Coronas & Boas

Tonight’s post I would like to dedicate to my family.  I have been struggling with different blog topics, and given today’s events my mom suggested that I talk about my family.  This morning at 4:50am my cousin Rachel gave birth to a beautiful baby girl.  Happy BIRTHday Sadie Jane! 

Today was Day #4 of my Liquid Diet.  My Pre-Cert went through yesterday, and my cravings stayed at bay until night time.  I swear the worst part of all this is not being able to CRUNCH things.  I have considered chewing up a carrot or piece of celery and spitting it out just to get the crunch out of the way.  Today I had Cottage Cheese for Breakfast, a Strawberry Protein Shake for lunch, and am planning on having a bowl of broth and some yogurt for dinner.  Sounds great, huh?  I still feel fine, last night and today I was nauseous – but it wasn’t unbearable, and I still am not hungry.  I also have not felt one minute of fatigue, which I assumed I would. 

So back to my family, the Howard’s – It all started with my Memac and Granddaddy.  My Memac was a cook, an amazing cook.  She cooked for a church during the day and for her family on the weekends.  Some of the things I remember best were her milk gravy (man, she could make that look easy), her fudge (which is hard to duplicate), and her macaroni & cheese.  It would be impossible for me to put in words how great of a cook she was, so I am not even gonna try.  My Memac loved with a vengeance.  Her family was her pride & joy.  My Granddad was a Master Plumber when he was younger, but in the years after  he retired, he mostly just hung out.  He was a very kind & handy man.  I can remember many times when I was growing up, coming home to him helping my dad build a deck or fixing our toilet.  My grandparents lived in Utica for most of my childhood and my Granddad would go hang out across the street at the JR’s Market – a small family run convenient store that sold groceries, had a deli etc.  I can remember as a child crossing the street to tell him it was time to come home, and getting a YooHoo from the big cooler and saying “Put it on my Granddad’s tab” (I thought I was a big deal back then!)  My grandparents had three boys and a girl (who passed at a young age) – my dad, my Uncle Johnn, my Aunt Salley and my Uncle Ben. 

My Uncle Johnny is the oldest; one of my favorite of him was him always playing air guitar on my leg to some Van Halen or Jimi Hendrix.  He also used to drink Coronas (which I thought made him cool) and he would sing “Muh Muh Muh My Corona” (to the tune of “My Sharona”).  My Uncle Ben was the youngest, and in our eyes the coolest.  Some of my favorite memories with my Uncle Ben was singing Black Sabbath’s “War Pigs” at the top of our lungs as we sped down Cemetery Hill and “got some air” with my cousins.  One time when I was around 10 years old, my cousins and I went to stay the night with him in Bowling Green.  My Uncle Ben had a Boa Constrictor (I was not a fan of by the way) that my brother, Clay, would love to play with.  As we were heading out to go fly kites my uncle suggested that I get a sweater out of my bag to wear “in case it got cold.”  So here I am digging through my bag for a sweater, thinking to myself “I don’t think mom put a sweater in here”, as he assured me it was there (Oh I should have known!)  Low and behold there’s that freaking snake IN MY BAG!   I had a good scream, they had a good laugh and we spent the rest of the afternoon flying kites.  Karma is one though, because if I remember correctly, we went roller skating that night and he had quite the fall. 

Enough about my uncles, six more days till surgery! It is good to be a Howard.  Night y’all see ya tomorrow!