Twelve Important Moments of 2012
Last year, we compiled a list of highlights of 2011. While a lot happened in 2012, they weren’t all highlights. Nonetheless, 2012 was a great year that was full of joy and change.
- Experiencing Artists and Fleas as a vendor with Helene, working a grueling twelve hours to break even, and bidding PrelovedNYC adieu.
- Visiting the Wizarding World of Harry Potter!
- Kim FINALLY graduated and got her Bachelor of Science in Nursing. It was the end of an era.
- Celebrating my dad’s birthday in Ocean City, Maryland.
- Our two-week Costa Rica road trip in August, during which we celebrated our second wedding anniversary.
- My paternal grandfather died. I didn’t know him very well, but his passing left a void in my mother’s heart.
- Seeing Louis CK live for the first time! He did not disappoint.
- Thankful that our family and friends survived Hurricane Sandy and helping out in Red Hook with Forefront.
- Taking on my prediabetes and LOSING 15 POUNDS!
- The passing of my grandmother and last surviving grandparent in November.
- Getting my first tattoo in honor of my grandparents.
- Spending Christmas with ST’s family for the first time and adopting Leela!
At the end of 2011, I wanted to live simply, be at peace with others, and pray everyday. While I can’t say that I’ve achieved these goals, I think I’ve made progress toward them.
In 2013, ST and I are looking forward to so many things: traveling, purchasing our first home, and growing our little family.
What are you looking forward to in 2013?
Thankful.
Last Thanksgiving, we hung out with grandma.
Today, we packed up the things in her room to be donated. Our grandma passed away this morning. It was so sudden. One week we were eating clams in black bean sauce, opening birthday presents, and painting our nails, and the next she’s on an oxygen tank. It has been a stressful, traumatizing, and incredibly emotional three days. I’ve gone from frustration to anger to sadness to desperation to numbness. Today, I lost my last remaining grandparent and one of the funniest, sauciest, and strongest women in my life.
Christmas 2008.
She had the prettiest smile. Eating dim sum in 2008.
Girly girls. 2009.
Hanging out on a sunny afternoon in 2009.
My grandma and ST were buddies. 2010.
One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was walk into her empty room and see her possessions piled on her bed, waiting to be thrown away. Kim, Tommy, Carlos, and I packed it all up and its sitting in our apartment right now. I have every intention of donating her things, but right now, I just want to hold onto them for a little while longer. I can’t believe she’s gone. Even though her health was waning, I never thought it would happen so fast, so soon. I just wish I could spend one more afternoon chatting with her and painting her nails. I’d give anything to hear her ask me where “Melogee” was (for some reason Mel’s name was the only one she said in English) or if I was working hard or tell me to be more frugal or laugh or smile. She was one of the best things in my life.
I miss her so much.
My sisters and I grew up on the Lower East Side, in a building right next to my grandparents. They helped raise Kim and I since my mom worked the night shift. I have so many memories in that apartment.
- My grandpa yelling and me and Kim for giggling so much at bedtime.
- My grandpa buying me a slice of pizza (one of the few English words he knew) and eating my crust while my grandma ate Vienna sausages.
- Making dumplings with my grandma using this press she had.
- My grandma buying me a tiny set of ceramic horses during one of our walks in Chinatown. I wish I knew where it was.
- Watching Matlock and Smurfs while reading magazines on a lazy afternoon.
- Eating ramen and pretending I was in a Chinese soap opera.
- Giving my grandma shoulder rubs and listening to her stories about her childhood.
- Watching my grandma knit and then repeatedly failing when she tried to teach me. To this day, I can’t get the hang of it.
- Taking walks in the park.
- One time, my grandpa caught me one of those tiny brown birds with his bare hands! He put it in a cage and it went berserk so he eventually set it loose. That was one of the coolest things anyone has done for me. I’m told that he would tell everyone I was “his” Carol. I still am.
- Apparently, I cracked an egg on my grandma’s head when I was a baby as she was carrying me on her back.
She was truly a remarkable woman. So today, instead of being sad like I was last year, I am thankful. I’m so grateful to have been her granddaughter; to have been able to hear her stories, wear her homemade sweaters, and being deeply loved by her.
Lastly, I’m thankful that they’re together again, after being apart for so long.
Wednesday Words
I know you guys don’t want to hear excuses, but life and work has had me so busy I haven’t been able to do much more than work, eat, and sleep.
I haven’t even been on the Internets lately except when reading the news while I brush my teeth or use the facilities. 
(Does anyone else do that?) So, Words and Funnies have been on a hiatus. I did, however, want to share my notes from Pastor Jonathan’s sermon on Sunday.
“What if we do for one what we wish we could do for many?” – Jonathan Williams
