September 30

After waffling for a day and receiving plenty of assurances that all would be fine in my absence, I made an eleventh hour decision --at literally 11 o'clock last night-- to fly back east for my Grandma D's funeral on Monday. So after Adam bought me tickets and secured a rental car at 11 PM, I hurriedly threw a few days' worth of clothes and other necessities into a carry-on, went to bed, didn't sleep, and got up at 7 to head out for my 10 AM flight out of Oakland. From there I had a quick stop in St. Louis and eventually arrived in Baltimore at about 8 PM.

A vaguely terrifying drive in an unfamiliar car along winding, pitch-black country roads later, I arrived at my home for the next few days: my other grandma's house.

I guess, in a weird way, I could call it a grandma-fest: I'm staying with one --who seemed to be pretty pleased to see me, since I haven't been home in nearly two years-- while remembering the other.

At the end of the day, I know I'm blessed to have had --and to still have-- these two strong women in my life. I think I inherited some of my more distinctive qualities from each of them: my sense of humor, and definitely my blunt, to-the-point approach to oh so many different things, people, situations... if you know me at all in real life, you may well be laughing by now.

Anyway, although today definitely confirmed that I'm a planner and not really big on spontaneity, I'm glad that I'm here, because it was simply the right thing to do.