“Uh oh, Megan’s blogging about the dead again…”
Living near and commuting past the Arlington Cemetery is certainly providing me with more than my fair share of sobering benefits. At least once a month I find myself driving by or following behind a cortège that is led by a horse-drawn gun carriage. Today was no different, and for some reason I stopped in the parking lot to observe a flag-draped casket that was being carried out of the tiny chapel and lifted onto the carriage. Navy colors were flying, and enlisted sailors stood in ranks at attention; it gave me flashbacks to my stint as Public Affairs Officer where one of my first duties as a dumb ensign was to drive to the Portsmouth Naval Hospital and pick up cremains that were to be buried out to sea. The excellence of this particular task culminated with phone calls to the bereaved in order to confirm name pronunciations for the ceremony. Who really wants to call people in mourning? Certainly not Ensign Hallinan, especially after a women takes her call while driving a city bus and proceeds to explain how she is positive that her husband’s death involved foul play, and that there must be a cover-up.
“Yes Ma’am, now you have a nice day…”
I’m not big on dwelling on the dead, or wondering what variety of Folgers coffee can in which my ashes will one day be deposited (attention family, do seek out only the most “most modestly priced receptacle”). There’s simply too much going on in crosstown traffic to let my thoughts get stuck at a cemetery for too long. That said, watching a small portion of this funeral service today did remind me again of who I am, what I’m doing, and where I’m going. Life is short, act quickly.
So with that thought I want to take a second and thank the people who have really made a difference in my life during the past year. I know that not all of you know the full scope of the ridiculousness that has been my recent life, but it suffices to say that one never knows where choices are going to take you. That is a dumbed-down translation of my blog title, by the way. I think the Yiddish say it better with the proverb “Man makes plans. God laughs.”
For those of you who are bored by sappy Academy Award acceptance speeches, please queue the pit orchestra and click your way over to the Velveeta blog entry right about now.
1. Thanks to my family for their boundless reserves of non-judgmental support. I don’t know what I would have talked about with my French teacher for the past six months if it were not for your wealth of markedly different, yet equally bizarre tendencies. (That was supposed to be a compliment, but it didn’t really come out that way, did it?)
2. Thanks to my language teacher who taught me more about life than French
3. And most of all thanks to my running group for making me feel normal again and teaching me that:
a. Rite-Aid is just around the corner
b. It is definitely a good idea to don a Mrs. Claus outfit and crash a party in order to make it instantly cool
c. Driving past National Airport seems to take a lot longer than it does to run past it
d. “Fun Runs” that start before the sun rises and occur while the rain falls actually are fun when they include copious amounts of inappropriate conversation
e. You really do need someone with you during the last 6 miles of a 26-mile run.
i. Addendum: You need to have good people with you through every long slow run. This sets the stage for a fantastic after-run gathering that produces even more inappropriate conversation and nourishment that ranks far higher than GU Chomps and Gatorade.
f. If you’re balding you really just need to call it a day and shave it all off
g. Really, Rite-Aid is just around the f***n corner, less than a block in fact…
h. It is possible to finish a marathon on a broken leg
i. We are all imperfect people, just trying to get by
j. No matter what kind of a day that you think you are having, there is always someone out there who has it worse than you, and they are kicking so much ass that you had better shut your mouth and run.
I have no idea where I am going to be come June 2012. I’ve given up on asking for anything other than good health for family, my friends and myself- anything on top of that is just gravy. As for whoever was buried today at Arlington, I can only hope that he or she felt like they lived a life as full as I feel mine has been.
On this run I lost my car key, but the experience taught me to rely on others to help get my car broken into and get me back on track
Most of the group posing before the Marine Corps Marathon. We clean up quite well I swear!