"Sprinter". Madonna. Shiva.

It's an early "Sprinter" (spring/winter) morning. Light rain has been falling all through the evening which has made the sun rise silverly and slightly gloomy. I slept poorly all night with the craziest of dreams which involved, in no particular order, :

Being abducted by an aliens while stranded at a remote mountain cabin

Having a conversation about music while in bed with Madonna.

Selling hot dogs in an inner-city neighborhood in the middle of the night with someone that I went to High School (whom I've not seen in 20 years) in order to raise money for a slain policeman who happened to be 9 years old.

Needless to say, I woke up with a groggy "WTF??!!" floating through the haze of my fading slumber state as I ran my hand across my hair which had been restyled into some sort of nocturnal horror by my tossing and turning.

I also woke with the realization that I must attend the funeral of a close friend's mother this morning who died last Saturday while having surgery. I'm not looking forward to that. I never knew the woman, and frankly, have heard from her on children and others that she wasn't the nicest person that one could want to meet. But, nevertheless, her daughter is a dear friend of mine and I will attend for her sake and the sake.

She is Jewish and I have never been to a Jewish funeral service before. I must admit, as new experiences go, that aspect of it intrigues me. After the service, we will visit the house where her family home (where her father still lives) to "sit Shiva". Something else I've never experienced before. I'm concerned that there may be some protocol that I am unaware of. For example, on wikipedia.com, I found this line "Often, visitors will recite the traditional words of consolation, Ha-Makom y'nachem et'khem b'tokh sh'ar avelei Tziyon viyrushalayim, which translates as "May the Omnipresent comfort you among the other mourners of Zion and Jerusalem." Hmm. No offense, but I don't know if I can actually get my mouth to pronounce that properly. I like the English translation, but it sounds a wee bit intense.



I'll just go with the flow and try not to stick out to much though I'm certain to be the only 6 foot 5 man blonde man there.

My friend tells me that it will be like a party.


http://flickr.com/photos/jemsweb/

But I have my doubts about that for some reason.