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The only reason I might go to the funeral is to make absolutely sure that he's dead. |
Saturday, November 22, 1997
My sister M---- asked me if I would help my nephew J--- with a project. His school (a parochial school) is doing a little holiday carnival, mostly put on by the kids, for the kids. After considering several alternatives, we decided to have a booth where kids could rubberstamp Christmas cards for a small fee. This is practical because I already have a lot of stamps, and it's something that all ages can participate in.
This morning was the planning meeting at the school gym. There was an attempt by the woman who is running the whole thing to get the kids in on the decision-making process. Unfortunately there were too many kids there who weren't involved in the carnival, so they just ran around the gym, which made it tough for the kids who were involved and wanted to be involved to concentrate. Finally we got to the point where the kids voted on which charity they wanted to give half the proceeds of the carnival. They chose from three alternatives, and picked the one with a name they'd heard of before.
J--- showed a lot of concentration, and even volunteered to make a large poster to hang in the gym to point up the charitable aspect of the carnival. It's one of his good qualities that he feels empowered to participate in a mixed-age group on an equal basis with kids and adults. His mother and I think this may come from his Cacophony and Fremont Arts Council activities. When he first got mail from the FAC (this was before he could read), he had his mother read it to him, then said to her, "I guess I'm part of the company now," as in a performing arts company.
* * * * * * * *
This evening we had a Cacophony event, a mock wake for "Ed" who presumably had been cremated. The premise of the event was that we were taking his cremains out on the town to the places he loved in downtown Seattle. We were supposed to meet at the Cloud Room, at the Camlin Hotel. I took the bus downtown and saw two fire trucks and a crowd of people in front of the hotel! Because of the Apple Cup football game, the hotel was filled with WSU fans, and one of them had pulled the alarm! Jayson showed up a minute after I did, and we waited a while till they were letting people up to the bar, on the top floor. When we got off the elevator, we were just in time to hear the bartender kicking out two women who decided to take the opportunity of the building being empty to get behind the bar and help themselves.
We ensconced ourselves at the corner of the bar, with the urn (filled with powdered yeast since no fireplace ashes were available) on the bar in front of us. David Volk, Yasha, and Nick joined us in short order. We traded stories about Ed's inventions (staircase baseball, for kids in apartment buildings). Some of us took forever to decide on a beverage, which isn't the way to a bartender's heart.
It was so great to see Yasha! We owe so much Cacophony to his dementia. "Put the Hank Back in Thanksgiving" and our Socks the Cat brochure are his productions, as well as large chunks of "Lincoln Sees His Shadow and Falls in Love." Lately we haven't seen so much of him, due to his being a slug and a layabout. Send him feedback if you like the stuff that he has produced!
From the Cloud Room we wandered on to the Paramount (Ed loved the Paramount!) then to the Kinko's that is in the Convention Center. The copies we did of the urn were mostly black, but the mysterious blurs and blobs seemed to be messages to us from Ed from beyond. There was a great art show going on in the public areas of the Convention Center, models of public buildings built from cans and packaged food! Also an exhibition of designs for products that use recycled materials. Cool stuff! A paper wedding dress, a screen made of corrugated cardboard that I wouldn't mind having, and lots of other items.
We took a brief tour through Gameworks, then on to Palomino because I was hungry. Nick ordered bruschetta, Jayson ordered focaccia, Yasha ordered ice cream, but the crispy potatoes with Gorgonzola that I got were the hit of the evening. I was expecting perhaps some shredded potatoes baked with cheese, like potatoes au gratin. What I got was a huge mound of what Yasha called "snowshoe fries," with some creamy sauce drizzled over and then sprinkled with Gorgonzola cheese crumbles. Yum! There was enough to share with everyone, too!
Our original idea had been to go back to Gameworks at 11:30, because after that time you can buy a ten-dollar two-hour pass and all those under 18 must leave. But by that time we were too tired and we all wimped out. Instead we lounged in the elegant City Centre, where Palomino's is. They have some very nice glass art there, and some very comfortable couches. It was so nice to chat with the guys!
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