2000:   World AIDS Day
 2001:  Dear Wisdom
 2002:  Serendipity
 2003:  A New Look...An Old Message
 2004:  Sometimes I Make Good Choices
 2005:  Shirking My Civic Duty

My 2006 Holiday Letter

IN MY OPINION
"Probability Theories
and Match.com"

Books Read in 2006
(Updated 12/1)

MEMORIES WITH A CHERRY ON TOP

2 December 2006

For obvious reasons, I'm not a big fan of funerals or memorial services.  There was a time, when I was younger, when I was afraid of going to funeral services.  Now I'm an expert.  I just hate the fact that the guest of honor is never there.

Mina's memorial service was held today.

It was a lovely service, held at a cemetery in Oakland in a building called the "Tower Chapel"

The Lamplighter tech crew disbanded years ago, so though we have continued to see all those people (the tech crew), performers hadn't really seen Mina since that time, so it was lovely to see how many showed up for the services, people who seemed surprised to see us, not realizing that we used to see Mina regularly.

The service was conducted by Chris Walkey, of The Lamplighters, who had been Mina's friend since college days at Brandeis University and who shared an apartment with her for 10 years, first in Boston and then in San Francisco.  He spoke from the heart, telling mostly funny stories about his experiences with her. 

Sabella Moreno, another Lamplighter tech person, read from postcards Mina had sent to her through the years.  Wonderfully witty postcards.  Makes me want to improve my postcard writing (and to be sure to save the postcards that are sent to us!)

Other lifelong friends we didn't know spoke, her brother-in-law from Melbourne, Australia, spoke, Jane Hammett of The Lamplighters sang and the services ended with a beautiful song from The Gondoliers, sung by a chorus of Lamplighters.  I had learned a lot about Mina today, and one thing I learned was that she definitely took life as it came--and lived it to the fullest.

String the lyre, fill the cup,
Lest on sorrow we should sup.
Hop and skip to Fancy's fiddle,
Hands across and down the middle —
Life's perhaps the only riddle
That we shrink from giving up!
Life's perhaps the only riddle
That we shrink from giving up!
Then take it as it comes,
Take it as it comes.
String the lyre, fill the cup,
Lest on sorrow we should sup.
Take life as it comes!

If you have to die young, it's a good idea to know people with wonderful musical talent to entertain at your memorial service.

We were invited to take home some of the flowers that had been sent for the service, but the very last  thing I wanted was a basket of funeral flowers.  Too many unpleasant memories associated with a house full of beautiful flowers.

After the service, the former tech crew decided that since we were so close to Oakland's famed Fenton's Creamery, we should troop over there for a snack.

(In deference to people who might prefer not to have their faces appear in this journal, I have fuzzed out the guilty!)

Walt and I rarely order desserts in restaurants, but I had a small hot fudge sundae (I can't understand why they put it in a too-small bowl so that all the hot fudge flows off of the ice cream and onto the plate, not into the bowl...I was tempted to lick the plate in order to get any hot fudge at all...but I didn't).  Walt, who almost never eats dessert at all, decided that since it was Fentons, after all, he would have a "black and white" sundae.

(I wish my sundae had come in the size container that his did!)

Stacy from the SPCA had come over to feed the puppies while we were gone.  I expected to come home and find them frantic, but they were waiting very patiently for us.  They did, however, immediately poop everywhere.  They had been holding it in for a very long time!  But I suspect they had been very active in the playpen in our absence because they totally collapsed as soon as they had their dinner.  Even Panda, who normally nurses on my finger forever after she eats, instead snuggled into the crook of my arm and went to sleep.  Golde, who usually plays for awhile and then crawls under the playpen to go to sleep, crawled under the playpen immediately.
 

PHOTO OF THE DAY

(I really will miss this!)
Just think--when they arrived, they were so small
they each fit in the palm of my hand

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