June/July/August: Grandma has visitors! (Paul, Muriel, Adrienne)

Grandma had visitors! Grandma loved visitors.

In June, two of my mom's siblings were in town to visit Grandma: Auntie Muriel from Fresno, and Uncle Paul from Seattle. I honestly don't remember where Mom was that day; I think she had a college reunion. And I don't recall why Uncle Paul was there. But it was all good.

Earlier that day, Grandma was a bit sleepy. But gosh, this photo is so precious. Grandma fell asleep reading. See her glasses? And what was she reading? "Our Daily Bread," a Christian devotional. Also, Grandma's little pinky was strong enough to hold up her entire arm!

From Grandma, dim sum

We all went to dim sum. Left to right: Auntie Muriel, Grandma, me, Uncle Paul.

Yay!






In August, Grandma had another visitor: my cousin Adrienne. Adrienne and I aren't related by blood (she's blond, naturally), but she married my cousin Daryl, on my dad's side. They live in Texas, but Adrienne and some of her kids were on a road trip to visit relatives. I thought Adrienne might just drop by for lunch, but she stayed for hours … just talking to Grandma! I don't think they had even met before.

From Adrienne's visit

I'm trying to remember how this photo was taken. I think Adrienne is playing a ukulele that her grandsons Chris and Brian gave her. We mentioned something about Grandma trying to learn the ukulele, and Adrienne said that she had taken it up semi-seriously. Then, in one of those watershed moments, Adrienne said something about playing a song for Grandma. Adrienne was able to look up a ukulele tuner and sheet music for a song on her iPad.

The song was "Somewhere Over the Rainbow / What a Wonderful World," a mashup of two classics made famous by Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. Actually, I first heard of this song because I was in a car going to Yosemite, and this really cute girl mentioned the song as being in the show "ER" when Dr. Green dies, and it just made for a really heartfelt scene.

Anyway, I knew the song a little, so Adrienne played and sang, and I turned the "pages" of her iPad and sang along as best I could. And I set my iPad to record it (below).

May: Grandma on the Porch, Relaxing

Oh my. I've been a hypocrite again. I said I would update more again, and I didn't. Sorry.

Let's try something new. I usually take my time writing–and rewriting–what I say in my blog, and what photos I show or don't show. Overall, quality beats quantity most times. We remember quality. Quality lasts. (Digression: In prototyping, apparently quantity can be more productive. Especially being forced to make multiple prototypes in parallel to come up with new ideas. I learned that in a Coursera course on design.)

Anyway, I'm going to try more stream-of-consciousness for a few posts to try to catch up. Besides, that will show you another side to me.

We left off in May 2013.

From Grandma, porch

I took this photo of Grandma on our back porch. She's looking at a map of Africa, because that's where Mary was (or was going?).

So inquisitive.

Grandma…

From Relaxing

Mary took this photo of me in our living room. I was just relaxing in my jammies. So sneaky, sis! But actually, it's a good representation of how I am sometimes.

And that red-and-black-checkered shirt? My dad used to wear one like that.