Pimping My Stuff: Dear Teen Me

I always hate doing the "sorry for the lack of posts lately post, but...sorry for the lack of posts lately. I've been hit by the killer combo of two totally positive but very time-consuming things in some exciting new projects at Marvel plus the ramp-up to WonderCon as well as a move from Saddle Brook, New Jersey a half hour south to Edison in order to accommodate my lovely bride's new job as a nurse at St. Peter's Hospital in New Brunswick.

While things will keep going hard and heavy at Marvel (and I wouldn't have it any other way), now that I'm getting gradually settled in my swank new two-floor townhouse (it's pretty huge, but I'm a nurse's trophy husband now, so I deserve it), I'm hoping to get back to blogging a bit more regularly.

Or you'll get another sorry for the lack of posts post in a couple weeks.

In the mean time, I had the great pleasure of doing a guest spot over at Dear Teen Me, a blog run in part by my old co-editor-in-chief at my college paper (and not my same-named sister) Emily Morse. I wrote a letter to my teenage self that covered everything from my career to my relationship hits and misses to my health issues to my astonishment that Smallville lasted 10 years and more. It's a deeply personal piece and I'm quite proud of how it turned out, so if you follow this blog at all for me and not just the Adam-X pics, I think it's worth a look.

Gotta go unpack, but once I'm through these boxes, more posting! I hope! Maybe!

(That's my kneeling in the nWo Wolfpac shirt in the pic off top, by the way)

My wife the nurse

Nothing to say on comics, movies or even Subway today (soon though); instead, I'd like to write a quick blog on where I spent the morning, and that was watching my wife Megan graduate from the Accelerated Nursing program at William Paterson University.

A little over two years ago, Megan informed me she wanted to become a nurse. She already had a B.A. in Theater and was looking to potentially continue down that path in grad school when she decided instead to fork left. I admit that I was skeptical at first, as she hadn't even held a full-time job more than a few months yet at that point and now wanted to switch career paths, but she was adamant.

She proved any initial doubt I had in her or her resolve wrong in spades.

Through nine months of pre-requisite classes and then 15 more of lecture courses, simulation labs, and clinical time spent on hospital floors, not to mention countless nights, early mornings and weekends spent studying, writing papers and studying some more, she persevered and not only achieved success, but thrived. She not only received the pin representing her BSN this morning, she was also awarded for being at the top of her class in Clinical Excellent as selected by her professors (an honor she did not know she was getting prior to having it handed to her a few hours ago).

Words can't express the pride I feel for my wife and what she has done. I have never seen anybody work as hard and as tirelessly as she has over the past two years. It has been challenging, emotional, and sometimes seemingly impossible, but she overcame every obstacle and reached her goal. She dedicated her pin in part to the support I gave her, but I was just happy to be on her team. She is my hero.

Congratulations, Megan Morse--you're a nurse, sweetheart!

The Best Best Man Toast Ever

Two weeks ago, my buddy, former high school wrestling teammate and role model (or so he has been telling me for years) Alejandro "Alex" Verdaguer (pictured above with me circa 1985) got married, wedding his lovely new bride Meghan (formerly) O'Brien in a wonderful ceremony I had to good fortune to attend back in Massachusetts.

At the reception that followed, Alex's older brother Gabriel "Gabe" Verdaguer--another friend and former wrestling captain--had the responsibility of giving the traditional best man's toast. Recalling Gabe's many inspirational pre-match speeches that left us in manly tears, I had high hopes that he more than lived up to in an inimitable style.

As a belated wedding gift to Alex and Meghan as well as tribute to Gabe's oratory prowess, here, in it's entirety, is the transcript to perhaps the greatest best man toast in history.

When Ale asked me to be his best man I felt really touched. He’s such a classy guy that I was truly honored. But then he quickly followed the invitation with what he said was a very important condition. And I remember he had this conflicted look on his face like as if he wished he didn’t have to say what he was about to say, but he said it anyway and he told me that the condition was that he had to write the best man toast.

Most of you are probably puzzled and are thinking what’s up with that. But I knew exactly what he was referring to. You see, when I was in college, with my whole family in attendance, I gave a bust of an acceptance speech at a scholarship dinner and he’s never let me live it down.

So I knew well, that implicit in his conditional invitation to be his best man was a serious warning that said basically, “Don’t you dare make an ass yourself again at MY wedding.”

