Topete

Topete's grandfather died Saturday morning around 5:30 am.  He had to go into work at 7, so he went in and worked a few hours and then left for the funeral home at 11.  When we got there at 8:30, he had been there all day.  I had discussed it with Mom since our plans had changed...  She said the same thing I thought, "It's strange to say, but it's an experience others won't have."

I find it interesting (and surely there's a reason) that they have the visitation the day of and the funeral and burial the next day.  The weekend I moved in with Alma, her brother's mother-in-law or cousin's grandmother, or someone she knew but wasn't related to had died and she went to the visitation on Friday (the day of the death) and then the funeral and cemetery on Saturday.

It fascinates me that everything is so fast since this is such a culture of family and quality time.  It seems to me they would take more time mourning together.  What do I know?

We stayed at the funeral home with Topete for about two hours.  Quinantzin an Iván had come to pick up Alma and me and off we went.  Mayra came later.  

We never even entered the viewing room.  We stayed out in the common area that had at least 40 black leather couches arranged in horseshoes of three couches.  It was full of all different families.  There was a cafeteria and bathrooms.  There was a huge waterfall that went down the glass by the elevators.  It looked like a ballroom full of couches.  Iván and Rocio came and it was good to see them.  Daniel (Liliana's brother) came, too.  

Alma got a call from Ocyé that she'd had a fight with her sister or something and so Johana was going to pick up Alma and me to go visit Ocyé.  However, while Alma was on the phone outside, Quinantzin and I started talking about how hungry we were!  We decided we'd go get dinner before she and Iván went to their party and Alma and I went to the birthday party for her friends from Navolato.  Alma came back in informing us that Johana was on her way, but I backed out, wanting food!

She left as did Iván and Rocio.  Shortly after, Liliana and Renato got there.  Lili cut her hair and it is adorable.  It was really good to see her and Renato.  After we said hey to them, we jetted to the parking garage.

We decided at 11:00 the only thing open would be tacos, so off we went.  The place was called La Ceiba (which is apparently a type of tree) and Mayra and Quinantzin ordered a quesadilla to split.  I ordered a quesadilla and they both looked at me like I was crazy, yet not telling me to just order a half.  Iván abstained.

The tortillas for the quesadillas were literally the size of pizza crusts.  My quesadilla came out (they serve quesadillas the way we could call taco- cheese, lettuce, meat, onions, DELISH) after Mayra and Quinantzin had gotten theirs.  The guy came to the table to deliver it (not our waitress) and started to put it in front of Iván.  "Una quesadilla?"  I raised my hand and he made a look like, you can't eat all this.

I had eaten very healthily all day and it was 11:00 at night; I was starving!  I ended up eating almost all of it.  And I didn't even feel guilty!

As we were finishing, I texted Alma since we were going to meet back up when she finished with Ocyé.  She said they were going to eat dinner, too.  Where were we?  I told her and she said they were on their way.

So we sat through another meal.  Johana ate a whole quesadilla too, so I didn't feel bad!  Johana is hilarious.  I wouldn't say she rubbed me the wrong way, but something seemed strange at first.  Now I just realize she's always the life of the party and loves to laugh.

From there, we all decided we'd go with Alma to La Callecita (the club for old folks where her students were going to be) and wait outside while she went in, made an appearance and came back out.  While we were waiting outside, Johana decided to leave.  Iván wanted to go home.  So we all drove around dropping people off and then came back (Mayra, Quinantzin and I) to wait on Alma.  She came out and we looked for another party that Pirru had told us about.  Mayra had wanted to go because an ex-boyfriend was there.  We drove by, but it was crowded and we couldn't tell if Pirru was there (and he was the only one we'd know there) and he hadn't answered our calls.  We went around the corner and Mayra and I traded places so she could see instead of driving.  I did the drive by.  We still saw no one.  Considering it was 2:00, we took Quinantzin home and headed there ourselves.