Thurs, May 8, 2008

8.35am - fresh squeezed juice, at home. That giant store-bought grapefruit was using up too much valuable real estate in our fruit basket that we need for Nadya's oranges (note the difference in size), so it had to go. Tasty mix, though...Hemp milk w/ sprouted grain cereal, almonds and dried cranberries, at work. I forgot the camera at home and had to use my cell phone camera, which doesn't record the time. And neither did I....

Argentinian spicy chicken empanadas from the Farmers Market outside work

bok choy, tofu and mushrooms, at work

7.08pm - ginger-turmeric soup w/ mushrooms, spinach, butternut squash, at home

7.223pm - tarama on toasted sourdough bread, at home

7.31pm - chocolate w/ almonds, at home

We got some bad news around this time - one of our old friends had just died. He was in his 80s and had been frail for many years, but it still came as a surprise. I was so frazzled by this news that I have no recollection of eating this chocolate at all. I can't imagine finishing off the whole thing, but I can't find it anywhere so I must have. I do remember a weird sense of somewhat compulsively wanting to stuff myself as though to assert my own status of being alive, which is why I reached for the chocolate in the first place. But needless to say, it was not mindful in the least.

We went over to our friends' house to sit with them until the mortuary picked up the body. We brought them some food, too - they wanted Chinese food from California Wok. Go figure. We shared a reheated meal with them between all the phone calls that had to be made to let people know what had happened and organize the funeral, but I abstained from taking pictures. More people showed up, stories were exchanged, arrangements were made and even some jokes were told, most notably about the fact that the deceased, in spite of being a convinced atheist, still wanted an orthodox Jewish funeral - which no one in this family really knew how to orchestrate. Some tears were suppressed, dishes were washed, farewells were said and finally the deceased was taken away to be kept safely somewhere until the funeral on Monday.
Jewish law (or custom) apparently dictates that the body would have to be buried within 24h. Alas, this was impossible as the cemetery was already overbooked for tomorrow, Friday. No burials happen on Sabbath, of course, and none either this Sunday because it's Mothers Day - the reason given was that when people go to the cemetery to visit their deceased mothers, they don't want to see any funerals in progress. I can imagine the opposite point of view, too - when you are saying farewell to your loved one during a funeral, you don't want hordes of Mothers Day visitors traipsing by either. So Monday it is.

We are all very sad.