Life is Weird
Life is weird, then you get ready to die and that's weird too. Not that anyone is dying (that I know of) but it is weird, sometimes sad, sometimes funny, sometimes both. My great-grandmother died at 105. Not that we weren't sad when she died, cause we were, but it's hard to feel particularly bad for someone who managed to get that much life wedged in. She was a very interesting woman, who partied through prohibition, smoked until it became unfashionable, drank one daily drink-- for the effect not the taste, stayed out of the sun, and had one child because that's what birth control is for. I was often threatened as a child with the possibility of my Nana being invited over to do a white-gloved inspection of my room. The threat worked for awhile until I figured out Nana would have to walk through the rest of the house to get to my room, and my mother's housekeeping wasn't going to pass inspection either. My mother was NOT amused to have this threat thrown back in her face. (Pro tip: If you have a smart child they will eventually be a smart-mouthed child so think about your parental threats the way you think about vanity license plates and cops, "How will this sound dripping with sarcasm?") My grandmother was with my Nana the night she died. I don't remember her dying OF anything... things just sort of stopped working in quick succession. We knew she wasn't well but we weren't really aware she was going to to die... except Nana knew. She insisted on going up to see her younger sister who was on a different floor. My grandmother told her that they couldn't do that because it was late at night and the sister was sleeping. My Nana got very indignant and said, "Well, we BETTER because I'm going to die." She did too... cause she wasn't one to make grandiose statements without backing it up. It makes me smile just to think about it. Almost makes up for the fact that she timed everything so I had to go to the funeral with navy blue hair. Don't give me that look-- she totally did it on purpose. Trust me.
I went to the beach today, very spontaneous and poorly planned. Being that I can see the Pacific Ocean from my front window it would appear that such things would not require planning. It is entirely possible to go to the beach in a spontaneous manner that is perfectly rational. This, is not what I did. I picked a further afield beach with an isolated cove that requires hiking over a large boulder field around a point that can get cut off by the tide and a damp scramble across slippery clay. Add that I didn't exactly mention to anyone where I was going, didn't grab a waterproof jacket, and had less than an hour of daylight to get out there and back... things get a little bit more interesting. Not super interesting because my cellphone works out there, I had a pitiful flashlight, and there is a very steep trail out of the cove if you get stuck (though there have been a lot of bear sitings recently). I was talking with a friend about family mottos the other night and mine is, "Well, it seemed like good idea at the time". Since I'm writing this you can probably deduce that nothing went even a little bit wrong on my expidition, and I got back to my car before I lost daylight. It was a very good day.
Life is weird, but that's a good thing. May you never live in normality longer than you have to.
I went to the beach today, very spontaneous and poorly planned. Being that I can see the Pacific Ocean from my front window it would appear that such things would not require planning. It is entirely possible to go to the beach in a spontaneous manner that is perfectly rational. This, is not what I did. I picked a further afield beach with an isolated cove that requires hiking over a large boulder field around a point that can get cut off by the tide and a damp scramble across slippery clay. Add that I didn't exactly mention to anyone where I was going, didn't grab a waterproof jacket, and had less than an hour of daylight to get out there and back... things get a little bit more interesting. Not super interesting because my cellphone works out there, I had a pitiful flashlight, and there is a very steep trail out of the cove if you get stuck (though there have been a lot of bear sitings recently). I was talking with a friend about family mottos the other night and mine is, "Well, it seemed like good idea at the time". Since I'm writing this you can probably deduce that nothing went even a little bit wrong on my expidition, and I got back to my car before I lost daylight. It was a very good day.
Life is weird, but that's a good thing. May you never live in normality longer than you have to.