live an extraordinary life

My grandmother died early this week-a beautiful little spitfire redhead that was my surrogate mother, fostered my interest in plants that led me to become a Master Gardener, spoke of her travels that grew my own wanderlust, spoke el Paso Spanish to me when I was a bebe-that led me to become fluent in espanol, contributed to my love of rouge tresses that compelled me to become a pelirojita—a May baby like me, she was 88.

Anyway, Mom and I are sulking in the sweltering kitchen, chopping and cooking for catharsis. Mom’s new hubby, the Cali Aunt & Uncle and bf Alex are sitting around sharing wine and light stories when Alex casually mentions a speech he needs to give. It’s a monologue/monodrama, he is considering reading the lyrics to Sympathy for the Devil, by the Rolling Stones. We unanimously agree that it’s a great idea and then suddenly, that very song is on the radio.

It was unbelieveable.

Actually, it was extraordinary-which is why I’m writing about it here. Sure that it was a sign, we found ourselves spontaneously singing along and then, up laughing and dancing in the kitchen, adding in the “woo woo” in the background, doing the Mick Jagger strut and kissy face-all of us kicking off the shackles of our sadness in a dionysian tribute to being alive.

You must understand, I hadn’t cooked with my mom in years, let alone shook my butt while yelling “please allow me to in-tro-duce my-self, I’m a man of wealth and taaaste…” with her. We’re usually pretty reserved group. It was so hot that day, with polenta frying on the stove and roma tomatoes roasting in the oven, 90 degrees—it was like the Devil came in and danced with us himself.

It was great.

Better than great… like I said: extraordinary.

I’ll miss my grandmother viciously, but that was a moment with my family I never would have had without her passing. I’ll forever think of her when I hear that song now, and knowing how feisty she was, if she isn’t in heaven, all I can say is that I’ve got Sympathy for the Devil.

as extraordinary, but I think it’s pretty cool: I just received a cryptex for being one of the finalists in Google’s DaVinci Code quest!

It came in the post yesterday, weighs a lot, and had a scroll locked inside with a URL to proceed. The first 10,000 participants to complete all the puzzles and respond received one.