've obsessively been playing on friendster. It's not so much having lots of friends that interests me (though that interests me, don't get me wrong!), but having lots of FAKE friends that interests me! I love all of the fake identities on there. Makes it all like a bizarre trading card game.
So that's what I've been up to.
