Betchya'll been wondering where I've disappeared to!

...

Alright, so maybe you didn't even notice I was gone, but I'm just going to be optimistic and assume I was missed deeply. ^_^

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1,050 deviations, 492 messages

Thank you annoying login bar! Now I have over 1K pictures to look at... *sigh* And almost 1/2K messages to reply to. This is gonna be fantastic. *totally unenthusiastic*

If you've been wondering where I went, or just too bored to stop reading this, I've been busy being a lifeguard. Yup, saving people's lives is hard work. That and totally immersing myself within the world of Harry Potter before I read the seventh book. (Which I finished in like 10 hours all-together and thought it was totally freakin' amazing.)

I guess I just didn't have the motivation to come back after seeing so many of my icons deleted. (-.-*) LiveJournal is where I keep most of my icons now. I even made a wallpaper for PotterPuffs the other day supporting Harry/Luna (This was before HP7) and where I have my really good icons that I have no problem posting there.

I'm thinking about trying a new Photoshop creation soon after getting a few new brushes that I want to test out. If I give myself enough motivation, I might actually just START it.

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My grandfather on my mother's side passed away last night while I was on vacation up north. My mom was there with him when it happened, so it was kind of cathartic for her in a way. She doesn't have to feel guilty about anything. Me on the other hand... I asked my mom so many times if I should just cancel going with my friends to the cottage, but she insisted that I go.

She reasoned that I'd been planning this the entire summer and that I should just go anyway. I still had her call me with updates on his condition and finally she called me earlier this morning to tell me it happened. (Weird thing is, I had a dream about him. Though I was kind of in this half-dreaming/half-awake state and this kind of retinal flash of the image of a person standing next to the bunk jerked me awake. Freaky.)

But yeah, we were planning to come home today anyway, so it really didn't impose upon anyone else.

He was 84, I think, and didn't expect to live beyond 40 because of his parents' early deaths. He is first-generation American from Poland. His father died when he was really young, his mother died when he was 16 and he and his two siblings were split up into various foster homes across the country. He lied/joined the US Army at 17 and was shipped to the Western Theatre during WWII and liberated many concentration camps in northern France. He also scratched his name into the base of L'Arc de Triomphe in Paris after the war ended.

Anyway, his immune system finally rejected the cancer medication he was taking and decided to just let it happen. Though my mom was upset, she respected his decision because it's what he wanted and how he wanted to go.

He was really a great person. I hope to learn a ton more about him during the memorial service.

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And about two seconds ago I just realized that one of my co-writers is family friends with Gwen Stefani and that she used to babysit him when he was young....

That lucky bastard.

I think she's one of the most gorgeous and most talented women in the music industry. Screw Hannah Montanna.