Working on increasing my step count, which is now targeted at 6000 a day, which I often beat, but started at 2000 a few weeks ago.

Excellent work! That's great progress already. I average [checks phone] 7,642 over the last year, but I'm usually close to 10,000 on most days (I don't run on the weekends which pulls down my average).

Feeling positive and hopeful, yet still find myself gritting and grinding my teeth during the day. Wondering when I'll feel calm again totally. It's been a long time.

We're seeing Emmett tomorrow for only the fourth time in the last year. And two of those times were in a parking lot for Thanksgiving and Xmas. I'm also hopeful. When Matilda can go back to school in person, and they re-open the Muni trains it will begin to feel normal again.

Unfortunately, Matilda is not going to be back in school this year, but she's starting to make friends from her Jewelry class and starting to do things with them out of class.

I’m going to Javitz in an hour for my second shot.

Hell yeah! In two weeks you can get back to the doorknob licking you've been missing.

I'm glad Matilda's made some new friends!

My first shot was scheduled for 9:15 in the morning. I got there around 8:45, had the shot before 9:00, and left around the time I was schedule to start. There were a number of people there, but they were moving us through pretty quickly. I hope things go as fast next Monday, when I'm getting my second shot.

I'm sorry, Sophia. I'm glad she got to see and approve the dress. I hope Monday goes smoothly

I'm so sorry for your loss, Sophia.

That's what we (Irish Catholic) call the wake, or viewing--where the person is laid out and people come pay their respects in the couple days prior to the funeral.

We Protestants (the ones I grew up with) call that the wake, too.

I always thought TV writers were just being stupid, when they called the post-funeral gathering a "wake." I didn't realize real people did that (exception: "Irish wake" is often the description of the post-funeral gathering, if there's alcohol involved, but that's more adjectival, than what we really call it, which is sometimes, "collation" but usually just spoken of as, "Where are we going after?").

In other words, I thought the TV usage of "wake" for the after-gathering was like Christmas Eve is often show on TV, as if that's when most people buy, put up, and decorate their trees.

Matilda just got back from a 3-person jewelry class coffee date and plunged right into her first class. There's one more jewelry class kid living somewhere in the neighborhood, so the goal for this coming week will be to lure him out for morning coffee too.

Sophia, I'm so sorry for your and Maria's loss, but glad that her mom is at peace--and I'm absolutely certain that you gave her a tremendous final gift. My great-grandmother died at 96 just exactly two days after my mom took her on a trip away from her rest home to visit the hairdresser. She came back, looked at herself approvingly in the mirror, and said, "I look so nice! Now I'm ready to go." And two days later she did, peacefully, in her sleep. These things just *matter* sometimes.

JZ, my Nana had a facial and her hair done, a couple of days before she passed. My mother's hair dresser brings it up, and always says, "That's how I want to go."

My grandmother died with her first-ever pedicure! (But there was no way to know that at the time.)

Sophia, I'm so sorry for your and Maria's loss, but glad that her mom is at peace--and I'm absolutely certain that you gave her a tremendous final gift.

What JZ said.

(And that I didn't try to manage a demented parent through Covid protocols.)

That is for real! I can't imagine what a nightmare that must be.

what we really call it, which is sometimes, "collation" but usually just spoken of as, "Where are we going after?").

I think I would say collation only for refreshments at the church and/or "going back to the house after."

Suela, being the boss and having another job is definitely for the birds. I am currently filling in for an open position and I definitely should not be here posting because Friday is the only day I have any significant amount of non-meeting time to actually get work done.

I'm sorry to hear about Maria's mother. My condolences to her family and to you.

Sophia, I'm so sorry for your and Maria's loss, but glad that her mom is at peace--and I'm absolutely certain that you gave her a tremendous final gift.

What JZ said.

What JZ and Jesse said.

I always referred to the gathering after the funeral as a wake, but MedicGuy has vehemently insisted that the wake is before the funeral, and what happens after is called a repast.

A viewing has an open casket, and a visitation has a closed casket or an urn.

'Suela, I hate that those kind of machinations are a thing. It would be so nice if people just let other people do their jobs and supported them, rather than trying to cut them off at the knees. I hope you get some help soon to avoid burnout.

Yay for more stabbinations!

JZ, I'm glad you were able to repair the relationship with your father enough to be able to mourn him with little acrimony. It's so very evident how much you loved him and how much he loved you, and if nothing else, it's a beautiful thing to carry in your heart.