Musings

Last night the boys kept wanting to touch Nani's body. The eldest accidentally wiped off a bit of her lipstick, so mom had to re-apply some more. I liked the color she reapplied better than the original color. The boys wrote her letters that they placed under each of her hands and put tissue-paper butterflies all around her in the coffin. She would have liked the butterflies. We had to tell distant relatives not to engage my uncle and expect any real results from it.

5 great-grandchildren (the baby stayed home with my dad) were all running around, posing for pictures, break-dancing in the foyer, and whining horribly about being hungry. The viewing was 6-8pm and no one had eaten dinner beforehand. I took my sister and the boys at around 7pm to eat.

The younger nephew cried the moment we told him. The elder was sullen, but that was about it. He (8 yrs old) was more upset that he "lost" his girlfriend (11 yrs old) from the clinic. We had to distract him from singing horrible made up lovesick songs in the car. Joy.

Nani had pre-arranged and paid for her own funeral years ago. Her arrangements included a limo to pick up the family. I don't think she was expecting her family to get so big. Three children still alive (a fourth passed away around the time I was born), a son-in-law and a daughter-in-law, 4 grandchildren (my youngest cousin is still deployed overseas), and 6 great-grandchildren. I live closer to the cemetery than I live to my parents. I have to drive to my parents to be picked up by a limo to drive me back over. I may see if they can just swing by here and pick me up.

Also, it frustrates me when one of the munchkins asks if I prayed to Nani, and another asks if she's up in Heaven.

Last Family For A While

...at least until mom calls again.

Four generations of people ranging in age from 3months to 70+ sitting around telling stories of our family's conquest of the DFW Mid-Cities area for the past century.

More poking and prodding as to why I'm still not a Super Rocket Science NASA Engineer or something yet. Mom made a point of mentioning that the second cousin sitting across from me was in college to become a radiologist. He commented when I asked him about it that he decided to go this route when he watched his own x-ray tech run the machine and then go back to farting off on his computer. Maybe he'll find more joy in it than that once he really gets into it.

Everyone underestimated the level of COLD that was this morning. I accidentally forgot my gloves, otherwise I would have been set. My younger nephew sat in my lap to keep me warm.

Another cousin that I didn't want to see didn't show up. That was a big sigh of relief.

Train of Thought

If Nikki's train of thought leaves the Dallas station at a speed of....

So, this is the description of how a conversation about my grandmother's funeral today led to me talking about the broken tooth pieces treasure chest.

No, this will not make any sense to you.