by Teresa Antoinette

Created on: October 23, 2008   Last Updated: October 31, 2008

My Grandma talks to her puzzle pieces. I think it's a hobby. "Okaaaay. Where are you?" she'll say as she scans the table looking for an end piece to finish off a picture of a basket full of apples and two kittens. I told her we should get some good glue and a nice frame and hang one of the puzzles when she's done with it. She always thinks that's a good idea. Today she rearranged the entire living room big, bulky, old-fashioned furniture and all by herself while I was out running errands. I turned the key and pushed open the front door only to have it hit the recliner. "Hang on!" she yelled. I waited for her to move it out of the way, and then walked into the living room and saw that it had practically doubled in size. Really all that had happened was that Grandma got sick and tired of the way the living room looked. Her words, not mine. So she moved some stuff around and now the dogs have ample space to roll around and bite each other's tails. She maneuvered the two recliners so that they now sit parallel to one another and in between them now sits an end table. "You know, for my drink," she said with a smirk. My Grandma has a nightly ritual one glass of rum and coke while she watches Two and a Half Men on Mondays, and for every other day of the week, it's reruns of Reba. Bad television and consistency hallmarks of the golden ages, I think.

Since moving back home and in with my Grandparents, I've learned the fine art of sitting down to read the newspaper. Actually I had to witness both Grandparents do it first (it was a strange sight for my technologically advanced eyes), then pick up the Lifestyles section to really learn anything of my own. I learned that the local writer of the horoscopes is mostly pretty pessimistic. No one is ever allowed to have a kick ass day. It's always along the lines of "Today you may be enthusiastic about a pipe dream that has little likelihood of attainment. Don't even bother getting out of bed." I've learned that my inner artist thinks that writing and illustrating a comic would be a really cool job to have. I've learned that a local steakhouse was just named best new restaurant in Northern California. But I think the coolest thing I've learned about reading the paper is that it's much more satisfying than just scanning the headlines that happen to make it onto the Yahoo! homepage. Something about participating in the act comforts me. I think it just makes me feel more connected to my Grandparents.

My Grandparents do not have the

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