Longest day ever.

It started with an escaped cat at 7:15 this morning. Then went on to bathing the filthy beast after a two-hour adventure in the back yard. Then a nap. Then a call from Robert just as I was waking up and thinking about doing actual work. Then a call from my grandma's home to say that the family should get there pronto, as she was declining fast. Then an adventure in trying to find my mother, who was in transit between work and doctor's office. Then calling every other freaking family member I have (my grandma had seven kids, and they have gone forth and multipled... as have their children). THEN getting myself to the home, only to have my mom call when I was five muinutes away to say that she'd passed on. (I'm not too disappointed, because she's not really "been there" for almost a year. We weren't expecting some great moment of lucidity, or anything.) Mom says she went quietly in her sleep -- was breathing one minute and had stopped the next.

So. That was just the start of things. We waited on all of the family members who were, by this time, already en route through rush-hour traffic (Minnesota has two seasons: Snow Plow, and Road Construction. Guess which one we're in now). Two hours later the hospice chaplain (coolest lady ever) held a short bedside prayer service. Then we made plans for dinner -- mom, cousin J and I stayed to wait for the dude to come and take her away (he was also really cool; do all the nice people go into death-related fields, or something?). Joined everyone else for a quick dinner and got home at 9:45 -- six hours after I first got the call.

My family was at its finest in inappropriateness today. See, we use humor as an automatic response to any emotion (except anger -- that we just yell about). We're not sure if the funeral will turn out to be more of a commemoration or a roast. Probably a healthy mix of the two.

And don't get me started about grandma's love for ice cream. It's one of the few elements of her personality that was there to the very end.