I got the saddest graduation card from her a few weeks ago: "Congratulations on graduating! I have cancer and don't feel well. Love Aunt Diddy."
Her real name was Arah Lena Divine. She was awesome! We used to go to her house about once a week so my parents could play pinochle with Aunt Diddy and Uncle Paul. She had a brown bag in the closet filled with toys that we would play with all night, and she always had hot cookies for us.
She lived through the depression and still felt like she needed to save everything. She never had real cups, they were just washed yogurt cups.
Her house had the most unique smell in the world. It was usually about 80 degrees in there. The only toy I remember of hers was a barrel of monkeys. We used to sneak upstairs and look through her old closet because she had the neatest old clothing. She had so many awesome hats!
One time Uncle Paul told me he would take my rabbit litter (tons of babies) off my hands and eat them. I thought he was kidding and that he would give them a nice home somewhere. A week later, he brought me a bunch of rabbit skins... and I learned that Uncle Paul will eat anything!
They drove the funniest old van that we would take up to the mountains on Sunday afternoons for barbecues. Somehow the smell from their house migrated into the van. They also had an old green Chevy Nova that was in really good condition.
It was rough when Uncle Paul died because I hadn't expected it. I felt bad for Aunt Diddy being left alone as a 90-year-old lady. It's easier to accept Aunt Diddy's death for some reason.
I always feel really weird when people die... mostly wondering about my own death. My family gave me all of the religious condolences... "she's in a better place now" etc. etc. It's only when somebody dies that I can understand our human need for religion in our lives. It's hard to imagine that someone just doesn't exist anymore, it's a lot easier to think that they're in some supernatural realm in peace waiting for us to join them. Who knows what happens??
(I have a pretty good idea... consciousness ends and we never give another thought about it.)
In other news... I had a great date with Kim last night! We saw Borat (hilarious!) and then bought some beer and played some video games.
There's something about Kim I really like. I find myself thinking about her a lot and looking her up on myspace just to see pictures of her. She's really easy to talk to.
I can tell that I'm a much bigger nerd than she is... she's always making fun of me for being organized, or liking computers, or knowing random lame trivia questions... but I think that in spite of all that, she really does like me!
I went snowshoeing to day for the first time. I really liked it! I was home around 2:00, so I watched Snakes on a Plane (hilarious!) and I took a nap. Now I'm getting ready to head over to Mike's birthday party. I just wanted to write out some thoughts about Aunt Diddy.