Look At Pixie's Hair!

Well, I made it out of Bakersfield alive. Long story short, I have more cousins than I can count, one major incident is never ever enough, and despite how it seems now- life does go on.

First off, Aunt Belle died- a few days later Aunt Anne fell and broke her wrist in three places, then Jeffery's dog had a bizarre and traumatizing death. The dog's name is escaping me.... My mom, brother (we decided it was time he understood why we're so exhausted when we come home), and I showed up at Uncle Joe's house. We walked into the house and found Aunt Mary Poncetta (versus Mary Bunn) at the kitchen table.

"Well as if one death wasn't enough, Jeff's dog just died and we've been dealing with that...." We discovered my godmother Tina on the phone making preparations dabbing tears from her eyes. When she got off the phone she told us how the dog was fine and dandy and then all of a sudden started freezing up and falling over, unable to move. She and Nernie (her sister) took him to LA to the vet but to no avail, he was put to sleep and they decided to cremate him.

Then Nernie's cellphone rang and Tina answered,
"Hello?...Who is this?? Excuse me? Who is this? I don't want to start getting mean...Nern take the phone!" She handed it off to Nernie, "He asked if we're the ones who poisoned the dog, I don't even know this guy! Not very funny.... he's probably never had a pet... It's very traumatizing."


Dog aside, there was still a funeral to go to, and the shenanigans weren't over.

As we left Sacred Heart after the service I watched as my cousin Burt knelt down at the steps of the church and picked something up, a cigar. He caught me looking at him, "Well OBVIOUSLY I wouldn't take it in." As if I was being ridiculous by looking at him funny. Later on at the graveyard I observed a very funny exchange:
Burt stood over a tombstone away from the crowd, struck a match and began to puff at his cigar. An elderly woman, tilted her head at him quizzically, Burt looked at her and then down at the name on the stone then back at her, "It's not like he's going to be bothered by second hand smoke. He hasn't taken a gulp of air in oh.... ten years, I doubt he'll start now." Flustered she shook her head and walked away.

For whatever reason this last interaction with Burt made me realize that even though Aunt Belle's gone, we're still here, and we are what we are, despite the circumstances.

"GOD DAMN!! Kerra! (nobody can pronounce my name...) Look, over there, look at Pixie's hair." I looked
"What the hell is that hair-do? She looks like a damn sumo wrestler, what was she thinking, jeez." Sure enough Pixie looked like a sumo wrestler with a small bizarre bun on her head and huge poofy bangs that stood up from her head instead of rest on her forehead. Burt excitedly went on to tell everybody else about Pixie's hair.

It's really strange how something like that causes you to make other connections, I'm not sure what it was about his mannerisms during this episode, but I was vividly reminded of both Aunt Belle and Aunt Mary and how much they loved to talk about people.

Funny how some things carry on through generations...