Manah-Manah

I'm Reckless

At least that's what grandma said last night while we were drinking hot cocoa* at 1:30am.


*Yes I do realize its August but that's what grandma wanted and well I'm a sucker for chocolate of any variety.

My Grandma Rocks, Does Yours?

I don't really like talking about my family here but I'm going to have to make an exception just this once, because my grandma is a really awesome lady.

I guess I should start by giving some background info. She is actually my great- grandma and at 90 years old my only living grandparent. She is really active, walking at least a mile everyday, that is after she has done her other exercises. Not only is she completely self-sufficient she takes care of neighbors and other friends with trips to the grocery store, etc. For my first two years of college I lived in her basement keeping in line with a long tradition of doing so (my dad was the first, then a many other cousins, I was followed by my sister). Now that I'm living in my own place she still helps me out now and then. The last time my parents and her came to visit she brought me paper towels, tissues, toilet paper and beer (I still have the beer because it is really fun to open your fridge when you have guests and tell them the beer is from your 90 year old grandma).

I've been staying with her over night for the past few weeks as she recuperates from a fall. This has given us many opportunities for late night talks. (She suffers from a bit of insomnia, as do I.) I think we have discussed just about everything imaginable and some of these conversations have proven to be quite interesting. For example after a bad dream about a mouse in her house she told me "I'm not really afraid of mice, I just feel kind of funny about them". Then there were stories about her childhood, thing like growing up during the Great Depression. One story took place when she was about six, and the family had just gotten home from the movies (movies where shown in town on Wednesdays and Saturdays for a nickel). When they arrived home she was really tiered it was a mile walk home and she was quite young, her mom was helping her untie her shoes when she thought "this is why I can never get married, I can't untie my own shoes and I wet the bed." Its a good thing that she learned how to untie her shoes and stopped wetting the bed or else I wouldn't be here, neither would my father, or his mother for that matter.

But the most interesting conversation of all actually happened while eating breakfast one morning. It was a day or so before the primary elections and political advertisements were going full force. And ad for a republican running for the senate came on. In the ad he talks about those conservative values we hear so much about these days. She said that that she would not be voting for him. I guess this would be a good time to tell you that my grandma has voted republican most/all her life, and has on occasion voted straight ticket. She then told me that she thinks that she is turning into a democrat because she just doesn't really believe in the current republican frame of thought i.e. abortion, gay marriage ("let the gays get married" she says "I don't see what the big fuss is about"), the war, etc. At that moment I knew that I had the coolest grandma in the world.

Its not so much that she thinks that she is turning into a democrat, I have problems with people on both sides, it more that even at 90 she is still thinking and caring about the issues. For that I will be eternally in awe. Grandma you Rock!!