228: Ninety

Today is my grandma's 90th birthday.  She was born August 16, 1921, right here in Minnesota, a first-generation American whose parents came from Canton, China.  She and most of her siblings would later return to China, where she went to school, before returning to Minnesota to settle permanently.  Most of them still live here.

Grandma and three of her brothers outside their father's laundry in 1940s Minneapolis

In recent years, she's developed dementia, and there's not much left of the Grandma I lived with for over twenty years.  She struggles with mobility and doesn't remember some members of the extended family, and anyone who's had to help care for a family member with Alzheimer's or dementia knows how difficult things are for my mother, the primary caretaker.  Nevertheless, after a hospital stay over Christmas a few years ago, we're fortunate just to have Grandma still with us, celebrating her 90th birthday with her surviving siblings, her children, grandchildren, and her great-granddaughter.

2008.

Happy 90th, Grandma!

209: I'll take One Year Ago Today for $600, Alex.

Sony Pictures Studios, Culver City, CA, 2010.

This picture was taken 365 days ago.  It seems like much longer, and at the same time, like much less time has passed.  I've had two jobs and lots of unemployed downtime in that year, gotten one haircut, read seventy-eight books, and lost ten pounds.

(It's been an interesting 52 weeks.)

182: Halfway home

Champs de Mars, Paris, France, 2007.

Six months down, six to go.  This blog-a-day idea has deteriorated into, more often than not, just a photo-a-day, but I'm sticking with it.  I've made it this far with only one missed entry -- and that was when Blogger was down.  There have been Law & Order rants, the occasional update from the employment front, my favorite things in random sets of five, and likely too much information about my television habits.  I can't promise that it will get better from here on out, but I will strenuously endeavor to keep it from getting worse.

Also, happy Canada Day.