Last Weekend-ish

Grandfathers 95th birthday led me to Florida for the weekend. Lots of family came, some who I barely remembered from times when I was at my grandparents house in the winter or something. On the plane flight I watched Madagascar which was OK for listening to while I read a magazine. There was a birthday celebration the following day where I saw all those people mentioned above. It's interesting to see some of these people, I think --> I'm learning more and more about my family from their discusssions. After the lunch party, I went back to my grandparents house with my aunt and eventually her cousin Martin and his wife Bonnie. My cousins too I'd suppose. They talked about their adventure club, about their parents, about cars they had back in the day. The stories were amazing, and some even fairly unbelievable.

My grandparents (remember old old now) recalled a story in which they took their adventure club on a cruise ship. Adventure Club = surprise event planned by one couple in a group of 12 or so, that had to be cheap, include fun and dinner. They packed up sandwiches, drinks etc. and actually went onto the cruise ship for something that they used to have [ but not anymore thanks to heightened security...] - a bon voyage party, where the people on the ship would meet each other beforehand. So they get on with their food, there is a band on the boat, and they leave right before the ship leaves. My grandparents must have been the funnest people on the planet. They used to have to dress up for this stuff - as shoeshiners, in fancy clothes -- only to be told they'd be plucking the chickens for their own dinner, but all in all they had a blast. They laughed so much, it just made me hungry for more.

The tradition in my family at this point is cards. Think real games and not poker. May I? a game invented by my aunt partly is a sort of mix between gin and well -- more rules. All in all we played I think 4 games of May I? as well as 4 of Spite and Malice [ a great 2 person game ].

Went home on Monday morning, to watch Monster-in-law on the plane (which was ironic considering I'd see it again on my way from LAX to Chicago). And that was OK too.

Made it home, finished Robots the movie, finished I Heart Huckabees (which was partly a let down, after all the hubbub). Anyway, it's good to see people having fun, and it's really good to get to hear all the stories before it's too late. I think I had startling thoughts when I went to bed about waking up and finding that my grandfather had just let go of life. But he's still a fighter and strong as you couldn't imagine.