The last couple of months have been pretty crazy/amazing/profound. So much has happened that, I’ll probably never remember it all, and truthfully, that doesn’t bother me. In some ways I have a tinge of regret for not having taken the time to write it all down as it happened or shortly there after. If not just so I have it archived somewhere. But in reality, some of it I don’t know how to write about - i don’t have the words to fit the experience. Some of it I don’t care about. And some of it I simply don’t care to remember.

So instead I’m going to cop-out and make a list of some of the major and minor events of the past 10 weeks in no particular order and just leave it at that. I can only hope my life remains as eventful and that I take the time to write about it afterward.

I went to my first honky tonk.
I saw Built To Spill play again.
I’ve been to the hospital three times for three different individuals. Two of them in the emergency room. One fatal.
I met family members I have never met before and most likely will never meet again.
I spent a long weekend at my timeshare in Vail.
I went to a mini-family reunion and ski vacation in Breckenridge.
I suffered through a 150-hour work week.
I took a full week vacation.
A loved one died in my arms. It was probably one of the most weighty and profound experiences in my life to this point.
I did my time in the back of a cop car in Henryetta, Oklahoma.
I had the pleasure of staying in a giant mountain mansion with six bedrooms, four bathrooms, two hot tubs, and ski in ski out access.
My car was hit by a kid who had his drivers license for a measly two days. He ended up totaling his car a week later.
I Was invited over by complete strangers for a mardi gras party/steak dinner.
Somehow fit in about eight days of skiing.
Saw a friend who I haven’t seen since his wedding.
The kitchen remodel was completed.
Mom came to town for a visit.
A few birthday parties were celebrated.
I got fall down drunk with a co-worker.
And lots of other various sundriness and ephemera.

A few things that have recently brought me the Christmas Spirit:

My birthday week (last week) was so full of kickass it’s hard to comprehend.

It started out last Friday by heading over to a friends for drinks and then going to the Murray Farm Massacre. I haven’t been to a haunted house since I was a child but The haunted house was certainly frightening and well designed. I’m no stranger to corn mazes though, and this one pretty much sucked - way too easy (even at night) and not all that freaky.

Saturday we threw a raging halloween/costume party at our house. G made seven crockpots worth of homemade, slow-cook, goodness. The were black lights, and costumes, and spooky sounds to boot. The night finished with a big ole dance party that devolved into everyone dancing on the furniture. This resulted in one broken kitchen chair, a burning wig in a chandelier, snack carrots ending up in mysterious places, and one skull nearly cracked open. It was all worth.

Sunday mostly involved laying on the couch and recovering from Saturday’s debauchery.

On Tuesday we got the new Tivo hooked up. This thing is absolutely brilliant. It has already started changing the way I watch TV and I haven’t watch a commercial in over a week. Not to mention I have all kinds of great movies lined up that I’ve been waiting to see.

For my birthday, G and I hand bacon cheeseburgers (from my very favorite hamburger shack down the street from us) and champagne for dinner. I am also now a real art owner. G gave me a signed and numbered Audrey Kawasaki print called “Nest Hair”. Number 55 of a limited print of 100. I’m in love with it. It’s one of the coolest gifts I have received in a long time.

Thursday we met my Dad, his wife, my bro, and pandy out for a sushi dinner. Johnny Holly’s has great sushi and fantastic service without the pretentiousness. If you are ever thinking about going to the sushi den, drive ten blocks further south and go to Johnny Holly’s instead. You’ll be glad. If you are hankering for any sort of asian food that isn’t on the menu, just ask for it, and the kitchen will fix it up for you.

Thanks to everyone for making my week be so tremendous.

It has been nearly three weeks and I never wrote about my trip to Florida. Well, about three weeks ago I went to Florida. For a short week. To celebrate my mothers 60th birthday. This is the first time I had been out there since my mother moved there about a-year-and-a-half ago. It was a great trip that mostly involved tons and tons of beach time. Mostly large wave beach time that was perfect for body surfing and boogie boarding in. We had a great sushi dinner for my mom’s birthday. There was tons of drinking going on all weekend, and plenty of fun was had by all. More fun than I am aloud to talk about on this blog. Which also made things very interesting. Downers included the loss of my wallet and an unexpected overnight stay in a very dumpy hotel in Atlanta. But this is how I roll.

“To be Irish is to know that in the end the world will break your heart.” - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

A leisurely trip up to Vail with my brother, sister-in-law, and G, made for a real wind-down type of weekend. Of course, a happy hour on Friday with a handful of friends started things out just right. We were able fit in some shopping at the outlet stores in Silverthorn on the way in addition to a lunch at the Dam Brewery. A lot of the time was spent making fun of terrible movies and figuring out how to perfect a panini (I think were getting close).

The highlight was the skiing of course. The runs were wide open because everyone was at home getting ready to watch the suckerbowl and drink ranch dressing. When we arrived back at the condo there was a keg party in the lobby, so, double bonus for us. Below is a video of skiing last weekend at Keystone. We slide down snowy mountains as much as we can during these winter months.

