Life and Death

It has been another interesting week. Early in the week, my cousin Travis had his first child, with his wife Natalie. They now have a beautiful baby girl named Alice Olivia Angel. Growing up in rural Western Kansas, Travis was like my older brother, but cooler than that because he wasn't really my brother so we never really fought. Also since I didn't live with him, he had a mystique and coolness about him. My mom used to joke about "the gospel according to Travis" because whatever Travis liked, I liked. Natalie, his wife, I met in the 5th grade. Her family moved to Natoma from Mankato, Kansas so she was the new girl at school, a year ahead of me. I had a crush on her on and off from then until the beginning of college (when I finally came out). The crush ended when she and Travis began dating. I was so happy for them that there weren't really any hard feelings at all. I mean I was pretty much "out" by then anyway, if only to myself. I even drove to visit them down in Winfield Kansas, which was a dry county, so we had to drive quite far to get to a liquor store. I remember back then, liquor stores were new to me and I was quite taken by them. All the shiny, colorful bottles of mysterious elixirs. Different sizes and shapes of bottles, some from foreign countries, it was all very exotic and exciting to me. Later, they moved to Manhattan Kansas and I drove there to visit them a few times as well, one memorable trip was New Years eve (not sure what year, probably 97 or so) when I went with Travis' sister Andrea, and her friend Angie Libel. I remember Andrea, Angie and I deciding that Travis and Natalie's place was not a very "happening" party so we decided to walk through their apartment building to try and find a better party. I seem to remember we knocked on one door and found a couple who were celebrating together but that didn't seem any better than what we had already. Then I think we found another small party with some creepy college type guys. Then I think maybe Angie decided she just wanted to make out with me for New Year's, and maybe we did. I don't really remember.
Changing gears, my friend Marc's kitty Ashes passed on this week. He was 16 years old and lived a long, happy life with his brother Slippers, who he is survived by. Last night a group of us went over to Marc's house to celebrate Ashes life with a champagne toast, and then we watched some TV and some DVD's.
My brother has been posting diary entries of our Grandpa Ray; he died before I was born but his wife, my grandma Irene, recently suffered a stroke and is now in a nursing home. My mom and her siblings had to clean out my grandma's old apartment and so that is how my mom came to have her father's diary. She copied it and sent it to Brandon, and I've found the entries to be fascinating in their monotony. It's the first time I've ever heard my grandfather words (written or otherwise) or learned much about his day-to-day life. The diary is apparently from the months preceding his passing, when he and my grandmother lived in Larned, KS. I think he passed away three years before I was born.
So, as evidenced by my accounting of what has been going on in my life this week, Life and Death has been brought to the forefront of my consciousness, which is a good thing every now and then, I believe.