So, yeah, I think I've got most of my stuff settled and I'm back at home for the time being. Don't read this next bit if it'll just bring you down, I suppose.

A few weeks ago my mom had called me to tell me that my grandfather was very, very ill. They live out of state from me so I really don't see them as often as I should. After a couple days over struggling over what I should do, I packed some stuff and just called in to work 'sick' for a few days. I was angry because I had actually tried to schedule vacation for the first week of March for the actual PURPOSE of going to see my family, and my work kept putting off telling me whether or not they could accept the time until oops, they couldn't let me go, though I had put in for days off at the beginning of January! ... that's neither here nor there, but they can screw themselves.

So yeah, I got to see my grandfather in the hospital, then the next day they brought him home for hospice care. It really hurt to see him that way, but despite being very weak and sick he was lucid and he knew what was going on. When I told him I had to leave, after a few days of visiting, he looked me right in the eyes and told me that the next time we'd meet, it would be in heaven.

I went home for about a week and jumped every time my cell phone made a noise. I mean, it was kind of inevitable, but still.

He passed away on the 18th so I left the state again for the funeral and was there a few more days, and I spent a lot of time with my mom, just trying to keep her mood up a bit. The service was really lovely. He was a good man, a guy who never seemed to get angry or ever have a bad word to say about anybody, and we'll all miss him. I'm glad he was healthy up until that point. He would have been 94 years old in August.

I just got home again and went back to work, but I will be switching jobs here on the 1st of April, thank goodness, because the business with them not letting me take leave to go see an ill family member really stuck it to me that they don't care about me, so why should I care about them? That and they don't pay me squat so uh. There's that.