I'm chewing on some pieces of dragon fruit. A part of me is nervous about tomorrow and another part of me is filled with anticipation. So I'm chewing harder.

I'm not fond of public speaking and it only makes it harder when I'll be sharing to a group of leaders—one of whom told me that I should remove thunderbolts from my designs because of its ‘satanic origins’. I asked him for references and he gave me AC/DC and KISS. Cool image marketing strategy, I thought. But he had other ideas.

Today, we received a mail from my grandma’s best friend. She wrote on tiny blue-lined yellow papers. She filled us in about her Disneyworld visit, her grandson, Ryan, and her casino adventure.

And how my grandma was the first to teach her the art of lipstick application. That’s really important.

My grandma loved seeing girls all prepped up and would be quick to tell me if I looked scruffy. When my mom made a huge deal about me tweezing my eyebrows (she prefers the 80s bush look), it was my grandma who affirmed my good taste. She had tattooed eyebrows that turned brown-green when she died. Still, she affirmed me—although I think she secretly hoped that the new eyebrows would bring home a boyfriend.

But what I like best about the letter is that she wrote, “This is life”. This is life. This is Life. There’s so much truth in that. It’s not about how she died, but how she lived. And that she lived.

My cat just swallowed some tinsel.