Break, family, and the recurrence of Jimmy Johnson

Sorry, I'm a little behind these days (again!) I'll try to catch up a bit...

You know that feeling when you've taken a break so long that you forget what day of the week it is? Yes. It was a long break down in Jensen Beach...two weeks of watching movies, watching football, playing games, making pasta, eating out, shopping, and visiting with old family friends. It also worked out that while I was in town, my dad and his siblings all came down to celebrate my uncle's 60th birthday. It made for a full house, but it was great to see everyone. I think my favorite part of the break was spending one-on-one time with None, my dear 89-year-old grandmother.

I think I mentioned None briefly in the last post, but I should take a little time here and explain why she is the best grandmother ever. First of all, she is the sweetest, most kind woman in the world. For real, sometimes she's so sweet that I wonder if we're even related. The children's choir at Christmas Mass literally brought her to tears. But don't let the sweet exterior fool you: She's tough as nails, and she always gets what she wants. Fortunately, she wants good things! She rarely has an unkind word for anyone, so when she does, it's simultaneously scathing and hilarious. She generally saves her vitriol for politicians—Bush is referred to as that "arrogant jerk who keeps sending our boys to die", and when the political commercials air during Wheel of Fortune, it's, "Oh, him again?" But one morning over breakfast, much to my surprise, she really let Jimmy Johnson have it. We were talking about the Dolphins' disastrous season, and None was saying that my Uncle Joe had once introduced her to Dan Marino, who was "such a nice young man," but that she had never liked...what was his name? Johnny Johnson? Jimmy Johnson. Her exact words were: "I feel terrible saying this, but just the look of him, as soon as I saw him I thought to myself, 'That guy looks like a jerk!'" I swear, this was without any prompting from me! None also uses all kinds of old-fashioned expressions that crack me up. My personal favorites are, "Well, I'll be a monkey's uncle!" and "Holy cats!" She also refers to her group of friends as "the girls," which I think is really cute. And this is totally selfish, but now that I'm not in Florida I miss the constant affirmation. Everything I do at None's house is "beautiful" and "precious," and everything I wear, including sweatpants and old T-shirts, is "darling." Plus, she always tells me that she's praying for me and thinking of me and everyone in our family, and it's true. And then she wonders why I'm happy to take her grocery shopping or make tea for her. I mean, come on.

But after two weeks of hanging out with the fam, it was time to get back to work. And it felt good to be busy again for awhile, although I'll confess (and you might be able to tell by how long it's taken me to update my blog) that it's been hard to get back to normal and be on top of things. Fortunately, the people I interview are still interesting, so my work hasn't suffered too much. I talked to some great older and younger guys about their memories of bedchecks, the War, cancer, imminent death, and the advent of color TV. Among other things.