Ode to Papa

One of my favorite things about moving back after college has definitely been the time I spend with my grandparents.  My grandmother passed away during my third week of college after a long battle with dimensia.  A year later, Papa married another lady whom I love dearly as well.  She has added a certain spice to his life, in addition to 10 grandkids.  The three of us go to choir together on Wednesdays and usually catch a meal in there sometime during the week.  It's always entertaining, and I'd like to think the feeling is mutual.  Afterall, who doesn't love their grandkids?? 

This is one of my favorite pics of us.  It was taken at my graduation party last May.

Papa called me on Tuesday around 11 a.m. and asked if I had lunch plans.  He wanted to come take me to lunch and see my office.  Who am I to turn down a free meal and show off my office?  I gladly accepted the invitation and made my desk look a tad more organized (so really I just stacked things up). 

He met some of my office friends and charmed them, of course.  And we finally made it to the end of the hall where I am.  I really do have a great set up: a door, four walls and a big window.  These are the things he saw:

My parents framed my diploma for Christmas, and now it sits in my office.  I get to look at it every day, and I love it!

I also have a map of Texas on the wall:

Since I am on the state team here at work, I work with all 20+ walksites.  I was having issues remembering where these places were, and I was really tired of looking them up online.  So, being a very visual person, I slapped a map on the wall and went to town, color-coding the different locations.  I had an interesting time finding places like Alice, Texas, and I'd forgotten how large our great state really is.  It's HUGE! 

Papa loves History and Geography, so he particularly enjoyed the map.  He constantly laughs at my lack of direction.  (It seems he was born with an internal compass.  Unfortunately it didn't get passed on to me.)

After Papa visited my office, we went to lunch at Schlotzky's and had a grand time catching up.  It was quite a treat.