Remembering a loved one...

Lately I've been thinking a lot about my grandparents (who are all deceased)... The memories we shared and the memories we missed out on making... And thus I was inspired to blog about it...

Remembering a loved one... Grandma Bessie

• Grandma Bessie was my paternal grandmother. She passed away in 2001; I was thirteen years old.
  
• Grandma Bessie was my dad's mother. Whenever we would visit he would always tell me "children are to be seen and not heard" but Grandma didn't think that way! She would offer me cookies and let me play with the old toys she had from when my cousins were younger. Sometimes Grandma and I would look through old photographs together and sometimes she would have me gather the fallen apples from the backyard so she wouldn't slip and fall on them.
  
• My first "concrete" memory of my Grandma is staying at her house when my sister graduated from high school, I would have been about eight years old at the time. I remember Grandma giving me a Barbie doll and then crocheting me a dress for it.
  
• My best memory of Grandma is the time she let me look through her jewelry boxes with her. She told me I should pick something to keep to remember her...but I didn't because I was worried Dad would be mad at me. Now that she's gone that is one of my biggest regrets.
  
• My most vivid memory of Grandma is the time we spent together after Grandpa died (December 1997). I would come to Grandma's after school and just sit with her. We'd watch Bandwagon or PBS, work on puzzles or just sit together.
  
• Grandma Bessie meant warmth and caring to me. Visiting Grandma was a treat. She always made me feel special and loved.
  
• Grandma Bessie died July 25th 2001 of a heart attack. She was in her early 80's.
  
• The hardest thing about losing Grandma was that is was so unexpected. She had been in great health for her age and no one expected her to be taken from us so soon.
  
• If Grandma Bessie were here today I would ask her what she thought of me and what I've accomplished thus far in my life.
  
• What I miss most about Grandma Bessie isn't really something tangible... I miss the memories that we are not able to make because she is no longer with us on earth.
  
• Thinking about Grandma telling me when I got my driver's license we would "cruise around and pick up boys" still makes me smile.
  
• My relationship with Grandma Bessie was a happy one. I didn't get to see her everyday so when I did it was a special treat!
  
• Grandma Bessie had short, light brown hair, blue-gray eyes and was quite petite. She smelled like lilacs and her Coty face powder. When I think of her, I think of, lilacs, Coty powder, crochet needles, cameo jewelry and making lefse.
  

Twenty-Three Before Twenty-Four...

1.) Make a quilt. DONE 03/23/2011
2.) See a live play. DONE 04/02/11 (Madagascar LIVE! at the Orpheum.)
3.) Get my Social Worker License. DONE 03/29/11
4.) Learn how to play Poker.
5.) Attend church (at least 12 times).
*05/08/11 *06/07/11 *06/10/11 *07/17/11
6.) Take a fitness class.
7.) Learn how to play Chess.
8.) Get a new tattoo! DONE 09/02/11 & 02/14/12
9.) Get my fortune told. DONE 11/26/11
10.) Learn how to drive a manual/stick-shift.
11.) Go to Toby Keith's Bar & Grill. DONE 04/20/11
12.) Try Absinthe. DONE 06/05/11
13.) Learn how to knit. DONE 03/23/11
14.) Get organized! Sell/Donate my gently used clothing/stuff. IN PROGRESS
15.) Go on a "girls getaway" with my best girlfriend. DONE 07/29/11-07/31/11
16.) Apply for Grad. school.
17.) Donate plasma/blood (as able). UNABLE due to new tattoos and peircings.
18.) Become CPR/AED/1st Aid certified. DONE 03/30/11
19.) Get a full-time Social Work job. DONE 06/13/11
20.) Catch up on my Scrapbooking.
21.) Quit biting my nails. DONE 03/01/11
22.) Pay off my Best Buy and Victoria Secret credit cards. VS DONE 07/01/11
23.) Read more (at least 18 books).
*Red Riding Hood *The Murderer's Daughters *Think Twice *A Discovery of Witches
*Mary Kay *Big Girl *Sh!t My Dad Says *These Things Hidden *I'd Know You Anywhere
*The Hunger Games *Catching Fire *Mockingjay *The Language of Secrets
*A Man Named Dave *Talk Before Sleep *My Sisters Keeper *The Bone Garden *Winning By Losing *A Stolen Life *

NOTHING LEFT UNDONE...
(Things leftover from Twenty-Two Before Twenty-Three that still need to be done ^_^)
*Get my motorcycle permit.
*Go to a drive-in movie. DONE 08/25/11
*Go horseback riding.
*Blog more. DONE FEBRUARY 2012, BUT I'M STILL GOING TO BLOG, IT'S FUN! :D
*Bungee jump. DONE 06/06/11
*Learn how to ice skate. DONE 02/17/12
*Read the Bible.
*Go to Canada.
*Visit the ocean. DONE 11/24/12
*Get my own place. DONE 09/16/11
*Goal weight.

Woman...

"I know a girl with an artist trapped deeply inside her
She provides for herself, she don't need you to like her
She dresses like a famous portrait
She talks like an angel with the makeup of dangerous torment
She don't wanna get married, she wanna get carried away,

and figure out how to display all the things she wants to say
She would try to paint, but she don't got the patience that it looks like it takes
Plus her thoughts are too colorful to fit inside a picture
Her spirit is the genuine elixir

Her personality is such a brilliant, fucking work of art

She's a devil with a sensitive heart
She don't like the boys that feel like they gotta be cool
And she don't like the fake hoes in cosmetology school
But one day, she'll show the world
That she's no ordinary, Goddamn woman" -Mac Lethal