Funerals and Classes

 My mother’s oldest brother passed away. He had been in a care-home and recently transferred to hospice when it happened. It had been suspected he would linger for some months but it came around a week later, on my birthday even. I met him in visits to our house and maybe one or two times in the care home but I saw him far less in his last years, so I didn’t feel much of a punch when he went. Mom helped him more and was sadder but was happy his suffering is over and he went back to god. I decided I might as well be part of the funeral, accepting being a pall bearer since we don’t have the money to hire them. It was alright; I felt like I didn’t carry much of the weight. The wake was a bit odd, in that it was mostly friends and relatives chatting amongst themselves while mostly ignoring the body in the room. We did a church service and it was nostalgic from when I went to church. I can see why people do it; the tenants and the promise of a good afterlife can be comforting. It took me a while to realize the singing parts might be recorded. The ceremony at the cemetery was cold and I could feel it through my dress shoes. The funeral guy confirmed to me he did this in storm and all sort of inclement weather, which is incredible. I wouldn’t be able to do his job. I was glad we could go back to our warm vehicles and to the restaurant. It was a long but I did it for my mother and any experiences might be useful for my writings in the future.

I started classes near the middle of the month. It was a slow start. It was mostly introducing each other in one class and doing reading and writing for a forum in another, which didn’t have to be posted until this week at the very latest. Both classes have three other students each, which is strange but on the bright side would mean less interactions on the forum assignments. With how this will effect Writing Portfolio, the professor discussed the option of doing writing prompts for flash fiction and since most of us weren’t interested, he made that optional. I don’t know if this will mean we will revise our original draft this semester three times total or we can submit another work but it’s an interesting conundrum. For The Literary Market, so far the focus in our in-person talk was on methods of publishing and what is best to publish. We discussed trends a bit, but only insofar as to be aware of them. The professor emphasized you don’t need to chase trends or compromise yourself in order to get by. I read ahead on the syllabus and some of the material is intimidating, but it would be useful in learning how to navigate the publishing world to get yourself published.

( Spoilers for If Beale Street Could Talk and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, with warnings about discussion of racism and rape for the former )

That’s all for now. I’m typing at night after it has snowed the night before, as is befitting of this time of year. Until February’s end, see you!