This has to be the hardest, weirdest, busiest December of my life. When I was a kid, December was the best month of all. My birthday and the end of school and Christmas combined to make December an exciting, joyful time of year.
I'm grieving for my grandmother. Rose Boffa Hoskin died at 89 on the afternoon of December 10, 2010. She was very ill, but she passed away peacefully.
This is the only digital photo of her I could find. It was last summer, when the family gathered by the lake in Michigan to celebrate Independence Day and summer and family. We were spending an afternoon at the beach. I remember how everyone fussed over Grandma, making sure she had something to drink, keeping her in the shade. My aunt Pat put the towel over her legs to make sure her feet wouldn't sunburn. You can see it all in her eyes. At that moment, she is satisfied. Her family surrounds her, it's a beautiful day. I can almost hear her sigh in comfort.
I could write a book about her and my memories of her, but I'll just give out tastes in later blog posts. I think it's a good way to keep her memory alive.
Boyfriend and I moved into our first apartment two days after my 19th birthday. It was especially hard because we had almost nobody help us. Except for his brother helping move the bed and couch, we were on our own. But we're very glad to have our own little lovenest, even if the price is higher than we would like. Boyfriend has been wonderful about helping with the cooking and cleaning, which is very nice to see. Speaking of nice to see!
Why yes, that is my birthstone! (Blue topaz.) Why yes, it is the most expensive piece of jewelry I've ever owned! Why yes, Boyfriend did give it to me! :) (insert swooning, goofy smiles and weak knees here.)
The end of the semester was insane. I was feeling better, but I could tell the mono wasn't gone. (There are times when I'm still not sure it's gone.) I had papers and projects due. Oddly, only two of my classes, English and Prealgebra, required me to sit down in a classroom and take a paper final. But this meant I had a term paper due for History, a huge written lab for Bio, and a final paper for Reporting and Newswriting. To say I was stressed is an understatement. My hard work paid off, mostly.
English 1010: A
Reporting and Newswriting: A
Publications Production (Trail): A
History: B
Prealgebra: B
Biology: D
Yeah, I know. I cringed at the biology grade too. But a B in math! Hallelujah!
And then there's Christmas. It officially begins in about half an hour, but for me it's already over. My brother was only in town from Sunday until this morning, so my parents both wanted to have Christmas with him. Naturally, my dad wanted to hog all of my brother's time here. We had present opening Monday night before the Chicago Bears crushed the Minnesota Vikings. Mom only got about a day and a half with him before we were shipped off to Dad's. The three of us had a small celebration (if you could call it that) and opened presents. Dad apologized for the lack of gifts. It made me feel...uncomfortable. A man should never have to apologize for what he didn't give.
I came to Mom's for Christmas Eve, which has been extremely fun. We laughed a lot, ate traditional Christmas Eve pasta with clams, and opened tons of presents.
Boyfriend called me, and I opened the gift from him. And guess what? I'm getting fish!! He bought me a fish tank and said we're going to pick out fish together!! And if we can handle fish, we're going to seriously consider getting a hedgehog!
I got other wonderful things, too, like a handheld mixer, a crockpot, jewelry, money, and a lovely warm coat.
So...if anyone besides Boyfriend reads this, I wish you a Merry Christmas. If you don't celebrate Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa or Happy Hanukkah or whatever it is you celebrate. And if you don't celebrate anything, then I hope you have a good day. Everyone deserves at least one really solid good day out of all the days in a year, after all.
Peace on Earth, guys.
