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January 23, 2008

What's the Deal with Food? And, Oh Yea, My Niece is a Rocker!

By: The Dude on the Right
With the passing of my father, and not wanting, yet, to get into some of the philosophical questions an event like that can bring, there was something that came up prior to his funeral that I suppose I can understand was important in the older age of funerals, but in this day and age, especially when my dad wanted a small, private funeral ceremony, why do some people assume that you need food and just show up with it, unannounced? And why am I conflicted with this topic because in the same gesture (by a different family friend) I was able to remember a dish I love?

Now I’m not saying the bringing food gesture isn’t nice, but shouldn’t the gesture start with a quick phone call offering condolences and then tossing in a "If you’d like I can bring you a ham dinner, complete with vegetables, coleslaw, and a store-bought jello mold in case you need something to eat?" But no, there it was, the night before, or maybe it was the night before the night before the funeral (they blend together right now), that a friend of the family showed up with half a ham, vegetables, coleslaw, store-bought jello mold, and lots of conversation for my sister to hear. The issue was that, in the land of the "on the Right" family, we had already planned for a small gathering of family following dad’s burial by securing a party tray, which, fine, for this occasion should probably be called a remembrance tray, but in any case the family refrigerator was already ready to be packed. Somehow, and God bless Sis on the Right, she found a way to stack, move, renegotiate, and fit everything in there, including the ham dinner, so that no one would get sick, and let me tell you, she knows all about the importance of refrigeration and reheating with her job in Lunchlady Land!

My confliction on this issue comes because even though the gesture on the part of our one family friend was nice, but wasn’t necessary, well, a neighbor baked a small dish of Noodle Pudding, and oh my God, it was so good. I forgot about Noodle Pudding, haven’t had it in years, and after getting back home found some recipes on the internet to try (although I should probably just call our neighbor and get hers, because, can I say it again, it was so good), so even though one family friend went a little overboard with her food gesture, that small dish of Noodle Pudding really hit the spot, and as more important in the time of comfort food was necessary, my mom loved it.

I guess I'm just really confused about sending food to the families of those going through the loss of a loved one, especially with the joy and tastefullyness of the Noodle Pudding that came our way, so to alleviate my confusedness, and because it's really not long enough for a blog, and because, during my "A New Chapter for the "on the Right" Family" blog, I mentioned how my niece is a rocker, I thought I would include in this post, my niece being a rocker.  Sorry for the sort of crappy video, but I think it really shows that my niece ROCKS!

BFF and favorite niece - YOU ROCK!

That's it for this one!  I'm The Dude on the Right!!  L8R!!!

Posted by Rightdude at 7:13 PM | Comments (2)