What a week! This really has been a testament to my patience. Well probably not just mine, but to all parties involved. And there were a lot of parties involved! I mean that in more ways than one, which I hope to make clear through this process. I suppose I’ll start with last week Thursday. My wife’s office barbecue was nice. There weren’t very many people there, which made it kind of intimate. I prefer that over the huddled masses. When there aren’t many people there, I get the sense that the people who are there, genuinely want to be there, which makes it nice. It was mostly managers, and seemed like a very team-oriented thing for my wife to want to attend. I appreciate that she wants to be a part of a company that does things like this, and I understand that involves my participation sometimes. I’m okay with it. Especially now that I am more aware of its importance. We got to talk to a lot of people that she associates with, and have hung around with them at a couple of these functions, and I do see how it brings people closer together. Seeing people and their families, kind of strengthens the idea that they are a family, and seems to promote family-ness. We were in direct sun in the parking lot, and most people had obviously been there before and grabbed up all of the available shade. We were not prepared with chairs or hats, so I kind of rotated from shade to shade like a cockroach, when I wasn’t rotating myself like some kind of human rotisserie. The burgers were pretty good, we made a lot of people smile, and then we were on our way to practice. We rehearsed with my guitar player Wagz for our set on Saturday. It was only the second time we got together, but it sounded pretty good. I was glad we could put something together so quickly. Although my wife and I had been working on it over the past 2 months.
Friday, we had to be to the rental place
at 9:30 am to pick up the chairs. Luckily, they fit into our friend’s truck
with no problem, so we didn’t have to load up 2 vehicles. When we got to the
party location, my mother-in-law’s house, the canopies were already set up, so
that was a win. All of my wife’s sisters and their families were already there.
Each time she hugged one of her sisters, it was like the reality of why they
were getting together sank back in. Their father died 5 months ago. That’s
enough time to almost forget that you’re grieving. But as soon as they saw each
other: “Niagara Falls Frankie.” It’s weird to be happy and sad at the same
time. When my really good friend died a while back, I was so happy to see
people that I hadn’t seen in a while, I kept asking everyone: “How’s it going?”
Then realize why we were actually together, and feel sad all over again. Friday
didn’t go that late into the night for us. We all had to wake up early the next
morning for the service, so we wrapped it up at an appropriate time. Saturday
was the big day. We had to go pick up the sandwich trays from the store, so
once again, gotta be some place by 9:30 am. It was relatively easy, but I didn’t
realize until we got to my mother-in-law’s house that we didn’t get the right
order. Well, it was mostly right. We ordered 3 different trays, and 1 of them
was incorrect. It didn’t seem like that big of a deal, it was still the same
amount of food, so I let it go. Well not entirely. I did respond to their
request to take a survey just to let them know they messed up. That’ll show’em.
The church was hot! This has been the hottest July on record, and it seemed
like perhaps the people at the church wanted all of us sinners to feel like a
whore in church.
I was aggravated by the deacon presiding over the service. He had this booming mic on, but mumbled so it sounded like Charlie Brown’s teacher rumbling through the church. I couldn’t understand any of it. Then, we had paid a lady to sing a couple of songs, Christian songs, and he was trying to sing along. I couldn’t understand where the mumbled bass was coming from until I saw his dinosaur-ass up there trying to worship with the rest of the churchies. Turn your mic off dude! I was irritated. But seeing my sisters-in-law, and my wife up there, doing their readings, trying best to hold it together, irritation gave way to compassion, and I just wanted to give each of them a hug and let them know it would all be okay. The wake was heavily attended. I couldn’t believe how many people were there. There were a couple of times that there was a line to see my wife! It was like she was the attraction. After the bulk left, we played our songs. It went great! People seemed to really appreciate it. My wife was on cloud 10! She’s thanked me every day since. It couldn’t have gone better. We partied into the night. Sunday 40 of us descended on the Corvette Diner. It was originally 20, but over the course of a day it doubled. Don’t go there with 40 people. Just take my word for it. I don’t know why anyone would go there, it’s loud, crowded, and the food is “meh.” It was so packed we couldn’t socialize. But we did get to see our daughter perform, which I think was the main reason for the whole thing, so mission accomplished, I guess. Monday was a little less chaotic. Then Tuesday was Taco Tuesday night in honor of the 3rd sister turning 40! I could not believe how many people showed up for tacos! It was Corvette Diner all over again. Except the food was much better, people loved my Guacamole and Verde sauce, mission accomplished!
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