steak n eggs

so i'm still in cleveland. I called the chang today to tell them i wouldn't be around after the 30th, and that i didn't know when i'd be back. Pretty shitty thing to do to them, but i didn't really have any other choice. Jesse was cool about it tho, cuz he's cool about everything.

my aunt Theresa Antinucci came to the house today to see grandma. They've known each other since what seems to me to be the beginning of the universe. You could tell it was rough on her but she was strong. When she came back into the living room i sent her chris gabel's regards, because he loved her. Then i told her this story to take her mind off things and remind her how amazing grandma was:

Chris and I met the entire detroit shoreway gang in Vegas a couple years back. we drove down from slc and they flew in from cleveland. it was 2am vegas time on a thursday morning when we all arived at the Imperial Palace lobby. That's 5am cleveland time on a weeknite. At the front of the line was Grandma and Theresa, side by side as they'd been for decades. I introduced chris to them both, Theresa first. He commented that there aren't enough good names like "aunt theresa antinucci" in salt lake. Then i introduced him to grandma, who said hello and then in a way that only mary zone could (from a wheelchair at 83 years old), she explained "hey we're going over to Harrah's for steak and eggs if you want to come with us". 83 years old at 5am, just off a plane and traveling all night with a group of 40 some people... and she's going next door for steak and eggs. Chris just stood there in awe for a second and i grabbed the handles of her wheelchair and pushed her to Harrah's where we had a lovely breakfast.

it seemed to cheer her up, and you could tell a million other memories of her were all rushing back at once. They were for me, too. It's amazing to think of the impact she's had on lives all over this city. this county. this state. Shit, there's some guy in italy who sends her a fruit basket every year at xmas because she had him to the house one year while he was an exchange student at Case Western or some shit. like 20 years ago.

She's been a council woman. she's run her own businesses. she's ran campaigns for mayors, attorney generals, setators. She raised a huge family thru the depression and even burried her husband and a few of her children. She's been thru more than i can fathom in a thousand years. And even now that she lies in bed, speaks to no one and hasn't eaten in 10 days, she just keeps right on track. I hope to be 1/1000 as amazing for just 5 minutes in my life... and i hope i'm not asleep when it happens.