Now, I have to ask.
Is it just me or do you find that there’s something particularly scary and more than slightly threatening about a woman when they put their hair up with the object nearest to them? Today, I’m both proud and amazed to say that I am one of those women, and my object is almost always a pen. Go figure, am I right? Or would it be a bad time to be punny and say “am I write?” -too lame? Yeah, I thought so too but, I thought I should go for it anyways.
I know it’s been awhile since I last posted but, I wanted to take this time away and just spend the last few days I had with Angel before she leaves. It might seem silly to some of you that I’m making a post about how sad I am to see her go, especially when I knew the plan and goal all along was to get her back home to Canada and her mom but… what can I really say?
I’m going to fucking miss that girl.
I already do, and she isn’t even gone yet.
The past six months- while stressful- have been incredible. Yes, we have fought, and cried, and had some very long, painful talks along the way. The reality of the matter is, it wasn’t always sunshine and roses, some days were impossible. Even the thought of leaving my sanctuary of blankets for necessities like food or water was unthinkable… but even in the depths of my depression, she still stood by my side.
Just like she has for the past fifteen years.
It didn’t matter that a virus was wreaking havoc on the world, she still kept a promise that she’d made to me years ago when my mom was first diagnosed with cancer. That if anything happened, she would come. She would be here, and she was.
What should have been just two weeks turned into just shy of 6-months… and every second has been a gift.
Those of you who know us personally know that yes, we do fight. Sometimes, we are at each other’s throats like a pair of rabid wolves, and there are days where she makes me hate her and wish that she’d never come here to begin with (even if it only lasts for a couple of hours.) But you know what? That’s okay because, at the end of the day, I’m always going to love that girl and be there for her no matter what happens.
Maybe that’s what it means to have someone in your life for 15-years. Good times. Bad times. Bullshit. Adventures and memories that will haunt you for the rest of your life, and stories you’ll never get tired of telling.
So, thank you for all of the adventures that we’ve had the past 25.4 weeks. 178-days. A lot can happen in that amount of time: grocery shopping, meal planning, starting a new job, quitting that same shitty job, meal planning, going out to dinner, ordering pizza, Chinese takeout, baking, cooking, farmer’s markets, bookstores, arcades, mini roadtrips to Indiana and Wisconsin, Pokemon GOFest, apple picking, video games, you name it. While the rest of the world has been shut down, the two of us were doing the only thing we could.
Making the best of the world we were living in.
And while I would’ve loved to have more time with you… I know I’ll see you again soon.
One post alone doesn’t feel like it’s enough to describe our adventures. I mean, come on, we went to the Pride Promenade in Woodstock, and we got to see a drag show! Never in my life have I been so close to a drag queen, let alone have one dancing on the picnic table I was sitting at! That was one of the things mom and I always wanted to go out and do because we love Ru Paul’s Drag Race.
For the first time in 15-years, we actually got to spend your birthday together. It wasn’t what we’d originally planned but, that too was awesome. We spent your birthday together with a strawberry Boston crème cake, a delicious stuffed pizza from Giordano’s, and we watched A Whisker Away on Netflix.
(I still smile every time I think of that scene with the cat where I looked at you deadpan and asked “What is he? Pennywise the Puss?” and a second later when I shouted “Pussywise!” and you nearly choked to death on coffee.)
All of our Goodwill trips… we’ve found some of the most incredible things. I cannot tell you how many beautiful, incredible, and wonderful things we’ve found. If it isn’t the gorgeous 1994 tombstone statue of Zero’s doghouse from Nightmare Before Christmas, or my Jack & Sally socks, or the cup, my Disney Store Skellington sweater, or any of the other NBC things we’ve found… then my favorite thing would have to be the Maleficent sweater with the horns, or one of the Japanese things we’ve found. Either her vintage Hello Kitty bento box with a spoon and fork that we found today, or the charming pink bento silverware kit she found me yesterday still in it’s package! And then I remember our good luck cats, the beautiful fan sushi plates, and the little beautiful Japanese dishes we found- one with sakura blossoms, and the other that looks like a little koi pond.
…unfortunately, we’ve also found some really awful things. (The Goodwill warehouse in Wisconsin, we’re looking at you. I legitimately felt like we were dumpster diving. I’m still not okay.)
Absolutely all of the recipes we’ve made together: shrimp, steak, pork tenderloin, pork chops, that INCREDIBLE pumpkin chili we made, mom’s chicken and potatoes, burgers, brats, cheeseburger casserole, hot dogs, the pot roasts, orange chicken, that night we got lobster tails for $.99 each from Jewel-Osco and made lobster alfredo for us and chicken alfredo for Pip.
