April 27, 2000
Easter Recap
Some pictures from my family's decidedly non-traditional Easter dinner this year. I met everybody at my grandma's house, and we ended up going out to eat at the local Chinese restaurant. Good for me, as I've had major Chinese cravings for weeks. Nothing near me delivers! It makes me sad. Anyway, I do love my family, and I don't get to see them often enough. (Yeah, I know, it's my own fault!) In descending order: me, my mom, my Aunt Vera, my Uncle Elmer, and my grandma. I know the pictures are dark... the restaurant was so dark we nearly needed flashlights to see our food.
My mom. I can't say enough about her, really. Growing up she was always the disciplinarian, mostly because my dad couldn't bring himself to do it. (I know I've mentioned what a daddy's girl I was.) Of course, that meant I always thought of her as the mean one when I was a kid. I know differently now, of course. In a way, I don't think she and I would have gotten as close as we are, ironically, if my dad hadn't died. As it is, I don't think there's anything we wouldn't do for each other. We're each very protective of the other one. I know she sorta despairs of me at times, but both of us have finally found a place we can be happy after a lot of tough times.
Vera is my mom's sister, and one of my 'other moms'. I have a couple of them. When I was a kid, I used to love going over to her and Elmer's house. I don't know why exactly, I can't remember. Vera is without a doubt one of the sweetest, kindest women I have ever met. She's a saint. I'm serious. If you do something so bad that she gets mad at you, then you know you're in deep trouble. Typical of the women in my family (see above), she's highly protective. Come to think of it, the only person I've ever seen her get mad at is her husband Elmer (below), and that was years ago when he had an argument with my mom...
Everybody has at least one crazy uncle. Elmer's mine. When I was growing up, he was absolutely my favorite uncle, because he was the one who'd play with us. Or tease us. Or make us laugh. ('Us' meaning my cousins and me... I'm an only child.) He used to tease my dad (who never met an animal he didn't like) that my dad won over all the dogs, while he won over all the kids. He's the one who used to hold floating contests in the pool at my house. He's the one who told his dog to pee on my first boyfriend's car tires. He's the one who tried to teach me and my cousin Sheri to drive when I was twelve and Sheri was fifteen... and laughed at me when I ended up in the ditch. He still laughs about that: "She said she wasn't used to the gas pedal!" he chortles.
My grandma is yet another one of the amazing women in my family. She had eight children (my mom was the second youngest, I think Vera was the third), which alone makes her amazing. I remember arguing once that my family was truly matriarchal, with my grandma as the matriarch for many many years. She just turned 92 a few weeks ago, and she still lives by herself, with some help. My grandma's another one of my 'other moms'. She babysat me a lot when I was little. I can remember when I misbehaved, she used to threaten to get a switch from the yard and "beat that devil right out of you!" I don't think she ever did though. The threat was enough. She's been gradually getting more forgetful as time goes on, which makes it a little hard to visit with her.
Just an update on me today... I've been cranky most of the day, partly due to the fact that it took me an hour and forty minutes to get into work today, as compared to about thirty-five minutes. You see, Michigan has two seasons: winter and construction. Grrrrr. Other than that, it's your average Thursday. Now if I could just figure out why I'm so sleepy all the time...
Posted by Lisa at April 27, 2000 01:24 PM
