As “Wifey”, I had to do the expected Korean holiday thing and head off to Snickers’ grandparents house. We had headed up yesterday but I really wasn’t in the mood, especially considering the recent sad news of one of my teammates. Arriving yesterday at Granny Kim’s house out in the sticks, I was greeted by none other than Granny Kim. I didn’t think it possible but she’s gotten a lot smaller since the last time I saw her and her skin is a lot brown too. The one year anniversary of her husband dying is quickly approaching so it was written all over her face and body that it’s been a very hard year for her. When I visited her last I had chopped wood for her, this time my job was to help seal the leak in her greenhouse and add a new piece of tarp plastic to it.

I had anticipated latching on to K-Gere and Snickers as a means of ignoring K-Gere’s older brother who always insists on bombarding me with questions, comments, and drunk stares. I feel like some kind of side show freak around him. Turns out K-Gere and him got into this big fight regarding their deceased father’s heritage, so K-Gere left before I even arrived. I felt like texting K-Gere and telling him “come back and take me!”

Hanging out at Granny Kim’s house is okay, don’t get me wrong, it’s the food that gets me. I know they really try hard, I give them an "A" for effort, but my eating habits and what I eat are so off what they continually try to bombard me with. Granny Kim says I'm too skinny and insists on literally trying to feed me. Today I woke up to meat and about a dozen different kinds of kimchi and seaweed, which didn't sit too well in my tummy. Moreover, Koreans tend to not drink a lot of water so I was limited to only the one small water bottle I had brought with me. So a total lack of my usual healthy foods and tons of water to keep me happy definitely made me a bit on edge. Ended up escaping to the car where I had stashed a couple of apples, low fat banana milk and almonds under the seat.

My countryside form of entertain that I always use to rely on was that of Granny Kim’s goat. Much to my shock and surprise though, Granny Kim sold the goat!!! My black little beady-eyed goat that use to jump on the fence to get my attention is gone. When I asked Snickers where the cute little goat is, he laughed and told me it’s probably sitting in the bottom of someone’s belly – that’s harsh!!!

Just after breakfast today we headed over to Grandpa Kim’s tomb to pay our respect. I walked up the hill with Granny Kim squeezing my hand but when we reached the tomb she ran to it and collapsed to the ground in tears. I felt terrible for her but happy for her too as strange as that sounds. She and Grandpa Kim got married when she was 18 and they’ve been married for about 60 years. I felt terrible that she lost the love of her life but happy in that she still remembers him as if it were yesterday. She’s experienced a great love, a love many people may never be able to find.

I couldn’t help but get teary eyed as I watched Granny Kim weeping. Everyone was quite choked up actually. Later I got talking to Snickers about Granny Kim’s situation and I told him that if he were to die before me that I’d happily spend the rest of my life crying knowing that I had such a great love and because I wouldn’t want to forget that love. Snickers insisted that he’d want me to move on and find a new love but I insisted I’d rather die of a broken heart than lose what I once had and try to find anything remotely close to it again.

After lunch we left Granny Kim’s house. She doesn’t know yet that Snickers will soon be going to Japan, none of his family members know actually. Snickers is by far the favored grandson and, up until his death, Grandpa Kim never missed any of Snickers’ games. Soon we’ll be having his one year anniversary of his death and Snickers is evidently struggling to figure out how he’s going to break the news to Granny Kim, and the rest of his family too for that matter, that he won’t be able to attend.
It was a long day. Definitely a long day of ups and downs, so it was nice to arrive back at Ggum Guum.

Ended up having quite a long night too though when somehow Snickers convinced me to watch “The Exorcist”, a movie I had yet to sit down and watch fully from start to finish. Tonight I did it; tonight I watched the whole thing… only after I made him pinky-swear he wouldn’t mock me or try to scare me by imitating any parts of the movie.

QUESTION OF THE DAY...
Didn't that possessed child in "The Exorcist" remind you of my friend's kid?

QUOTE OF THE DAY...
Of course I like him. I like pizzas too, but I'm not gonna marry one.
-- from the movie "The Exorcist"