So, I did what every loving older brother would do, I looked past the mixed feelings of honor, excitement, AND shame that he had made me feel and I heeded his warning.

And so, as awkward as this may sound, for the first time in my lifetime, and probably yours too, I will now read to you the best man toast written by the groom himself… it reads:

Dear Ale, or as I like to call you when I look at you in the mirror every morning, dear Mr. Perfect (kiss to the bicep):

Today is your day. Tonight is your night. And can I just say this publicly: there are no words good enough to express how good you look right now, but I will try anyhow: you, hot stuff, look outstanding. All that money and effort that you put into getting your tuxedo tailored to fit your perfectly chiseled and muscular physique was well worth it! On most days, Tom Brady’s got nothing on you handsome, and tonight he’s not even close.

To my beautiful new bride Meghan: tell me, my sexy little soda bread, how does it feel to be the chosen one, the luckiest girl in the world who gets to keep this guy by your side for the rest of your life?

I mean, who would of thought that the simple act of taking my shirt off after rugby practice at Framingham State would have resulted in all of this? Well, frankly, I would have. I mean, it’s nearly impossible to resist me. If it were socially acceptable to marry oneself, I would have said “yes” to me too.

Anyhow, today is truly inspired by love, friendship and commitment…and my burning desire to populate the human race with the most beautiful and talented offspring this world has ever seen. Of course, they will all be little Crossfitters who will grow up to teach their cousins how to do burpees with perfect technique and why the Paleo Diet is good for them even if they are not even 10 years old.

Speaking of Paleo, it’s really a shame that the cup cakes are not caveman-approved. To my family and friends, please don’t be offended if I look at you with disdain as you chow down on them later. As for me, I plan on mashing a couple of them together into a kettle bell, freezing it, and doing swings with it a year from now on our wedding anniversary. With CrossFit, it’s all about doing what you can with what’s around you. Like the time we were at the lake house with the O’Brien family and I woke up wicked early to do squats with sandbags and push jerks with a kayak. My goal for this August: to LIFT the entire lake house with the whole O’Brien clan in it.

Well, I’m digressing and I think it’s time to bring this toast to a close, so I would like to end with a few words for Meghan from one of my favorite wrestlers of all time, the Heartbreak Kid, Shawn Michaels. Dear Meghan, for the rest of your life, “I guarantee you BEYOND a shadow of a doubt, I will give you a show like you HAVE never… ever seen before…Why?…Because I can.”

PS - Lady’s and gentlemen, the Heartbreak Kid, Alex Verdaguer, has left the building.

On a serious note, I have a lot of fond memories of my times with Ale, and especially those few occasions where we managed to show one another that we really cared about each other. I want to share with you one of those examples. I was in college and I had a big weekend track competition that included some travel, so I had packed my bag the night before. Friday morning, after class, I went back home to pick up my bag and I found a note sitting on top of it. I pick it up, I see it’s from Ale, and it read something like, “Good luck this weekend. I’ll be thinking of you.” I kept the note for a while after that because it meant a lot, especially because it came at a time in our lives when we were both so busy that we barely did much together.

So, I share this story with you also to remind you of the value of doing little things like that to let each other know that you love each other.

Ben's SDCC 2010 After Hours Adventures pt. 2

FRIDAY, JULY 23
Freaky Friday is when things got equal parts exciting and surreal for this mild-mannered some-time reporter, but rest assured it was all good.

Started off the evening at the official Marvel-sponsored get together for staffers and talent at a nice Gaslamp bar and grill type joint I’m sorry to say the name of which escapes me at the moment. As I assembled my meager meal of what appetizers proved compatible with my lactose intolerant system (some tasty spring rolls and meatballs), I got a friendly tap on the back and hearty hello from my comrade of the previous evening, Andy Lanning, sporting a crazy-ass Hawaiian type shirt that screamed “I am British, this looks amazing on me whether you like it or not.”

Mr. Lanning and I pulled up some booth real estate and were joined in short order by Marvel production whiz Rich Ginter as well as “Serial Thrilla” Tom Brennan for cuisine and conversation. Andy favored us with the “secret origin” of his comics career, including how he bypassed UK staple 2000AD and went straight to Marvel via the Epic series The Sleeze Brothers and how he and Dan hooked up in Marvel UK then ended up in the States pitching the Punisher crossover Eurohit and eventually landing Force Works. Along the way, I confirmed everything I always suspected about the craziness of Marvel UK in the 90’s (yes, they were more or less required to have at least three X-Men guest star in every issue of every series) and why original Force Works artist Tom Tenney vanished after four issues never to be seen again (apparently he just kinda…did), replaced by some guy named Jim Cheung.

