what are you doing this weekend?

i posted a comment the other day on anna's blog in response to her post about steve jobs' death, and i feel like this part of it -- the last paragraph -- sums up a lot of my feelings right now (it's also a bit of a reiteration of what i said earlier this week):

"my grandmother passed away last week at the age of 95. we were very close; she was an amazing woman: an educator and an advocate of social justice, but also someone who rode her bicycle well into her 80s and enjoyed bird-watching from her back porch. she lived a full, happy life, and she made others’ lives richer and more beautiful just by being here. when i found out she died, it felt like the wind had been knocked out of me. 

i felt the same way when i read the news about steve jobs (while browsing the internet on my macbook, appropriately). i never knew him — i was more acquainted with the idea of him, as most of us were — but i use his products all day, every day. and i feel like he gave the world the same experience my grandmother gave me. he made it better, more beautiful. richer. i love that the dedication on apple’s website says that “steve leaves behind a company that only he could have built, and his spirit will forever be the foundation of apple.” it seems so apt. 

it’s hard, personally, to lose two people who were so important to me, albeit in such different ways, in the course of 10 days. i feel like there’s a lot of grieving still to be done. but i feel like both my grandmother and steve jobs would want me — and us all — to move forward, to be better as a result of this experience. so that’s what i’m taking away from it all: move forward, and be better."

yes.

the weekend is going to be a quiet one; i really need to kind of get it together after living rather randomly for the past week and a half. my house is a mess, i need to do laundry and dishes, and i'd like to make some meals that will get me through next week (i'm thinking a big pot of hearty soup sounds really great). i'm also planning on going to the farmer's market and maybe doing some furniture rearranging in my house (my darling felines have clawed apart one of my favorite chairs and it either needs to be moved or replaced). there will be time with friends and time alone, and i'm looking forward to all of it.

how about you? what are your plans or the next few days? whatever they are, i hope they are lovely and autumnal. thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your wonderful comments this week, too -- they mean a lot (they always do).

see you back here on monday.

photo by *cinnamon. its title is "the swerve and the static"; isn't that pretty?