dharma

Well, the first phase of the funeral is over.

Right as I flew into town and arrived home, everybody was dressed in black.

The family decided to go with a Buddhist celebration (?).

Eating vegetarian food, the sons and daughters of the deceased are not allowed to eat the duck/pork/chicken laid out on the table.

Anything that reminded them of happiness- family portraits- was covered.

The light was kept on in his room this entire time, and the all lights in the rest of the house were kept on when we left for the wake. My parents, aunts, and uncles are also not allowed to visit any other people's houses for a month. Checks written out in honor of my grandfather were sometimes written out as odd dollar amounts. I never thought my family was so superstitious.

The wake took place from 6 to 8 PM. 2 Buddhist monks (priestesses?) orchestrated the procession. Every immediate family member took their turn going to the casket, calling out grampa's name 3 times, and moving on. My grandmother took it the hardest.

A lot of kneeling and bowing occurred, with offers of food, money, water, tea for the afterlife. Incense filled the room with dust and smoke.

Paper was burned in the end.

Today, my brother carries his portrait while I, along with 5 other people, carry his body to the plot where he will be buried.

Shower time. Adios.

supermassive black hole

The moment I leave a place, one person dies on me.

First Ray, and now my grandfather.

Sunday, during one of the days of the conference, I was happily chatting along with Poorneel when my Aunt calls out of the blue to tell me to go to LA quickly. I kept asking what was wrong, but she wouldn't say anything. So my cousin and I drove 1.5 hours up from San Diego to visit the grandparents.

Grandpa's health had declined. He was bedridden, with fever.

I had heard that day that my parents and uncle in Texas would be driving over 24 hours nonstop to LA. My cousins there would be flying out Wednesday.

I saw him, laying in bed, but he wouldn't open his eyes. He would respond to some stimulus such as foot pinching, and he would wince from time to time but made no other reactions.

Seeing as there was nothing more to do, I drove back to SD to attend the Monday conferences. I went to a 6:30 to 10 PM satellite symposium, wanted to go sleep, but had to entertain Poorneel's friend from UCLA. I crashed afterwards, and drove back up with my cousin on Tuesday. Stayed Wednesday, no change, and drove back down to SD since I had to return my rental car and fly back to SF to take care of some work at lab.

Thursday returning, I did little in lab, and dressed up for West Side Story, an event my lab mates and I planned a month in advance. They were cracking jokes, I was having fun, and halfway into the musical, I get a text from my brother that my grandfather passed away at 7:38 PM.

I asked how everybody was holding up, and he told me that people seemed well, all except for my grandma, the one person I worried about most from all of this.

Some of my cousins- the older ones- and I were assigned the task of being pallbearers while my brother has to take on the role of carrying his portrait during the funeral.

I have to get a haircut, buy a suit, and pack before Tuesday so that I can be in LA for the funeral on Wednesday. I am nowhere ready for this.

SfN

Best moment at SfN today:

My Danimals was talking to a PI from UTSW who also chaired the Kavli Fellows talks (the stem cell section) this year. She told him that I sounded like a postdoc.

EEEP! n_n

I couldn't stop smiling after that.

ip man

I was kinda relying on Crassie to be my roommate for Lizbean's and Doc Fondles' wedding, except she's bringing her bf Geoffrey along. She offered to share their room w/ me, but that would probably make me uncomfortable. Greater than or equal to the discomfort I felt when unwillingly sharing my bed during college w/ couples.

LA was not relaxing, but still fun. Now I have all this work to do in preparing a poster.

Cells are still alive and ticking, so something's good. Human cells are very robust, according to my time needs anyways... only because they grow much more slowly than mouse brain cells.

Although, I come back to lab and find several things in disarray. Why must I be the cleanest one in lab??? Isn't this how it always works with living situations? It's usually the person who's cleaner than the rest that gets frustrated and annoyed with the relative dirtiness of the condition in which the others leave the place. All the tubes are in disarray, the water levels are low in the incubators and baths, the reagents have not been restocked. Sigh.

Another day at work. Restarting tomorrow.