After that initial crew dispersed to work the room, I mingled and got to enjoy watching Mike Choi convince my officemate, Margarita Vaisman, that he was a struggling young artist who hoped to get work for Marvel someday and then hear her offer him encouragement; after I blew the ruse, I gave him a hard time for getting rid of his rad “Rufio from Hook” Mohawk prior to his wedding.

Suddenly, I received a call on my phone from none other than pro wrestling superstar Christopher Daniels, who informed me there was a party going down on the roof of PetCo Park, home of the San Diego Padres, and my presence was requested; well, you don’t say no to The Fallen Angel, so I politely excused myself and headed to the ballpark.

When I arrived at the venue, there was a huge line and elaborate set-up to get in, so I wasn’t quite sure if I’d make it. A couple texts to Chris later and he descended from on high, ditching his ever-present sports coast no doubt ready to intimidate whatever bouncers he needed to on my behalf, then politely asked some lady if I could cut the line (which I did, no doubt pissing off dozens of frustrated onlookers). Chris introduced me to party host Jeff Katz, the Great Gatsby of SDCC and a dude I share many mutual friends with and had chatted with over Twitter—though I always assumed he thought I was Kiel—and was pleased to finally meet; extremely pleasant fellow who went out of his way to make me feel welcome even as he was in the midst of doing the same with hundreds of others. Those dudes showed me to the elevator and within a minute or so I was overlooking a baseball field on one side of me and downtown San Diego on the other.

Once we hit the roof, Chris had to go find his aforementioned jacket, and so for a few minutes I found myself playing deer in the headlights as music blared, drinks flowed, and Bill Hader, Seth Rogen and Joe Lo Truglio from The State all filed by me in short order. Fortunately, before my mind got too blown, Daniels came back, jacket intact, and escorted me over to where his crew was hanging.

Of course given that Chris’ “crew” consists pretty much exclusively of pro wrestlers and I’m a pro wrestling nut, so my wild night was just getting started.

It was actually pretty funny in retrospect how we rounded the corner and out of nowhere Daniels casually introduced me to one of his good buddies, Samoa Joe, one of my personal favorite current performers and a guy whose matches with Kurt Angle I was literally watching on the plane ride to San Diego. Dude was chill as can be and had actually been wanting to meet me because Chris had been bragging about all the free swag I get him; he said he’d even gotten my number from Daniels and had been contemplating giving me a call “during dinner or something and being, like, ‘Yo, it’s Samoa Joe…could I get some free comics?’” which would have cracked me up to no end. He then told me my spirit animal was a “raging tortoise,” which I told him I “got a lot,” then we shared a hearty laugh as I thought how cool I was sharing a joke with Samoa Joe and not getting choked out in the process.

Daniels wasn’t the only wrestler I knew in the immediate vicinity, as I got a shout out and bro hug from my old buddy Shane “Hurricane” Helms and his crazy ass new dreadlocks (which he reminded me weren’t exactly new as he used to wear them back in his 3 Count days 10 years ago). Hurricane told me he’d been at the show that day and really wanted to “get on that Odin’s throne gimmick” (an important lesson I learned that night was that “gimmick” can mean pretty much any and everything in wrestler lingo; as Chris put it: “It’s the wrestler’s ‘aloha.’”) but there was somebody else who he wanted to see up there even more, gesturing to a gentleman in a suit leaning back all cool and a little bit sinister against the bar.

A few seconds later, I was shaking hands with Mr. Paul Heyman, driving force behind Extreme Championship Wrestling and legendary creative mind in the wrestling industry.

I only got to speak with Paul for a brief time, but that was long enough for me to get a glimpse at the crazy charisma and intensity I’d always heard about. I’d love to get another chance to chat with Paul and just pick his brain about pretty much anything, because you can tell the guy is something else (and I mean that in a good way).

Former WWE Divas Maria and Stacy Keibler were also in “our” little clique, but I only introduced myself briefly. I mostly chatted with fellow “civilians” Michael Kingston, writer of the Headlocked comic, and JC, a former WWE behind-the-scenes dude whose job description I always forget (sorry, bro). Mike and I especially noted how wrestling folks really do live in another world and have their own little cool ass fraternity, but it was real neat to be a part of it for even a night.

