The past month in a page

Therefore, it has been a very long time since I have been able to blog... so I am going to catch you up on the crazy life that I have been living the past month... Let’s start off with conference... It was a great meet overall for the team, a lot of best times and a lot of fun! For me the best was seeing my mother and grandma. I miss my mom everyday and my grandma is always a hoot. As I live away from home, I do love my life, but I miss my family and being able to come home a lot. Despite how much I miss my family if I could go back and do it again, I would not change a thing. Growing up is hard, realizing that I will never live in the same house as mom and dad kind of sends a chill down my spine. I thought it was crazy that my dad said that he left home when he was 18 and didn't come back... but essentially, I did just that. I hope that in the future I can continue to live on my own because living at home again would not be something I could do. However, moving on after conference I have had a two-week swimming filled break. I had a not so serious time with swimming and school has been ok. The girls and I made it a great time despite still having to go to the pool. We have been going out having fun and doing things that we will never forget. Right now, I am with my grandma and great-grandma in Aiken South Carolina. It is a different pace around here. Not only am I with the most critical person I have ever met, but I am in a city that is so different. Despite these things I am having fun. My grandma: o lordy as she would say... everything I do is a time to make me into a real southern belle (which I was not born to be as my room, and physique would show) But in the quest to becoming this southern lady I have been to a tea, fashion show play and I actually survived and enjoyed it! The tea was the most uncomfortable of it all... I have no table education so I had no idea how to hold a real life cucumber sandwich, or how to properly swirl my tea, but no worries I caught on quickly. Next was the fashion show, as in my favorite movie ever after I just went for the food. All the clothes were geared toward ladies in their 70's so I just ate a little of this and that and plastered a smile as I laughed about how revealing a 3/4 sleeve was... hahaha but next was a play regarding the history of aiken. It is incredible that the history of such a small town can be so large. Aiken is a town with more history then I have learned about Minnesota as a whole. There were many striking things that I learned but the item that stood out most was that the confederacy was a real thing here. I went to a museum today and there was real confederate clothes and they were actually heroes in this neck of the woods, which is in complete contrary to what we learned in school in the north. I also was impressed with how naive I am about racism there are many people here that say the poorer areas must be the "black parts of town" Which is incredible that people still associate social class with color still in 2010 when we have the first African American president. but I don't think my generation are the generation of the stereotypes. But other then this the main reason for being here is to see my great grandma. My great grandma is the most incredible lady I have ever met. She is currently 94 years old and still alive, which in itself is a feat. She has lived through her son dyeing and current has a brain tumor but she is still managing though she is very very close to the end of her life to smile. Every time I see her I want to start to cry... she is no longer competent which in its self is heart wrenching, but she cant hear so she has no idea what is happening in her life, I am so glad that I have the time although I would like to be in the tropical weather relaxing and having a great time. This will probably be the last time in my life that I see her and that also makes me upset, but I am doing what I can ... and that all I can do... well I am sure that my next post will be in a while, my grandmother does not have internet so I may just write and post later.
:) Big E