One of my father's friends passed away last week. It was definitely a shock for everyone as he wasn't very old and was in very good health. I got the phone call Friday night along with a suggestion that maybe I should go (being the only one in my family still in Toronto.) As yesterday progressed I realized that my father's suggestion wasn't really a suggestion but rather a request for me to go and he fully expected me to show up as his proxy. So I did. I said whatever awkward thing I said and then came back home.
I find our mourning process strange... very surreal. People stand near their dead loved one while putting on a brave face and greeting guests. This just seems so strange to me. I don't get it. It's not that I have a better idea of how to deal with this... I just don't understand how people can be so... strong...
Last month my grandfather passed away at the age of 93. It ended up being a pretty amazing trip to Alberta. All of my cousins were there except for one (that's 37 cousins! - not including spouses or children!) I spent the entire 5 days with my immediate family - my brother came up from Hawaii, my sister came from Guelph and everyone (including my parents) stayed at my sister's house in Edmonton... I think it was the best family gathering we've had in a long time - which I realize is kind of a sad thing. Everyone agreed that this is how it was supposed to be... that Grand-papa would've laughed at us playing our spoons, harmonicas and singing along to some old Bonne Chanson songs together.
Anyway... on a less heavy note... I came home today and started playing around with some of my old pictures (seeing that I haven't really taken anything interesting recently). I decided to install Lightroom to give it a try. I've apparently gotten used to using CS3 and so this is a little different - I'm not sure whether I like it or not yet. I have to say Lightroom has tons of presets which are fun to play with and can give you some pretty interesting / cool / borderline-annoying effects in no time at all:
No comments:
Post a Comment