Where there's a Will...

there's a grand re-opening!

Thursday, July 28, 2005

The coolest memorial service


The coolest memorial service
Originally uploaded by deepblue1975.



So, this was the set-up at the memorial service. We didn't have the casket there cause I find it creepy to have to watch it being wheeled away for cremation. We didn't have the urn there cause it distracts people (I think).

The sand was from her favorite island. The rocks were from her collection. The orange fabric were the curtains from the study (her instructions had said: "color: orange" what's that supposed to mean?!)

I think my mother would have been amused by this set-up as an example of my craftiness. She considered herself totally non-crafty (and she was right -watching her do anything in that regard gave me hives).

At the end, we played Simon and Garfunkel's "I'm a rock" at her request, and as people were leaving, my brother and I gave them a rock. I thought that was nifty.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

Where I've been

One word: cleaning.

With the memorial service over (If I dare say so myself, the coolest memorial service I've ever been to) and facing the basic choice over falling into a black hole or cleaning, I chose the latter. I started with the office, which contained, amongst many other things, the stagebills of every cultural event my mother had ever attended, half-filled out tax returns from 1987, and three flocks of dust bunnies.

Then Tam arrived from Ann Arbor for 5 days, and upped the pace about 25,000 notches. We sorted, boxed and disposed of the clothes. We sorted the books. We started boxes for the tchotchkes and photos and papers. We took 36 bags of assorted trash to the town dump where her charms and Americanism got us a discount from the nice dump guy. Tam cleaned the kitchen, did laundry, and became friends with my brother. And she spread a whole lot of cheer. We went out for food and shopping trips. She sat through an entire dinner with my crazy family as well as drinks with the wife of my father (whom she insists on calling my stepmother even though she isn't) who is about as shallow as a puddle in the desert and as cold as the cyrotanks of your nearest sperm bank.

One could call her a heaven-sent, but the fact is, she did all of this out of her own volition and organizational powers -finding 5 different babysitters for her kids, rebooking her return flight at the last minute when the airline wanted her to find her own way from Berlin to Amsterdam, and convincing her husband and mother that terrorist attacks or now, she had to be in Berlin for 5 days.

I am so damn lucky.

CLASSIFIEDS

Happy marriage to Rebec and Ryan and happy wedding to Erika and Aaron. What is this marriage business, the next hot thing?!

Thank you for your emails, cards, letters and other expressions of kindness. I will thank you all individually too, but it may take a few days.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

One week


One week
Originally uploaded by deepblue1975.



I miss you, Mama

Friday, July 08, 2005

The most precious dogs in the world

Funeral arrangements are a blessing in disguise. But one can only take so much of them. So many choices (even though my mom was pretty detailed in her testament). And it's so...morbid.

I need a mental break every now and then. So I've been working on organizing the dogs' trip to Scotland to live with me. It may be crazy, but it's what I need to do. I can't give them up to a stranger.

It seems like organizing a visit on the moon complete with dinner reception for the Queen may be easier than getting these dogs to the edge of Europe. Britain has replaced the quarantine with a serious blood-test-and-vaccinations scheme, which is way more humane, and my mom thankfully started it a year ago in an attempt at some anthropomorphic heritage travel for the dogs.

Still, that leaves the actual flights. The amount of misinformation out there is amazing. I've had airlines tell me that they can gets the dogs through the health check at Heathrow for a connecting flight to Scotland in 20 minutes, which is plain wrong, simply because the animal centre at the airport is like 10 miles from the passenger terminal, so that makes me think they don't know what they're doing. I've called pet travel agencies advertising the relocation from anywhere to anywhere only to have them tell me they only serve X airport.

I finally found a way and am making my bookings and it's going to cost a shitload of money, but who cares. They've been such a help, getting me out of the house, staying with me day and night. I think they'll do well in Scotland.

I consider the research that went into organizing this feat a bigger accomplishment than my 70-gazillion-page prelim lists. Shhh, don't tell my committee. And it's oddly (or not so oddly) satisfying.

Thank you for the outpouring of your support. It's almost banal to say I couldn't stand this situation without it, but it's true.

Saturday, July 02, 2005

Juliane Will

Dec 15, 1953-July 2, 2005.