We went to the Houston Rodeo offices and finalized all the information for our booth. After our meeting we realized that we’ve woefully underestimated just how busy we’ll be. I ordered 2,000 lbs. of “gems” last week. Now it seems that won’t be nearly enough. They have 70K school kids coming into Kid’s Country, where we’ll be, over 9 days between the hours of 9am and 2pm. And weekday are usually the slow times at an event.

No that that’s a bad thing of course.

After the meeting we had a funeral to attend.

We missed the funeral and the graveside service but were able to make the wake. It was held at home of family member. It was nice. They ran a photo montage of the recently departed and had catered food. The woman had actually died on Christmas Eve; but the services were postponed til yesterday. I don’t mean to sound uncaring. I just don’t know her name. She was the grandmother of a close family friend, that’s all; so we went for our friend, not her grandmother. Her wake was packed. True, it was in a small house, but it was standing, room only.

For the most part I try to avoid funerals. I think most people do. Although I’ve heard there’s a whole subculture of people who just love attending funerals- funerals of people they’ve never met.

I find that really really strange. Did anyone see the movie Harold and Maude?

I don’t like funeral homes at all. When I’m no longer here, I want my memorial service held at dog park.  My ashes are going to be sprinkled there anyway, so why not have my service there too? Everybody can dress comfy and bring their dogs. And only happy, upbeat music for me. I don’t want my last party to be a downer.

If I dropped dead today I truly think there’d only be about 12 people at mine. Once a group from Improv Everywhere attended a funeral for a total stranger. Apparently some people got quite unnerved by what they did. Knowing I’m going to have a small turnout, if they showed up at mine, it’d be fine with me.

When I was in art school one of our instructors just dropped dead one day. When another student and I went in to pay our respects, no one was in the room but our teacher in his open casket. She’d never seen a dead person before and was somewhat freaked out by the thought of actually seeing him. As we were standing looking at him the funeral director came to speak to us.

I explained our relationship to the deceased and that we wouldn’t be staying too long, as my friend was  uneasy.

“Well have you ever touched a dead person?” he asked her.

As she ran screaming from the room, he yelled at her “Once you do you’ll know there’s nothing to fear.” I can still hear her screams.

That was enough for me at that point. That little man was bizarre indeed.

From what I read yesterday, I guess the views on funeral homes are changing.

According to the article some people are actually having their weddings, proms and holiday parties at funeral homes.

Would you have a party at a funeral home?

In defense of Aspenites everywhere, they were very nice to all of us when we were there, even though they knew we weren’t in their little “club”. (We were there in the summers doing festivals). In the winter though we were there to ski. Aspen is a gorgeous place. Be aware however, to live there however I believe your % of body fat must be in the single digits. (One city employee has calipers and checks everyone who applies prior to having their utilities connected).Today’s trivia answer- 3- the U.S., Liberia and Burma