So the week at home was a little stressful. I ended up leaving early (on Friday) because my Aunt called to tell me they were pulling my grandmother (paternal) into surgery and didn't expect her to make it or do very well at all, so after I damn near self-destructed, I left work in a blur of tears, packed like a fury, called Jessica and we left at 4:30 that day. Got home at 5am and crashed hard on the couch until my mom called me at 8am to ask where I was. So we went to the hospital, and saw my grandmother, who made it through the surgery and is still hanging in there. I saw her several times. During the middle of the week she was really responsive and could respond with hand squeezes or nods or shakes of the head. By the time I left yesterday, though, she was back to mostly unalert, passing in and out of consciousness. We don't know what is going to happen, the doctors keep pronouncing doom, but she's had close calls before, so anything is possible. I'm really hoping she pulls through so that she can see me get married and all, but at the very least I got to see her and spend some time with her. My dad even went to see her, which was a miracle unto itself. I wish I could have stayed to spend more time with her, but for various other reasons I was very happy to come up here.

In between hospital visits, me and my mom ran around planning the wedding. We bought my dress (on sale for $200! a $600 dress!), and have basically decided on the location and catering, we just have to iron out details. The food will be tasty italian food, and the venue is effing beautiful, seriously, better than I could have hoped for. My mom has decided to make the bridesmaids dresses, which will save about $100 a piece, so woot. My brothers are going to be in the wedding now, and I asked my friend Mikey to officiate, and he said he would. So yeah, things are going well even though I can't get Fuzzy to make a damn decision about anything or talk to his family about it. *sigh* That's really starting to irritate me.

Found out some news about my father and uncle that really breaks my heart. I don't want to talk about it on here because it's easy enough to find out who they are, I'd imagine, but lets just say it has been really troubling me ever since I found out and, even though I never really trusted either of them anyway, I really don't know, and I hate it because it shouldn't be that way. And all of this sucks because I should be having so much fun planning my wedding, and it's shadowed by all this grief and emotional upheaval.

Deanna - I'm so glad to hear you liked your package :) If the cream eggs are in short supply, I can wrangle up a box of them for you to share with your ex-pat friends. We all need a little chocolate sinfulness sometimes, right? Let me know if there are any other confections you've been jonesing for.

To my mystery GISBE sender - They filled me in on whats been happening, so don't feel bad at all! I'm only sorry US customs is so damned uptight. To hopefully cheer you up, I will tell you a little story. I go to a relatively small university in a remote area of Northern California. A package arived that was leaking a mysterious white powder, and they closed down the huge building that provides mail, food, and various other services to students for the entire day while a ridiculous number of law enforcement personnel came in to determine what it was. Turns out it was a package of baking supplies sent to a student by their mother... *sigh* So yeah, paranoia. I look forward to recieving it and knowing who you are! Thank you sincerely for all the trouble you've gone to.

Well, I drove 12 hours yesterday, and I am tired, so time for Stacy to go to sleep...