First thank you all so much for your emails and comments, it means so much! I am doing pretty well with everything. We have all been telling stories about grandmother, and I really believe she is livin’ it up in the afterlife, but we’ll see how I do with the service and wake on Tuesday.
So Friday I went to my mom’s graduation. It wasn’t any piddly little graduation either, she received her bachelor of science in Interior Design (which is not decorating, so don’t even say that people). In case you couldn’t tell she was just a little bit excited. And we were too. My mom started working on her associates of art degree when I first went to college, just taking a few classes or whatever. Then two years ago she decided to get her bachelors. She wanted to go to OSU with all of us (My step dad, brother, boyfriend, and I all graduated last year, and my brother this year), but they did not have an accredited program. Since my mom isn’t in to doing anything half way she decided to go to the Art Institute of Portland (she lives in Salem, an hour away). So for two years she’s been driving up there like four days a week and working her butt off. It was weird at first because I didn’t get all my normal super cool care packages in the mail, but my mom sure understood what we were going through at school. It was so funny to hear her call up and complain about a prof. I would say the last two weeks have been the real test though. I was pretty much avoiding spending too much time over there (at my mom’s). There were architectural plans, drawings, samples, and big boards all over the house. There always seemed to be a bit of a crisis (which was sometimes solved by buying more computer memory and every book on the subject under the sun). This was only because my mom had to show us all up by graduating with honors. Did I mention her yard still looks flawless and she had time to cook meals and have them ready to be re-heated in the freezer? The funniest thing though was that she made me drive to Salem to bring my cap and gown to her because she didn’t believe it was properly pressed and wanted to see it for her own eyes. Then when I got to Portland for the graduation Bill was caught in traffic with the outfit and my mom had to borrow a wrinkly one (this is really funny if you know my mom, since I’ve never seen her wear a wrinkly anything). She said, "I don’t even want to walk in this!" But Bill showed up right on time and the show went on. We all stood up and screamed when my mom’s name is called, because we’re cool like that. After we went to my grandma’s place (grandma=mom’s mom, grandmother=dad’s mom). She had been cooking all day, much to her twin Ileane’s dismay ("As soon as I go on a diet Arlene has to cook up a feast!"). It was really yummy and I got to see two of my cousin’s, my uncle’s, my grandpa and my great aunt Mary. I just eat up family time. It’s so funny to hear everyone talk, "no John said it was his back" "no I talked to John last and he said they didn’t find anything" "I just got off the phone with John and this is what he told me." Heheheh. Plus it’s like this cool world where everyone is small and I feel like a normal sized human being (except for my freakishly tall – at least for our family – uncle Rob). Brent drove me home after and we stopped to pick up my little sister Emilie.
Emilie started watching Smallville to take a break from working through My So-Called Life. Every time something happened I would hear her go, "Oh, SNAP." I wish I could have recorded it so you could hear it, because writing it just doesn’t do it justice. After the fiftieth time I yelled down, "Emilie, snap has lost all meaning!!!!" Which slowed down the usage a bit. I have got to get this girl In Living Color so she can see what a real snap is "That gets two snaps up in a circle!" She was mad because she said I’ve gotten her hooked on Smallville now, but I said we’re just even because she was the one who got me hooked on The O.C.
So today we had the windows open and we just hanging out, still in our pj’s at one. I started to smell gas, which is weird because we don’t have any natural gas appliances or anything. I just closed the windows and didn’t think much of it. So I took a shower and got all ready and was so hot that I had to open my window but it still totally smelled like gas. So I go to investigate and find my car leaking gas. Nasty! Scary! I call my dad, but he told me to open the cap and when I couldn’t told me to drive to a gas station, which I was too afraid to do (blowing up in your car is so not a cool way to go). So I called AAA and told the lady on the phone what was up. She was all, "We do not deal with gasoline, you need to call the fire department, RIGHT AWAY!" So I was like, "Ok." I called the fire department and told them it wasn’t an emergency or anything but that I had leaking gas, and blah, blah, blah. So she said they were going to send someone over in a bit. Okay so I thought I’d get like a guy in one of their SUV’s or something. Instead I got three SUPER HOT FIREMEN!!!! (love you BJ! :>) But seriously, let’s talk girls. These guys had abs so hard I could see their six packs through their perfectly faded blue t-shirts that said Corvallis Fire in red writing. They had on their yellow baggy pants with their suspenders down, and their big boots, and did I mention they were HOT (oh and really tan). So I was all, "um, my car’s leaking gas." The one hot fireman opened up my gas cap (like it was nothing and I couldn’t open it for the life of me) and gas spilled out all over. He asked me if I just got it filled and where. Yesterday, at the cheapest place in town. In my defense I did ask them not to top it off (we do not have self-service gas in Oregon, thank God, otherwise I probably wold have blown up by now). So then he said that I was parked on a slight incline (which I honestly never realized our carport was on), and that it was hot, and I had just gotten my tank filled. So all this means that the fumes build up and it leaks over. I felt a little stupid, but the super awesome firemen were all, "Oh, hey don’t worry, that’s what we’re here for." "Ya, call us anytime about this stuff." and "Happens all the time." They had me turn the car around and said that the rest of the gas would just evaporate. The only regret I have is that my really annoying band playing neighbor’s weren’t home to scare the shit out of with the huge firetruck in front of their place.
After that excitement we drove to Salem and I got to give my mom her graduation present:
I am really loving these silk pieces and have been using them on everything. I also made a cool tag for my dad’s father’s day gift but forgot to take a picture, darn!
We went out to dinner with dad, Kim, Emilie, Brent, Kim’s dad, step mom, and niece. It was a pretty good time, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, my family tells some pretty good stories. I think I might have to take some notes at my grandmother’s wake (all five cousins are coming for sure, juicy, it’s gonna be juicy). Brent freaked me out and told me it was going to be hailing golf ball sized hail and gusting at 70 miles per hour, so I hurried home. Of course no such thing happened and I had one of the best drives from Salem ever. It’s just me here tonight and I haven’t had a night to myself in a long time, so ciao!
I’m so sorry to hear about your grandmother, Amber. Grandparents are a real blessing – I miss mine always, and am so happy that they were able to share my life.