Well, I've arrived back in Mesa after attending my grandfather's funeral back home. It was amazing - all the people that had so many wonderful things to say about my grandfather - and my grandmother too. They are inseperable in the minds of all who knew them. Pat did a beautiful job on the slide show at the end, and Kate ended up improvising one of the poems that she read - it was amazing. She has such a gift. Two of my young cousins were also impressive - especially the youngest, who asked to see the body before Grandpa was buried. Although he cried profusely, he took it better than most adults I know for someone who never really dealt with death before in his memory. He is a courageous kid who takes after his great-grandpa. I hope he can know that throughout his life. We're all going to have to work to come up to my grandparents level, I know, even though they would be the last ones to agree with that, as is evidenced by Grandma's Bible. She always felt like she needed to work on her behaviour - taming the tongue was a verse she particularly marked as "Focus on this".

Life continues here. I am looking forward to getting on with things, I guess. Being back here is harder than I imagined. I just need to keep pushing forward and working hard at both the craft and what God would want me to do personally.

I had a wonderful time at the show tonight - 2 of my high school teachers - Carol Jacobe and Nancy Rowe were at the show tonight. They just happened to be coming to Mesa for part of their vacation - how wild is that?! We also had a cabaret tonight - I sang Vanilla Ice Cream, and it went fairly well. There are some things I'd like to fix - namely working the new breath support into the mix. It's hard incorporating new stuff into MT repertoire at times. Anyways, Carol and Nancy had a great time, and had the best food they've had since arriving in Arizona. The show went fairly well - a few things here and there could have gone better for me (yes, I was nervous), but that's live theater for you. It keeps you on your toes, doing 62 performances of a show. I'm going to get to spend the afternoon with them on Wednesday, which will be fun, even though it's only 4 hours or so.

In talking with Mom this morning, she told me the police called. Because Grandpa was a former trustee and mayor, as well as the first Man of the Year (well, just read the July 3rd post), they wanted to give him a police escort to the cemetary. And the procession is going down the street named after my grandfather. Don't fuss, Grandpa - you've earned it.