Temporary Good-bye

My grandmother- Delores "Dee-Dee" Vargo - passed away this week. And though I'm saddened in the way the death makes us sad because it's final. I'm mostly comforted in knowing that she lived a full, long, and extraordinary life. Instead of falling into grief, I am embracing the memories and the wonderful amazing person she was.

My grandmother knew how to laugh at life. And when you were around her, you couldn't help but laugh as well. She touched everyone around her, and I remember the way her smile just lit your soul.

While other grandmas baked cookies and knitted sweaters. My grandmother could do neither. The cookies would have been charcoal and the sweater would have had been for an octopus. But what she could do was color some awesome princesses, put on a play, play dress up, slam down some brews, play a mean hand of old maid, teach you how to dance cheek to cheek, sing you to sleep with Mr. Sandman, show you the thrill of a roller coaster, watch old classics like "Gone With the Wind" and than reenact it with you, and give you dating advice such as date a boy even if you don't like him, he may have friends. These are just among many reasons that made her so unique and amazing.

I am lucky to have so many wonderful memories of my grandmother. And because Ally and Jack are so small, they will unfortunately not have the chance to know her. But I look forward to sharing the memories I have of her with them. That though they will only know her through a second hand experience, that they will know her.

This week, her children and grandchildren will gather, and as I see it, celebrate her life through stories. We will laugh through our tears, at the lifetime of memories and the lessons she taught us. And though the finality of death has taken her from this world, she will live on forever in our hearts and memories.

So I will not say goodbye, but instead- see you later.

Music Prodigy

A few weeks ago, my favorite cousin was in town visiting from Seattle. Jaci, Ally and I piled into the car to head across town for lunch. Though Jaci is a hip little hispter with a soft spot for Indie bands, like me, she also has a soft spot for pop music. We turned up the radio and Lady Gaga started singing to us how she wanted a Bad Romance, and Jaci and I became her back up singers. At the top of our lungs we sang " I want your love and I want your revenge" and Ally soaked it up.

Turns out the song made quite an impression on her, and it just so happened I had a copy of it on my Ipod, so every time we got in the car we had to rock out to Gaga. Well, Ally is a child full of questions, and she sang she asked me "Mommy, what's a bad romance?". Well, I used my best judgment and felt like a full on description of girl meets boy, girl wants boy to make out with her over over again, girl screws boy over, but she wants him to avenge her to show he loves her may be a bit much. So I stuck with this: "Bad romance means she wants a boyfriend." Her other assessment of Lady Gaga was that she knew a lot of rhyming words.

That large lead up brings us to the following conversation Ally had with her friend Eddie as I walked them to school this morning. The conversation that has me questioning Ally's music education.

Ally: Hey Eddie! You know what my favorite song is? Bad Romance by Lady Gaga. You know what it means? It means she wants a boyfriend!

Eddie: My favorite song is Mary had a Little Lamb.

Ally: Oh, that's nice. My second favorite song is The Fixer by Pearl Jam. I saw Pearl Jam in concert, and after they sang my favorite song- I fell asleep! I slept through a Pearl Jam concert! Can you believe that?

Eddie: My second favorite song is Old MacDonald had a farm.

Now either Eddie is a four old boy of few words, or he just couldn't wrap his head around what a Pearl or a Gaga was. And for a moment I paused, and thought should we be doing less punk and rock, and more nursery rhymes? And the rock goddess in me shouted, hell no!- buy that girl a guitar, some doc martins, and rock out.

And than we came home and danced to Social Distortion and Destiny's Child and lived happily ever after.

Dude, I'm Baked

So one of my NYE's resolutions was to do weekly blog entries. Well, over a week has passed and no blog entries. I have an entry that is a summary of 2009, and maybe someday it will get published. But as my attention span is so short- oh look something shiny- I'll ramble about something else.

One of my Christmas presents was a standing Kitchen Aid mixer. I've been wanting one for years, and well, I think Santa may have done one to many lines, because I don't think I've been that good this past year. But well, I'm enjoying Santa's little slip up. As I mix and mix, it's like- look mom no hands!

Ironcially enough, just like the rest of the planet, one of my NYE's resolution was to finally drop those pesky pounds that have been lingering on for the last few years. A 3 year break from exercise may be enough. But yet for the last few days I've found myself in the kitchen mixing all kinds of sugary and buttery goodness together, hoping that the heat will melt the calories away. And by some miracle of hope, that all the standing around as I bake will burn off enough that my ass won't look like a
giant snickerdoodle.

But than today as I challenged that dough hook to hook me up with some pizza crust, I convinced myself that I am being frugal and green. The pizza I made tonight cost less than an ordered pizza and I didn't kill any trees with a cardboard box. And the 7 dozen cookies- 2 different kinds- didn't come with any packaging.

So, one cookie at a time, I'm saving the planet, saving funds, and spreading world peace via happy taste buds.