Goodbye

My grandpa died today.

I put this video together for him...kind of as a grieving thing for me. It soothed my heart a bit.

I love and miss him.

Silver Lining

It's funny; some of my strongest friendships have developed over the toughest of times.


Two examples for you.


ONE

When my family lived in Germany, my family became friends with another family, the Andersons. My dad taught the Anderson boys in Sunday school, he worked just down the street from the Andersons' house, and often, we'd stop by the Andersons' house on our way home after picking my dad up from work. Living in Germany forces people to create family, because the closest family is half way across the world. The Andersons slowly became our family.

One of my first little buddies was Johnny Anderson. He was 2 1/2 years older than I was. Maybe just 2...I can't remember exactly. We'd play hide-and-seek together...build legos...he was a boy and would treat me like little boys often treat little girls.

 On July 4, 1991, Johnny Anderson died in an awful bike/car accident. He was 8 years old, and he and his brother were riding bikes. The bike Johnny was riding that day happened to have faulty breaks...and was too big for him, I believe. I can't remember all the details. But the ending of this story is, he passed away that day. I soon-after attended my first funeral...my first experience with death was my good friend, Johnny.

 I still remember the day he died. Kayleen and I were playing in a bucket of water on our front steps. After getting tired of playing in our make-shift swimming pool, we went inside, and I saw my dad on the phone, crying. I'd never seen my dad cry before.

Just a little over a month later, my brother was born...August 8, 1991. And a couple weeks after that, my dad had a grand mal seizure in the middle of the night. We were too far out in the German territory for the military hospital to send an ambulance. So you know who came instead? The Andersons. Only one month after losing their son/brother...and the Andersons wrapped their arms around us while we discovered my dad had a malignant brain tumor and he would only have two more years to live.

The fact that such traumatic events took place in their family and my family, in the same year...in the same summer...just a month and a half separating the two, MAJOR bonding. I love that family. Beth, Wayne, Chad, Jeremy, Emiko, Matt, Sarah, Christian and Johnny. They're like a second set of parents and seven more siblings. I'm blessed to have them in my life.


TWO

A couple years after my mom married Chuck, a family in our ward experienced a similar trial to ours. Brother Rex Bliss was diagnosed with cancer...and it was a fast-spreading cancer. We invited him and his family over for Sunday dinner one of the Sundays after his diagnosis...and recognized the pain the family was experiencing...and the pain they were about to face.

After Rex's passing, the Bliss clan quickly became part of our family. We started inviting them over for Sunday dinner every week, and it soon became a weekly ritual. We did everything together...camping, vacations, beach trips...everything. We eventually became known as the "Perry-Bliss-Hanchetts" combining my last name, their last name and Chuck's last name. Once again, we created a family during an extremely difficult time.

The combining of our families lasted for a full year, until Lendie Bliss met and married her second husband and then moved her family to California. Even then, we still kept in touch...me going to EFY in California with Eliot Bliss, and the younger Bliss girls coming to Oregon for Girl's Camp.

Because of the strong bond we made during that first year after Rex's death, the friendships made then are still strong today.

Recently the power went out in my apartment complex, due to a huge unexpected storm in the D.C./Virginia area last Friday. Our power was out for 4 days. Holly Bliss (one of the Bliss girls, who was probably 10 around the time her dad died) and her husband just moved to Virginia a couple weeks ago. On Monday, Holly texted me, telling me she and her husband were taking a day trip to D.C. and wanted to take me out to dinner. When they discovered I was still without power, they insisted on taking me back to their home to spend the night, bought me dinner, let me do a load of laundry and then drove me back to D.C. for work the next morning (an hour and a half away from where they live.)

This experience really REALLY touched me. I realized, that had it not been for Rex's death...and the understanding instilled in my family through the experiences of my dad's death and Chuck's first wife's death, Holly and I probably wouldn't be as close as we are. She's a few years younger than I am, and during childhood years, kids usually don't mingle with kids much younger than their own age. But because our families became inseparable for a year, we became close and are still close today. And oh how thankful I was for that beautiful friendship on Monday night.

Trials suck. They just do. Death is hard and seems horribly unfair at the time it happens...and even several years later it can still seem unfair. And you know what? It is unfair. It's hard, it's rough, it hurts...it's excruciatingly painful.

