So who's been missing actual life posts from me?
Work is still movin' along at Superstore, I'm still makin' the little moneys I can in the meantime, buyin' groceries for 10% off and such. I'm a little afraid since it's Christmas time coming up, but I'm also a little excited about the whole prospect of the store going 24hrs. It's totally stupid and the store's gonna spend more time paying staff to work all around the clock than it'll make selling coffee filters at 3 in the morning. But, it's an easy 8 hours of pay, so I reckon it should be fine . . . I mean, so long I can get a TV back in the department so I can watch movies or something . . .
Family is . . . not quite so good. Last week one of my mom's best friends had a brain aneurysm and fell into a coma. She was pronounced brain-dead by Friday or so by the time my mom could fly into San Francisco to see her, and the family opted to pull the plug.
Imelda probably sent my mom more e-mail than anyone else she knew. Just a lot of this or that, a lot of stupid forwarded videos and pictures and whatnot . . . but everything else was junk mail, so hey. My brother told me that she was kind of a scary driver to ride with, being that she'd point out things doing the "tour guide thing" and look away from the road. Aside from that, she was always happy to have guests and actually really wanted me to come down to San Fran and visit for a bit before going back to serious work. I guess I'll never really get that chance anymore . . . I do hope her family does well in the time to come, that her class will cope as best they can (she was a grade school teacher), and that she rests peacefully knowing that everyone thought extremely highly of her.
She was one of my mom's oldest friends from back in the old country. I didn't know her as well, but I could always tell that she and my mom had a long, long history together. Her time came far too soon, but I'd say that at times like this, it's definitely easy to appreciate how much people throughout your life affect you.
I'll miss you, Auntie Imelda.
As if that wasn't enough . . . my stepdad's mother passed away in England a couple days afterward. Both my stepdad and my mom are flying out to London today and won't be back 'til December 24th, so it's likely our annual Christmas dinner - among many other Christmas-based things - is going to be a little simpler this year. My stepdad's a tough fellow who's lived in the military and in the Hong Kong police (as well as being old-school British), so if he's feeling it he's not really showing it to me so much. So yeah, it hasn't been an especially good month for my parents.
I didn't know my stepdad's mom very well. I never met her, and I've only ever really spoken to her a couple times when I picked up the phone to pass her on to my stepdad. It's not quite as easy for me to mourn her because of all of this.
Still, I also know that she lived a long, full life. My stepdad is already a fairly old man, so it really did surprise me to know that his parents were still around until just this year (and the last year for his father). But yes, she lived what I'd like to believe was a very fulfilling life. She lived through Britain's war years; she mothered a very loving son who called her every morning (we had a very good long-distance plan for that); she saw pretty much all her grandchildren grow into very successful people in their own right. Her health had been kind of bad the past few years with a lot of in and out with the hospitals. Again, I hope now she can find a little more peace, and that she was able to take to heart that her far-reaching family (all corners, from England to New Zealand to Hong Kong to Canada) is all doing very well - and that she started them all off.
I'm very sad I never got to meet you, Mrs. Curlewis, but I still thank you for so graciously accepting my family into yours way back when.
Heh, ah man, I'm blubbering all over my keyboard here . . .
Past that, just playing more Call of Duty: World At War. Also kind of looking forward to knowing that the cable outlet on the wall goes outside of the house rather than upstairs. Means ordering a cable/internet package will be quick with no need to drill holes in the walls or anything. This pleases me, and means that Alexa and I can have good internet again soon!
Other than that, I bought a picture frame the other day. Fits a nice picture that goes next to the TV. I'll take a picture of how it all looks some time . . . not just yet, though. Need to wait for some mail to process first.
Also, I need to mail said-mail first.
