Feeling better

Well, the stress of this week has been phenomenal, but things are starting to even out now. My parents are doing better in the aftermath of my uncle's death. The only thing they have to contend with now is the callous way that my cousin, Ingrate, has chosen to handle the final arrangements - or not, as the case may be. She decided to just hand it all over to the VA and let them handle it. She didn't even tell anyone until yesterday that was what she did, thinking no one would want to attend any sort of service. I was talking with my wife the other day and she asked me how it is that my immediate family (parents and siblings only) turned out so great and my extended family turned out so screwed up? I didn't have a satisfactory answer for her, although I made the case that at least one of my aunts and uncles on my father's side are nice if a bit distant, one of my female cousins and her husband seem to be all right, and the one remaining male cousin I have seems to have matured after having had a child.My relatives-in-law are great, by the way - I'm talking about blood relations here.

Now the only thing I have to worry about is the Pee Doctors card. I sort of inherited a paying cartooning gig from my late "sort-of" mentor, Randy Wicks, who would draw a holiday card for a urology practice in my home town, which would then be mailed out to all their patients, including my parents. The head of the practice is a huge Beatles fan and for the past few years, he's wanted the four doctors in his practice depicted in re-creations of Beatles album covers. This year, he wants "Abbey Road" which if your memory is faulty, is the one where the Beatles are walking across a crosswalk on a suburban-looking British street. I have to get on the stick about that in between working at the bookstore, finishing my art projects for my design class, nursing Olivia back to health, and trying to get some exercise in so I can lose some of my tonnage.

Here's hoping your weekend is better than mine!

~Rob