Last of the January birthdays

Happy birthday Zoraida Lita Meza! She's my grandma in case some of you didn't know. I don't remember how old she's turning. But she probably wouldn't appreciate a number anyways!

Lita babysat me from near infancy to about the third grade or so. I spent a lot of time with her and learned all my Spanish from her. I also developed little accents on certain words from listening to her (peenguin and keendergarten). I've also listened to a lot of her stories. One of my all time favorites has to do with my cousin Jacob. That mischievous little boy (he was like 7 or so at the time) knew of my Lita's deathly fear of snakes. Jacob had a rubber snake that he liked to play with. Lita always kept her pajamas for the next night under her bedroom pillow. Knowing that she would reach under the pillow that night, Jacob snuck the toy snake under her pillow. He gave her a kiss when he went home that day. Well, that night, like planned, she reached under the pillow but felt something else instead of her pajamas. She draw her hand back in confusion and lifted up the pillow to see a snake! Oh my goodness!! She threw that pillow screamed, had a heart attack, and then realized it was a toy. Good ol' Jacob. Are we all sure that grand kids are a blessing? ;)

My second story is from Costa Rica. When Lita was a teenage girl she was living in Costa Rica in a strictly Catholic society. Her mom was hardcore. Anyways, on top of that her mom was the strictest gal on the block. When male callers would drop the house to see Lita, her mom would have them sit out on the front porch to talk while she waited inside the house---watching. She had drilled a hole in the wall! Awesome! I already love great-grandma. Anyways, one night Lita was grounded, which was normal. She snuck up to her room and put on her dancing dress and snuck out the window. She took off over a bridge to a beautiful house and proceeded to salsa dance the night away. Lita's mom didn't take long to figure out what happened. By then Lita and her mom had a reputation among the local kids. The kids came into the room yelling at Lita to take off because her mom had been spotted crossing the bridge! Lita high-tailed it out of there and ran all the way to the local church where she immediately knelt praying. That's where her mom found her. Oh Lita. I love her spunk.

Happy birthday Lita!