chantico

So on Monday night, my Grandfather passed away. Condolances are appreciated, but not especially necessary . . . he wanted to go pretty badly and had been suffering for a long time. As with most deaths in the family or otherwise, I don't find myself especially upset-- perhaps becuase I have not had anyone I was especially close with die, but also because most of the deaths I've been around for have been absolute mercies-- Grandpa Kok, who was battling cancer for years, my cousin Erica, who also battled cancer and died armless, legless, and absolutely finished with trying to fight it; my Grandmother who was drinking herself to death as suicide anyway; and now Poppa, who was utterly incapable of taking care of himself, completely lost in dementia, and begging to see my grandmother.

The wake was today, and it was pretty insane. I forgot how big my family on that side is when we all get together, and with just us and the closest friends there were still 200+ people packed into one house. This afforded me the oppurtunity to catch up with the few family members who I really connect with, and spend a good portion of the day doing some great sketches.

Speaking of which, I compiled a couple of pages of said sketches, all from life; you can view them here, here, and here. Some of them are older-- it's the last page that's mostly from today-- but this is a side of the regular practice I need to do which you guys don't really get to see.

Otherwise, life is going okay. I have a master plan on what I need to do for the Italy thing. I am pursuing it. I also have a good backup plan if it falls through, I think, and my financial aid will be fine if I stay in Indiana.

Mostly I'm just suffering a lack of time in which to do the things I want to do, which is normal.

Right. That's all, then.