So, Friday night was my grandfather's visitation. It was actually really great. A lot of people were there showing support and it meant a lot to our family. I imagined that it was going to be pretty difficult, but it was very pleasant.
The funeral was absolutely beautiful. I spoke and, although I had a difficult time deciding what I'd say, the words came to me on Friday night. If you'd like to see the tribute I wrote, let me know. That isn't a ploy or a friendship test, by the way; I just don't really feel like shoving it down your throats.
I have to say that I've never felt comfortable in a cemetery until Saturday. I think there are many factors that contribute to that. The casket was draped with an American flag and military people were there giving a final salute and playing "Taps" (I didn't know the name of it until just now, but it is beautiful). Aside from some difficulty folding the flag into a triangle, it was perfect. Honestly, though, the folding debacle made it even better. The weather was amazing and the sun was shining!
Here is a photograph of the flag:
Hmm, what else? On Sunday, the family celebrated Easter at Gran's house and that was nice. I wasn't the most endearing person to be around since I was feeling pretty exhausted by that point, but it was great to get to see my other side of the family. After the Easter celebration, I came home and exercised in an attempt to clear my mind and freshen up my mood.
Then, I ended the weekend by heading to my other grandmother's house to spend the night with her so she wasn't alone. We hadn't had any one-on-one time in quite a while, so it was nice to visit with her and lend her an ear as she adjusts to her new life without my grandfather.
This is really dorky, but I stumbled upon something that made me really excited last night. I had been looking through a lot of photo albums last week because I was asked to pick out the photographs for the slide show at the visitation. I looked through a lot of pictures of my grandparents' trips to all different places like China, Australia, Italy, etc. However, last night I ran into a photo album of random pictures my grandfather took. It's funny because I remember him having a disposable camera at Christmas a few years back. In this album, there were several pictures of us (at Christmas) that he'd taken with the disposable camera. However, the rest of the disposable camera consisted of pictures he'd taken of geese at the lake. It's the same journey he was on when he died last week. It was really neat because I was a little too far removed from the pictures of faraway places, but the geese pictures were so simple and documented something meaningful to me; it was almost like I was walking right there with him. I took two of the pictures -- one he took from the bridge of the geese swimming (you can see his finger in the photo), and one of the geese crossing the sidewalk right in front of him. They were so amateur and I love them because it's like viewing everyday life from his eyes. How long can I talk about some photos of geese? You tell me.
Today I returned back to work and, although I really hadn't been gone, it felt like it. I was greeted by tons of termites running rampant on the carpet outside of my office. I didn't notice them at first because I got to work so early and didn't turn on the light in the hallway. However, a little while later, I looked at the carpet and realized it was like an optical illusion. Seriously. The carpet looked 3D like a Magic Eye puzzle. Are you grossed out yet? I spent the rest of the morning being paranoid that they were crawling on me and, after the Orkin man came and said they were coming up through the floor, the folks in my suite called it a day and headed home. Ugh, I shouldn't be thinking about this so close to bedtime. I'm gonna dream of termites bringing me donuts.
Well, it's about to become my birthday if anyone's counting. I've set a goal for Drew's Crew to raise $2,500 on my birthday. I gave us a tiny head start because I was getting impatient. If you'd like to contribute to the cause, first let me commend you for making it this far in this novel of a post. Secondly, here is the link: http://www.cff.org/great_strides/drewdotson5267.
I want to thank everyone who has shown me some love over the past several days; it has really helped.
Hello, bed of mine! How I've missed thee!
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