Everything

As usual, I've fallen behind on the blog. So a lot of things that I meant to be in separate posts are now going to all fall under this one big post. I think there's more chance of me getting it done that way. I'm not going to go in chronological order. It's going to be good news, bad news good news, because that's what I prefer.

The first good news is that I had my birthday. It was nice, though fairly sedate. The one person who still lives nearby who I thought of inviting over to celebrate was out of town, so we had a rather quiet celebration. I got some nice gifts from family and friends and several well-wishes. We went to visit may parents, but it ended up being just my mom because of events leading up to the bad news. Thanks to everyone who remembered and took the time to wish me a happy day or bring a gift. I really appreciate it.

The bad news is that my grandfather died. He had been doing progressively worse after a couple of strokes, and the past couple of weeks were especially bad. Andrew and my Mom and I drove out to western Massachusetts for the funeral. (Mom still can't drive because of her eye operation.) Grandpa was 82 years old. He was a writer for his local newspaper and my uncle read several of his colmns at the service. Before that, he was a high school teacher. The success of his work was clear from his former students, some of whom came to pay their respects and one of whom wrote an excellent letter to the editor about him. (She didn't show up at the service and we're still trying to find her.) I learned a lot that I didn't know about him, but I wish I did, like the fact that he carried the ticket from his first date with my grandmother in his wallet for the rest of his life. He was smart and funny and clearly had a big influence on who my family is today. We miss him.

I was happy that the other good news came about just as my grandfather was taking a turn for the worse and my family could use some good news. I was also just plain happy that it happened at all. After almost nine years of being together, Andrew and I decided to get engaged. I think only one of you who reads my blog regularly doesn't know this already. I'm sorry I didn't get to tell you more privately; I've been having a tough time getting a hold of you. It happened on my birthday in a fairly casual manner. No big buildup, no getting down on one knee. It just felt pretty natural at this point. The ring came a little less than a week later (photos available upon request). After that, we started telling family and friends. There's a lot going on with many of the people we want at our wedding right now, so we're not thinking about a date yet. We do know we want it to be fairly small and intimate, so don't start anticipating a cake that costs more than my car.

So that's the news from me. I'll try t keep you updated as more things happen, but I doubt I'll have anything quite as big as this to report.