Current Post On Trae’s Blog:
My grandmother died last night. This wasn't a shock or a surprise. Her health has been on the decline, and she's been in hospice for the last month. She lived a long life, and in her final days she was surrounded by her three adult children.
My grandma was a kind woman. She wasn't perfect, but I always felt loved in her presence. She was a retired kindergarten teacher, and was still working when I was a kid. I have so many happy memories sitting at her kitchen table, and I'm going to carry those with me for the rest of my life. She was also proof that anyone who claims that you get more conservative as you get older is full of shit, because she certainly didn't.
I think it's interesting how the body processes grief sometimes. I don't know that I'll cry, but over the past month, knowing this was coming, I've felt a tension in my gut. Now that she's passed, instead of relief that tension is replaced by a sense of emptiness. That something is missing that should still be there. Something has been taken away, and I feel it.
Of course, as I wrote that, I immediately started crying... so I guess my body processes grief in pretty ordinary ways too.
I wanted to come up with something profound linking this to Beltane, which we sit in the middle of right now, but it just seemed hackneyed. Like I was trying to dig out some greater significance when the truth is death comes whenever it wants. The only predictable thing about it is that it's the end of all of our journeys. I hope that when I pass I'm so lucky to have lived such a long life with people that I love around me in my final days.
For the record, I will be fine. I just needed to get these words out while they were still in my head. I don't have some rousing conclusion or deep insight to tack on here at the end, just that gut feeling that something is missing.
Because it is.
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Bwahahaha…
this brought tears to my eyes.. so funny
Stop laughing for a minute? No. No, they cannot.
That’s hilarious… why I am laughing so much
I feel there is a Sailor Stars joke there I should be getting, but I don’t.
It’s not so much a reference as me trying to come up with something ridiculous and weird that someone’s probably actually done.
There was an entrant in the ConFrancisco masquerade in ’93 who dressed as a Transformer (which one is lost to me now); it was made of cardboard and very little else. As the MC intoned the words “completely indestructible,” half the back fell off. (I ran into one of the other entrants at a party later that evening, who said the guy literally stuffed it all into a garbage bag when he came offstage.)
At No Brand Con a few years there were 3 Transformers who made their costumes from cardboard too but they painted their boxes with special paint that hardened the cardboard too. Anyways their cosplay was so fragile and it was very heavy they didn’t even get on the stage for the contest. They actually were somewhat forced into the contest because it was that good that they were almost certain they would win and I think they got a good prize too.
At Worldcon 2006, there was an Optimus Prime that failed to get on stage. And it was already in the wings. I think the problem, though, was getting the “pants” (legs) on.
Phil Foglio was MC, and he ran out of “stretch” so bad he resorted to a “Roll out the Barrel” sign-along with the audience while the crew figured out how to get the failed costume out of the way of the next entry.
Ask any long time fan about why Westercon etc. masquerades have a “no peanut butter” rule… it’s hard to find ANYTHING weird enough that it hasn’t happened. (That and if you’ve got a fluttery costume do NOT stand in front of an entry with wires on the front of their shirt – in my case it was a Westworld android after his chest exploded, and I had a sash cape. We came thaaat close to having to be a joint entry…)