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give it a rest in peace
03/18/2006 = 07:07 AM

In case you think I'm not doing anything constructive due to being on vacation the past two days, I'll have you know that I wrote my obituary, just in case.

http://youdied.blogspot.com/2006/03/golf-widow.html

I really did start out writing something serious, but couldn't continue in that vein, because I didn't want to use my real name, even just my first name, and I didn't really care to put my real location, either.

And face facts — my nom de guerre sort of makes a joke of itself in an obituary, being that the word "widow" appears in it. You can't just leave something like that in front of me and assume I'm not going to pick it up and run like hell. I know. I've seen me do it.

In a more serious vein, I can say that I did give a real obituary a lot of thought, and I've decided that, when I die, I don't want a full bulleted list of all my damned accomplishments and things.

I just want the bits that mattered to me when I was alive.

My family.

My friends. (Can you get friends listed in an obituary? I have some without which my obituary wouldn't be complete.)

I suppose some cursory (not "tertiary") listing of my schools and jobs better be in there for those morbid souls who want to see if I'm the person they knew by that name all those years ago.

But I think the main information ought to be what I loved doing best whilst I still drew breath (ooh, look at me, I'm all poetic), and that's already written, and you can read it here if you haven't already:

Writer's Idea Part III

So maybe the actual obituary I wrote for YouDied wasn't an entire success, but the exercise itself was, because it got me to think about what I want people to be able to clip out of the paper and mail to other people. Or to stick on their dartboards.

drinking: coffee
listening to: Mary J. Blige, Be Without You
don't forget: hire andy. he said he really would get me shiny things if you do. his wife works in a jewelry store.