I Suck At Wakes

Today has been a long day... with my seven month old daughter (Bridget) waking up at 4 in the morning... to my two year old daughter (Briana) waking up at 5 in the morning... to now, having finished looking into a "bug" for work in the wee hours of night. That said, I'm sure the feeling is not as bad in comparison to my friends (Jen and Bill) whose father recently passed away. Their father's wake was held today. Too bad I suck at wakes.

The service was nice, if not longer than I expected. I think I would have liked it more had the priest not thrown in the schpiel that Jen and Bill's father should have gone to church more frequently than he did. It almost reminded me of my friend's (Hot Amy) wedding where the priest mentioned the four horsemen of Apocalypse. I sometimes wonder what the men of the cloth are thinking when they say these asinine things. Of course, that's easy for me to say because I'm not religious.

Regardless, I wish Jen, Bill, and the rest of their family the best. I can't even begin to imagine how it must feel to lose a parent. Sadly, I know what it's like the other way around in losing a child. Trust me when I say it is not fun.

I must say, however, that one of the more interesting things of the day happened at the wake. My BFF (Kerry) and I were hanging out before the service. As is customary in some wakes, there is a book to sign when you first walk into the funeral home. Someone who looked familiar to Kerry came to the wake and signed the book. Curious as to whether or not she knew that person, Kerry wanted to see if that person's name rang a bell.

Having already signed the book myself, I couldn't think of a way to discretely walk up to the book to see the name that was signed. Lo and behold, Kerry pulled it off by walking up to the book to grab a prayer card from the stack located near the book. I thought that was pretty smooth and quite impressive. Heck, I was so impressed I told her that I'd write about it.

Following the wake, Jen and Bill's mother had everyone come back to her house. It has been quite some time since I was there. Apparently, the last time I was there was for a Flag Day cookout, where I was lucky enough to see the rain barrel.

It's weird how wedding and funerals serve as venues toward seeing people whom you haven't seen in awhile. At Jen and Bill's mother's place, I got to see my friend (Carlos). It was good to catch up with him again. As well, I was able to see my friend (Pam), who is training to be a hair stylist. She apparently does some waxing as well, although waxing the hair from butt cracks was not one of those things she is willing to do. (I asked out of sheer curiosity.)

Anyway, from there I headed off to Kerry's who had invited a bunch of us over for dinner. Joining in the festivities at Kerry's were my friends (Andrea, Marc, and Kelley). For me, it was definitely a great way to end the night.

We just hung out and had some laughs. Heck, we even were able to catch a few episodes of the first season of Arrested Development. Prior to today, I've never seen the show. I must say, it's a funny show.

Some of the silly topics of conversation that came up at Kerry's were Andrea's new television, the worst movies we ever watched, and Halloween costumes. For me, there are a lot of terrible movies... only because I'll watch practically anything. As for Halloween costumes, that topic led to all sorts of laughs as we contemplated costumes based on puns.

In addition to the laughs, Kerry made apple crisp for dessert. Yum! Apple crisp! Yom yom yom yom. Truth be told, I like any crisp. Needless to say, the dessert was absolutely a great way to end the night. I had a great time.