Profiles in Craziness, part 1

I tell people often that my family means more to me than anything else on this earth. Next to Jesus, I love my family more than anything. So with that said, I have decided to document various members of my crazy family, and let everyone know why I love these people so much. Tonight, I bring you, my Grandpa.

Gilbert Cordova is the oldest of 9 children in a Spanish family. He's about 78, but I don't think he looks it. Parts of his past are pretty interesting actually. He actually used to run with a Hispanic gang in Denver when he was a teen. Nothing too severe, just some minor troublemaking. But when my cousin asked him if he carried any weapons, he replied "Just a switchblade." My Grandpa (and grandma) had a big part in raising me and my brother and cousins as well. They used to pick us up from school and we also used to spend our summers over there because our parents worked. My granpa was a depression era kid and he was big on resourcefulness and cheap fun. We didn't watch too much TV, so my cousins and I learned to be imaginative and creative in our games, and boy did we have some crazy ones. Anyway, my grandpa is also a very hilarious person, sometimes unintentionally, but very funny nonetheless. One of my favorite things about my Grandpa is that when anything goes wrong, even if it's really minor, he'll say "Oh Cute, Real Cute" Unfortunately, a blog cannot give the proper inflection, but the way he says it cracks me up every time. Here's a more recent story of his humor. Every Tuesday, my aunt's family and grandparents go to a pizza place in town called The Subway. Well one Tuesday around Christmastime last year, my grandpa asked my cousin Danny what he wanted for Christmas. My cousin replied "A Canoli" because he thought my granpda asked what he was having for dinner. They all had a good laugh over that one and come Christmastime, when my cousin opened his nicely wrapped gift box, there it was, a Canoli. It was pretty funny, but not quite as funny as when my grandpa gave him the same thing for his birthday in October. Danny will most likely get a canoli this Christmas again. I could go on and on about my Grandpa and why I love him, but for brevity's sake I think I'll conclude tonight's profile. However, I will leave you with one final thought that my grandpa provided at dinner tonight. My family and aunt's family and uncle and grandparents were sitting at the dinner table today at the Subway and somehow we got on the subject of birthdays, someone made the comment of how my grandpa was getting up there in age, and the rest of the conversation went something like this:
Grandpa: "I'm not getting old, I'm still climbing up the hill."
My Mom: "Yeah right, more like rolling down the other side."
Grandpa: "At least I'm not under it."