The pre-adventure begins...

Well, as most of you know now, I was accepted into the mortuary science program at Cypress College in Cypress, California. I had a good feeling that I was going to be accepted and be starting in the fall. As it turns out, after being accepted, I found out that they were starting the program a semester early. So instead of packing and saying good-bye in early August, I'm doing it in early June. Thankfully I have a month in between the summer and fall semesters to come back to Healdsburg and say my true good-byes. My boyfriend, Dan, will be staying behind during my summer semester and then he and I (along with our 2 kitties Ryu and Alya) will all make the final journey down together. In the meantime, I will be spending 6 weeks sleeping on a blow-up mattress in an empty apartment while taking my first 2 courses of the program. Although I'm afraid of the loneliness that will set in, I'm excited to venture out on my own and see what Long Beach is all about. I couldn't bring myself to say that I lived in Orange County, so after looking around a bit at Long Beach, I realized it was a short drive to Cypress and was in Los Angeles County. I was sold. Anyways, the first 6 weeks on my own will no doubt be an adventure.

I have a mandatory all day orientation on June 4th where I'll meet all the other newbies. It's supposed to be a meet and greet kind of day filled with paperwork, introductions and a physical (to see if we can lift dead weight...no pun intended). I'm mostly excited to see who I will be going through the program with. I'll be the first to tell you that those in the funeral industry do not fit the stereotypical image of a goth standing in the corner with green hair, a spiked collar and munching on a pigeon's head in Ozzy Osborn fashion. In reality, people like that would fail quickly in this industry. You must be presentable, approachable, kind, organized and for lack of a better word, "normal." Now this is the part that I'm really excited about. Yes, I'm sure all of us will look great in suits and smell nice and clean and smiling, but the truth is, people who enter this field are a little different. They view the world, and especially death, differently. They are able to dive daily into a world where the subject matter and images are avoided at all costs by the everyday outside people. I've learned through my boyfriend, who is in recovery, that those of us who can drink responsibly and not in excess are called "normies." That's definitely what I would label those outside of the funeral world. They are the "normies" who don't want to be confronted with the reality of death, the grieving process, nor what happens to your physical self after death. It is perfectly understandable. Death is scary. It's unknown and unknowable until your ticket number is called. There's absolutely nothing wrong with either type of "normie," but I'm just happy I'm the non-alcoholic version of one.

At home we have a kitty skeleton who we named Loki and a taxidermy parakeet named Sammy. They are both beautiful and proudly displayed on our bookcase. My very dear friend said to me the other day, "Wouldn't it be awesome if everyone who moved in to attend the program each brought their own taxidermy animals too?" It made me smile and reminded me of Harry Potter. Remember all the young tykes standing around on Platform 9 3/4 with their different types of wands and animals ready to embark on this huge journey to learn their calling in magic? Some had mice, others had cats, and some had owls. All were new and strange in their own special ways. What a comforting sight it would be to see someone move in next door to me in Long Beach who was also attending the program and see them carry in their taxidermy squirrel. Although I don't think this will end up being the case, I'll settle for meeting more unique individuals to add to those I've already come to care for in this industry. Maybe I'll meet another ex-night club bouncer turned embalmer, or another funeral director who makes casket couches, or maybe even another person who does removals who used to drive a school bus. These have already been such wonderful people who came into my life and I can't wait to see what potpourri of individuals awaits me on June 4th. Stay tuned...