Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Funeral Food


i knew following up 2 glasses of wine with a beer was questionable at best. what i didn't take into consideration was the lack of food in my body. i'll spare you the details but i will say i started with the spins and ended in the bathroom.


getting drunk on a tuesday night isn't a common occurrence around here but with funeral planning in full swing (my father in-law passed last saturday) a few drinks have been in order.

i hadn't intended to get drunk, it was the mixed beveraging and no eating that got me in trouble. i blame my misfortune on funeral food.

My husbands parents are Catholic and when their youngest son (T's little brother) converted to Mormonism it about killed them. It was a festering sore spot for YEARS. As time went on and my brother in-law eventually married and raised Mormon babies of his own. his parents while they loved their grand kids have never fully accepted their son's decision to convert.

i met with my husbands sister and my mother in-law and discussed food for the reception. we don't have any idea on how many people to expect and my sister in-law said she'd rather have too much food than not enough. so, we settled on planning for 60 people. a few deli trays from costco, some sweets and drinks seemed easy enough.

later i called my mormon sister in-law and asked her if she could bring some kind of dessert. she mentioned that some friends were wanting to do something and i said that was nice and if she could farm out brownies or something that would be cool. A little later i get a call back from her and she says that their Relief Society President offered to organize and setup all the food, just needed to say when and where.

Needless to say despite the generosity being put forth I was hesitant to accept given the circumstances. I said that it was a very generous offer, and that i'd want to be sure everyone was ok with it, T walked in at that point and i put him on the phone with her.

the conversation turned abit heated with our sister in-law getting defensive and insulted. she proceeded to say that she didn't think that their should be any problem with her friends offering to help. we agreed it was a generous offer but were hesitant to turn the entire reception over to the Relief Society, given the circumstances.

By this time i had drained my second glass of Pinot Noir and foolishly decided to mix things up with a Sierra Nevada Celebration Ale. obviously i don't drink well under pressure.

T suggested that they could prepare some of the food and we'd do the rest, but my sister in-law was insulted and said "just forget it" by then her husband (T's brother) got home and was on the phone with T and when T said he suggested splitting the food prep and that his wife was insulted, my brother in-law being the dutiful husband covered for her.

Now let me just add this, a few years ago my sister in-law had a bout of encephalitis. i'm pretty certain that the part of the brain that governs her inhibitions was affected. she's not all Tourett's but she has on occasion said some pretty off the wall shit. on more than one occasion she has said things that have made me want to punch her in the head.

in the end we agreed to let the relief Society sister's crank out the desserts, though i was kinda curious about the legendary mormon funeral potatoes.

still keeping up with my short runs. lately i've taken to running solo around town sans any electronics and then walking Brandy afterwards. since the oil spill in the bay, point isabel dog park has been off limits for us because unless i keep her on-leash she wants to go in the water, i always let her before and now it seems cruel not allowing her to be off leash in dog park....she's a selective listener. so i'm trying to take her on a trail at least once a week so she can roam freely.

things will probably be quiet around here for awhile. this was crazy ass year for our family. i don't know about the rest of you but i'll be glad to bid 2007 adieu.

Peace to you and yours.