Long time, no post...ah well. I’m more likely to post now that no one
checks for updates anymore.

News.. Michael passed his certification
exam last night. He can now officially go into private practice. As much as
social work as a form of public service is valuable, it certainly has a tendency
to chew you up and spit you out. When I think of social work, I always think
of Edward Abbey's description in The
Fool's Progress. In his world, social workers end up drunks or assholes..
or in a lucky few both. Anyway, I hope that Michael can find a happy medium
between serving the needy and serving himself.

Last weekend I went to the funeral
of Mike's grandmother. It is hard to describe what the experience was like.
I went to grieve the loss of a woman I never knew in a fashion that was foreign
to me. During the visitation, I found myself feeling a bit like I was at a party
and the dead woman in the room was a bizarre centerpiece. The funeral was more
somber certainly, but so disjointed from my own world that it could have been
a scene in a movie or act III in a play. The preacher rambled, the bible was
quoted, and a country song about angels was played while family sniffled.

It wasn't until the drive home that I finally felt like I had a chance to honor
this stranger. Mike and I spent the two hour drive back talking about his grandmother.
I may not have known her, but now I can remember her.