I’ve decided that four day weekends are what it’s all about.

Thanksgiving day was a raging success. We hosted about 10 people at our table, 11 if you count big bird, and I do, I do count her. She made herself into a wonderful turkey soup the next day as well. Soup on Saturday is probably the best part of Thanksgiving if you don’t include the friends, family, football, movies, beer, blankets, couch, stuffing, phone calls, babies, kids, pets, coziness, naps, wine, no-worky-ness, and you. Which I do, I’d feel bad about not counting those things, mostly because they count more than anything else, holiday or not. The turkey soup is good though. G slaved away all day cooking the feast for all of us. She was so wiped out by the end of the day that she was asleep by 9:00 that night. Neither of my parents were here for thanksgiving dinner for the first time in my life which may have been the only bummer of the entire weekend.

The majority of the weekend involved the list in the above paragraph, with a little bit of extra stuff stuck in there for good measure.

Thanks!

On Friday I went up to Brekenridge.

My brother introduced me to a group of friends who were “displaced” by hurricane Katrina last summer. Suddenly, finding themselves homeless, a group of them decided to move out to Colorado, rent a house in Breckenridge, find some jobs in town, and become ski bums for the winter season. Brilliant! This weekend was the last weekend they were living in town (some are moving down to Denver, another is going back to NOLA). This was my last weekend to take advantage of the fact they lived so close to the mountains. Because it snowed another two inches, on what I was expecting to be a spring day, I decided to opt out of the skiing. I did not fail to take advantage of the hot tub though (and the partying going on around it). This also probably contributes to my not going skiing. As always though, a fun time was had by all.

Easter brunch was spent at my Fathers. All the traditional stuff plus figs. I had three deviled eggs, which has become my deviled egg norm. Afterward, my brother, Pandy, and I went to visit my Grandma. It just so happened that her old neighbors who helped her out so much when she was in the springs were there too. It was nice to see Grandma was getting other visitors and gave us plenty to talk about. Grandma seemed much happier than normal. That makes for a wonderful Easter. Dinner was over at G’s aunt’s house.

That’s a whole lot of ham for one day.

It went well. I guess it went as good as it could go. It’s hard. And emotional. But it’s the best thing.

I heard from my mom that my Grandma’s behavior had become peculiar. I called her the next night. Her words were a little slurred, she seemed really tired, and after talking shortly about thanksgiving plans she aimlessly stated, “I’m glad you found the groceries.” I had no idea what she was talking about.

Later that night I got a call from Helga, my Grandmothers neighbor. She had been over to my Grandmother’s house when she began asking about where her husband was, my long dead Grandfather. I got a list of medications my grandmother had on the kitchen table from Helga.

The next morning I called my mother with the list of medications. My mother called my Grandmother’s doctor. Two hours later my mother called me from the car telling me she was going to taking my Grandmother to the hospital.

That night I got a call from my mother. “There’s no need to come down to the hospital. You won’t be able to help down here.” she said.

My brother and I cut out of work early on Friday and went to visit assisted living facilities. We learned a lot. And felt a lot more comfortable about what we had to do. About how my Grandmothers life is going to / has changed. We visited some really nice places and some real shitholes. We spent most of Saturday doing the same thing. Meanwile, the hospital had was running a battery of tests with no definite conclusions: MRI, urinalysis, blood work, CAT scan and others. It wasn’t her medication or the small fall she took a couple of weeks ago (though, if she had a predisposition the fall may have progressed things). The doctors simply expressed she was 92 years old. This is what happens at 92. They lose themselves. And it’s sad because, along the way, we lose them too.

Sunday we went over to my mom’s house to discuss our options and go over brochures for the places that we visited.

On Monday my mom called telling me that her condition may be worse than expected and she will most likely need more help than we had originally assumed. Assisted living wouldn’t be able to provide the care that she needed. She would have to be in a secure environment - most likely an Alzheimer’s unit. Our choices were now narrowed down to two places we liked.

This afternoon we moved her into the place we liked best. We showed her around, pointing out things we thought were cool: the two cockatoos by the kitchen table, the jewelry box that sits out on the table for everyone to wear when they want to feel pretty, the nice courtyard, the room filled with chachki and do-dads, tactile things used to spark memories, and the little collie named molly who hangs out with everyone during the day. Mom, Grandma, my brother and myself sat down at one of the facilities tables for lunch. She was quiet as usual but seemed pretty lucid. She likes my hair curly but she had trouble grasping that this is where she’ll be living now. At one point my Grandmother spaced out while looking in my direction and I saw vacancy in her eyes. I had to turn away and watch the two cockatoo’s to keep from crying. It just wasn’t the right time to cry. This is going to be hard.

Don’t try to follow this.

