2012 has been a wonderful year, and I have the pictures to prove it! Trips to Carmel, good times with friends and family, live music, a good garden bounty, wine country and beach trips, golf and putt putt, aquariums, beautiful sunsets, U.T. games, Disney, and Japan, Japan, Japan!
Here’s to 2013 treating us just as well!
So this is a hard one to figure out where to start. It’s really hard to lose someone who’s been a part of your life for 30+ years. Who was always there, always supportive, always quietly in the background. And it’s rather funny to describe my Nin as quietly in the background – because when I think of her, quiet isn’t what comes to mind. Full of life, life of the party, ready to have fun – those are the things that come to mind. As I flip through pictures, and think about her more, quietly in the background, being supportive, saying “well, okay” with that smile that only she had – it wavered a bit, it was a little sly, but full at the same time – those are the things I see and remember now.
There are those stand out moments in my memory – dousing the Christmas tree in icicles, tinsel in a bunch, and she’d just smile and redistribute a little here, a little there. Playing “Bad Girl” on ZZ Top’s Eliminator tape over and over and over again, dancing like crazy in her living room, until we fell over in the floor, laughing, rewinding, doing it all again. The cakes – oh! the cakes – always my favorite baked when I came home, and a chocolate pie or two to send me back to college with. Going to Danny and Linda’s to swim, and later on going to her apartment’s pool to swim — even though she didn’t swim. She was really happy just to be there, in the moment, enjoying time with her family, with her grandchildren.
It’s really hard to say good-bye to all of that, even if it’s “for the best”. Even if she has eternal peace, it’s hard to not be selfish and say I want her back, as a part of my life. It’s really hard to think of how hard her life was; how unfair the end was. Quite frankly, the whole thing blows, and it feels much better to say it that bluntly.
So, I’ll try to remember “it is for the best”. She’s “in a better place”. Along with my grannies, along with her sister, and countless others. She’ll live on in my heart and in my memory, every time I hear “Bad Girl”, every time I see some flamboyant pants, every time I make her caramel icing, noodle casserole, or turkey gravy with some yellow food color. And every time I see a pink sunset, I’ll think of this past Wednesday, after her funeral, when we saw this angel in the sky, telling us it was a better place.
The other day, I stumbled upon a this movie on Door Sixteen’s blog and man did it take me back to college. Freshman year, our foundation professor, Gretchen, showed this to us. I believe it was right before we had an assignment to photograph a sculpture we’d just built, to give us some insight into perspective. It’s a pretty cool video, though I remember being bored by the end. I get it already!! Let’s get on with the work!
As I watched this, I began to think of the other videos we’d watched in classes. (more…)
Day of the Dead Altar, San Antonio
I’ve visited San Antonio once, and I was lucky enough to be there around the time of year when Day of the Dead, or DÃa de los Muerto, is celebrated. So in addition to getting to see such wonders as the Blue Hole and all of the missions, I also got to see many, many beautiful altars, erected for loved ones who are no longer with us physically. Many of the altars were for family members, but this was also shortly after Katrina, so there were quite a few dedicated to the victims of Katrina as well. (more…)
Remember laundry day in college? Where every shred of clothing you owned was dirty. Dirty, not just worn once or twice. I loved that the building I lived in had 10+ washers and dryers in the basement, because I generally had 6 or 7 loads of laundry to do at once. The only problem was getting a washer that worked was a bit like Russian roulette. Half the time they would stop, mid-wash, with all the filthy water standing around my clothes.
Last week, when discussing the end of a decade with Raju, I had the realization how long a decade really is. “I graduated college!” I said, wide-eyed. Hell, I was still in college at the turn of the decade. This was the end of a long list of other major milestones that happened:
1. I got married… more than once
2. We bought a house
3. I traveled around the world
4. I traveled to French Polynesia – twice
5. I acquired Milo
6. I acquired Raju 🙂
7. I started this blog and this website
8. I got my first real job (cut’n’paste ninja!!)
9. I quit my first real job for an “art” job (and promptly went back to first real job)
10. I moved to California
11. I went to the Albuquerque Balloon Fest (one goal on Mom’s travel list)
12. I visited San Antonio Riverwalk (another goal on Mom’s travel list)
13. I learned to drive a stick shift
14. I learned to like, then LOVE beer
15. I attended my first NFL and NHL games
16. I lived through my first surgery… and suffered only minor embarrassment from the drugs
17. I became addicted to coffee in the AM
18. I had my first gallery shows
19. I had my first ever Indian food (and Ethiopian, and probably a few others)
20. I went from carrying a 300+ CD case to an iPod
21. I got my first computer (Dell desktop) and became addicted to the internets
22. I graduated college
I know there were many, many more things that happened in the past decade, some I will remember later, some are completely forgotten. However, I still have piles of laundry to do on laundry day, just like in college. I have a feeling housework is a chore I will never learn to embrace.
So that’s my laundry list; that’s my reflection. Enough dwelling in the past, it’s now time to focus on the present and the future.
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