{{{DJ}}} That sounds just awful. I'm so sorry for you and for your friend.

Blinc Kiss Me is great.

None of the tubing mascaras should smudge, right?

DJ, I can't imagine the horror of that memorial.

I had a hard time with the open casket at the funeral I went to at the start of the month, but I get that it's valuable for some people (the immediate family seemed to need it quite a lot). Animation? No. Slide shows I get. Slide shows to music I hate, because it ruins the music for me. I had two funerals in a row with "It's so hard to say goodbye" and I haven't been able to listen to that song since.

Connie, he just opened up a school about half an hour from me

I liked in his blurb where he said he had to quit Williamsburg because the fife and drum music was driving him nuts.

Poor DJ. That's the most horrifying funeral story I have ever heard.

When my friend Tom died of AIDS, his service was in St. John the Divine cathedral in NYC which is a glorious space. A "friend" of his, who had not once come to visit him the 18 months he was housebound with the disease, wanted to speak. Instead of speaking, she said her feelings were "too powerful for words" and instead did an interpretive dance with a six-foot rainbow parrot puppet to express her loss.

That sounds horrific, DJ.

I just had yet another fun experience with health care. The student health center called me and told me that my insurance company had requested some of my medical information from them, and I had to go in and sign a form authorizing the release. So, I went in. And I explained to the receptionist why I was there. And she replied, "What information do you want?" I said I didn't need information, I needed to sign the form. She asked me why I was there. I explained again. She asked, "So what do you want to tell us?" I said I didn't want to tell them anything, I came in because I got a phone calling telling me to. This went back and forth, with her asking totally irrelevant and/or nonsensical questions, and me repeating why I was there, for several minutes, until she finally asked for my student ID and showed it to some administrator who pulled out my file and found the form I needed to sign.

Animation? No.

And not just animation, that "Animate Yourself" animation that looks all puppet like WITH THE FACE OF A DEAD KID. It had several venues. The first was a field with the animation waving and doing some wacky moves. Then, like a dance floor where, I SHIT YOU NOT, it does a "sexy dance." One was just an abstract swirly black and red roses. The last has the animation with wings and mostly just flaps, but then it zooms in until the face fills the screen.

Instead of speaking, she said her feelings were "too powerful for words" and instead did an interpretive dance with a six-foot rainbow parrot puppet to express her loss.

Oh. My. God. What is wrong with people!

Daisy Jane, any one of those things would have been bad enough, but all together? That re-sets the bar for Utterly Fucked Up.

This went back and forth, with her asking totally irrelevant and/or nonsensical questions, and me repeating why I was there, for several minutes, until she finally asked for my student ID and showed it to some administrator who pulled out my file and found the form I needed to sign.

I came here for an argument!

Thanks y'all. I was beating myself up for being jugdey about it last night, thinking maybe people think a Morgan funeral is weird what with the laughing and fish fry after.

But you guys confirmed it for me (I didn't really talk to any one there about it). Actually fucked up.

One of my cousins just announced she's getting married. She let everybody know yesterday that she's having an engagement party on Sunday. I kind of want to go, since I actually get along with this cousin, but I just can't justify going up to NY for the weekend on such short notice just for this. I'm hoping we'll have more advance notice about the actual wedding.

Actually fucked up.

I don't want to judge other people's grieving process...but, well, I guess I am. It sounds like the things that the MomShaman did were very likely to interfere with other people's grieving processes.

Obviously everyone grieves differently, but with a funeral, being that it's generally a group event, some sort of middle ground needs to be reached that will hopefully speak to most people's needs in some way.

IMO.