Welcome to Newark. Where taggers are kind enough to censor their art. Clearly, they care about their community.
And welcome to a New Jersey post.
Circles and squares. We flew out Saturday with surprisingly few mishaps. Probably the best part of having a disabled mother, and she'll attest to this too, is the early boarding. One of the most interesting parts are the wheel chair drivers the airport provides. Some of them are super slow and very talkative. Others are speed racers and barely say a word. In Albuquerque, the wheel chair lady had Downs Syndrome, practically ran my mother through the airport and had no problem jamming her through lines and crowds of people. I was barely able to keep up. It was seriously a walk of shame, trailing behind them. I felt like apologizing to everyone that got plowed over. However, I think at that point, me and Mom needed some serious comedy. Dear God, please bless the mentally impaired. Thank you.
We flew over a wind farm. I am assuming this is San Jon, but I'm not sure.
At 27,000 feet.
DFW is nothing short of lovely.
And they have an iPod vending machine. Recession, by the way.
We got into Newark close to 11:30 on Saturday night. We ate some pizza and slept the best we could. It was nice to have a day before the services to sort of mellow, start the gradual process of going through things. family came over, some of which I hadn't seen in years and years.
These are my cousins Mike and Gina. They're siblings. And Mike just had a baby with his wife Kristen. And this is right before Gina's precious yorkie bit baby Landon.
I can't even begin to express my gratitude to that baby. 90% of the time, I still feel perpetually awkward around children. It's not that I don't like them, I'm terrified of breaking them. But it was just so amazing to have that much life around. And comedy. Landon liked to vomit a lot, but he was so silent about it. He would just open his mouth, no noise, no warning, and this flood would spout out. Didn't ever phase him.
It also helped that Landon has the exact same head as my grandpa. Exact same!
Gina doesn't have children. Gina has Niko. She needs nothing else.
Later that night, Gina took me to the diner closest to G-Pa's house for disco fries and coffee. This is, in fact, the quintessential Jersey experience. Considering I love diners so much, maybe I should move there and not Oklahoma. But, the owner of the diner asked Gina how my grandfather was doing. While it's never the best news to report, it was sweet of him to ask.
I didn't take any pictures at the services. It didn't feel right. But it all took place on Monday. First, we went to the funeral home, which was the hardest part for me. Grandpa was cremated and I'm fine with that. But, seeing the flowers that people sent really got to me. Especially the bouquet from the Eldorado, the building he worked for. After that was mass. My mom made awesome jokes there about how all the statues looked like they were levitating. Then, we went to the cemetery/mausoleum. Grandpa went in the same spot as his wife. The cemetery was very nice; great view of the city. There were really tall grave markers and huge, massive tombs for people. Gina kept talking about getting one for her and Niko and having it say "Gina", nothing else. After that was certainly my favorite part, and Grandpa's favorite part, the eating at the local VFW.
Lots of family came. 3 out of 4 of Grandpa's daughters were there; Madeline, my mom and Colette. Colette's kids were there; the previously mentioned Gina and Mike, with Mike's husband Kristen and baby Landon. Also present were cousins Jackie and Suzanne, and Jackie's husband Mike. And family from Canada! My mom's cousin Rene and his daughter Lucie came, the ones I stayed with in Quebec, and another of my mother's cousins Aline. If I ever do make babies, I will have the easiest time naming them since I have all these beautiful French names in my family.
Me and cousin Rene gettin down.
My mom found these ducks on Grandpa's garage. She took one and gave Rene the other.
Very Flattering Me and Lucie.
Probably my favorite image from the entire affair. Stuff like this is what made it bearable.
This one is a close second. There's actually an entire series of images of my cousin Gina embarrassing my mom.
I spent most of Tuesday in the City. It's a fantastic place to lose yourself. And that was exactly what I needed to do after the emotional battering ram of Monday.
Ducks as big as big as sky scrapers. Just keeping things is perspective.
My first stop was the B&H Photo Superstore. And let me tell you photo nerds, that place is shier madness. So many people! Also, a good 90% of the employees were wearing yamakas. After that, I rode the Subway to Central Park West and 88th; the Eldorado rests at CPW and 90th. Since it was so close, I ducked into Central Park and walked around the Jacqueline Onassis Reservoir, where the above photo is taken. This is at the far north of the lake, looking south.
And this is looking west. The building in the middle is the Eldorado.
Little metal "M"s mean the Met. Which was next stop. I actually didn't do much looking. I sat amongst the Roman busts and the Egyptian tombs for a while, listening to the crowds and watching school groups wind through the sprawl of that place.
After that, I hiked over to the CBS store in Times Square to get a Late Show shirt and got back on the bus for NJ for a dinner date.
Last time I was in New Jersey, I spent some time with my mom's friend Linda. Her and Linda met when my mom was barely 20, they lived in the same building. They've stayed in touch over the years and needless to say, they are absolutely adorable when they're together.
We left Wednesday. It was a sad goodbye to the red brick house on Sabina Street and to New Jersey as well. I don't think Mom knows when she'll be back. But, by that point, I was more than happy to get home and get back to normal.
Flying over the Appalachians. In the East, mountains are actually hills. But they are pretty.
On getting things back to normal... I can't tell you how happy I am to be home and out of February. I am happy I went to New Jersey. It wasn't an easy thing, as this was only the 5th funeral I've ever been to. Grandpa is the first person I've lost in my family that I was close with. I think there's still a long way for me to go with it, but I know that it would have him very, very happy to have all of us together.
This was the sunset in Santa Fe the night he passed away. There was something awesome in walking outside of work to that. It always seems to work out that way; the weather seems to understand when big, huge moments are taking place in your life and it tries to help you remember them.
Anyway, glad to be home and back to doing my thing. Work is madness, I'll probably be here till midnight tonight.
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