My weekend: A fine and private place

 

I like cemeteries. I always have. Not for any mordant reason; just that they're peaceful and picturesque.  I'll talk about this a little more in an upcoming post. Laurel Hill Cemetery was really such a nice little visit. I'd like to return someday soon. Like Disney World, you just can't see the whole place in one day. Jen commented that it was like a small town.

Some of the mausolea (plural of mausoleum, hey you learn something every day, reading my blog) were bigger than my first apartment.

Lily really is my daughter.  When I asked her what she thought of Laurel Hill, without any prompting, she answered, "It's the best cemetery...EVER!" ("X is the best whatever...EVER!!" has been my catchphrase for years.) She's terrified of someone she knows dying, but she hasn't made the connection with cemeteries yet. She recently told me: "Sunnybird is going to die some day, but I love my pillow pet because she's just a stuffed animal and that means that she will never die."

But Lily loved the statues and what she thought were "stone fairies". (When I was recounting the story later, a friend thought I had said "Stoned fairies" and wondered what kind of places I was taking my daughter.)

We were supposed to meet my Philly friends there, but they all wimped out.  Apparently people get murdered here all the time, but I consider that a feature, not a bug. I mean, if you gotta go, how convenient is being murdered in a cemetery? My friend Tom is a huge fan of Firefly, Neil Gaiman and the Phillies and he missed Mal Reynolds and Neil Gaiman showing up at Harry Kalas' monument.

Pictures don't lie, baby

We met them at IKEA instead, and that was quite nice. It was Tom, Jen and Karen. I was reading back through old blog posts on the printed and bound version that I have. (You know, like normal people do) and I noticed that Tom and Jen and Karen had all been part of Lily's life before she was even born. All three of them are really great people for whom I have endless affection. Plus, Tom is a fan of the Sandman, which makes him EXTRA AWESOME! 

I was recounting all of Lily's habits to a friend: "When she was a little baby and still used a pacifier, we had a skull with LED eyes on top of a cabinet. I was holding Lily so it was at about eye level for her. She took her pacifier out and offered it to the skull. Also, she learned her letters by reading tombstones. She consistently claims grey is her favorite color. I can understand that sentiment from the Counting Crows, but from a four-year-old girl?"

My friend replied: "What have you done to your daughter? You're going to have a goth kid on your hands."

And I was like "She was like that when I got her!"

I think the highlight of IKEA was Lily telling Karen that Lady Gaga gave her the "Little Monster" shirt after Karen told her that Lady Gaga calls her fans little monsters.

After that, we went to UU church. They were having a Halloween party and the place looked like a den of inequity. However, since it's a UU church that's what it usually looks like.

The children's sermon

Halloween is the High Holy Day for Unitarians, so I thought they'd do up their church, but it looked pretty much like it always does.  

Business as usual

It was a nice little Halloween party (it had a tray of DIY cookies, with a bunch of frosting tubes and sprinkles.)

Lily was kind of naughty at the party. A little kid reached for the markers Lily was using and she pulled the whole tray away. I asked her how she would feel if she were a little kid and a big four year old girl pulled away the markers from her. She said "Happy!" in that petulant voice four-year-olds use when they're telling pissy, unconvincing lies.

...

Ah well. Still a little monster.