Sunday was also lovely. I went out to eat with my grandmother and parents to a really retro cool new burger place in the beautiful Hyde Park. They had a street bazaar there so we ended up walking around and enjoying the art, crafts, fresh produce, and gourmet eats that lined the streets. I always love this kind of thing. We came back from lunch, and my grandfather took me out to his barn and showed me the beautiful potting bench he'd been working on for the last week for me. I felt like crying, there was a surge of gratitude there that wasn't just meant for the bench. Last year on my birthday, I spent my day at the hospital waiting for him to come out of the ICU from triple bypass surgery. It means a lot that he's still here with us and able to do things like this even though he's a bit slower than he used to be. However, I didn't get to escape the birthday blues. Sunday afternoon I was briefly at my parent's house saying hello to all of the animals (as I always do, of course). My sweet Sally cat's health has declined a lot over the past year. She's lost a lot of her coordination, and her back legs just don't seem very stable. As soon as she saw me her deep, rumbling purr started. Most cats purr when you pet them or when they're sitting on your lap, Sally purrs as soon as she sees you, because somehow just seeing you brings a deep sense of pleasure to her. I went to the door and let her outside, and she seemed even more uncoordinated than usual, but she gave me her usual imperious meow as she slinked off as gracefully as her old 16-year-old body would allow her. I worried about her. On Monday afternoon, my mom broke it to me in person that Sally had passed away on Sunday evening. My dad found her in the yard in a permanent peaceful slumber, and I can't help but wish I had gotten to pet her just a little more while seeing her for the last time. Getting older is so hard, I have difficulty understanding how so many people remain so positive when so many sad things are always happening. Guess you just have to find and focus on the positives, even if it often seems like the it takes so many more positives to cancel out a negative. 
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