three things

1. back home from the cabin. it was restful.

2. on jury duty now. people are funny.

3. read this book. it is good.

going to the cabin. thank you jesus.

I have spent the past few days by my Grampo's side. His grief is profound but I believe he will pull out of it.

We have been through the service for Brad's father and survived it.

Not that they are in the same category as the above...but prom night is over and my finals are done.

We are off to the cabin. It's possible it has never seemed more inviting.

Thank you Jesus. And come with us.

prom night

Grams

My Grams died at 5:30 this morning. Our whole family came to be with her, and in the hours that she slipped away from us she was surrounded by her children, grand-children, and great-grandchildren. We encircled her and sat quietly in a room full of so much love you could feel its pulse. We prayed, held one another, kissed her, whispered our love into her, and cried.

At a moment when the nurses had cleared most everyone out for a minute in order to tend to her, I was able to stay with her, and that was when she left us and went to God. She lifted her arm, which had been weak, in a strong gesture upwards, as if trying to reach someone. Her face changed in that moment. She had an expression of yearning, of longing, and then she was gone.

I saw when she left her body forever. I beheld the sight of her going to be with Jesus. I believe I saw her face when she saw Him and I will never forget it.

We all gathered hands and stood around her, and my brother-in-law led us in a beautiful prayer. We praised God for Grams, for her full and happy life, for His blessings upon her.And then we stayed with her for a long time. Just being us. She would have liked that.

When the time came for her body to be taken away, Grampo kissed her on the mouth and said "I will love you forever."

Thank you Jesus for your presence in that room. Your hand upon this remarkable day was big and loving and full of compassion for your children. Thank you for the gift of Grams.

Please be with Grampo. Speak into his heart and hold him in his sorrow.

Grams, you have been greatly loved. How I shall miss you.

Isola Adriani Sordi

you can always go....downtown

This afternoon I needed a break from school and responsibilities and life... so I got on my bike and rode to the downtown mall.

I bought a fruit cup and sat on my bike in the shade eating it.

I rode happily past shops and fountains and people on benches until a very nice police officer reminded me I'm not supposed to ride my bike on the mall (I already knew it, of course).

So I locked up my bike and walked to the Goodwill Thrift store. I was doing a little dissociating, looking through a pile of miscellaneous items on a table, which included belts, scarves, socks, and (oddly) some random underwear. There was a little girl about seven years old at the same table. She was picking up the pieces of underwear she found particularly amusing, showing them to me, and then giggling. She had big dark eyes, messy brown curls, and profoundly chubby cheeks.

To her extreme delight she found a pair of pink and purple polka-dot panties, complete with ruffles. She looked at me and said, "I'm gonna get these for my brother."

"Really..." I said. "And will your brother actually wear them?"

Her eyes showed a glimmer of mischief and then darted over to where her mother was doing a little dissociating of her own and thereby clueless to what her daughter was telling a perfect stranger. The little girl looked back at me, smiled slyly, and said in a somber tone, "My brother actually wears my mother's bras."

I got back on my bike, waved to a wrinkled up old dark-skinned man in a fedora who told me Jesus is coming back "real soon" and rode home.

Somehow my day was brightened and I felt completely renewed.

sometimes...

...it's just too painful to read the news.

No criticism of anyone intended.

At all.

There are just a lot of sad things in the world.

update on shooting

The shooter is in custody. He turned himself in. One young person is dead and two are wounded.

I took the paragraphs below from the most recent press release. Not sure what to say here.

A man with a bloody bandage on his left shoulder who described himself as one of the victims told The Associated Press the dispute started when he and the other victims accused the gunman of stealing a Playstation video game console and game.


"The guy who shot us -- he had stolen from our apartment. We went to confront him with the evidence and it just turned ugly from there. He pulled a gun out on us," said Drew Pfeiff, 22, a junior from Raleigh, N.C.


Brooks fired five or six times, grazing Pfeiff, he said.


"People don't deserve to die for stupid stuff like this," Pfeiff said.

shooting at Fresno State

FRESNO, California (AP) -- A college student opened fire in an apartment near the campus of California State University, Fresno, killing one person and wounding two others, police said Tuesday.

Members of a police SWAT team were communicating by telephone Tuesday morning with the suspect in the shooting, trying to get him to leave the apartment, police spokesman Jeff Cardinale said.

Cardinale identified the suspect as Jonquel Brooks, 19, of Hayward, California.

There was no immediate indication of the motive in the shooting, police said.

Residents of the apartment complex, just across a street from the university's Bulldog Stadium, were evacuated to the campus cafeteria, said Fresno State spokeswoman Shirley Armbruster.

The university remained open for classes.

"The Fresno police said there was no danger to the campus because they had the suspect in the complex and we felt it was safe to have classes today," Armbruster said.

However, the university sent out a notice to students, faculty and staff Tuesday morning and posted an alert for them on the school's Web site.


see article here.

and now i shall brag

Brad and I joined my parents for a little road trip up to Foothill College in Palo Alto to see my nephews--Colin and Duncan--who were here from Boston (Duxbury, MA) to perform in a concert.

I love my nephews.

Check out Colin's sax solo. He is 18. Yeah. Amazing.