After the party gimmick wrapped (ha!) Chris and I accompanied a New Zealander gent named Richard Fairgray who writes the Top Cow joint Blastosaurus back to Jeff Katz’ room at the Hilton where we walked into the unique sight of Stacy Keibler getting a foot massage from Paul Heyman while Hurricane and Samoa Joe watched on—not my typical early Saturday morning.

I hung out for a bit longer, got to witness Jill Thompson join the soiree resplendent from her double Eisner win, then said thank you to the gracious Mr. Katz for a crazy awesome night, said adios to the folks I met, and parted ways with my boy Daniels circa 2 AM to head back to my hotel for some shut eye.

Definitely a night I won’t forget, and a reminder why I’m grateful to have Chris Daniels as a buddy.

SATURDAY, JULY 24
So by the time the show wrapped on Saturday, I was still pretty beat from the night before. I did get a nice natural contact high from watching the awesome Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes preview alongside Chris Yost and Jim McCann, but unfortunately myself and Tom “Maverick” Brennan made the mistake of ordering out for burgers just before the panel, ensuring they’d be nice and cold by the time we got back. I myself followed Jimbo to watch him on the first half of the Gays in Comics panel and received a text from Brennan saying “Your burger is here. It is cold and greasy.” That was my cue to scurry down to the booth where I “live” blogged the big Marvel Studios panel from back amongst Marvel storage while munching on my chilled burger and soggy fries.

The panel ran a bit over—there was some stabbing incident—so I ended up booking it back to my hotel en route to a swanky dinner date with my familiar posse of the Naucks, Dan Abnett and Senor Lanning plus Mike McKone and Tom Brennan as “The Beav.” In my mad dash to snag a clean shirt, I bumped into The Cool Kids Table’s own Kevin Mahadeo and swept him up in my whirlwind, inviting him along while I texted, changed and tried to grab a glass of water.

We met up with the team at the Hyatte and then made our way to Seaport Village, a neat little seaside community that reminded me a lot of Mystic or Rockport. We pulled up a table at the Edgewater Grill and managed to squeeze everybody in; I managed to go five minutes without offending Dan before telling him I felt Mel Gibson’s “Maverick” was vastly superior to Star Wars (it is). From there, Brennan and I began our stand-up routine and had Dawn and Kevin in stitches as we talked about our alternate reality in which we call Joe Quesada every dinner after we get the check to tell him we “made a huge mistake” then he picks us up and takes us home so Bob Iger can yell at us (Kevin assures me it was hysterical). Brennan and me both ordered the crab cakes to keep things light given our still burger-filled-bellies, but I also cowboyed up for a salad I would quickly call “my biggest mistake in hours.”

It was a nice chill end to my evening exploits at the con with some of the people who made it such a fun experience for me. I hit the Hyatte bar briefly afterwards to say my goodbyes to all my bros, but called it an early night.

SUNDAY, JULY 25
We made it! I stayed overtime to help Tim Dillon and his skeleton crew clean up the booth a little and then made my way to the airport.

After what I’m pretty sure was me getting hit on by the girl checking my baggage (oh for a witness), I met up with Alex Kropinak, Ed Bursch, Justin Aclin, Josh Wiggler and a couple more for some last-minute pizza and beers (for them at least; Justin got me some fries).

The delightful Dan Slott was on my red eye home, which was a nice surprise. He was there to see a Marvel exec who shall remain unnamed (lest he choose to reveal himself, because I know he totally reads this blog) offer me $50 for my aisle seat, not realizing he had the aisle seat right in front of me; unfortunately he figured it out before we boarded or I made the deal then spent the early part of the flight reclining his seat back and laughing at me.

Smooth flight home with a kid next to me who kept showing me card tricks (I was polite) and then a few pleasant hours at home in my bed before it was time to head back to work.

Let’s do it again next year!

Ben's SDCC 2010 After Hours Adventures pt. 1

By now you’ve read a zillion and one reports on last week’s San Diego Comic-Con International—including mine and Kiel’s—giving you all the details on the panels, announcements and other spectacular happenings during the show itself. But haven’t you been yearning to read about what a legitimate comic book professional does after the convention hall closes its doors to the public each evening?

Well, in that case, I wish you the best of luck finding a legitimate comic book professional to spin those yarns for you.

