Babulya is 69 (Happy December!)

My grandmother's name is Lidia. She is probably the best grandma anyone could ask for. She lives less than a kilometer away from my parent's apartment. We often walked over there, and on weekends V-rock and I would often stay overnight at her and grandpa's apartment. She would roast sunflower seeds and cook something awesome, and we would chill and play with the cat. (Cats lived and died, but they all had the same name - Moosya. It's quite peculiar.)

Here is V-rock, I (being weird) and grandma (being awesome). She came to the U.S. to visit us a few years ago.

Let me give you another example of grandma being the best grandma in the universe. To this day she takes vacations (usually in September) to go to the Black Sea. (Black Sea? I'm not sure. It may be Sea of Azov.) Nowadays she goes with a girlfriend, rents an apartment for a couple of weeks and swims every day she is there. When I was born, in 1990, she took my brother (who was 2 at the time) with her on a vacation. How many grandmas would take a 2-year-old child on their only vacation of the year? She is a saint.

Gah. I look like an idiot. But grandma...grandma is a fox - has always been and always will be.

I love babulya and miss her every day. Seeing parents complain about grandmothers "momming" their kids makes me appreciate how much I lucked out with parents and grandparents. Happy 69th, grandma! I can't wait until the day you move here.