Totally Random…

With this pandemic, stay-at-home requirements, as you know, I’ve been staying at home…in Pittsburgh!

I work every day on my Mt Notre Dame work, but I have been working on projects too.  One of them has been digitalizing photos.  Katie is helping me to get these random pictures on the computer so I can get rid of the hard copy photos.  This is tough!

I have many pictures in photo albums at home, and I always like that because there is some order,and I like being able to pull out an album and reminisce.  Many years ago, when phones became cameras, the printing out process was cut way back.  I was not a fan, so I almost always printed out bunches of pictures.  To this day, I still have a pet peeve of asking someone to see pictures of a new baby or a wedding, and the person having to scroll through tons of pictures to find that one picture.  Although I love to show off my baby Gabriel, I hate having to scroll…I’m not savvy with the files and I get anxiety wasting someone’s time.   Shout out to those who have a better system!  I could learn a thing or two.

Despite my reluctance to go digital, Katie talked me into getting these loose photos onto the computer.  It takes awhile to do so we’ve been sorting through.  One thing that wasn’t hard for me to do was unload pictures of scenery…underwater coral from Lord knows where, or fog on a mountain range somewhere on the way to North Carolina, or a rainbow in Florida, or the Caymans, or maybe it was Hawaii…Super easy to unload those pictures.

Then there was an envelope of Christmas ’91.  Katie made out like a bandit that year!  We may have over-indulged a bit but those were the days of layaway and planning ahead!  There were a few envelopes identified as occasions, so we scanned them and got them into folders on the computer. 

You may be wondering what was so hard about this?  Well, it was hard because Greg was in a lot of these pictures, with Katie, with my family, and with our friends.  We have a full, rich history together.  There have been tears.  I’m not really sure why, well, I do know why...I'm still grieving a life spent with a good man.

Divorce is the death of a marriage but not the death of the person, the history and the life you once had.  If Greg had died, I would feel as though these pictures were to be cherished as my only physical memory.  Since we are divorced, seeing pictures of us laughing on the pirate ship on our first cruise, or sipping champagne at our favorite restaurant, or our family portrait, and the countless other photos of our family, as it was, brings sadness.  I needed to determine what to do with these. 

During this time, Katie has shown me some serious wisdom.  We have sorted through, set a few aside for Greg (mostly where he is alone with his family or Katie), saved a few, and tossed a lot.  Katie has convinced me that for now, the ones that I am struggling to keep should be digitalized and put into a folder.  I don’t have to get rid of them but I don’t have to come across them easily.  

I don’t want to throw away 34 years of life with Greg…so I won’t.  It's really hard to let go, that’s for sure.  So, the photo project is nearly complete here.  The next phase will be reviewing the albums.  But that’s for another day…

Does anyone have an address book anymore?  Well, I do!  I always have and at some point, I purchased a new one and stuck it in the basket with my note cards.  While sorting out the cards/stationery in this basket, I found the address book.  I had some addresses in there, but had many more to add.  Guess what?  I’ve been filling that book with addresses.  Now I know, in a pinch, I’ll end up going to whitepages.com and getting an address, but just in case…if my computer crashes or if I lose my phone, I’ll have addresses and phone numbers to get me through. 

This is going to sound so strange/morbid, but I remember when my Grandpa Marcellino died, and we went to Cleveland, I remember my uncle and my Dad sitting at the kitchen table going through my grandparent’s address book, making phone calls to let people know Grandpa had died.  I don’t expect Katie to do that, but it’s available if she needs it.  Typical mom...

Final random thought...Hanging out, reading everything on Facebook, I found a cute toy I thought Gabriel would like.  It said it would provide endless fun...hours?  Maybe not, but something new to hold his attention would be good. After two long weeks, it arrived.  We filled it with water and let Gabriel go!  It was new, it was different and he was a little amazed to start.  Then, he started to bite the sides of it...yep, he was more interested in putting it in his mouth than he was with the little sea life floating in the water.  And he was aggressively chomping on it!  Not sure that was the result I expected, but quite amusing just the same!

Oh boy…totally random thoughts for the week!  Now, back to some online shopping!!!

*Sending love and hugs to everyone out there...especially my sweet friends who are managing through these days alone.  I would be right there doing the same thing if it wasn't for my sweet Katie, Anthony and baby Gabriel!  

CeCe and Gabriel outside for some pictures!

What the water mat is supposed to look like...lots of fun, right??

This was Gabriel's version of the play mat...face plant!  Very chewy too!!