the adventures of edi: time to move is time to reflect

as my time in colorado comes to a close, i find myself sadly packing boxes and reflecting on the last almost two years i've spent with my parents in my hometown.
when i left my beloved seattle, everyone asked an emphatic and confused 'WHY?!'
i gave an answer, but i never could've really known why i really came home until the last couple of months.
i left because i knew i needed to. i felt guilty and selfish living in seattle and effectively doing nothing. it was hard to only be able to offer my parents support with the horrible and painful decline of my grandparents over the phone. i became terrified that something terrible would happen and either i, or my parents would tragically die before i was able to have this time that i was able to have with them.
before leaving seattle in october of 2007, i was working as a night baker in a cupcake cafe/factory/sweatshop. one night, my co-worker was just feeling really terrible. she hadn't really eaten anything and was having stomach pain and just general grossness. i had to run to the store to fetch some heavy whipping cream for the red velvet and got her a super-food (which she ended up throwing up). it was a pretty slow night, so at around 4, when she was feeling her most terrible, she said 'edi, i'm gonna go outside and lay down'. so she did. she laid down on the cement for 20 minutes or so and, feeling better, came back in and we finished our batches.
when we left around 6am, she noticed that she'd missed several calls from 'home' (her family lives in utah). upon seeing this alert she said, half-jokingly 'man, i hope my mom didn't die'. i told her not to even think such things, i'm sure she's fine, blah blah blah and we parted. i went home, probably calling my mom on the way as i often talked to her in the early morning hours on my drive home. i went to sleep in my awesome little closet and hoped for the best for her.
around 2pm i woke up to see a text from my co-worker. it said something like: edi, since you were there with me last night and saw the whole thing, i thought i should tell you that my mom died of a heart attack last night.
it turns out that when she was feeling terrible, her mom was feeling terrible, and when she laid down at 4 in the morning, that was the exact moment that her mother laid down, in a doorway, and died.
she had been thinking of moving home and didn't and now will regret it forever. her advice to me was to learn from her mistake. if there was any part of me that wanted to move home, i should do it before it's too late.
that was the catalyst that got me out here. i just had to, it's as simple as that.
why i came home:(more pictures when i fully assemble them)
grandma&grandpa
terroir
cello times
photography-digital and rolleiflex
greenwood
anne's pregnancy
san diego times
pet portraits
horse cutting
stone mountain
parties
mom and dad times-flying,dinners, van alphen times, family visits, clouds, bees
the east side, bike rides, old town, the golf course
(apologies to any pictures left out. not only do i not have all of them on my new computer, it's taking forEVER to upload them. lovies)