Some bad news. My grandmother is in hospice as of Monday. She probably will not last to the end of the week, battling lung cancer and other complications. Since I may have to go to Duluth and very soon (this weekend, maybe), It’ll be okay. It’s been months since everyone has known about her dying, now. Still though, she’s pulled through a lot of the time when we thought the worst was about to happen.
Well, I was really panicked at first ’cause earlier that day, right before it was time to close up at work, a family friend called to update me on Grandma’s condition. I all but ran home to pack and get going but my mother called to talk to me and said that from the time I got the call up ’til then, things did change for the better and I ended up not going up anyway.
Mom said Grandma wasn’t “doing good” but they were just anxious to tell me I guess. I did say a couple things to Gram on the phone Tuesday night though. Probably for the last time, but that’s a good thing…I will always have good memories of her, plus she has her faith to keep her strong, so I know she’ll be okay, even in the end.
On a lighter note:
Well, the trip to St. Cloud was great. I got in really late last Thursday night, because the person I was traveling with had to work Friday. No biggie. I was ready to head home anyway. Plus we were exhausted and didn’t feel like staying for the awards dealie and speech after the last night’s dinner. I was kinda glad to be back.
The whole trip was alright in general ’cause everybody was nice but I don’t think I could do it next year. Maybe. Anyway, our destination was about an hour and a half away and when we arrived it started raining and pretty much rained the whole time I was there, it was very sticky but not too hot, though.
At the kickoff event on Tuesday night we went to the Paramount theater where the entertainment was great. Warren Nelson and the Blue Canvas Orchestra of Wisconsin/Minnesota fame, opened the show and The Blenders topped it off.
There were lots of people where we were staying. The next day I went exploring downtown and ended up doing some shopping and hanging around in coffee shops and bookstores while mom and her gang and the rest of the officials attending were in classes.
It was cool that night ’cause we went to a dinner and they had this big band type playing. The highlight of the night (NOT) was this: they hauled the ten Miss Minnesota candidates into the ballroom where we were all sitting, and had them introduce themselves and talking about their candidacy and their soft non-issue-laden platforms…what fun. No world peace and saving the whales type of shit, but not my idea of dinner entertainment, either.
Did I make any personal progress? Well yes. I met a lot of people. Most of them involved in city and community work, so they little or no expertise in my line of business. I did pass my card out to some folks who asked who I was but was careful not to put them on the table I was working at, thereby advertising myself. I was there to promote Organization X, not myself. I did get five new members signed up for the group, and handed out lots of material to those who were curious but not ready to sign up yet.
Later that night all the booths went down and so did I, to the cash bar before hitting the last dinner, which was more of a formal affair. Didn’t get hooked up with some rich mama’s boy mayor or anything hot like that, so no nookie points, but all’s well that ends well, I s’pose.
Also, I just snatched up an at home net job, it is writing reviews for a very up-and-coming but nonetheless, live website for travelers, businesses, tourists, etc. and I am sure that it will be a challenge at first, because it is entirely different to what I’m doing right now to make a living, but I’m kinda excited to see how well I can do at this. Yeah.
How’d that happen? Well the other night I was just looking around at job websites and I saw two so far that seemed attractive. They were both no-pay jobs but I was willing to do them ’cause they small and quick projects that would add to my portfolio, which needs some fattening, I’ll admit. One was an offsite job where they wanted someone to design their graphic logo and re-do the HTML for the main page. Very easy. I looked at the other one after that only to find out that they are in India. Well that doesn’t make any difference if it’s offsite work.
Anyway before I got the offer yesterday, I posted replies to both of those two no pay ones and about seven others I thought I could handle.
I’ve got the debt repayment program working set up and working now, I can’t tell you what a blessing it is to be able to use it.
Well that’s all my news for now, since I’ve gotta get up at 5:30 to go walking, I should be hittin’ it…
Same day, different year..
Other posts on this day: