Death, Soccer and Cherries.
No, that isn’t all we did, but it seemed to be a lot of the focus for the weekend. Friday morning was less dramatic being that this is when my weekend truly started. I got to ride up to the school with the boys early for a volunteer breakfast that Halldale hosted for parents who put in a lot of time into the school. It was actually quite nice. The teachers cooked and there was yummy burritos and baked goods that were all quite tasty. I also liked the little bags of jelly beans with the note saying, “Thanks for always Bean there.” LOL!
After breakfast, I enjoyed being able to take them to class. Plus, neither of them cried when I left, which is a huge accomplishment for both of them.
Since it ended up being a minimum day I had forgotten about, going back to work made no sense. I would end up being there for only a couple hours. I opted to take Luna over to Centinella where I had a coupon for a free pig ear. It was a nice outing with my pup. It was the first time she truly took advantage of the dog pastime of window surfing.
I picked up the boys from school and went up and got some cherries. On the way home from practice on Thursday night, we saw a Bing Cherry stand that had fresh cherries. Bobby loves cherries so we picked up some that turned out to be quite good. I told the boys we would go back and get some for Poppy and us. I liked the bike outing. I also loved when one of the cool security guards we pass all the time on that route said, “You are doing a fine job, young lady.” I felt like mom of the year!
The evening was significantly more somber. Our neighbor, Margie, passed away about a week ago. She was 85 and in very poor health. Her daughter, Edith, told me she had pretty much stopped eating on her own and truly was a shell of her former, spunky self. It bummed us out since here was yet another amazing neighbor who was leaving us.
The viewing was Friday night, with the funeral sadly during the last soccer game on Saturday, so we decided to pay our respects at the viewing. I have never been to a viewing. The odd, morbid side of me was intrigued. I am so very much so fascinated by customs surrounding death, so this was one I had not experienced before. I was a little concerned for the boys’ sake. Before we went into the mortuary, I explained to the boys what was going on. I explained we would be seeing a dead body. I told them it was ok to be creeped out, scared, amused, indifferent or anything in between. I also told them they didn’t have to see it if they didn’t want to. Both wanted to.
This was a good thing since neither of them ended up having a choice.
We were directed to her room where we opened the door. The first thing you see is her in her coffin. No joke. It wasn’t a huge room. Big enough for a good amount of people, but there was no way to have hidden the boys from this. Thankfully, there also was no one else there at this time. Edith and Tom (her son who lived with Margie) had just left not long before to prep for the following day, so most of the family who would be coming had already paid their respects. I was sad on one hand, feeling as though someone should be with her until she was placed into her final resting place. But it was handy to be able to deal with this and questions from the boys without having to worry about offending any grieving family.
We all stood over her. She looked great, which was nice to see. She had looked so frail when we saw her last, which was a few months back. She hadn’t really come out of her home except for the occasional ambulance pick up when she was having difficulties. The beautician who worked on her had done her nails and face, and she actually glowed a little.
The only dead person I had seen before was at UCLA, while looking at cadavers. It was much different. I swear, I felt like I saw her breathe several times. She looked peaceful, which made me happy.
The boys asked many questions. They wanted to know why her hands were folded on her chest. They wanted to know if she was wearing a bra and underwear. They were such innocent questions and they actually made me happy to see them curious and not freaked out.
We stayed for maybe 15 minutes. I said goodbye. I touched her hand, some of it out of curiosity, some of it out of wanting to say something through touch. Dax wanted to know why they didn’t leave her eyes open.
We left the room, and Ken went to ask if he could get directions to where her plot was so we could bring flowers after the game on Saturday. The boys and I went and looked at the sales room which had several tombstone designs and vault plaques. I was amused that someone had to be the model picture for all of them.
Dax then frantically told me he wanted to see her again. I didn’t really question it, and the three of us went back to her room. Before we went in, I asked him if he had wanted to talk to her or what was going on. He said very simply, “I want to see if she was wearing earrings.” She was not.
We drove up to the spot where she would reside with her husband who had died 15 years before her. The cemetery was beautiful. We drove around a bit to look. Bobby wanted to get out and look further, but it was late so we promised when we came back the next afternoon that we would tour it more thoroughly.
The following morning was less death centric. We had our final Purple Dragons game. We were slaughtered, again. However, the coach on the other side was awesome. So was his assistant who reffed. They both agreed to let us play 10 on 10 instead of 7 on 7. It was their last game, and it seemed a shame to have anyone sit out much. They also were very supportive of our team, who clearly was not as good.
After the game was our team party. It was nice to see the boys just enjoying each other and being, well, boys. They ate pizza. They pretended that their juice bottles were penises and “peed” quite a bit. They laughed and laughed. It was nice. It was a real shame that this was the first time some of the parents really got a chance to chit chat. Thankfully, I think we will see many of them in the fall.
With soccer festivities done, we headed back over to the cemetery to lay some flowers down on Margie’s grave. We also spent a lot of time wandering the grounds. We also visited this gorgeous old church there. It had been moved there by the historical society with an agreement from the Green Hills Memorial Park. It was built in the late 1800’s. The guy there told us they are selling plots next to it with the intent of only using the classic old style tombstones to make it look more authentic. Plus, they will be holding weddings there. Seriously, could there be anything more beautiful?
We sort of crashed a funeral. Ok, we watched it from far away, and it was after everyone had left. I mostly was curious to see how they lower the coffin. I was surprised that people didn’t stay for that.
Saturday evening was a different kind of excitement. We watched the Kings win game number 2 for the Stanley Cup!!!!! WOO HOO! It was a great game. It was really fun watching a game with Ken and despite the stress of sudden death overtime, it was cool to be watching any kind of sports again.
Sunday was spent hanging out at home. It was nice to not have to go anywhere. The boys were able to play with Anthony in the pool all day long. I started off cleaning the house, but Ken forced me to relax. So this allowed us to sit and catch up on Modern Family and much of New Girl. Plus, Ken did my hair. I think we all needed yesterday.
Sadly, the worst part of the weekend was the lack of the internet. Sure, we had our phones, but due to an AT&T fuck up and subsequent bullshit attitude, I couldn’t upload pictures or check out anything with reliable speed. Ken’s iPad has access, but despite it being a cool tool, I still prefer using an actual desk top machine to do anything. Hopefully this is fixed this week.
Thursday had me going through all of NAG’s files and getting quite caught up. I am all kinds of proud of me, and annoyed with her. She is due back today, so I will be curious as to what she will say about my efforts. I am guessing she will be happy to me, but bitch about me later.
I have plans to go see Angela after work today. I think it will only be a short visit, but it will be nice to see her having not in almost 10 years.
No boss man today, so I intend on rocking a super long workout just because. I need to figure out how to get off this plateau.
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