Now for something a little different.

Hi everyone. Leslie's husband here. As you saw in the last post, Leslie is in NYC as her grandma entered hospice care. Unfortunately, on Saturday night, she passed away at 101 (at least we think she was 101). Why do I say "we think"? Because when Leslie's grandma was born, record keeping in China either wasn't really a thing or the records were lost when Japan bombed China in the 1930s. She could've been older than 101 or she could've been just shy of 100, but the consensus is that she was 101.

I've met Leslie's grandma over 30 years ago and while she did a ton of things for the family as a whole, she was Leslie's main caretaker and they shared a lot of similar personality traits. If you know Leslie personally, you'll know that she laughs at everything and anything and that comes directly from her grandma. Grandma was always cracking jokes, always laughing, and more importantly, always wanted to make sure everyone was taken care of. I'll leave it to Leslie to share more personal details about her grandma if she wants to, but know this; when you hear about some of the things she went through, your jaw may drop to the floor. 

Leslie's grandma and dad, who, even though he's nearly 80 now, you can still tell that it's him.

One thing that Leslie doesn't share with her grandma is memory. My wife will even admit herself that her memory is kind of meh at best, but her grandma's memory? She never lost it, even as her body started to give out on her. I'm grateful that Leslie didn't experience her grandma losing her personality to dementia the way I saw dementia affect my grandma. Seeing someone you love become weak and frail sucks, but seeing their personality morph into something almost unrecognizable is horrific. When I last saw Leslie's grandma in September, she was still cracking jokes, laughing and smiling. Every Friday, Leslie would get on a video call with her grandma and sometimes I'd pop in to say hi and each and every time, she'd wave, have this big smile on her face, and ask me how I was doing. I'm convinced that her ability to laugh and smile is what kept her mind intact. 

When Leslie was taking photography courses in college.

When Leslie and I started dating, even though I had known the family for 20 years at that point, there was some apprehension. I apparently had some reputation of being a playboy, which was so far from the truth as possible (god, I wish my dating life was really like that). But as it became clear that we were serious; or more accurately, that I was serious, her grandma became my biggest cheerleader. Like constantly telling Leslie do this to keep me or don't do that to not scare me away.  I'm telling you, she was funny AF. 

One of the things that her grandma would harp on was Leslie's hair. Leslie's hair is wild and for some reason, her grandma was so concerned that I'd find Leslie's hair to be too wild for my liking. Telling her to brush her hair more often, to cut it shorter, or do anything to make it so that I didn't leave her for another girl.

This was 4 years after we started going out. Maybe her grandma was onto something.

Anyway, when Leslie started this blog, I told her the most important thing for it to be successful was to be consistent. There are many things that I love and respect about my wife, and one of those things is her ability to be focused on a goal. While I personally struggle with ADHD, consistency, and motivation, Leslie is able to be very steadfast in focusing on a goal. I'll come up with hundreds of goals for myself and get probably a whopping three done, while she's more deliberate and concise in setting up her goals. If she sets a goal, she's going to achieve the goal. It's just how her mind works.

Even when we go on trips, she still works on this blog. Every city we've been to, if there was a Lululemon store, we'd visit it and she'd report on it. If a sale was happening, once we got back to the hotel room for the evening, she'd write a post. With her grandma, she was worried that not only would she not have the time to write posts while she was in NYC, she wouldn't have the desire, which is completely understandable. So that's why I'm stepping in; to help with that consistency and preserve her track record of posts. You, the audience, and this blog's cadence are important to her. So I thank you for understanding that this post, and possibly a few others over the next week or so, will be slightly different than what you're used to seeing on her blog. I may do a review on headphones she bought me and I can tell you that you will probably get a post talking about our cats, or her 'furbabies' as she likes to call them. 

Lastly, if you haven't and if you're so inclined, consider subscribing to her YouTube channel. She's been really enjoying recording videos lately and she's been working hard to ensure that she posts a new video every other week. Companies have been asking her to review their products and she's been very hesitant to accept them because she wants to review things that she's passionate about and not feel like her hands are tied to some random marketing person's corporate message and the best way to help her keep that independence is through subscribing and sharing her stuff. 

Again, thank you for your time, patience, and most importantly, your understanding. Hopefully Leslie will feel up to writing again soon, so you can be spared my drivel.