fun with friends and family

Today my family had several relatives and friends over to surprise my grandma (her birthday is coming up). As the day panned out, I was slightly disappointed that I didn't have the time to do all the things I wanted to (namely spend a few hours with my girlfriend). When I realized how much fun my grandma was having, however, I decided that I would enjoy her happiness and sacrifice as much of my time as we needed to make her happy.

Much to all of our chagrin, my grandmother has trouble with memory loss. We actually accidentally let it out once that we were going to surprise her (by bringing her daughter down her), but she forgot completely about it. When my aunt (her daughter) and her husband walked through the door, my grandma's face lit up like a christmas tree. She kept saying how she couldn't believe it, all throughout the night, she kept voicing her amazement and how we had "got her good." We all hate the Alzheimer's, but I got to watch my grandma experience that happiness again and again, and got to listen to her amazement again and again. I couldn't help but wonder if forgetting wasn't a good thing sometimes, and I thought of the irony that in the middle of such a horrible disease, there could be such goodness.


As the day panned out, I didn't have much time to myself. I decided to enjoy myself anyway, and ended up being able to spend a little over an hour with my girlfriend, then my outlaws came back over for supper and we ended up playing a rowdy game of Spoons (which, in case you didn't know, often includes violence and/or bloodshed). The day's happenings reminded me of how much fun it is to just be with friends and loved ones. It reminded me of how you can get distracted by all of the goings on in the world around you and forget about the people that you might not get to see every day. I know that I have been a little distant lately planning out the upcoming trip to Niger, thinking about school next year, and trying to plan to spend time with my friends around my parents' schedule. I think that we all need to set time aside to spend time with our loved ones, completely separate from all distractions, just to spend time with them. Just a thought, think about it.

Peace guys, enjoy!