In the mean time, here’s what I did during the late PM and early AM hours of my San Diego experience.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 21
It’s tough to have a fuller day that I had Wednesday, as it was wake up at 5:00 AM or so Eastern time, get to Newark Airport, hop on a six-hour plane ride to San Diego, check into my hotel, grab a bite, book it to the convention center, then help assemble the Marvel booth and hobnob with fans and pros for a bit during Preview Night (“hobnob” really meaning tell people where stuff is and keep them off Odin’s throne until it’s all set up).

By 9:00 when the show floor closed, I and the rest of my posse were pretty wiped, so we made the easy beeline to the Tin Fish across the street to score some quick grub before passing out. In this case said posse consisted of myself, Ryan Penagos, John Cerilli, Marc Strom, our photographer Ryan Russell and illustrious Spider-Man assistant editor Tom “The Third Ashmore” Brennan (so called because a fan mistook him for Shawn Ashmore one day of the show and acted awestruck for 30 seconds or so before realizing who he actually was and complaining about Brand New Day).

I am much in Mr. Penagos’ debt for introducing me to Tin Fish last year, as it’s not only conveniently located a literal stone’s throw from the show (I mean, you need to put some heft into your throw, but still), but also boasts great eats and a pleasant outdoor seating area where you can really enjoy the great San Diego weather and get a neat view of the goings on around the Gaslamp District. Dinner was a good chance for me to bond with Mr. Brennan, who would become the Toejam to my Earl as the weekend went, learning a bit more about his mystery-enshrouded personal life and explaining to him why San Diego is pretty much my ideal dream city to live in some day.

But as much as I enjoy hanging with T-Bone, the highlight of Tin Fish is without question its grilled calamari, which I waited 12 long months to experience once more. Calamari is absolutely delicious and among my favorite things to eat, but most places you can only get it fried as an appetizer, which makes my mouth happy, but not my stomach; Tin Fish has an awesome version sans deep-frying which serves as a satisfying and scrumptious meal accompanied by awesome waffle fries.

We got back to the room about 11:30 and while Ryan P. opted for bed, I headed over to the Hyatt bar to meet up with Rickey and Kiel real quick. I actually ended up bumping into Todd and Dawn Nauck, two of my favorite folks in the comics world, and chatted them up after our usual greeting which consists of a hearty handshake for Todd and kiss on the cheek for Dawn that I assure her is “an East coast thing” (this year I finally confessed it is not). Things actually got pretty fast and furious for me as seemingly everybody I knew from Kevin to “Big” Jim Gibbons to ComicsAlliance’s Laura Hudson to more ex-Wizard chums converged on where I was standing and Megan also called to say goodnight, so I was multitasking and socializing like a champ. I hung around way past my bed time and offered up a prayer that I’d be able to wake up a few hours later.

THURSDAY, JULY 22
First real night of the con, I got a dinner invite I could not—and would never want to—pass up from the Naucks to sup with them as well as cosmic writing dream team Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning as well as their erstwhile Guardians of the Galaxy artist Brad Walker. As DnA were late arrived from England following a delay in their flight while Todd and Brad (and Dawn) had better things to do, restaurant arrangements were left to me—the fools.

Luckily I had a lull in liveblogging a panel and free Wi Fi to spare, so I figured out that the Hyatte, where they were all staying anyhow, had plenty of places to eat, including Redfield’s Sports Bar, where we ended up.

When I got to the lobby, Todd and Dawn were running a bit late, so I killed time with the space cowboys and officially met Brad for the first time. A few minutes later, we were joined by a slightly shaken Nauck duo who had just spent an hour dealing with hotel security after a flyer for some video game party (or something) was left on their bathroom mirror and the bell desk knew nothing about it; turned out to be a kinda crappy viral stunt perpetrated on most of the major hotels housing con guests (Ryan and I got one in our room but rather than reacting sensibly like Todd and Dawn, just left it on our mirror for two days because we’re lazy).

Redfield’s was nice and laid back, the only downside being there weren’t any real tables so we ended up at the (pictured above) thing that Dan and Andy christened “Odin’s [some British word I don’t remember].” Actually, that wasn’t a downside, it was awesome.

Brad and I both ordered Kobe beef hot dogs that have probably ruined regular hot dogs for us for the rest of our lives they were so good (it’s worth noting this did not prevent me from having several more convention center hot dogs over the course of the show as they along with soft pretzels composed the bulk of my diet). As for entertainment, that was provided by the Brits, who are just friggin’ hilarious, Andy in particular (I don’t think Dan would take offense at my saying so as he seems quite content in his role as straight man to Andy’s manic stand-up). They had us all rolling, especially Dawn, who had heard tales from Todd of their humor, but was witnessing it for the first time in person; getting Dawn’s attention by yelling “Dawn! Dawn! I believe Andy is telling a joke!” became a running gag for the weekend.

