Embalming fluid and other fun fluids

I went to ma Tante Beatrice's wake last Thursday. It was a spoonful of awkward served with a heaping side of guilt.
My godmother took my arm and showed me her dead mother: " Voici ma maman". I didn't know what to do or say, I just stared at Beatrice's dead body, thinking of all the chemicals inside of her and wondering why she didn't look more waxy. Thanks to the show Six Feet Under all I could imagine was the embalming fluid being pumped into her frail frame. I think my mother turned me away to introduce me to family members I hadn't yet met.
That image haunted me until Saturday night.
Embalming fluid. That was all I could think about.
It wasn't a useless thought process though. I found the dead body really creepy so I don't think that I would ever want to be presented as a preserved dead carcas to cry over. Except if that is what my family would want at the time.
I didn't go to the fruneral, but I did make it to the post-fruneral-meet-and-greet-in-a-church-bingo-basement. And there I met a seemingly pleasant family, who had a new baby daughter. She was 6 weeks old, and so perfect. I can't remember the last time I held a baby. She was so fragile. It was a great feeling, and for a while, I forgot about embalming fluid, and all I could think about was her life as a clean slate, her unrealised potential. I asked the mother about her newest daughter and then asked how many other children she had. She had she had had five children but 3 of them died. Inside of her. All a week or two before she gave birth to them. So that is why this daughter was so tiny, premature so assure her own umbilical cord wouldn't kill her like what had happenned with the others. I have never seen a woman carrying so much grief (no pun intended), and yet so happy. The beautiful thing was seeing how much love there was to the baby from her older brother, he kissed her and held her and played with the little hair she had.
Later, I didn't cry over Beatrice, but I did for the three unborn babies.
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A few hours later I boarded a train to Kingston. This weekend was, after all, Homecoming weekend.
Unfortunately we didn't make it to pancake keggers or the game, but once about 4pm hit, the day got better after getting quickly drunk in a bar to ease my sorrows. Then I went shopping. Don't drink and shop y'all.
I didn't do too much damage, but I just bought anything I felt like (new Sam Roberts CD, old NIN cd, t-shirt at the GAP and a small perfume). Good thing the shops closed at 6, otherwise my bags would have no doubt multiplied.
Homecoming evening was probably the best homecoming I've had, which was unexpected surprise. There was no animosity, or flipped cars and the negative engergy of Homecoming '05 seemed far, far away. The number of cops bordered on ridiculous but I didn't see any bad behaviour on their part either. Unlike last year there seemed to be an air of respect for students, and policemen. The volunteers were polite and not pushy, and I appreciate everyone's efforts to have peaceful and successful homecoming celebrations.
I'll also make one thing clear, I didn't really drink at all during the night. Ok, so maybe Don and I stole some beer from the Queen's Bands party that we crashed, but not enough to get drunk off of. I was, along with my tag team for the night, Don and Alexis, a vision of sobriety. That didn't intrude on our fun, but probably helped us keep having fun till 4am. Alexis made a new friend by just randomly eating his poutine and we all ran into a ridiculous amount of people we all knew. Homecoming this year was basically a meet-and-greet in the street. Oh, and getting onto the roof of the JDUC and catching couples have sex in the JDUC... hahahha.
Sunday brunch I got to see Nick (who now drinks tea?) and caught up on what was going on at school, and I get the impression he's having an amazing time. I think Engineering is perfect for him. :)
I think I really needed the high that this weekend gave me after the somber tone of last week.
For someone who tries to avoid the personal in their blog, this is a remarkably personal and long post.