Moving on. Today was a more solemn/sad day for us. What happened was, all of us (Fawn, Arlin, Ryan and I) drove up to Oklahoma City because Fawn and Arlin had a court appearance. On the way to the courthouse, Ryan and I passed a graveyard with a huge, open, mausoleum and we decided to go and check it out. Well, this was more on my part, Ryan feels that it is somewhat disrespectful to go into cemeteries.
Anyway, we go and we eat lunch in the cemetery, just paying respect and spending sometime with some folks who might not get many visitors now. We ate with a 9 year-old boy, a 101 year old man and two others, a man and a woman, but I don't remember their ages. It was very pleasant, since it was sunny and there was a nice breeze and we were seated under a tree. This may seem weird, but I enjoyed it very much. It was a good lunch, because it was peaceful, it didn't feel like these people were angry and wanting to hurt us like in the last cemetery I was in.
After lunch, we gathered up our containers and thanked the people for letting us visit with them. Then we got into the car and began to drive around, to head back toward the mausoleum, which we were going to explore. (once again, that was more my idea. I have a facsination with the dead.)
As we are driving around, we see one section of the cemetery marked "Babyland". We stopped and looked at one another, then said, "We should visit the babies". We parked the car and got out and walked over to the smaller plot of ground. There was a sidewalk, in the shape of a heart, around the small little graves. These babies didn't have headstones, but plaques set in place. Some had flowers, some had toys, some were bare.
Walking around, we read the names out loud and then started cleaning up some. There were parts of this small section that had trash, empty juice bottles and pieces of paper. The flowers had fallen over and some of the toys had been messed with. We set things straight and brushed the mown grass off of most of the headstones. I wanted to find a place with flowers so that the bare ones could have some, but we didn't get to.
There was one grave in particular that the stone was completely destroyed. The name and dates were in-decipherable. Which really bothers me. I don't know why, but it felt like it wasn't fair that this particular child didn't even have a stone plaque that would let people know that they had lived at one point.
One of my friends told me today that she doesn't like graveyards, they scare her because she is always afraid someone is going to follow her home. Well, I have to be honest, they do follow you home, in one way or another. Not always in spirit form, sometimes in memories and thoughts. For me, that child, their stone completely destroyed, will stay with me. That is something I'm going to remember. That was someone's baby at one time, someone's everything. And now, they don't even have a stone or flowers or a toy. When I come back from Indiana I'm going to make another trip out to OKC so that I can place some flowers on that baby's grave.
My friend, Sam, says we did good by cleaning up. I don't know. I feel like we could've done more.
The mausoleum, by the way, was huge and amazing. Some areas smelled like rotting corpses (hmm, I wonder why), but mainly it smelled like baby powder. Which is such an odd smell, to me, to have in a place of death. Something that, to me, smells of life and birth has now become associated with the smell of death and marble halls full of names and flowers and dates.
Once again, as we were leaving, I thanked them for allowing us to visit (I feel its respectful to thank the dead). Ryan made fun of me for this. He says they have no choice but to let us visit them. They are just laying there. I think that if they didn't want us there, they would find a way to get rid of us. The dead have their own ways to dealing with strangers and unwanted persons.
I wish we could've visited Korea Town while we were in OKC, but we didn't have time. Though, before court we did get to see the mall. Well, one of them. It was huge and Ryan and I rode the escalators. I love escalators!!
And I saw a cute Pakastani. Though, Fawn found him to be ugly.Oh, and today we picked up some purple passion hair dye. For me. Yes, you read right. For me. I'm dying my hair purple and white. Strange I know, but I want to. I'm only young once right? And I've never dyed my hair before. I kind of am hesitant about the fact that I have to bleach my hair to get it to work, but I think it will be okay. The lady said it won't damage my naturally curly hair, which is good, because I just got to the point where I like my curls. Fawn says that it will take a lot of bleach because of my hair being so incredibly dark. She said she would almost call it Asian Black-Blue. Which seems strange to me. *shrug*
I'm also considering an eyebrow piercing to go along with my nose (when I get it done). Thats still floating around, maybe, maybe not. I do know that some things I want to wait until I've lost more weight, eyebrows (though they have nothing to do with weight loss) maybe be one of those things that I wait for. To redefine, Sarai when the time comes. I don't know.
Now, as to my last topic: Videos. Ryan's phone has a recording option. Fawn and I went hog-wild with this option and shot several videos. We will figure out a way to upload them, because they are funny and I want to keep those memories on here, if at all possible. They were mostly to celebrate Fawn's birthday which is today (July 11th). She is 28 years old. I am reminded of something my Memere (mem - may) said to my mom once in a birthday card.
She was remarking on how my mother was 36, I believe, and she said that one of her sisters was in her 60's. She said, "Does that make you feel very young, dear?" I don't know why it makes me think of that, but it does. I hope to get to California soon, so that I can go and visit her grave and enjoy lunch with her and Pepere (pep - pay). I miss them both so much.
Well, I think that is all for now. I will write more later on the latest developments with my hair and a b-day scavenger hunt we are holding at the mall for Fawn. Plus I have to do laundry so that I won't have to go back to Indiana naked. Which would be awkward...
No comments:
Post a Comment