Incidentally I also got to hear a top secret DnA pitch that could have been and would have been awesome on a major character that made me hope someday the stars will align because it would be so so cool.

Relatively early night after spending a bit more time with just the Naucks and seeing Mike Carlin for the first time in a couple years, during the course of which I learned there is a 25-year-old Secret Wars promotional video haunting the Marvel offices that must be mine.

To be continued...

Happy Birthday Rickey!

A day late, but......happy birthday, Rickey!

Art Attack: Groomsmen gifts by Todd Nauck

I'm back! It was an absolutely incredible weekend experience where I got to see my friends and family, eat great food, smoke cigars, belt out hair metal tunes, party like a rock star--and oh yeah, get married! Megan Morse (not to be confused with Megan Morse) and I are blissfully happy and enjoying our one day off before it's back to the work grind (Honeymoon coming in 2010), but I had to duck away from my lovely bride quickly to write this post, which I've literally been holding back on for weeks.

For my elite team of groomsmen, I was fortunate enough to have Megan's brother, Chris, my buddy since childhood, Matt Corley, my college pal, Jordan Geary, and of course our own Rickey Purdin. They did a fantastic job keeping me cool, running the show (with help from elite ushers Taylor Cunningham, T.J. Dietsch, Dan Hartnett and Alex Verdaguer) and dealing with a limo driver who told them stories about whorehouses in Thailand and openly admitted to driving drunk and destroying private property in the process.

As groomsmen gifts, I wanted to do something special that not everybody could necessarily make happen. I figured given my occupation, it would be neat to contact a comic artist friend and see if they'd be able to mock up some super hero identities and sketches for my boys.

From the start, my amigo Todd Nauck was the perfect and only choice for this gig in my mind and I was just hoping he'd have the time, as he's currently hard at work on Spider-Man: The Clone Saga. Still, besides just being an awesome guy, Todd did an amazing job on a piece for me and Megan a few years back depicting us as Superboy and Wonder Girl as well as a wedding present for my friend Tim with him and his bride as Lex Luthor and Mercy Graves, so I know how great he is at capturing the look of folks, plus he's an incredible costume designer, as clearly evident in his Wildguard series.

I gave Todd a call and he said he'd love to do it but had to think about it, given his workload, which I completely understood.

About a day later, he e-mailed me his concept sketches--the guy is nuts and I love him.

All I gave Todd to go on was a few pics of each guys plus snippets about their occupations and personalities (Chris likes to play poker, Jordan loves Transformers, Matt's a political blogger and Rickey obviously works at DC); from that he was able to create magic.

Enough yakking from me--here are reference shots of each dude, then the penciles and inked versions of their gifts. Hope you enjoy them as much as I did (and as much as the guys did). Thanks again, Todd!

CHRIS

JORDAN

MATT (pictured with my sister)

RICKEY

Gone to get married...

Well, I am off to Newport, Rhode Island to get hitched to the love of my life, Megan Sherlock. I can't believe the weekend is finally here; I've got butterflies, but I am so so excited, happy and just outta control with smiles.

Anyways, obviously I won't be blogging for the next few days, and since Kiel and Rickey are both gonna be at my wedding, I don't expect they will be either (though they could prove me wrong). So turn the lights off on your way out, have a wonderful weekend and I will see you on the flip flop as a married dude! Yay!

Goodbye, Grandma

Below is a picture of my grandmother, Joan, and my grandfather, Larry, from their wedding day.
Late last night, my grandma passed away peacefully in her sleep, 17 years to the day after she lost her husband. She lived a long, wonderful, fulfilled life and this was not something unexpected, so please understand this is not me asking for pity or even condolences (in fact, I debated even posting this because I don't want it to be misinterpreted as that, but I figured we've got a nuanced audience here at the CKT).

Rather, my grandmother was always a person who loved the field of communication (she worked for the Boston Globe for many years) and enjoyed reaching out to people. I truly believe were my grandma still in her prime, she would have one killer blog. So as a way of celebrating her life and saying goodbye in my own way, I thought I'd post this picture and a few words about it, not really to work through any grief, but because I know she'd get a kick out of it.

Love you, Grandma.