Jun 02, 2011 Back to normal obsessions, like your diary
Sometimes the things that make you sick and obsessive you cannot talk about in public without alienating yourself, unless those things make you sicker and crazier, in which case you get a show on TLC.* So Chibi had to go away for a while to deal with some stuff until she was ready to obsess about normal things again, like popsicle-to-snow cone converters and gel pens (seriously, uni-ball 207 or Pentel EnerGel? I need to know.).
The good thing about “healthy” obsessions–aside from the fact they don’t make you depressed AND sometimes POOP YOUR PANTS–is that they invariably lead to some of the most fascinating people on the Internet. (Not making fun; I love otaku-dom.) Today’s pen research, for instance, morphed into a mission to discover the best online diaries, specifically handwritten and scanned journals, by nature the hardest for which to search. Thanks to Ana Maria, aka Renmeleon, for inspiring me with this diary entry about poker night with her 101-year-old grandmother:
Growing up I remember sitting with my grandparents, either on laps or on the floor, listening to them play… I remember the smell of good cigars, my grandfather’s pipe tobacco… and cruddy beer (my grandmother liked Pabst Blue Ribbon…). Every Thursday night it was a ritual and I went from playing under the table to sitting on my grandmother’s lap (throwing chips and learning how to play). Later on, after my grandparents were older and had moved in with us, we played Gin Rummy or 500 Rummy every night practically after dinner. My grandfather left this life in 1995 at the age of 93, still working three jobs from home.
Now we play every Thursday night again, my grandfather’s presence so strong a memory you can still hear him trying to get my mother and I to stop giggling and laughing when grandma smoked us all…
*Trust me. Hit mute and then click that; you’ll want to see those Extreme Couponing clips after the commercial.