ran out of time again....

Just finished homework.

6 1/2 hours of meetings today.

I'm going to bed.

Gossip will have to happen tomorrow.

However, I will say he threw out a month/day combo for round two....

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it was ok...

Ok, my idea of what a military burial was and the actual performance of a military burial are two totally different things. Maybe it was because it was snowing. Maybe he didn't have enough honors. Maybe the funeral home just cheaped out. Or maybe I should stop getting my idea of what happens in life from movies. :p

Anyway, everything went off without a hitch, thankfully. Runaway caskets are funny in the movies, not so much in real life so I'm happy there were no mishaps. :p We met at the funeral home, where Father Tim talked about being reuninted with loved ones in "paladise." This is so rude, but it was literally all we could do to not burst out laughing right in the middle of the service. The funeral home might want to consider hooking up with a priest that has better pronounciation skills. Just an idea. It was very close to being a scene right out of a National Lampoon movie.

Afterwards, we traveled to the cemetery with our little funeral plaquards, lights on, hazard lights flashing. My sister told my brother and I that you can get a ticket for cutting off cars in a funeral. I didn't know that - I just thought it was something that wasn't done out of respect. Who knew. So, she took down the license plate numbers of the cars that cut us off. Some were accidental, some were blatant. I think she's going to call about the blatant ones.

Once there, we waited in our cars until everything was set up properly and representatives from the military arrived. The funeral director said a small speech while thick fluffy flakes of snow fell, then turned on a recording of Taps. The 2 military personnel did the folding of the flag ceremony while that played. I got pretty teary when they presented the flag to my father. It was all very nice.

However, I want to know what happened to the 21 gun salute?! Heck, they didn't even have a recording of it! Had I known, I would've made sure some friends were there to accomplish the honor. And I guess I kind of expected someone with a horn to be there. I wasn't thinking 3-piece orchestra, but I thought one lone bugle'er would've been appropriate. It wasn't the military honors I thought was going to happen. Guns & funerals = good stuff. :)

After the funeral we went out to eat with my uncle and his family. We had a good time catching up - there was a lot of laughing and chatting. I think we even talked about going to Florida together for a family vacation. To give you an idea of just how close that side of the family is, I sat next to my cousin, whom I had never met before. She's 13. Real tight family.

All in all it was a good but long day.

I've run out of time, but check back later for a summary of the first date I had last night..... Sneaky, I know - I didn't even tell you I had one! :p

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today

Today was my grandfather's wake. Do I say it went well? I mean, what the hell do you say for that? It was a lot of sitting around, a lot of hand shaking. I was ok the whole time, except for when his VFW friends came and did their ceremony. I lost it then. Which just makes me think tomorrow is going to be pretty hard. Funerals are always sad (they make my sister hungry...?), but when you add the patriotic stuff, that just kills me.

I was able to see people I haven't seen since I was a child. I met a few new people as well. I'd like to be able to keep in touch with this side of my family, now that I have a means to do so. I did think it would bigger though. Apparently those Irish aren't all that much into procreation. ;) But the name is passed on through my nephew so thankfully I'm off the hook!

I'm going to bed, tomorrow is going to suck.

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observation

My observation of the day is more of a question about an observation. For you CSI fans out there, have you noticed that the back of the CSI:NY jackets literally say "CSI:NY"? Why don't the just say "CSI" or "Forensics?" Do they not know they are in New York and need the reminder? Are they confused easily? If they come out with a CSI:The Bronx, what will *those* jackets say?

Maybe they did if for the fans.... Maybe they figured they needed to differentiate between the 2 East Coast versions. Clearly the horrific NY accent isn't enough to do it on it's own. :p

I've switched to Pomegranate tea - it was the closest thing to Vitamin Water I had. :)

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do me a favor...

Everybody go out and buy some of that Activia yogurt stuff. Nobody deserves to walk into a room, ask their parent how they're doing, and receive "I'm feeling bloated; irregular" as a response. Better yet, just vow to never utter those words in the same sentence to anyone. Ever. I think we can all agree that scenario fits into the TMI category.

So! Let's look at all the things I was supposed to, but didn't, get done today, shall we? I'm kidding, there really wasn't much on the To Do list for today. I was gonna go shopping and pick something up for the funeral, but I actually don't need to. Shocking I know. I'm not saying I'll be as stylish as my sister - that will probably never happen (unless she dresses me.) But I won't be as bad as my Dad, who is still seriously considering wearing jeans to the wake and funeral. Gotta love my Dad.

I was supposed to get more tissues. I was also supposed to pick up Vitamin Water. All I have here is beer and hot chocolate - normally not that bad a deal at all.

My head feels like it's filled with Styrofoam. I have the sniffles, still. It's so weird, 'cuz I'm not sick! I don't feel badly at all except for not being able to breathe through my nose and the fact that I'm incredibly sluggish. I don't think my plan to drown the evil sniffles virus with hot chocolate is working. It might be time to switch to the 'disinfect the sniffles virus with bourbon' plan. :)

So I've been on the computer, watching TV, napping, reading, and playing solitaire while trying to breathe through my nose.

I'm either going to take another nap, or make another cup of hot chocolate.

Please send Vitamin Water - either the dragonfruit kind (vitamin C is good for the sniffles) or the fruitpunch kind (it's called 'revive'.) Or bourbon, that would work too. :p

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