Don’t even get me started on all of the things we’ve baked together in the past six months: zucchini bread, strawberry shortcake, caramel apple cookies, pumpkin spice cinnamon rolls, mom’s special chocolate balls, the not-so-good dollar muffin mix… accidental pumpkin bat and ghost cookies with white chocolate chips, a spoopy-berry cobbler that we have to make tomorrow!
In the past 6-months together, we’ve met some pretty cool people and made some interesting friends along the way- Jonathan, Lake Geneva Piggly Wiggly/Target, with the awesome Nightmare Before Christmas tattoos, I’m looking at you. Hey girlfriends!
And you know what? We’ve lost some too. Some people should’ve never come into our lives to begin with… and some people, we wish would just go the hell away.
On the Fourth of July, we had an incredible celebration for my mom, even if the people we invited didn’t show up. In a letter we found from before she passed away, she told us not to do anything because no one would come… Even from beyond the grave she’s hitting me with “I told you so’s” and that sucks.
But to hell with those people because, her family was there, even if the pretenders weren’t.
There were nights we went out to “trash panda” and those too were incredible. Sometimes, we’d find the most amazing things!
Like… an awesome swivel rocking chair that my grandma took.
(No rips, no tears or stains, it rocks AND swivels! It also has side pockets to hide things. How cool is that?)
The stub of an amazing smelling Fireside wooden wick candle that I can melt back down and make a new candle with.
The gray suede futon in my room that my dog thinks belongs to him now…
(He’s a cute little Boof and I can’t tell him no, even if he already HAS a bed/ottoman in my room)
A chair that my brother and his girlfriend say that they use in their apartment every day…
A perfect, purple, cooler lunch box for me to take to work.
And even on the days where we’d find nothing… I’m still glad we went.
Driving around late at night, listening to music, and talking with you was worth it. You, me, a dark car, some music, and a chance to clear my head is sometimes all I needed.
I also know that before I screwed up my foot (thanks again for leaving laundry on the stairs, Grandma.) we planned to do a lot more but, that’s okay. Sometimes, something as simple as going to Stade’s for raspberry picking only to find out that all of the raspberries had been picked out turns into an awesome day.
You see, while I haven’t posted much this past week, it isn’t because I’m too lazy or whatnot. I’ve simply been busy trying to make this last week count. This past Saturday, Angel, my grandmother and I were supposed to go raspberry picking at a local farm. Unfortunately, by the time we got there around noon, all of the raspberries were already picked out, so we had to find something else to do. That something else wound up turning into one of the things we’d originally wanted to do- apple picking.
So, while a lot of the things we’ve wanted to do have been cancelled either due to Covid-19, the riots that have been breaking out nearby, or my foot being in its current state of disrepair… somehow the pieces still all fell into place.
The only apples they had available for U-Pick were Gala, Blondee, Pink Luster, and a new “unnamed” apple that was new to the orchard this year. But, to be fair, all of the apples Stade’s has to offer are “new” to me in a way because, as long as I’ve been going apple picking, we’ve gone with the Royal Oaks orchard. However, Stade’s was also very nice.
And while the only ones “available” were those few, we still somehow ended up in a row of Honeycrisp apples (mom’s absolute favorite) that were perfectly ripe and ready for picking. Ironically enough, it was the same line of trees that we’d stopped in front of to take a picture… and while none of us were wearing anything that could’ve caused it… when we looked back while sitting and having lunch, we saw a rainbow at the bottom of the picture.
And I think she was there.
She had to have been. How else would we have wound up doing one of the things we wanted to do in her honor after we’d lost hope? How else would we have a rainbow?
Then, because we could, we went out to lunch together just the three of us. Sadly, my little brother Pip was off with his other grandparents burying his father who died late last year in Michigan, or he would’ve been with us too.
However, he’s definitely going to be spending time with us tomorrow when we decorate the house for Halloween early, and have a miniature Halloween party- even if it’s just the family getting together to have dinner together, do some cute spoopy crafts we got at Target, and spend a little extra time together. (Pictures are coming!)
Equally as amazing is that this was the last day of her taking me to work before she left, I decided I wanted to pop by Thornton’s on my way to work (because caffeine, you know?) and we found something we’ve spent the past two weeks looking for. The brand-new Mountain Dew Voodew, which in our opinion tastes like a mixture of Lemonheads and Skittles. Yum!
All-in-all? These past 6-months have been crazy but, no matter what the future may hold, these are memories I would not trade for the world.
I love you mostest.
-Sky
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