A Good Kind of Morning

So, it's 9:43am here...if you're curious, though I did not go to bed until 12:00am (or 5am...) last night, I popped out of bed free of alarms at 7:45am. *sigh* My internal clock, it would appear, is set. I even tried to go back to sleep and had no luck. The only person up earlier then me was Uncle Craig, which is not much of a surprise. Was able to pass the usual granola and yogurt to have fresh pineapple and papaya for breakfast with the biggest cup of Kona coffee. Heaven in my mouth! I forget what fruit should really taste like until I'm here again. Had breakfast with Pappy, Nana and Craig. Was nice, especially because between Craig and me they were able to have a good breakfast while we filled bowls with fruit and cereal, found coffee, poured water and searched out straws. Pappy was totally different this morning, and after our conversation I remembered Mom mentioning that he was usually confused when sleepy. This morning he was completely alert and talking to me about our trip to the beach in the Carolinas, all our cross-country trips and everything. It was just a normal breakfast with Pappy, which made me feel so much better. Last night I was feeling pretty confused, and cried at dinner....A few silent tears, but they were still there. It was just hard to sit through dinner and hear the repeated confused statements that were connected to our conversation by the tiniest thread of sense. It's hard too to see how Nana tries to cope with all the struggles and hardship Parkinsons brings without being frustrated with Pappy. He did make me smile last night when we were talking about school, Pappy: "I wish I had paid more attention in school, I really should have." Sarah: "What do you mean?" Pappy: "Well for one thing, not being so girl crazy!" (Laughter) "No, really, you know your Nana and I started going together when we were 16!" Then, of course, Nana tells the famous story of Pappy faking sick and then stealing (or 'borrowing' as he insisted) his Dad's car to go visit Nana when he had no license.

Watching them you know that's how they're getting through this, they've been in love for more then 60 years, so this is just another challenge to walk together. I hope Adam and I will be lucky enough to count pills for each other and argue about how much raisin bran the other needs when we're almost 80. Seemingly annoyed but peppering conversation with nicknames and winks to let us know "I love you, you know".