My Yia-yia was an amazing woman. I don't know much about her background except that she is from a small village in Northern Greece and that she is Spartan. I never knew she was of Spartan descent because in my family we always talked about my Papou's (Grandfather) side which is Pondi. It wasn't until about 5 years ago that I found out my Yia-yia wasn't Pondi but Spartan. I won't lie I was so excited to find out that I had Spartan in me especially after watching "300".
I remember watching that movie and thinking man how cool would it be to be a Spartan and then I find out I am. SPARTA!!!! LOL. Yes that movie is exaggerated for the big screen but the Spartan did hold off the Persian army with only...
300 Spartans, 700 Thespians, 400 Thebans and perhaps a few hundred others, most of whom were killed...
Anyway, my Yia-yia and I had a special bond that I didn't realize until I was older. I always knew she was an incredible woman; if only she had been given a chance she so could have been anything she wanted.
Unlike my Papou my Yia-yia was so intelligent (not to say my Papou was dumb he was just not educated & was a bit ignorant); she never spoke much and always let her husband shine because that is the Greek thing to do (especially for her generation). I also found out that my grandparents marriage was arranged. I cannot imagine being told you have to marry this person. I also found out that my grandfather had a major crush on her sister Sophia first. Talk about AWKWARD LOL, but they were married for a long time and when my Yia-yia got sick my Papou took care of her like I had never seen before. That is true love and it killed me to watch her get sick and not able to do anything as I was still recovering from my own fight with cancer.
Have you ever been talking to someone about nothing in particular and POOF a memory flashes into your mind? Sometimes it is a fleeting memory that goes as quickly as it comes; but other times it brings you back to the day/time that it happened? I love those memories and I've been having more and more of them lately. Now I do not remember specific days & times (ah no I'm not that good) but I can usually remember the year sometimes even the month that it occurred. I can do this because I associate everything with something; for instance--before or after cancer? Was it cold or hot when it happened? Who was I dating at the time? Little things like that help me remember the details of said memory. The more I practice it, the more clearer the memories have become. Also since I went gluten free and am actually digesting my food; my brain isn't quite as foggy (though my brain and body are still not in sync DRIVES ME BATSHIT CRAZY ACK) as it had been for the last few years. (I have to say after the throwing up and feeling nauseous all the time, having the foggy brain and not being able to articulate my thoughts was by far the 2nd worst part of being sick and not knowing what was going on with me)
Anyway, I was texting a friend this evening and we were talking about a guy she likes at work which got us talking about how she could catch his interest. Well the conversation went from constructive and actual things to do; to downright dirty and kind of hysterical. So this silly conversation I was having with my friend brought me back to high school when my best friend MC and I would write stories that we kept in a spiral notebook. It has been a long time since I thought about those stories and so wish I had just one of the notebooks we wrote them in.
I don't remember how it started but I do remember MC loved to write and so did I. We both kept diaries from a young age and we were both HUGE NKOTB fans. Yes people I was (ok who am I kidding I still love me some Donnie Wahlberg not ashamed to say it. HAHA) a huge New Kids on the Block fan and we both had bought everything you could imagine that was NKOTB. My room was literally covered in posters (I'm talking including the ceiling). You could not see a mm of white in my room. I even had posters hanging straight down from my ceiling because I no longer had space to lay them flat. It was rather insane but hey I am a loyal person (still am probably too loyal) and I was going to show my love/loyalty for them (haha I laugh now thinking about all the time & money that was spent on this but hey that's what we do when we are teenagers right?)
I had dedicated my entire room to this boy band (oh Maurice Starr you were a genius) and my favorite one of the bunch was of course Donnie Wahlberg. MC loved Jonathon Knight (never quite understood that one but her & I NEVER had the same taste in guys. So it was one thing we never had to worry about fighting over LOL). But I digress I was madly, deeply in (what a 14/15 year old thinks is) love with Donnie W. and was convinced from 14 to about 16 that I BGG would meet and marry him. Oh I had it all planned out but that's not what this post is about. Btw I did end up meeting Donnie about 5-6 years ago and I have to say he is truly a nice guy and I have an awesome picture. I will tell you all about my NKOTB & DW obsession later. HAHA I'd definitely say I was obsessed but what teenage girl isn't obsessed with some star heck before NKOTB & DW I was in love with Corey Haim (do you see a trend yup I have always loved me the bad boy not the nice guy. Sadly up until VERY recently I still wanted what I call the bad boy reformed haha no such thing ladies---see one of those tangents I warned you about)
