To Grandmother's House We Go

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I am taking care of my grandparents while my parents are in Mexico. It has definitely been an interesting experience so far. When I got here Friday night, I could hear my grandpa in the other room asking my grandma if they were too old to have children. She had to keep explaining to him that they were too old fifty years ago. My grandpa gets pretty forgetful & confused.
Later that night . . . actually, right in the middle of it, I woke up to my grandpa in my bedroom. He was shuffling in on his walker (when I say shuffle, I mean going 0.25 mi/hr - if that). I sat up in bed and said, "Grandpa?"
He sounded totally scared and asked, "Who's there?"
"Elizabeth."
His voice changed to one of absolute adoration. "Oh, Hi there!"
"Grandpa. You need to turn around and go back to bed."
"Oh, ok. Thank you." He then shuffled back to his bedroom across the hall.
It is so sad to see him lose his mind. He is still so sweet and loving, but he just gets confused and disoriented all the time. He's always asking me who I am, and then smiling with remembrance when I tell him, only to ask my grandma who I am a few minutes later. It's heartbreaking to hear him talk. He doesn't even remember his wife part of the time. I never realized how scary it can be to get old.

San Francisco

Yesterday, Scott and I took a day trip to San Francisco. As soon as he got off of work, we drove into the city. Our first stop was Mama's - an amazing breakfast/lunch cafe (I mentioned it in an earlier post).

Scott got this huge omelet.


I got a Monte Cristo. It's three slices of bread with a slice of turkey, a slice of ham, and Swiss cheese. The outside of the sandwich is dipped in an egg batter (like for french toast) and then grilled, so the inside is warm, and the cheese is melted. Then you dip it in raspberry jam. It is the most amazing thing.

We then drove around San Francisco, looking at all of the older homes there. After that, we went to the Palace of Fine Arts and walked around. It is such a beautiful sanctuary in the city, except of course when a bunch of 15-year-olds are there for Quinceanera pictures, and they start crowding around you when you're trying to relax on a bench. Yes, we were fortunate enough to experience that . . . girls in trashy skin-colored dresses, boys in zoot suits, and the main girl wearing a peach frilly dress and a tiara while holding a wand and a bouquet of glass flowers (which she was waving right in front of our faces while talking to her friends). It looked like Disneyland on crack. (Mind you, there were other Quinceanera parties there that looked very classy and put-together.)
After resting a while, we went to Ghirardelli for ice cream. On our way there, we drove past people flying these HUGE kites. They were bigger than our car!

We then got ready to go see Mamma Mia. It was one of my favorite Broadways in high school, but seeing it this time, I was shocked at how risqu'e it was . . . and even though the leading ladies were amazing, the main guys sounded like they would have been the understudies.

Anyway, that was our exciting day in the city.

"I'm wicked through and through!"

Last night, Scott and I drove down to L.A. to go see "Wicked" on Broadway. We started out Saturday by going to the temple for a session in Spanish. I was worried the whole time that my headphones were too loud, so I turned the volume down so much that I had a hard time hearing what was going on. After the temple, we drove to Hollywood to see the 2:00 o'clock showing of "Wicked" at the Pantages theater. Now, when people talk about how amazing something is (a book, a movie . . .) I usually ignore what they have to say, so that I don't get my hopes up and end up disappointed with it. I did the same thing with "Wicked" . . . I didn't get my hopes up (even though I was still excited to see it). After the first song, I was hooked, and the play just kept getting better and better. This is in my top-three favorites. It may even be my favorite (It's hard to compare it to something like Les Miserables. It has a category of its own.) After the show was over, we drove back to L.A. to meet Scott's parents for dinner. We kept talking about how amazing the play was, and half-way joked that if it were possible, we would see it again that night. Dennis got so excited about eventually seeing the play too, that all of us drove back down to the theater, so he could purchase tickets for a later date. With about ten minutes left until the 8:00 o'clock play started, Scott noticed a man scalping tickets on the sidewalk. He had four tickets for that night in the fourth row. Scott and Dennis bought the tickets and called Gail and me while we were waiting in the car. They told us to run to the theater because the play was starting in two minutes. So, Scott and I saw the play twice in one day, and are already talking about the next time we can see it . . . it was that good!


This is obviously a picture of William (Bill) Holden's star. I couldn't resist taking a picture of it. My favorite movie with him is "Sabrina" with Audrey Hepburn. I also really love the "I Love Lucy" episode that he's in. It's hilarious (even Scott laughed).