But, I've discovered that there's usually some sort of beautiful silver lining. It takes years and time to discover the silver lining, but it is there. And I'm so grateful for the chance I've had to recognize it.

Twitter!!!

Okay friends. I like Twitter. In fact, I love it. I've grown more and more fond of it over the past year, and now...I feel it my duty to explain to the Internet world the good that can come from Twitter. It's much more useful than facebook. There's no social pressure like there is on facebook. There's no commitment like there is on facebook. And it's not just a bunch of junk passed from friend to friend. It's true info, from real sources, no strings attached. It's fun, it's profesh, it's live, and it's so useful...if you know how to use it.

So, you should listen to the latest episode of Comm Therapy to understand it even more. J.R. (my co-host) likes to argue everything I say...and maybe you'll agree with him. But if you've never gotten on board with Twitter, but you've always wondered what it's about...you should listen to our latest episode. It's really nothing like facebook...and who made facebook the god of social media??? I'm tired of comparing everything else against it. Let's give Twitter a promotion! :)

Go listen! (If you really want to help us out, you should subscribe to us on iTunes here. It's free. :))

Sometimes...I just don't know.

I've been worrying a lot lately.

About things like money, my future, my ability to survive on my own. You know...the basics.

I'm scared. I'm scared I'm going to get through grad school (assuming I don't fail miserably...it's hard), get $40,000+ in debt with loans, and then come out the other side without a plan, without connections, without job prospects...and worst of all, without a love for the field I just spent the past two years studying and pumping money into.

I'm scared.

I'm scared to make big-time life decisions by myself. I'm scared to continue moving forward in a decision...a decision that is ultimately shaping the rest of my life.

I'm afraid I don't have what it takes to make it in the journalism world. I don't like being aggressive. And journalism often takes aggression.

I'm afraid I don't know how to live alone. I'm afraid of loneliness.

I'm worried that I don't fit into the corporate world. Nor do I want to. I'm afraid I'm trying to climb a latter that's up against the wrong wall.

Ahhhh...the worries of a 27-year-old single woman. This is my life, and I just can't help but worry sometimes.

We all have worries.

These are mine. Thanks for "listening." :)

You see...

I made this purchase.

I've been watching Dawson's Creek on Netflix...yes, Dawson's Creek. And it's taking me back to the '90s. I love the '90s. Most importantly, I love the music of the '90s. It was lyrical and full of chick rockers.

So, I made this purchase. Alanis Morissette, The Collection....because it wasn't too expensive on the Amazon mp3 store, and nothing says "'90s music" like Alanis.

My first obsession from the purchase was "That I Would Be Good."

My latest obsession is now "Hands Clean." Which technically is not from the 90's...it came out in 2002. BUT, Alanis will always take me back to the '90s...not matter what the song.

I miss those days. Alanis. Sheryl Crow. Jewel. You know...'90s chick music.

Let's all go back, shall we?

50 Ways To Die On The Metro

1) "Someone is going to push me into the tracks ditch area...right in front of an oncoming train."

This thought forces its way to my brain EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I'm at a Metro station. It's my number one fear. Don't tell me I'm crazy. It's a very real possibility. I saw it on T.V. once.

2) Perfect place for a shooting

This obviously has happened...and people would go into frenzy mode. Stampedes would break out. People would go crazy. On the actual train itself, or under ground just waiting for it.

3) Gas

Someone could gas the joint...with toxic gas. I saw this on T.V. once too. I'd be trapped on the train, nowhere to go...in a tunnel, and start choking to death.

4) Flooding

I don't know how this would happen, but we're under ground...and water could get in there, and have no place to go. We'd all drown and die.

5) Earth quake

I do not want to be in a train while there's an earthquake. Under ground...in the dark. SCARY.

6) Disease

We're sitting so close together...packed together so tightly in a germ-infested contraption that probably rarely gets a proper scrub-down. I love having my body rubbed up against by a man who smells like belly-button juice.


Okay...so six ways is not 50 ways. But feel free to add onto the list. Please help my obsessiveness spiral out of control.

Comm Therapy

We've got a new episode. It's called "The many faces of Facebook." Check us out on iTunes or visit our blog at commtherapy.blogspot.com.

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P.S. I have an important quesiton I need to pose to my fellow bloggers. So stay tuned for that. :)