Hiccups Along the Way

The past 2 ½ weeks seem like a blur. Our celebration of life for Papa was beautiful; we had a huge turnout of friends and family for his send off to the great blue sky. Of course with any thing in life you have a few hiccups along the way. And I was the one with the hiccups ...... My aunts thought I should read my last blog post as a tribute to Papa, (clearly they are delusional) and since there is no way in hell I would ever consider doing that I did the next best thing, I wrote a new tribute told some of his stories added pictures and rolled it up, tied it with ribbon so that everyone could take home with them. Problem solved .... or so I thought!

After working on a memories video much of the weekend and finishing it up on Tuesday night, the hubster burned several copies for me to give to the family. Wednesday morning I asked Prince Charming to put the DVD in the player so I can make sure it worked, since I have no earthly idea how to work any of the electronics in our house besides my computer and that’s if-y most days. So there we are and it looks great on the big screen and then..... it stops mid song and PC looks at me and said "well that was nice mom"....I start to stutter..... "NO ...NO ...NO why is it stopped?" He shows me that it's the end of the video...NO NO NO ...it has lots more pictures and 2 more songs to go!!! We tried another copy and it did the same thing, stopped in the same spot and everything!

UGHHH I take PC to school, return home to see what we can do... really that means see what the hubster can do...but he was on a call with work so could not come to the rescue! So I got another disc and tried to burn a new copy, made a cup of coffee and took a deep breath. That's when it caught my eye, the bottle of Kailua. Just sitting there at the end of the bar, as if it were calling my name, I walked over to the bar, looked at my watch and thought what the hell ..."Its 5 O Clock somewhere" and I started pouring it in my coffee, yes at 9:30am. Next up was Mama Pepper was calling to see if I was on my way and did I have the video done.... ahhhh yes...lets add another shot of this yummy Kailua ~ shall we! "Yepper I am on my way".

Arriving at the funeral home I gave the video to the young girl Brittany to start it. And that's when it happened.... the blue screen said ERROR no disc! UGHHHH I said here try this one....ERROR No disc.... she looked at me and said " Oh this happens a lot that our player doesn't work" OMG are you SERIOUS???? I was having flash backs to Aunt Doll's service and her video! And this was a different funeral home! Ok, ok , ok just breath.... I spot the cord hanging from the TV and grab it and said 'Do you have a computer or Laptop we can use?" Her "No - sorry we don't" I start waving the cord like a crazy lady saying "But that's what this is for!!" Pretty sure my voice was about 3 times higher than usual and I think she jumped back about 2 steps..... We ran back and got a laptop and Problem Solved ......well except for the video would not loop so I had Mama Pepper every 13.56 minutes saying can you start it over!

After the family and friends had visited, we had the Priest come to say a few words and tell some funny stories. As I am up front with the aunts and Mama Pepper she starts pointing to me and mouthing "Are you going to read it" Me shaking my head and waving my finger” NO NO NO ..... everyone has already been able to read it" (See she is now delusional as well) so she nods her head as if she understands and agrees.... okay this is where all my problem solving blows up in a cloud of smoke.....because as the Priest finishes and says " Does anyone want to come up and speak? " That Mama Pepper, and her 2 sisters “The Aunt’s” with a grin on their face and ALL SPOKE UP AT ONCE WITH " Pepper has something she will be reading"

OMG ARE YOU SERIOUS!!!! Did you not understand the NO NO NO with the shaking of the head and the finger waving???? I stood up and said "Well I guess that i have been volunteered to do this and it's a really good thing I have already started drinking this morning!!!Amazingly enough, I did not faint or throw up ....since there was a possibility of both things happening! It was a full house....about 115 people And I made it all the way to almost the end before my lips started to quiver and thankfully Mama Pepper jumped up to the rescue to read the last few lines with me.

Even though I thought I'd strangle MP and the Aunts for throwing me under the bus, I'm glad I did it. I know Papa would have been proud of me and he always did enjoy a good story teller and I made sure to tell it just the way he would ~