Dear Grandma,
It's Sunday morning as I write this and am overwhelmed with thoughts of you. Everday on my igoogle account I get new quotes. Some are pretty stupid, some funny, and some smack me right in the face as they are exactly what I'm thinking that day. One of them today, made me think of you and your ever popular quote which has been my personal motivation since you started saying it every single day. It came from someone I have never heard of, but from a blog...ironic? "Even in the darkness, every color can be found. And every day of rain brings water flowing to things growing in the ground." It's kind of an extension of "...tomorrow will be better."...no? Maybe you put it there today for me to see.

Somehow this morning I also stumbled upon pictures of you, some from your trip to Nebraska over Christmas. You were sick then already, but even then I didn't think I'd see the days without you so soon. Isn't it weird that you've now been up there the same amount of time we had with you after we got the news...and still...I'm not used to it. I regret not bringing you to Omaha. I wish I could have shown you where I live, but I'm sure you can see it now - although for me - it's not the same. I was thinking the other day of a trip I'm making back to South Dakota in October. I'll be home a few extra days for a wedding and in the back of my mind I was thinking of making a trip to Armour...as I used to try to do when I came home. Even though the fact that you're not in Armour anymore is very present in my mind - sometimes still - it escapes me for a minute. It's little thought like this that make it harder. So, the few seconds of planning a motorcycle trip to Armour with my dad before the snow fell was snapped away with brutal reality. Although a motorcycle trip should still be lined up while the weather still permits, we'll have to find another destination. Ice Cream, I suppose. Even if ice cream is a poor substitute...it'll have to do.

I've had a busy weekend, jet lag or not, I kept moving. Saturday morning I had to work .. a screening for the public. So I went for a run early and then we went in on a day off to do some brief carotid, aortic and peripheral screenings on mostly healthy individuals. It went quick but I was tired. This didn't stop me from hitting Papio trail with my bike for two hours to follow. It's going to be cold soon, and this will be only the second time I have been on my bike this summer. Sometimes I take this nice weather for granted, so I am trying to take advantage of it while we still have it. I then ran some much needed errands; wedding gifts, groceries, and the biggest bag of Dunkin' Doughnuts coffee grounds I could find. (some advice from my precious east coast family and my mama - GREAT recommendation). I then finally made it home for a second movie night with my roomate Abby. I needed a weekend like this.

And this gets us to Sunday. Sleeping in til 8:30, cereal in bed, coffee, pajamas until I absolutely have to put on real clothes to face the world (which I may never do). It's the perfect cure for jet lag. And so is a letter to my Grandma. I hope you share these with all those others I'm missing in heaven. Over coffee and kuchen, maybe?

Somebody brought those orange wafer cookies to work this week. You used to have all three but the minute I tasted them I was taken back to your house. I ate damn near that entire package too. In fact. I got a little crabby when other people ate them, sorta like they were suppose to be mine. Then I remembered they weren't mine at all. They were all doing my thighs and bum a favor by eating some, too. =) Either way, small memories of you are literally everywhere, and they probably always have been. They've just never hit me so hard until now.

I love you,
I hope you stopped in for coffee with me this morning. You're always welcome.
Kristen