My Two Days (1/3) - The Wake

So, yesterday I talked about having to go to wake and that today was the funeral.  I have to admit, the wake was not that bad.  No one was really crying or upset, which I think is due to the fact that my sister-in-law's grandmother, who we all called Gigi though it was not really her name, was 95 and lived a full life because in all honesty, I think if it was a young person, there would have been a lot of people crying.  Instead, we talked about stories and even looked through pictures that were there on our phones and cameras, not just of Gigi, but of everyone.  I have to say, I had been told that Gigi was really beautiful when she was younger and I was shocked at how true that was.  I only met Gigi about 5 years ago so I have only seen her in her 90+ years.  She looked really small, petite, and frail with some health issues and maybe stood at 5', but that is to be expected at her age.  I found out that when she was young, she was actually 5'7" tall.  I got to see a lot of pictures of her through various ages and it is amazing how much people transform.  Well anyway, everyone was spread about the room indifferent groups talking and I of course was by my brothers while they were telling some funny stories their past.  Now please do not judge, but the only thing I had an issue with was the coffin and such, you know.....  The last time I went to a funeral, I was 5, did not personally know the person, and was not allowed to go up and see.  So I had never seen anyone dead before.  People have said that a lot of times, the deceased do not look like they did when they were alive, however SHE DID!  Everyone was even remarking about how she looked so good.  I became better with it after time, but I guess my initial discomfort must have shown because when I was just standing there, my brother said I looked awkward.  Other than that, I was fine there for the whole night.  We had stayed later than what we even had to and eventually left maybe around 9:30 or 10:00 PM.  We made a stop at home so that my younger brother and I could change, then went to a diner for dinner.  By the time we got home, it was well after midnight and after having been up since around 7 AM and doing nonstop school work until 7 PM and then going to the wake, I was dead tired and fell right to sleep.

Oh, before I forget, in case I have never mentioned this before, my oldest brother can be such a moron sometimes (though they each have these moments).  There is no other word for it.  When we were looking at pictures on my camera, we came across the previously mentioned St. Patrick's Day video with Gigi dancing and my brother decided to hit play.  Well the volume also happened to be all the way on high, so anyone in the immediate area could hear it so it started playing Irish music and you could hear laughter.  I was watching with my brother and a friend of my brother and my sister-in-law while telling him to turn it off.  She found it really funny though that when going through my camera, there were random pictures by each other.  For example, it went from a picture of Gigi on July 4th two years ago to a picture of a gorilla and other animals(courteous of a zoo).  He tried to show his wife, but she said it was too soon.  He did finally block the speaker after a minute so no one could hear it because I said no one should.  Let me just say, watching a video of her dancing while her coffin was like 5 feet away felt just a little bit creeepppyyyy to me.  When I told my dad later, he said he saw nothing wrong with it and either did my other brothers since some funerals actually play videos.  Am I the only one who thought this was wrong/creeepppyyyy?

Bad and Crazy Days

My Easter Break had something different happen every day.  One day there was new furniture, another day I went to help my brother with my niece and nephew, and Easter was rocky.  We almost had to cancel our plans and have a back up because my sister-in-law's grandmother was on her death bed.  My sister-in-law and her mother were at the hospital everyday; which is why I helped my brother with the kids since he had very little sleep that day.  I never saw my sister-in-law and her mother so exhausted and sad before.  They were also having different problems with the situation so nothing was easy for them.  They had issues trying to get a priest to come so close to Easter so they called the monsignor of my church and he was able to call someone in the area who could go to them since the hospital was kind of far.  The priest who went had really comforted them because he had also lost his mother just 3 weeks before and knew what they were going through.  Sadly though, she passed away Tuesday morning, but she was able to go peacefully in her sleep.  The wake is today and I have to go immediately after my last class.  The funeral will be tomorrow morning and everyone in my family, including myself, is involved in it in some way.  My sister-in-law has made herself feel better though to know that her grandmother is reunited with her grandfather now, who died aroung 50 years ago.  Her grandmother loved him so much that she never remarried or even tried to, even though they were married for only 10 years when he died.  She was fortunate though to have lived to the age of 95 and be able to see two great grandchildren born, especially since she did not have her son and daughter until her late 30s and at the age of 40.  From what I have seen and heard, she never took life for granted and always tried to have a good time.  I even have proof as I filmed her on last year's St. Patrick's Day doing the Irish jig at 94 even though she usually needed a can just to walk!!!

Professional Development Workshop

So, I went to the professional development workshop on Friday and I found it interesting.  We learned about a program called Geometer Sketchpad that allows you to make graphs really easily on the computer, but you can also color the graphs and animate them.  There is also the option to calculate using the graphs and a lot of other activities for the different areas of math.  I have to admit though, I felt a little weird at first because it was all actual teachers and one student teacher, so I was kind of unsure of what to do.  I didn't even realize that we had to grab a packet when we came in and I was unsure if I should sign the attendance sheet, but the other teachers said I should as proof I was there.  I even got one of the Board of Education Certificates that shows that I completed the workshop and I just have to add my name. 

I also felt bad that when we were looking at this one activity in the beginning.  The activity had one "x" at the top and then two more below that, then three, and so on until there were about eight rows to form what kind of looked like a tree or triangle where you could click and hold the "x" at the top and move it left or right.  When the "x" moved to the right, so did all the other ones, but moved so at different lengths and when it was moved left, every other row moved left while the rest went right.  Now, the presenter, a teacher, said that if this is used in a lesson, then it should be introduced to the students first because he did not even know what it was for a while, but was eventually able to figure it out.  He asked if anyone else could tell what it was and I already knew when he was first showing the movements so I waited a few seconds before saying that it was where the different functions would be on a graph with the different positive and negative values of "x" changing.  I felt kind of awkward that I was able to answer in seconds what took him a while to figure out because I don't think he was expecting anyone to know what it was really. :X I think it took him off guard because he had to ask me to repeat what I said.  Then you could hear all the "ahhhs" as the other teachers realized it after my explanation.  I don't believe he was offended at all though because I am with him every morning before second period and I talk to him all the time, but I still felt bad for it.