The Closer

The time I spend with my family is time that is most treasured to me. Losing my great-grandmother in 2006 taught me that life is fleeting. Sure, I had lost loved ones before, but this was the first person that I truly loved, looked up to and had a great desire to make proud.
Her loss showed me that I need to be spending as much time as possible with the people that I love, which is why moving to and staying in Atlanta is a constant internal struggle for me. I've come to the conclusion that I had to move in order to be truly happy and that means that I'm going to miss out on some wonderful bonding moments with my grandparents, all four of which I am very blessed to still have in my life.

I end up going home a fair amount to spend time with everyone, attend the birthday parties and try to make it to the occasional softball game of one of my nieces. However, I really love when my family takes the time to come see me and the world in which I live. The Sunday before last, my Dad brought his parents up to do just that.

It just so happened that a family reunion was happening right outside of Atlanta, so it was the perfect excuse for a visit. Sunday they were occupied with the festivities (or rather my grandmother was occupied by reliving her childhood and telling stories of her precious mother, the aforementioned great-grandmother).

While I worked on Monday, Dad took them to the Georgia Aquarium and the World of Coke. After work, I jetted over to Turner Field to meet them for an evening game against the San Fransisco Giants. I love baseball, mostly because it reminds me of my grandmother, but I still love it.

I ordered copies of this photo for everyone.

The intimidating Brian Wilson walked out just in time to close the game and leave with a win for the Giants, but luckily the Braves pulled through in a dramatic 9th inning that left my grandfather quite entertained.

The game got me thinking about life, in that it starts off great, you make some great hits and you suffer some embarrassing outs. You might even make the occasional home run, but in the end, you hope to walk away with a victory; leaving behind lots of love and memories with the ones you care about the most. That's what my grandparents will one day leave me with; thoughts of sewing mini bean bags on my grandmother's old Singer, fishing in the trecherous swamp with my Grandfather and pretending to not be grossed out by the bugs everywhere because I wanted him to know I was tough enough to hang with the boys, and baseball games where we shared hotdogs and ice cream.

It was such a nice way to spend time together, even if it was for only a short 3.5 hours. It's times like these that I'll never forget.

For a laugh, see this video.