Tuesday, July 06, 2010

I know this woman who look like the British singer Adele, and I really want to tell her, but since Adele is a bit of a portly woman, I'm afraid to say anything. But each and every time I see this woman, I immediately think, hey that's Adele. Perhaps one day I will...and this concludes today's Jack Handey moment.

A couple weeks back I wrote about a friend of mine from high school, named Rashaa who died of brain cancer at age 32, and this past Saturday I went to his funeral. I debated for a good week and a half on whether I should attend that funeral. No one under 60 likes funerals (people over 60 get off on them for some strange reason..that and obituaries), but I just feel totally awkward at them. Even on my way to this funeral, I felt guilty for laughing and joking with my boy Kevin, because I knew I would be expected to look and feel somber as soon as we got out of the car. And what if someone saw me laughing as I pulled up, and instantly got offended because I was not appreciating the moment and honoring the dead the way they felt I should?

But from the moment I got out of the car for the funeral, to the minute I headed back from the cemetery, everything worked out. The funeral was tough to watch. Parents should never have to bury their 32 year old son, and a wife and her two year old, should never have to watch their husband/father get lowered until the ground. Both of those sights choked me a bit, as did me seeing Rashaa's brothers break down in tears. But at the same time, because they were so many friends of mine from high school in attendance, it felt like reunion, which meant there were good hugs and jokes shared as well. There was also plenty of "so yeah what's been up?" followed by mumbled answers and awkward silene. Love that!

And on a "lighter" note, towards the end of the funeral, they allowed folks to go up to the casket and pay their final respects. I really didn't want to go, but I did it anyway because everyone else was, and I didn't want to look like an ass. But during this 20 minute period of folks going to the casket, they played the song "Jesus Is Love" (by Lionel Richie) at least 7 times. That song, combined with the moment of folks going to the casket had everyone crying and wiping their eyes. As soon as I stepped out of that funeral home, I told Kevin that I was DEFINITELY deleting that song from my ipod. I never want to hear that again. I also want to shout out the ant that was crawling on Kevin while we were in that funeral home. I've never seen someone try to knock off an insect with so much restraint, and still look paranoid.

And finally, because I cover the Washington Wizards, that means that it would behoove me to follow some, if not all of them on Twitter. This means that I had to go through the painstaking process of adding kids who are 19 and 20 years old to my twitter page. This also means that have endure spellings like "gud" instead of "good, "wat" instead of "what", and gratuitous usage of expressions "lol", "LLS" and "epic fail". The English major in me dies slowly every day..I know Twitter is only 180 characters, but surely you can muster a coherent, grammatically correct sentence. And I won't call you Shirley.

Guns and Roses - Jay-Z featuring Lenny Kravitz

2 comments:

Jazzbrew said...

Man... I know no one loves funerals but I just refuse to go unless absolutely necessary. I prefer to remember the dearly departed as living. The last image of them laying in a box is just too much for me to take. I catch a lot of grief for it but it works for me and honestly, that's all that matters. I don't do public displays of grief and I make sure everyone who is close to me knows it so they won't haunt me later for not coming to see them off.

maxwellsmusze said...

no one wants to hear that they look like a famous fat person. trust me...its like asking a lady when her baby is due and said lady tells you she's not pregnant.