One big tip, have the last person who speaks, if there's a family line-up, for example, be someone who can tell a story about something amusing and/or wonderful that the departed said or did. If people laugh or smile, it prompts them to remember similar things and tell them, which, it's cool to get other's people's experience of a family member.
This is excellent advice.
I was worried about what to say when my grandmother passed away and, on the advice of many wonderful people here, told a story that showed her humor and people laughed. So many people came up to me later and told me their own fond remembrances after. It meant a lot to me.
Thanks, Fay. Right now, it's more a vague sort of idea than anything solid, but if it starts looking more solid next year, I might take you up on that. (The country that keeps posting ads looking for math professors is China, but all of those require knowledge of Mandarin.)
I can't get to sleep. Also, can't stop grazing on grape tomatoes. At least it's something healthy, and not cookies or something like that.
I'm reading The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved, which has totally gotten me into food activism mode. I'm examining the carton from the grape tomatoes to find out where they're from. (I know they're not from around here. It's January.) Grown in Mexico, by a company based in New Jersey. I can do better than that. At least they're organic. On Sunday, I will get up early enough to get to the farmers market. Even though I know that pretty much all they've got now is onions and potatoes and garlic.
I wish I lived somewhere where local produce year-round was more practical.
I finished season 1 of The Sopranos today. I'm not sure I care to start season 2. Am I missing anything spectacular? I love James Gandolfini but I don't really care for Tony Soprano.
I wish I lived somewhere where local produce year-round was more practical.
coughcough:
Cairo
coughcough:
Hee. First I've got to finish my dissertation so that I can actually graduate. Lately, I've been getting all sidetracked in other stuff. Though one of my sidetracked-in-other-stuff paths led me to the discovery that my great-grandfather's first cousin was the first person in Trenton to be convicted under Prohibition. So that was a kind of fun discovery. Though completely unproductive, in the "must graduate by May 2009" sense.
Ok - very belated, but Meara's soon to be ex-bosses really suck.
Oooh, I'm totally qualified for this: [link] Except that it's a pure research job, and I'm pretty sure I'd go nuts.
Hee. That kid's adorable. And a tiny bit frightening.
Gronkies
Have been woken up about every 20 minutes with the dog going NUTS barking. Nothing visible out the front window to set him off, so I kept trying to go back to bed.
Gave up on that about a half hour ago. Realized that I kept hearing truck noises, almost like garbage truck, but not. And then there was that beep-beep-beep of a truck in reverse. WTF it is 1am in the morning.
I finally threw on my shoes and a jacket and walked around the corner to see what was going on. There is a full fledged construction site in the middle of the street behind me. Big lights and big trucks from EBMUD (water district). Gah, not like that noise is going to stop soon. And now I'm WIDE FREAKING AWAKE.
Want. Sleep.
