Seven years since

Yay, it's Turkey Day's Eve!

I got a lot done today too. All of my chores, grocery shopping for Thanksgiving dinner (and I only spent $6.03, too), but not too much of my homework sadly. I had only gotten halfway through sociology reading when I became drowsy so I settled down for a nap instead. By the time I got up, I only had an hour left before I had to start dinner.

Dinner was the rice and fish (typical Asian meal) and while I loved it, I'm afraid that the fish might be giving me a bit of an upset stomach.

My mom came home while I was frying the food and after I had dinner, we went to Publix to buy the turkey.

No luck. The turkeys sold at Publix were fully cooked and everything but too expensive and too much for us. I wasn't going to eat turkey this year and I highly doubt that the other three members of my family were going to finish off 12 lbs. of turkey. We settled on coming to the grocery store tomorrow to buy a fresh baked rotisserie chicken instead. At least this way, we will be able to finish it and we won't be knocked out with a turkey-induced coma later.

I watched CSI:NY when we got home (it's my favorite of the CSI's and the only one I watch regularly). I am not able to watch it at school and I had missed so much that I knew little about the context. That didn't stop me from enjoying the show however.

CSI:NY Newsflash--Lindsay's pregnant! Lindsay is one of my most favorite characters on the show (most of them are actually. I just find myself really liking all of the characters. Well, except for Stella. I don't relate to her that much.), and although my mom likes her too, she says that Lindsay looks like too much of a kind girl to be in a show with so much action. I agreed, but I was glad she was in the show anyway. I knew that lady was going places.

***

My mother just showed me a photograph of my grandparents. She wanted me to crop the picture and print it out with the focus on my grandparents faces. It was a nice photo. My grandparents were dressed up in it--my grandfather in the traditional Western dress of a black suit and tie and my grandmother in the traditional Vietnamese Ao Dai. They were standing next to each other and it looked like they were in a Chinese restaurant since I saw a picture of golden Oriental dragons behind them. My mom told me that it was taken a wedding (there was a white and pink tiered wedding cake to their left) shortly after the family had moved to America.

I stared at it awhile and the only thing I could think was: It's been seven years since my grandfather has died. I remember because he died a week after September 11 happened. The real kicker was that I had visited him in California before he died and I returned to South Carolina just one day before the attacks happened. I remember this because I had missed an English test on Monday and I was taking the make-up test when a voice came over the intercom and told everyone that New York and the Pentagon had just been attacked. Airplanes had flown in the Twin Towers and the Trade Center. Terrorists were trying to destroy the Pentagon.

A week later, my mother boarded a plane to come back to California. My grandfather had just died. She remembers that there were so few people on the plane--out of fear most likely.

My grandmother was heartbroken when her husband passed away. Even after he was gone, she would lie on her bed alone and call out for him. Sometimes, she would roll over and begin to say something...then realize that he wasn't there. When my mother came back to visit, my grandmother would always ask, "Where is he? Is he outside? Where did he go?" My mom would relate this to me and I could tell it made her sad. Probably not as sad as my grandmother was, but sad all the same.

A few years later, my grandmother died.

All this reminds me of The Notebook. I finally finished watching it today and it almost made me cry. It really was a sad movie. Not one I'd probably see again but sad all the same. I still remember seeing the light in Allie's eyes as she remembered who Duke was and the way they danced together. Before she forgot again, anyway. And the image of those two lying together at the end reminds me of my grandparents. I wish they could have gone that way. I wish everyone who loved each other could go that way--together. Even though my own parents were never a great example of love, my grandparents were. Many people are.

The best love is the kind that awakens the soul and makes us reach for more, that plants a fire in our hearts and brings peace to our minds, and that's what you've given me. That's what I hope to give to you forever. I love you. I'll be seeing you.
~Noah from The Notebook

"For June who loved this garden from Joseph who always sat beside her." Some people do spend their whole lives together.
~Anna Scott from Notting Hill