As some of you may know, my Grandpa passed away this weekend. They were going to take his feeding tube out and move him back to the nursing home that Saturday, but when they checked up on him at midnight, they had found him dead.
Ever since he had this last stroke, we all knew that he wasn’t going to make it. I had to sit in a room and listen to my dad and his siblings decide wether or not to let him live or die. He was in constant pain, and could no longer swallow. My entire family has had a rough time with it-we all have a lot of guilt for not visiting him the past few years. I won’t write a novel about it, but the jist of it is that he was an alcoholic for over 50 years. I didn’t visit him because I didn’t want to see him in the condition he was in. We were very close when I was young, and I wanted to remember him in that way.
The funeral was especially hard. I usually can make it through a funeral without crying, but this was one of the worst things I’ve ever had to sit through. Watching my parents crying in the row in front of me, my brothers crying next to me. Matt never met him, so he sat there holding my hand. But there was nothing he could do for me when the military honors started. I didn’t know they were going to have a gun salute, or I would have prepared for it. Ugh. Good thing I look better crying than my mom….poor woman’s nose was neon red.
Sorry for the sad post; just needed to get that out. I will miss Grandpa dearly.
Since grandpa has been sick, I haven’t done much creative work. I’ve gotten stuff done for the company I am doing business with, but no art of any sort…until tonight. I have been promising my friend Sara that I would do a series of 3 art pieces for her, yet I couldn’t come up with anything. I just started playing around in Photoshop tonight and came up with something that I really like. Hopefully she does too:
The first of the Sara Series
Oh, and I scanned my signature so I can digitally sign my art pieces! I’m so excited! 😀

Man, life has been throwing a handful of shit my way! I don’t think I can ever remember everything that’s happened….
-My grandpa is dying. He had another major stroke. I went with my dad to visit him last week, which was the first time I have seen him in years. We had been close, but ever since he had his first major stroke, I didn’t want to see him in the state he’s in. I wanted my last memory to be a good one. Grandpa used to be a man larger than life, and to see him in the state he was in broke my heart. I don’t know how I managed to not cry while I was there. I basically sat in the nursing home listening to my dad and his siblings decide wether or not to let him die, or to hook him up to feeding tubes. He never wanted to be hooked up to life support, but they did decide to go with a feeding tube. He now has pneumonia, which is making things worse. It may sound bad, but we’ve got his funeral set. My mom has to go out and pick a suit for him to be buried in. I hate talking as if he’s already passed on, but he never wanted to live like this. He’s not living; he’s merely existing. He’s in so much pain (they have a constant morphine drip on him), and I just wish there was a way for him to pass in peace. Ugh…..
-My aunt’s house caught on fire the same week my grandpa had a stroke.
-The Clone had to go to the hospital (Dave, it’s all my fault! I don’t know how, but I think I am a jinx!)
-The electricity went out in HALF of the house. We had an electrician and the guys from the electric company working together for about 2 hours this morning trying to get everything back up. It turns out that there are two cables from the meter going into the house, and one of them was bad. Pretty burnt up, apparently. So they had to replace it. Have no idea how much that is going to cost.
-Today I forgot to get my house keys before locking the doors to the house. I had to sit at my parents house with all of the food for the party and wait until Matt was off work to come and get me
-My knee REALLY hurts. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with it, but I should probably go and find my knee brace…..
-After Matt picked me up from my parents, we pull into the garage, and the garage door stops working about half way down. The whole thing just shuts down and wouldn’t come back on.
There are some more things I can’t think of at the moment. Now, depression-era Beth would literally go sit inside a closet and not come out for at least an hour. I’ve been good and haven’t done that. I have a lot of work to do, and I haven’t done it yet, but I’m trying to get my shit together.
Ugh.

It was requested, and now I present to you….Don’s creepy picture! Well, actually, it’s not really creepy at all. I plan on making it creepy, but for right now, it’s just funny. It puts a smile on my face every time I see it. 😀
I made a black and white and a color version:
Don in b/w!
Don in color!
I worked with the images I had, and when I saw the original vintage picture, they fit perfectly together. I was planning on having a vintage wedding picture with Don being the groom and a skeleton for being a bride, but nothing seemed to work out…..YET. 😉

I have had to shoot a wedding every weekend this month! Ugh! I mean, it was fun, don’t get me wrong….but I am SO glad I don’t have one until next year. I do, however, have several projects in the line up, such as a couple of albums, more logo work, and some custom collages.
At the wedding yesterday, I managed to leave my GLASSES in the church. We turned around about a mile away and came back, but no one was there. I am going to call the church tomorrow and see if they will send them to me. Thank the lord that I am not blind like Matt and Eric (sorry guys; I lova ya, but it’s true!) and that I can make it without them for now. THEN one of the groomsmen wouldn’t stop hitting on me. Normally I would be a little flattered, but this guy was 47, black, a GRANDFATHER, older than my dad, NOT my husband, and his girlfriend was there giving ME the evil eye! He kept calling me Baby and said that when I was done taking pictures he was going to show me a good time on the dance floor. Creepy! I kept saying the phrase “I don’t think my husband would like that too much” to him, in which his reply was “see Baby, him and me just need to have a talk,” in which I replied, “I don’t think so.” Some people….sheesh!
Anyhoo….tomorrow will be house cleaning day, and then I need to get my act together!
Oh, and I should mention that Molly has a UTI, I think. Matt took her to the vet, and they never told him what was wrong, only that she needed meds. I’m pretty positive that it’s an UTI, seeing as her pee is so strong that it can literally make you pass out. The real problem is that she needs liquid meds, and I can’t seem to get her to take them. Matt can, bless his heart. I think I should go and get him a present for that. 😉