Feisty, fiery, full of life. These are just some of the words to describe my grandma. She was always so vivacious and active. Even as the years passed, I never thought of her as getting older. She was just Grandma. “90 years young,” was often said, and it reflects her spirit up until the end. One of my favorite photos is of me and my cousin Josh when we’re little, taken outside of Friendly’s, right after going to see Sesame Street Live with Grandma and Grandpa. She loved to regale the tale of how, while eating our meals, she’d turn to me and say, “Amanda, chew! Chew! Eat faster!”and then…

Please read Part 1, here. There were complications. Following the directions of my neurosurgeon, I went back to the ER. After some quick x-rays, I was re-admitted to the hospital. I was put in the same room, in the same bed with a view of the outside world. I don’t know if that was done on purpose, or if things just worked out that way, but it was a nice coincidence. The same nurse who was there when I was discharged was there when I was brought back. He remembered me. I would spend the next 8 days in that room that I would come to loathe. The first stay…

Spring is the season of new beginnings and I suppose, in a way, this is a new beginning; albeit not the one I had envisioned or hoped for. It was the middle of the night when I decided to go to the emergency room. In my sleepy daze, I debated going right then, since I figured it wouldn’t be too busy. But I was exhausted, so I decided to finish out the night in my own bed and go first thing in the morning. It was the last night I would sleep in my own bed for days. I googled my symptoms, and came up with “a rare disorder that…

T minus 3 and counting down to the end of this dumpster fire year. At least in a few hours we can all rehash the joke that hindsight will, quite literally, be 2020. I’ve been trying to write a post for days, for weeks even, and am honestly torn between having too much, and at the same time nothing, to say. Usually, I just write from the heart, but have been feeling this slow building pressure which has now reached its boiling point and is about to spill over. All throughout December, I put off finalizing something, until now – hopefully getting it in just under the wire. This year…

Recently, a compliment was passed to me through the grapevine, regarding my writing. Not only did it come out of the blue, but since I haven’t posted anything for close to two months, I was unclear (yet pleased) where this had come from. Almost daily, since my last post, I’ve tried to write something. Anything. And for at least the first half of October, I did. Nothing I expanded upon, nothing finished, nothing to the standard or caliber I wanted it to be, but still, it was something. Something to get the thoughts out of my head, and hopefully out of my mind. One year ago, a guest blog I…