Happy 88

Today it is my grandpa's 88th birthday!!!

my cousins, my grandpa, me, my sister - his birthday last year

Talking about the old man makes me a little emotional - he is for sure one of the most important people in my life and, truth be told, if it wasn't for him and my grandma this family wouldn't exist.

You know how people say grandparents will spoil the grandchildren the way they never did with their own kids? Well this is absolutely true for my granps. I guess he was always working so hard and so stressed and worried to be a hands-on dad and also, those were different times. But as a grandpa, he's been the best.

I lived with my grandparents up until I was about 7 years old, and I remember leaving their house and going away with my parents being devastating. My grandpa would come back from work every day between 4-5pm, then we would hang out for a while and he'd give me a shower and get me ready for dinner. Then we'd sit side by side on the sofa watching the evening news before going to bed. He taught me how to ride a bike - and he bought my first, second, third bike... He'd take me for walks, take me to the fair, bring me beetles in a shoebox so I could play with them... Haha, yes - I collected beetles when I was a little kid.
He gave me a typewriter, and from that I developed my love for writing. He gave my brother his first guitar and payed for guitar lessons, and today my brother is an excellent musician. 

When I was 17 I moved back in with my grandparents. I guess those were our roughest times - I was a rebel teenager and he was feeling the weight of responsibility again. I had a boyfriend whom he loathed, and this sweet old man would actually walk up to my (at the time) boyfriend and say "F-you, you S-o-B!!!" hahaha. At the time it was terrible, but nowadays just makes me laugh.
And even in those rough days, he would still wake up at 5am to make me some tea before I left for work and walk me to the bus stop. He's always been by my side, even when he's not.

He's 88 today and I feel so fortunate that he's part of our lives. I'm so happy that he loves my husband and feels that he doesn't need to worry about this troubled girl anymore. I know he is sometimes a grumpy old man, but I doubt anyone who's 88 and is not grumpy - I just could not ask for a better and more loving grandpa.

Love you, granps!

grandpa, parents, sister, brother and I at the airport

I cracked my back.

Yes, and that's the reason I haven't checked on my blog - or any other blog - for the past week.

I've had this problem for a while now, but last Saturday my bad back finally decided to make a strong statement by leaving me immobile.

It was quite a pathetic accident, I must say - I was baking a chocolate cake, which didn't even turn out to be *that* awesome. As I was putting the cake into the oven I felt it. And then I fell on the floor and couldn't move anymore.
I managed to crawl to the living room to get my phone and call my husband, who came home to a wife, in the middle of the living room floor on her hands and knees. But then again, I think this might be every man's dream.
Only after he saw me there was no fun... he had to help me get up, lay me down in bed and luckily I have an acupuncturist for a father-in-law. I gotta say this. My in-laws are not very helpful or very nice people, but I have to be thankful for this, him being the one person who was able to get me to move again was a life saver. I guess, of all the flaws I can accuse him of, this one thing should make up for all the rest.

Anyways, coming back from NOT MOVING AT ALL is a slow recovery, but now I'm already able to get out of bed on my own, walk on my own, go to the bathroom... hell I even lifted a chair today!!!

I never thought I'd see the day this would actually happen to me, but I guess it serves me to open my eyes and get it in my head for once and for all that I do need to take better care of myself, my diet, lose weight, exercise... ugh. Recovery is just beginning and it will be a long and hard way.

Symptoms of old age

A friend of my parents once told me "Being old is just a matter of point of view. In my opinion, old is someone who is 30 years older than me."

That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it? When we're kids, teenagers even... a person who is 30-something or 40 is OLD. We think they're just so old they should be in a museum. And they're so old-fashioned and narrow-minded, and their taste in music is so yuck, and - hello??? How can they not like the music I listen to, it's just so kewl!

And when you're that young, you also think it's never gonna happen to you - you're never getting old, your body will never ache, your health and eyesight are always gonna be super, you're going to be a very hip and tolerant person, and life will be the same, party every day! Well... that's not at all how it goes.

I remember when I was 25 years old, life was a bliss. And I had a friend - who was 27 at the time - who used to take multi-vitamins  on a daily basis. One day I called her out on that, I thought it was unnecessary and exaggerated of hers to do that. She said she was just being cautious and that, with age, you start feeling the need to take extra care of yourself.
I thought that was just ridiculous that she would treat herself as an old lady. Until I turned 27.

It was around that time that I started getting joint pains, back pain, gaining weight... my body shape changed completely, I went from a size 4 to a size 12 (no kidding), and just didn't have the energy I used to.
I tried going on diets, many diets, the diet pills I took a couple of years earlier did not have the same effect anymore, it was just too hard.  Then I joined the gym.
Exercising is the best thing you can do for your body - really. Much easier said than done, I paid 6 months at my local gym, only went there 4 times. But back in California I used to go 3-4 times a week, I joined the 24h Fitness closest to my house and hired a personal trainer for the first month and it made me feel really good about myself and sure made a difference in my life.

I went down to being a size 8 now, although I weight exactly the same, but I'm not bloated anymore and have more muscle mass and a little less fat in me. Still have a long way to go though.

Yeah... we do get old, whether we like it or not, and it sucks. But I still believe we're never too old to make a change :)