Went down to the ‘Rents lake house to celebrate my Father’s birthday, and of course, enjoyed some good wine. 🍷

My little brother took us out on the boat after the barbecue.

It really is beautiful down there, especially when most of the folks aren’t on the lake. 🤣 📷

Today would have been Grandma’s 102nd birthday… 💔

A dear friend of mine would have turned 42 today, if she hadn’t passed away during the Pandemic. Rest in peace, sweet Carol…we all still miss you. I hope whatever you are, Russell is keeping you company, begging for scratches and watching you eat, hoping for crumbs to fall. 🤣😮‍💨😢💔

📞 I was cleaning up voicemail on my lunch-break and found some old ones from Grandma; for the first time since she passed, I didn’t instantly burst into tears at the sound of her voice. 🥰 I still miss that beautiful soul every day, especially the sound of her laugh, but the pain is easier now. 💔❤️

Took three weeks but the burial is over, the slide show is done, and everyone cried; I feel like I can finally start grieving now. 💔 On the plus side, I did get to hang out with my cousins today, which was lovely, along with some aunts and other family. 😁

Goodbye Grandma, I’ll miss you always. ❤️

Listening to Mishima / Closing… 🎵

I’m not sure why it’s affecting me so much but as soon as this song came on (listening to random “for you” playlist on Apple Music, I started thinking about Grandma. 💔 It’s a little odd b/c this wasn’t her type of music but here we are, the brain is odd.

“If I were a blessing, I’d run around naked”

As always, we can count on the Golden Girls to cheer us up and offer a bit of truth with humor.

We said goodbye to my oldest friend this weekend, my lovely Grandma. She’s been…or was…a constant presence in my life, for as far back as I can remember. In fact, my oldest memories involve her, helping her bake cookies, hiding under the table with the bag of brown sugar…or waffles on Sunday morning. She was always just “Grandma” to me but as I moved from childhood to adolescence, into adulthood, she somehow became one of my dearest friends. Even when she turned 101 this summer, we all thought she’d just keep going and going but a few weeks ago, she suffered a stroke and has been slowly drifting away from us…and while I wish I could have just turned back the clock a couple years, for everything to be back to normal, I’m so very happy the family was able to visit her one last time on Friday to say a proper goodbye to her…and that the final words she said to me was that she was proud of me and grateful I’d been such a big part of her life.

I’m going to miss you so much Grandma, thank you for being a Friend. ❤️💔

📷 This photo is from the tail-end of her 97th birthday dinner. As the years went on, it was harder and harder for her to get out of her retirement home, so we’d just bring a birthday dinner to her. She absolutely loved Olive Garden, so we brought her favorite: eggplant Parmesan, along with a giant piece of chocolate cake…and a random gift; Grandma would always say she didn’t need any presents, as it would just be more things to go through once she passed away but I would always joke after you hit 90, you deserved something to mark the occasion. After we sang happy birthday to her and she blew out the candles, we were being silly and she ended up with a bow on her head, laughing. She had the absolute best laugh…and I would give anything to hear it one last time.

We said goodbye to our boy today. He drifted across the rainbow bridge full of all his favorite foods (ham, meatballs, & pâté), nestled between us on the couch (it was his favorite place to be). I’m going to miss you, my little puppy-rabbit, I’m going to miss you. 💔🐶🐕

I’m reminded of my favorite song from my favorite musical:

I’ve heard it said,
That people come into our lives,
For a reason.
Bringing something we must learn.
And we are lead to those,
Who help us most to grow if we let them.
And we help them in return.
Well I don’t know if I believe that’s true.
But I know I’m who I am today,
Because I knew you.
…..
Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better.
I do believe I have been changed for the better.
…..
Because I knew you,
I have been changed
For good.

…Of course, in my head, I’m changing out “people” with “dogs” but you get the idea…

Goodbye my little friend, I’m going to miss you…until we (hopefully) meet again. Thank you for letting me be your Human. 💔🐶

Note: This post is from my old site and was ported over into Micro.Blog when I consolidated from two sites into one. All of the migrated posts can be found here.

Being rather lazy on a Saturday, snuggling with the puppy, watching The Nanny, and finagling with my new/old computer (a log story for another time)…and realized it’s been a rather long time since I posted anything here…

It’s been an interesting six months since my last last post:

• Turned in my notice to my new-ish position (the one I left my old position for, I lasted just ten months; there is a gigantic backstory there…
• Celebrated my Grandma’s 100th birthday (that women’s memory is truly impressive, she was regaling all of us with stories from her early childhood)
• Started a new position with a consulting firm (I’ve been there for a little over a month and it’s been a fantastic experience thus far)
• Went on vacation to Michigan
• My partner tested positive for Covid-19…and thus we spent a week and a half isolating at home, wearing masks as often as able
• Started with a new client and an a truly massive amount of computer issues (they ended up sending me a second computer, the Help Desk techs couldn’t even remote into the first one)

Of course, each of these could be their own post / entry / page…and perhaps they will be some day…

Side-note: The Nanny was one of my favorite television shows as a child. In fact…and I might be dating myself here…but I would watch Fran in the afternoon whenever I stayed home sick from school. 😁

It’s still is one of my favorite shows. 😆

Note: This post is from my old site and was ported over into Micro.Blog when I consolidated from two sites into one. All of the migrated posts can be found here.