Body Fusion
video://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v9TzJAbubDM
Okay, this is funny and no, the workout videos I use are not like this – well the people in the older Firm’s kind of look like these gals, but that’s it! I swear!
February 9, 2007
Archives – February, 2007
Damn, I’m Tired
Things haven’t been progressing as quickly as I would have liked here.
My Mom and I met with the mortuary person yesterday and man, I am very glad that my Grandma bought a funeral plan before she passed away. Fuck. Funerals are expensive! But, she didn’t get the funeral travel plan so that any expenses on the mainland would be covered if something happened away from home and it’s pretty unclear if we would get reimbursed for the cremation and stuff that is occurring on the mainland. We might get a partial refund, but I think we have to talk to the business people at the mortuary for that.
I’ve never really been to a funeral on the mainland, well except for a memorial service for my paternal Grandpa, but that was something at an elk’s lodge, which was “different,” but here in Hawaii, it’s customary that there is food after a funeral for whoever comes. We are estimating maybe 100 to 150 people and the food for that many people came out to a little over $800! A flower arrangement for the urn was like $200! $200 for a bunch of flowers!!!! Not that my Grandma doesn’t deserve flowers, but come on, does it really cost $200 for a bouquet? It’s going to cost something like $550 for the priest to come do the service. Gosh, it really makes me wonder what people who can’t afford this stuff do.
I guess I understand why people give money at funerals here. It really is going to help out with a lot of expenses.
I am feeling a bit overwhelmed by it all. I mean, my Mom is here so theoretically she is supposed to be helping me get everything prepared, but the reality is that everything is pretty much up to me. I have to get the house cleaned up before all of the visitors come and I feel like I don’t know where to start.
I did pack up a bunch of my Grandma’s clothes that we are going to donate – mostly so that I could move a bunch of my stuff into her closets so we would have more room here. But there is so much cleaning that needs to be done and I know I am going to have to do it all, plus organize stuff, it’s driving me batty. I am also responsible for making a picture board collage and coming up with funeral program and I have less than a week to do it all.
Well, at least one of my neighbors has offered to help clean the house with me, but I still need to get a lot of stuff put away before we can really get down to it. My cousin Paula can probably help with the picture board and program, but it’s hard to say because she says that she is allergic to cats and well, there is cat hair – everywhere. Plus, if she comes over, she’ll be here with her kids and her kids are going to want me to play with them and help them do stuff. I promised one of them that we would paint pictures while she was here, but hopefully she’ll want to do that after the service – because if she gets to paint, I know the other 2 are going to want to paint too.
I am going to try to clear out a bookshelf tonight so I can put my books away and get a couple of boxes out of the way by doing that.
I kind of have a place in mind where I can move my computer since I am going to need to clear off the table it and my printer are currently residing on.
Of course, because I am procrastinating, I started checking out a couple of programs on my computer that I’ve never checked out before and figured out that I have not one, but 2 video editing programs on my computer and the one I just found out about allows you to reauthor your own DVD’s. I think that is pretty cool and of course the first thing that I thought about was how to make my own compilation exercise DVD’s. Ugh, what is wrong with me? I am thinking that I could make a pretty cool DVD using the new Firm’s I got by combining say the weighted ball one with the exercise tube one or the aerobics one with one of the other gadgets. Oh, the possibilities are endless, except that I would just need to copy those onto my computer or something. Aiyeee.
Anyways, I should get cracking on that bookshelf. I hate to do it, but I am going to throw out maybe 10 years of National Geographic magazines. I would love to just go through them and cut out some funky pictures from them, but I really don’t have the time to do that and I need the space. Of course, that means that I am going to end up going through them so I can procrastinate more.
I do have a bunch of pictures I want to upload from the trip, but I just don’t feel like taking the time to convert/resize them right now, so it will probably be a little while before I do that.
February 9, 2007
Grandma – November 17, 1922 – February 1, 2007
Where do I begin? Grandma passed away last Thursday. She had been in the hospital for just about a month with pneumonia.
I still can’t believe that she is gone. I mean it was terribly hard seeing her in the hospital the way she was. She just looked like she was suffering a great deal. I never expected her to go the way she did. I always thought she was going to pass away in her sleep one night. I guess that she did kind of pass away in her sleep in the sense that she was extremely sedated so she wouldn’t suffer when the ventilation tube was removed.
I stayed with her the entire time after it was removed and just sat next to the bed and held her hand. She lasted for about an hour and a half and I still can’t believe that she is gone. I was and still am pretty devastated. I just couldn’t leave her side after she stopped breathing. I just kept holding her hand for about half an hour and I just never wanted to let go. I kept hoping that this wasn’t really happening and that she would start breathing again – come back to life again – get better and I would have been able to take her home with me. But as I’ve learned, things don’t always happen the way you want them to.
I don’t know what is going to happen now. We came back this past Sunday since I thought that the plane might be a little empty since it was Superbowl Sunday and I was right. The funeral is going to be on the 17th and my Mom and I have a lot of preparation to do. My aunt and her husband are coming for about a week and a half to help sort things out here. My cousin Paula is coming with her husband and 3 kids. My cousin Mike is coming with his girlfriend and I think my cousin Jeff is coming too. But, since the house is pretty full, Paula and Mike are both going to stay at hotels. My Aunt and Uncle are staying here at the house and if Jeff comes, he will probably be staying here too.
We have so much cleaning to do – which actually means that I have so much cleaning to do.
I was quite relieved to leave California though. I mean it was nice being able to go to some stores that we don’t have here in Hawaii – like Target – Gosh, I *heart* Target, and it was nice being around so many family members, but, I missed my cat and my computer and just being someplace that I could call home.
The day after Grandma died was pretty rough. I thought I was going to be able to help my Aunt clean out some of my Grandma’s clothes, but it was very difficult.
I made the arrangements to fly back to Hawaii Friday and then we decided to do some female therapy on Saturday by going shopping. I got a new dress for the funeral at Macy’s and I am glad that we went there since I got the dress on clearance for less than half its original price. Mom and I then hit a gigantic Joann’s store and I got a few craft supplies that I don’t think I could get here in Hawaii and a few items that were marked down ridiculously low on clearance. I got one of those automatic measuring tape thingies for 50 cents! Yea!
I am glad that we flew back on Sunday since I was right in my prediction that the plane probably wasn’t going to be full to capacity.
We didn’t get any housework done today, but I did find Grandma’s will which no one was able to find before. I also played a little with my scanner since I am planning on scanning a bunch of photos and making a picture board at the funeral.
So now, I can’t sleep again because I don’t know what is going to happen. Grandma wrote a will so that things wouldn’t be complicated, but things really are because of the way she set it up.
It’s late and I’ve been working on this post for a couple of hours now. Of course I’ve been working on it for a long time because I’ve also been trying to watch a movie completely with subtitles while I write…….
1 Comment February 6, 2007
