better a little late than never

so today is saturday. not much going on. just going to go to work and then prolly hang out with some of my girlfriends. b/c it's saturday and that means we generally get all dolled up and head out to a pub or something and just hang out and gossip like old hens.

so as the day progresses, i have nothing pressing to do so i enjoy a nice leisurely afternoon at work and watch the roughriders pull one over on the bc lions, the thought that i still might have an assignment due never once crosses my mind.

it wasn't until later this evening as my friend and i were contemplating where to go tonite that it hit me! i still have one assignment due for orientation to funeral services! crap! just what i was hoping to do tonite. sit down and write a 4 PAGE PAPER!!! that's right, this wasn't just a fill-in-the-blank assignment, or a stupid computer term crossword puzzle. this was a major paper worth 30%!

so i rush home and plunk myself down in our not-so-comfortable la-z-boy and miraculously whip up a paper on my experience with the arrangements of a funeral service. unfortunately, my dads or my two nephews funerals were too personal, so i couldn't use those as references for my paper. luckily, i had had a tour of one of the funeral homes here in the city several months ago and i just so happened to have helped as an attendant for the service.

ok, so i don't necessarily recommend writing a paper in 2 1/2 hours. it prolly won't be your best work. so mental note: next time you have a paper due, don't wait until the 11th hour to write it! note taken and lesson learned!

hooked on a feeling...

today, friday october 23rd, marks a new chapter in my journey! today marks the end of my first term and the end of my finals! since last fri, i've had 5 finals and this morning was the last one!

it is such a wonderful feeling that i no longer have to get up at 5:30 to get in some final studying and that my brain can finally rest and lose all the information that i've learned over the past 2 months.

as today marks the end of the first part of my journey to become a funeral director, monday will mark the beginning of the next chapter. this chapter i will call a week in the life of a funeral home. from the 26th to the 30th, i will be job shadowing at a funeral home here in the city and loving every minute of it! i think the best part about it will be getting out of the lob for a week! but seriously, this upcoming week has been the light at the end of my finals tunnel.

i've already bought my scrubs (and thanks to a friend with outrageously awesome discount powers, got 2 pairs for $20), and am off to get a suit today. i'll be helping at the funeral home in any way they want me too. prolly sitting in on a few arrangements, attending funeral/celebration services, washing cars, cleaning toilets, answering phones and the part i am most looking forward to, getting to sit in on an embalming or two! one of the reason i want to sit in on it so badly is to actually see if i have a strong enough constitution to actually do it.

for sure there is a level of curiosity involved in wanting to do this job, but ultimately, i want to be able to help people and be there for them when they need it. being able to celebrate the life of someone is awesome and i'm really looking forward to that next week.

so cross your fingers and wish me luck! i need to impress the funeral home so that they will want to hire me on the spot!

vindicated at last!

as i have mentioned before in this blog, i clearly DO NOT know anything about a computer! with a consistent 85 average on my computer assignments, one would think that i actually don't know how to hold a mouse!

well, i finished my last computer assignment today and handed it in. to my surprise, i got an astounding 97% on it! not to toot my own horn or anything but, TOOT TOOT!!! i finally feel qualified enough to have a blog and to send emails! this is the best day of my life!

and amy, it was newsgroup not newsforum... blast! thanks for you help!

someone didn't pass interpersonal communications

last friday morning, my mom and i went to talk to one of the ladies at the memorial gardens about arrangements concerning my dads remains. all in all, it turned out to be a relatively productive meeting and i think we accomplished what we wanted. there was, however, one little hiccough!

one thing that my mom is quite adamant about is that remains are simply that: remains! there is no physical, emotional connection to his remains. he isn't there anymore. and not only that, but realistically, it's not all him. so to my mom, his remains could be buried at the landfill, as long as there was something to mark his life lived on this earth. which is what is most important to most people.

having something to mark my dads life on this earth is really the most important thing to us. so what we decided to do was to have a memorial bench erected not 8 feet from where my two nephews are buried. it is amazing how it worked out. the area where they said we could put the bench is right next to lachlan and nathaniel's markers. it couldn't have worked out better in my opinion... wait, yes it could have!

so all the details were perfect: the bench itself, the location. everything was going great until the woman who was helping with the arrangements said this to me: "wow, you really like to talk over people, don't you?" WHAT?!!! did you honestly say that to me??? if there is one thing that i've learned from my studies so far, it's that you never insult a member of a grieving family... regardless of how long ago someone passed away. if it weren't for lachlan and nathaniel, we would NOT be dealing with them. even if you aren't in the funeral business, most people have at least 2 sense to rub together as to how not to talk to people. unfortunately for us, she is now the person we will have to deal with. YAY! i'm so excited!

laughing out loud

today was one of those rare days when i actually thought of my dad and laughed! and not just laughed, but laughed. out. loud! and not just out loud, but i literally had to stop my car for a second and collect myself. this was the first memory of my dad that made me bust a gut!

so today didn't start off too well. i woke up this morning at 11:20 (perfection is beauty, and beauty is sleep). now i can generally get ready, out the door and get to work, all in 15 minutes. but today was just not going well. it didn't help that it has been raining all night and didn't stop until 3 this afternoon.

just as i was heading out the door, i got a phone call from one of my managers saying that i actually started at 11:15, not 11:45! great way to start the day. so i run out the door and sped to work. now i always take the same route to work... i could almost do it blindfolded. sometimes i often wonder how i get to work because the drive has become so much a part of my life that sometimes when i am driving down that street, i end up going to work... when i am not even scheduled.

so as i am driving this morning through the rain, i am not exactly focused on what is around me. i don't use my wipers when it is raining (which, i know, defeats the purpose of having them), because i have this rain-x stuff that is on my windshield, and i love it! anyways, because i was more focused on getting to work, all i noticed was the leaves that were on the road... i didn't notice that they were floating on a giant puddle of water!

it was at the precise moment when i ploughed through the water that my dad came into my mind.

my dad was a great story teller. i know now how much i took for granted the countless stories he told over and over again. like one such story he would always tell me on rainy days.

my dad grew up in montana. one of my most favouritest places in the world! there was one particular rainy evening when he was cruising down the main drag, he noticed, not 2 blocks away, were 2 girls huddled together under their umbrella trying to keep dry. my dad, being the gentleman that he was at 18, could think of only one thing to do to these poor, soaking wet, cold girls... drive through the puddle that was in front of them as fast as he could! all he could see through his rearview mirror was the tidal wave landing on them and them shaking their fists and more than likely shouting profanities at him.

that is what i thought of as the deafening sound of water splashed in every direction. as the cars sped past me, i envisioned those 2 girls shouting profanities at me (because i am sure that every other car on the road with me was indeed saying more than one curse word as they got the majority of my tsunami).

i was late for work, of course. but i had a good, well needed, laugh! my day at work wasn't the greatest, but having my dad make me laugh this morning, was in actuality, the best way i could have started out.