Wake crashing

12 Apr 2010 3 Comments

by meganfinley in death Tags:

A photo of the church I took with my iPhone.

I had a client meeting with Claudia and Eddie (and Claudia’s adorable daughter) at their wedding location in Old World in Huntington Beach (which is apparently known for its Oktoberfest & Dachshund Races). Of course while exploring their venue, we had to check out the church. They was some sort of service in progress, but we went in to look around anyway. So we sat down, listened to the pretty organ music, talked about the look and the feel and just as I started talking about the lighting, the music stopped as my words “natural lighting” echoed through the small chapel.

Oops.

Embarrassed, Claudia and I giggled. Immediately after the music stopped this woman started speaking at the pulpit about what a great man one of the pastors was, and how he will be missed and I’m sure that all of you have wonderful memories of him and OH MY GOD we had just crashed a wake!

Of course the realization of this washes over us all around the same time and we can’t help but want to laugh as we exchange “omg this awkward” glances back and forth. But we were stuck there! You can’t just storm out of a wake in the middle of a woman giving a teary-eyed heart-felt speech! So we just sat and sat and I tried not to laugh over and over again. I felt AWFUL! So then finally there came a moment where one of the congregation asked to say something and, as they were figuring out the logistics of this exchange, all four of us snuck out of the small chapel. And by “snuck” I meant, scampered out with our proverbial tails between our legs.

As Claudia said, I can now scratch “crashing a wake” off of my bucket list. ;)

RIP Paul Lewis

30 Aug 2009 1 Comment

by meganfinley in death, sad times Tags: , ,

My neighbor died about a week ago. His name was Paul. Paul was this cool old guy that lived right across from me — our doors face each other. 

reminders of Paul

This is what’s left of Paul in my life. The spots on the railing that have been used so much (as it got harder and harder for him to make it up and down the stairs) that it wore through the top layer of black paint down to the green that it used to be. It’s sad and it’s weird and am even missing the smell of stale cigarettes that used to come wafting out of his door.

I don’t really have much to say in this post about Paul because I didn’t really know him, but I thought I should document this somehow.

Also this twitter exchange made me smile…

@meganfinley First my neighbor Paul, now Les Paul. :( RIP you old badasses.

@PFTompkins @meganfinley AM I NEXT?!

what does this mean?

14 Dec 2007 3 Comments

by meganfinley in death Tags:

pigeon & rose

I came upon this while walking my dogs this morning. I’m wondering what it means. My first reaction was sadness and then I was overcome with a feeling of peace and an inner calm. I’m hoping it’s a good omen because I need one today. See, today is the day a judge decides whether or not the crazy man who lives in my building, the guy that threatened my life and the lives of my family and friends, will be evicted or not. So I’m hoping that today that judge’s decision will bring me that same feeling of peace and inner calm that the dead pigeon did.
But then again, it’s a dead pigeon. That could also be a bad sign. Right? Seeing dead things first thing in the morning?
So that’s where I am. Confused, nervous, hopeful and concerned. What does this mean?

if you want to see more pictures of the bird and the bud just click on the picture, it’ll take you to my flickr site.

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