OK so my gold digital watch that I have whined about on numerous occasions I got in a Christmas gift swap two years ago with my co-workers. Only thing was my friend Seth didn't know what to bring so I told him to get a Casio watch just like his but in gold not silver and I would pick it as my gift. Turns out, WalMart only had gold Timex's, thus my watch. On real Christmas, a week later or so, I was showing it to my dad and I said "It's a total old man watch" and then I hear my Grampa groan "Who are you callin' and old man?" and there he is flashing HIS gold timex at me. "I love how it lights up at night" he said. And then this little fixation with our watches began, and from then on he would always look to see if I had reset the time to EST, which I never did, and this would really stress him out. So when I came home for Christmas this year, the first day I was in the hospital he was relentless in claiming the clock on the wall was wrong. It was off by 2 MINUTES. Maybe even one. He didn't have his watch because he was in the ICU. He said that he hated not having it and that he couldn't press the light at night to know what time it was. Being that he was sitting around in a hospital bed having not eaten food in a whole week I can see how at least knowing how long till morning would become a priority. So I offered my watch to him. "Eh, no thanks kid, you got that crazy California time" he said. So I adjusted for him but he couldn't see the digital numbers well, so I kept it and on Christmas day when he was sent to a regular hospital room my Grama brought him his watch. The day after Christmas I was at the Gap trying some stuff on because it was really marked down. I bought a sweater and a skirt for $10 each. Proud of my bargains, I didn't realize until I arrived home that the watch was gone. Frantically I called the store and the 17 year old I talked to said "oh yeah someone found that. it's like a calculator watch or something right?" I told them it was really important and I was going to come back in the morning and get it. "Ok, I'll put it in the safe" haha the $20 watch in a safe. So when I arrived the 17 year old came towards me, holding it out from him with his thumb and pointer finger, as in "here is your cheap nasty piece of tin, lady"... I felt all insecure for a second, and so I muttered this white lie: "Thank you so much. It's sentimental. It's my Grandfathers". My last night in NY, (the ONLY night I actually went out) I met up with some close friends in Manhattan for dinner and drinks. Lots of drinks. At some point during the night, Mae asked to borrow my watch. I gave it to her without thinking much of it and then proceeded to get a little more drunk. However many hours later, on the way to Penn Station I felt my arm to see what time it was. I was like "Mae you still have my watch" and I cannot remember what she said verbatim but basically she was asking me if she could keep the watch. I was like "Wait, but what about your watch" and she said Avery lost it.. I told her I really needed it, I had to fly the next day, was attached to it, I could buy her the same one, etc etc and then she said "But this one's like a little piece of you". A happy sucker for my best friend, and finding it hilarious that she had clearly planned on keeping it right when she asked to "borrow" it, I said ok but then I stressed about not having it the whole next day on the plane. That night when I got to Texas we looked up which WalMart had the watch and it was in stock in the store by Beau's house so he took me there but then they were all gone. We couldn't find one anywhere and even had a saleslady look through the backstock. The next day we even looked for it at Fry's to zero avail. So eventually I gave up figuring I'd get one back in Valencia or something. On Friday night we were driving to pick up groceries to make a new years dinner for Beau's family when I got the call from my sister. She had just gotten back to the hospital, and Grampa had passed away only moments before. He was in peace, and my mom was there with him. The doctors had come in earlier to say they'd done a chest X-ray, and he wouldn't make it through the night. Quickly Julie and my dad rushed to go get my Grama and bring her to say goodbye. But it was too late. When everyone got there they all sat with him for a while until the hospital people came and took him away. My mom took his watch off of him, and said "Taryn has to have this" and I guess everyone there agreed. I love it, and I will wear it everyday. It's a little piece of grampa, who I miss so much, already.
