this has been a hard week in our house. after years of battling with dementia collin’s grandmother passed away over the weekend. grief is complicated when the death has been expected. memory loss is it’s own particular kind of hell in how it affects the family as well. knowing all of those things doesn’t make the loss less acute for collin and it’s hard to do or say anything that will heal better than time. that is the difficult truth of these situations. at the end of the day we still have to go to the dentist and cook dinner and put away the clean laundry and we do those things with a grateful heart that we are still here together making memories in her stead, but missing her and grieving that loss all the same.
collin and i have flown down to sun city where she lived at least once a year since we’ve been together. i know how special those times were to all three of us. it is always a good reminder that our time in this life is finite and not guaranteed. i know that spending more time with the people that we love will never be something that i’ll regret.
i will miss our midnight trips to in ‘n’ out, and bringing her ice cream, and taking her up to painting class, or the time we all got to fly first class back to minneapolis, and when she’d squeeze my hand and tell me i was pretty. i will miss her crazy stories even if collin’s mom and aunts say that a lot of them were made up or exaggerated. i love that she was an artist just like my grandmothers and that it’s something collin and i have in common. i love the beautiful family that she raised that led to my favorite person. i hope that she is at peace and reunited with her husband. i know how much she has already been missed by those she leaves behind.
grandparents are a gift - give yours a call and tell them you love them if you can.
things in process
the most fun we’ve ever had by claire lombardo - another reese’s book club (see below) and i stg if this one is a dud, i’m officially breaking up with reese. but honestly this is the first book that has me hooked in the beginning. here is the synopsis: A multigenerational novel in which the four adult daughters of a Chicago couple--still madly in love after forty years--recklessly ignite old rivalries until a long-buried secret threatens to shatter the lives they've built. -i’ll report back
sunporch revamp - she is cleared and as of publication collin has started taping! i really think i’ll have some after photos for you next week.
grey’s anatomy rewatch: 282.4/313.9 hours remaining.
i’m still in the early parts of season 3. tbh this is all pretty forgettable because it’s just the build-up of the burke and christina and george stuff. but whatever we’ve got the drowning and george’s dad and the alter leaving to look forward to. i do like the mark is finally main cast. when is lexie gonna show up? that’s when things really start to get spicy.
things i’ve finished since we last spoke
before we were innocent by ella berman - i really don’t care to get into the finer points of why i didn’t like a book. but this is my 3rd or 4th reese’s book club that i’ve been very meh on. i in part keep reading them because i’ve waited so long to get them from the library, and if i’ve been on a waitlist for months it deserves a fair shot. i feel like i just want these books to have better endings? better payoff? anyway, i wouldn’t bother with this one, it’s so underwhelming, there’s nothing redemptive about it, i wasn’t rooting for any of the characters, and i guess that was kind of it’s point.
love is blind season 8 episodes 1-6
dave - ick, i can’t wait to see him get dragged at the reunion like that, and i can’t believe how he did my girl molly. i pray lauren wises up sooner than later, i can’t imagine they make it to the alter
mads/megs - both these girls dodged all the bullets. bye alex, bye mason.
that one guy - an ibuprofen addiction? what are you even talking about. i can’t tell if this is made up, this is serious, or if he’s just using ibuprofen as a placeholder word for some other sort of painkiller. idk man i can’t take him seriously. also gave me the ick when he had an issue with bdot being bi. eww.
monica and joey - they are so cute and really all i am rooting for at this point.
ben and sara - girl run. you don’t get to have lived in minneapolis through george floyd and not have an opinion about blm or not vote. in this economy? broooooooo.
taylor and daniel - okay he definitely knew who she was and he is definitely a creep. sorry taylor, womp womp.
i am very much looking forward to episodes 7/8/9 which should be out by the time you’re reading this email!!
speak of which… you read this whole thing?! are you trying to make me fall in love with you because it’s working, i fricken love you
xoxox liv
🤍🤍🤍 beautiful words, she looked like an amazing person!
sending big love to you & your family 🩷 loss is never easy but you have a beautiful perspective on it