Last night my dad invited me out for dinner. So I picked up pandy and my brother and headed out my fathers way. The reason he invited us out was because we had relatives in town. Anymore these days, I really only consider “true family” those with whom I share blood or those brought into the immediate nuclear family through marriage. I have a small family to start out with but a handful of divorces have expanded it exponentially. Anyway, the only blood relative there besides my father, was my cousin’s son, the boy we came to visit. But also in attendance was my cousin’s wife, the mother of my cousin’s son. In addition, her father was in attendance. That would be my cousin’s father-in-law. But that’s not all, he is also my cousin’s step-father, and grandfather to the boy we came to visit. See, I have no cousins on my mother’s side. My cousin is the son of my father’s brother. But my uncle divorced the woman I consider to be my aunt, that is the mother of my cousin and the grandmother of the boy we had come to visit. About ten years ago she remarried. The man she married was the father to the mother of the son who was the boy we came to visit. But he wasn’t at the time, because the boy is only now four years old. At the time he was the man who married my aunt at the wedding where my brother, my parents, and I all got drunk, packed up a bunch of food from the reception and convinced about a third of the wedding into leaving town and going fishing instead of dancing at the reception. He managed to mention this event twice during dinner last night. My brother and I stayed silent as my dad quickly acknowledge the event. Good times. The bride’s son, my cousin, became smitten with the grooms daughter, they in turn married and had my first cousin once removed, or the boy we came to visit.

Just because I haven’t been writing as much lately doesn’t mean that I haven’t been doing as much. Or maybe the cause actually is the effect. I’ll never know. Or just don’t want to.

On Friday my pops got married. My uncle and his wife flew into town for the wedding. A bunch of us met down at the Jefferson County “Taj Mahal” to witness the event. I’ve been to more weddings than I can count in churches, one on top of a mountain, a few on ranches, and a handful more in halls and ballrooms. But this was my first wedding in a courtroom (actually it was the judges chambers), and it was truly nice. It just seemed really sincere, not some big production. Don’t get me wrong, I love my pageantry, but the whole thing just seemed more earnest. It was extremely short, really sweet and unusually intimate. By far the smallest I’ve attended. And besides the fact that it was my father marrying a wonderful woman, that was the best part of it. I really took pleasure in the fact that everybody there had known each other for decades and all knew how important this was to my pops. After the ceremony we all headed out to McCormicks for dinner. We got a secluded room and had a wonderful time telling jokes and old stories. Not to mention the seared Ahi Tuna was delish. All told, it was a fun evening.

Congratulations you two!

Over the past weekend, in between nursing myself to health (it’s not a big deal, a simple cold, I really haven’t meant to be all dramatic lately. Sorry.) I was able to fit in a good dinner with my Soph, my brother, and Pandy. In addition, I was able to go down and visit my grandma for her 92 birthday. We did much the same as we did last year. We brought a plant and a bunch of grub from Boston Chicken. Grandma loves her some Boston Chicken. She was a lot more active this year than last, which just amazes me. Fucking 92. I’ll be happy if circle that giant, exploding, luminary, central (in more ways than one) to our existence 70 times. She and my mom actually got a little chippy with each other and voices were raised. My mom apologized on the way home. I was just glad to see she had some fight in her. Actually, I’m glad to see there is some fight in them both.

Today I feel like complete ass. Head cold, tired, plugged up and runny at the same time. You know, The Goomba.

I felt it coming on Friday. But the cold didn’t bother me too much then. I was at work till about 8:30 Friday night due to computer malfunctions in the morning. So after work, I went to the local 7-11, got a gas station burrito. Went home and ate said burrito, then quickly fell asleep. No time to deal with colds.

I woke up early on Saturday and headed up in to the mountains as soon as I could. I met Leber and his wife at Winter Park for a day of skiing. It was another perfect spring ski day and the conditions were great. Tons of sunshine and not enough sunscreen. No burn fortunately. The snow was hard in the morning and slushed up real nice by about noon. It was a hard day though because Leber’s lady wanted to ski the bumps all day. Were not sure what got into her but she was tearing it up. We stopped at the bar afterwards to wind down and drink a few beers. We then headed to their condo in Granby. After relaxing and cleaning up a little, Lebers father in law took us all out to dinner and Deno’s Mountain Bistro were I had an absolutely terrible Chicken Cordon Bleu (however, I’ve eaten here before and had some great meals so all is not yet lost for this place). Afterward we went back to Leber’s and watched Shcool Of Rock which was surprisingly enjoyable. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be able to handle two hours of Jack Black but it all turned out ok because the movie was only an hour and forty eight minutes long.

On Sunday I woke up early and drove back into Denver. When I got home it was time for me to pick up my brother and head over to my dad’s. From my dad’s we went to “cousin” Liz’s. Liz isn’t really my cousin but everyone in my family calls her that. However, we went over there to visit my actual cousin Kim and her kiddies. They were taking a break in town while moving from washington to oklahoma. Most of the time we went to the park and played with Kim’s 6 yr old, Owie, and 2 year old, Piece. It was tons of fun. I haven’t spent a spring day playing in the park in a real long time.

After visiting with Kim for a few hours we all went to dinner at Jax Fish House witch was wonderful despite having to cancel our order of oysters.

It was a really nice weekend filled with friends, family, food, sport and play. And it made me sick.