This week is pretty crazy. Last week, I had a race-to-the-finish for the Dracula Dossier scenario I’ve been writing. The deadline was long overdue, but I was trying to wrap it up before the 1st. I… didn’t quite make it, and then my niece came into town for a visit. I probably could have finished up during the many, many hours in which a teenaged girl sleeps, but I was tired. Kids are tiring. I can’t imagine how parents do it.
While she was here, though, she joined my Wednesday night group for Golden Sky Stories (which I blogged), and then my Sunday game for Dungeon World. That’s the one where we have an elderly bard, a sea druid, and an illusionist wizard. No combat. We currently have warrants out for us, so we sneaked into the ruins of the old dragon city, still in search of whatever is making that music….
On Sunday, the day before smy niece was to leave, my mother’s husband died, and I bought a plane ticket to join my niece’s return to Missouri. I’ve been here since Monday morning, and I’ve almost forgotten what day it is.
Grief sucks. My mother is in a lot of emotional pain. She’s going through the stages, sometimes all of them at once. Denial is hard, but anger is worse. I have thoughts on that, but I don’t want to be unkind. She’s hurting, and sometimes, her anger hurts me and my sister, who are her closest support system right now. I think I am practiced at “dumping out.” But sometimes, I am human and lash back.
I barely remember yesterday. It was a lot of errands. Death means running a lot of errands you didn’t expect to run. We ended the night with wine and a utterly-predictable movie (Pitch Perfect), and pizza. In the middle of the day, though, the Epyllion kickstarter launched, and my stretch goal (the rites of passage for dragons) was funded right away. As of writing this, it has reached over $8K in funding– for a $2K project, that isn’t half bad.
This morning was the burial service for my mom’s husband. We intended a 4 PM private ceremony, but there are thunderstorms and possible tornadoes in the forecast, so we pushed it up to 11. He was buried in a cremation box, to allow him to return more naturally to the earth. We were allowed to write messages on the outside of the box. I drew a dolphin, the number 42, and wrote “So long and thanks for all the fish.” Hitchhiker’s was one of his favorite series, and I am sure he would have appreciated the sentiment. We didn’t get along, but he was a huge nerd, and I’ve been able to put into words the parts of his life that did resonate with mine. It is unusual, since words usually fail me.