Open casket is customary in my family/regional culture, and I wish it wasn't. With distant relatives or family friends I've been able to duck the issue by staying in the outer rooms of the funeral home during the viewings, but there's just no way I could've avoided seeing my dad's or my grandparents' bodies, and I hate it. I already knew they were dead. I didn't need to see a waxen, lifeless shell to prove it to myself.

Thanks Nilly. Isaac is indeed three, and he's growing way to fast for my taste. But he's still my little boy.

I need to think through an AD at some point, but I haven't done so yet. My parents had a very specific AD written out. It helped a lot when it came time to make decisions for them.

I'm not really into postmortem viewings, but that's probably because it wasn't really done in my family. (One member viewed the body, but not everyone.) Funeral seems too public to me, not to say that it isn't an important part of the grieving, but it isn't a private moment.

Am moved in. Tired. Lots of odds and ends to toss into bags, then vacuuming, then getting it in here.

Holy crap I need an AC in the bedroom. I don't know how Colin did it.

Tired.

Congrats on the moving, Allyson!

Yay Allyson! Congrats on the move.

It was plenty warm here today: must have been stifling in LA. I wore a haltar-top dress to mass tonight, meaning to put a sweater over it, but it was too hot even for a light sweater! I suspect some people thought I was inappropriately dressed. Ah well.

Hooray for moving, Allyson!

I am donating my whole body to whoever wants it after I die. Hell, I am not gonna need it.

You can have some sort of a viewing, right, and then send your meatbag off to the lab for research, right? I'd like to give a chance for those as need it to get visual closure, but once that's done with as many people as possible might as well get use out of it.

Not that I think I'm quality stock...

Congrats on the move, Allyson. I need to make sure I see his new place before he goes back to Vancouver for shooting.

I am donating my whole body to whoever wants it after I die

Mine goes to Emory med school. They ask you to have your immediate relatives to sign a paper saying that they are aware of your wishes.

I'm glad you're safely in the new place, Allyson.

Allyson, congratulations on the moving. I hope you'll feel at home as soon as possible.

I accidentally switched off the snooze this morning, so I overslept for 40 minutes today. This is usually not me, and I can't recall the last time that happened. Nothing gets me out of the bed faster than that kind of heart attack. The second thing I did after realizing it is so late, was of course, accidentally hit my cell phone (which I use as my alarm clock) and send it under my bed, where I had to crawl, still blinded by morning, and look for it.

Other than this, kinda fun day.

Congratulations, Allyson! May the new neighbors be normal, with a side of interesting.

I am donating my whole body to whoever wants it after I die.

Good for you Scrappy - I would suggest working out who earlier rather than later. When my MiL died, she'd always said she wanted this but made no arrangements herself. In the end, it was difficult for my DH to find a place to accept the body and then it couldn't be used and the ashes were returned to us soon after. My DH was left feeling somewhat like he'd failed her, although he'd done everything possible.

It is overcast and grey here today, but so far no rain. Which is a good thing when the dog needs to be walked.