.end.of.work...FINALLY.

i finally made it thru this work week. my last week of working as a single, unattached person. it was so stressful (one of the reasons i haven't blogged in a while), i had so many things to finish before i left, in addition to making sure the people who were covering me had all the information that i had. but i finally made it. 7PM tonight, i walked out of the office and felt so much relief.

i met up with alan and some friends for dinner for alan's bday. went to nacional 27. awesome place. awesome food, awesome mojito. mmmmmm. i defo want to frequent this place another time for drinks. the mojitoes were the bomb hizzo. if you're in the chicago area, you defo should try to make it over there.

on the way home, i took a cab. the driver had a mechanical voice - i think it's called an electrolarynx -to speak. and it reminded me of my lolo (grandfather). he was my dad's dad, and he smoked too much. i think he had cancer, so they had to take out his voice box, and gave him one of those devices to speak again. i never knew him with a voice. when i first met him in the philippines, i wondered why he didn't say anything to me when we met he and lola at the airport. he just smiled and looked happy to see us. it wasn't until he used the device that i realized. my parents didn't tell me about it either. and i didn't ask questions. so i assumed it was just normal. my dad must have made a comment about it that first night or something. he said something as simple as, 'you know why lolo has that voice? because he smoked too much, they had to take out his voicebox. see? that's why smoking is bad.' as long as i can remember, my dad was so against smoking. made him sick.

so the cab driver had this same device. i said my address, and then told him that my grandfather had to use the same device to speak. he asked what the reason was and i simply said, 'he smoked too much.' the cab driver said, 'so did i.' he told me he had this device for 8 years. then he asked me what nationality i was, and that i looked spanish. i told him i was filipino; he was mexican.

we drove in silence for most of the way home; but i had this feeling like i had known this cab driver for my whole life. i know, i'm wierd. just because they had the same problem with their voices, doesn't make them related in any way. but to me, they are. i felt safe in the cab, like lolo was driving me home (even though when lolo was alive, he never drove us anywhere). it's a week before our wedding, and i felt like this was lolo's way of reminding me that he'll be with us next week, as i walk down the aisle.

you may be thinking i'm crrraaaazy. but i have this sense of...what's the word... peacefulness.

so when i walk down the aisle next week, i'll be thinking of both lolo and lola. i'm sure they'll be smiling down on us.