Family

Takumi showed up last night! He walked in the door and I didn't recognize him! How terrible is that?! I only saw him last July. He looks taller, though he says he isn't. He looks thinner. No, he says. He has longer hair, he smiles a lot. He says "Maybe I've changed because I'm old." Twenty-four is not old but to him it is. Marcy fed him oatmeal cookies and sashimi (what a combination!) and we chatted with Grandma and he tweaked my computer a bit before we turned in for the night.

Grandma (actually my mother, but we all call her Grandma these days) is holding her own. I don't like to leave her but Marcy and Keion seem to think life should go on as normal which is probably a healthier way of living. There are softball practices that need to be attended and school field trips that need to be chaperoned. Marcy tempts me with trips to Sam's club and Jo Anns and Starbucks. We can't be hovering over Grandma all the time! I am edgy when I am with her (what if she can't make it to the bathroom, what if she starts feeling sick again) and I am edgy when I am away (what if she calls and no one is there, what if she tries to get up alone and falls).

The times when my mother looks the happiest is when she has the dogs with her. She is so overjoyed when they join her on her bed or in her chair and she seems so tickled to think that they don't want to be parted from her. She holds and pets and coos at them and they in turn look at her with liquid adoring eyes. It is a wonderful combination and I know all is well when she is talking to the dogs or patting one absentmindedly.

Grandma used to have a cat but it disappeared sometime last year and Marcy says she has enough to do without looking after another animal. I wish my mother could enjoy one of my cats... I do have enough to spare.... At least 5 times a day Grandma will ask me how many cats I have.

"Five. I have one dog and five cats."

"FIVE!!! How on earth did you ever get five! That's too many!"

and I feel chagrined and scolded each and every time she asks.