Aug 18, 2008 20:57
you can have your breakfast with a side of chaos.
An odd opener I know, but it's very real to me right now.
PGI 2008 - Gillette, WY: This year was TONS MORE FUN than 2003. It wasn't nearly as hot, I actually had friends, and I felt less trapped. Dave spent the entire week with me and I loved it. We had so much fun and it was great to see him after a whole year. Dave's parents are great too. Bruce and Janice really welcomed me and my family into their family. Huzzah for hospitality!
Sam and I both entered art into the show. I didn't win a ribbon (but Dave did award me with a lovely Gold Star sticker!) and Sam got 4th place! I'm so proud of her! Oh and Rainy too cus she got a 1st place on her entry!
But with as fast as it all began, it's gone. I can't believe that it's already done and over. At least next year it's in Mason City, IA.... a much more welcoming drive from IN!
Post PGI - I rode home w/ Jeff back to Denver after PGI. For some odd reason I was super sad the whole way home. I could hardly stop crying all day. Yeah I had to say bye to everyone, I was already missing Dave and his family, and Mom and Sam had an 18hr drive home... To me that was not enough to cry all freaking day over!
It was all too clear Saturday evening. Jeff, Carole, and I were headed down to a birthday party and stopped by to check on Grandma around 6pm. No one had talked to her since Sat. night, she wasn't answering her door or phone, and her car was parked in the parking lot. We had to call the police and after they got into her apartment... Well, she was dead and I lost it all.
My Grandma Ginny. Gone. It's been a few days and I still can't accept it. I just freakin saw her last week. We had a blast at Garden of the Gods. We all got great chocolate from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory. She even wanted to attend PGI next summer. I don't get it. I'm crushed.
There's so much I could say about her. Sure she could be annoying with her forgetful memory, her need to be the center of attention, and not quite "getting" it, but she tried. She really tried. She always tried to help me out with whatever fad I as going through at the time. When I wanted to be an astronaut, she gave me the operations manual to the space shuttles. When I wanted to learn how to play piano, she gave me a ball to do hand exercises and books to read. She even gave me her guitar for my high school graduation and sent me a care package at Purdue.
I remember so much, yet so little of our time together. I wanted to ask her about being a "mermaid" back in the day, why she decided to attend Baker in Kansas, and what she wanted to be when she grew up. I really did have have plans to have great conversations with her this week, but I guess she decided it was time to go.
Jeff was dreading having to take her car away and convincing her she needed to go into assisted living. Grandma was recently diagnosed to have memory problems and already had major issues with her diabetes. Earlier I was asked to consider moving in with her to help care for her. I hadn't pushed that idea out yet, but I guess now I don't have to. She decided for all of us.
Grandma was very stubborn and was determined to be independent. In her younger years, she was very active in woman's lib and would have been delighted to know the responding officer was female and at the apartment in about two minutes. To add on, there was a 2nd female officer, a female victim's assistant, and finally a female coroner who was 7 wks from her due date. Grandma would have been so proud.
Mom is flying out tomorrow to help Jeff, Carole, and me get the rest of Grandma's stuff organized and maybe out of the apartment. I have no idea about any type of services right now as we are still looking for all of her information. But in typical Grandma Ginny fashion... she never threw out a thing!
pgi 2008,
grandma ginny