3 weddings and a funeral

Not exactly...but, it's been an interesting month. Photo shoots have been happening. Had a little hitch in the business but over that and all better now...however, 2013 has not started out on the positive note I had hoped...

However - the weddings: I have been hired for a couple of weddings this year :) Hurray! I am meeting with another potential wedding client tomorrow to look over my portfolio and discuss options.

The rest of the title: My best friends husband had a major heart attack the other day. By major I mean the man almost died, he had to be airlifted to a different hospital, he was having emergency surgery when his blood pressure crashed...Thankfully, they were able to stabilize him and now he has surgery scheduled for this coming Friday.

As I was driving home from my visit to central Illinois for the sake of visiting my best friend and her husband I received a phone call from a family member who informed me that my aunt was in the hospital and in a coma...
She passed away on Sunday.

This has brought a flood of communication from family members and while it may seem harsh and mean, I am a pretty darn honest person...by honest I mean, I don't act or pretend to have feelings that I don't for the sake of being socially accepted. While many people love the swarm of their families getting together, I personally, dread it. And, for good reason. Our family doesn't get together and have the love and hugs and stuff that other families do...and our family tends to say stuff that usually gets blurted out in the heat of the moment and then later they are offended if someone has the nerve to be mad at them. I am not saying by any means that I am not like this in some ways; I am simply saying that I attempt to keep that kind of behavior to a minimum and also attempt to keep my mouth shut rather than say hurtful things to people.

This being said here are a few  Prime examples of behavior by family members that makes me nuts:
Example 1: On the day that my aunt went to the hospital I called my cousin.
Me: "Hi, it's Patty. Is your mom okay?"
Cousin: "Who is this?"
Me: "Your cousin Patty" (we live one town apart and run in to each other at walmart quite often...I'm certain she knows my name).
Cousin: "What do you want?" (seriously, didn't I already explain the reason for my phone call?)
Me: "I got a call from one of our cousins (did I mention this cousin that called me lives in FLORIDA and my cousin lives in the town over while my aunt lives just down the road from me?) and he said your mother was in the hospital. I was calling to see if she is okay..."
Cousin: "She's in the ICU."
Me: (getting a bit annoyed as I just want to know a yes or no, and possibly what happened.) "Okay, but is she okay, what happened, do you need anything?"
Cousin: "She's in the ICU, Patty. We could use some prayers."

I ended the phone call at this point, by saying, we will keep her in our prayers and please let me know if you need anything.

I then called my brother, who called my mother in Portugal...shortly after this my brother called me back and informed me that my aunt was brain dead, and they were keeping her on life support until her daughter from California could get there to say goodbye. (Now, yes, I think it is ridiculous that my cousin felt the need to not just say this...but I tried to chalk it up to just being distraught...still a bit annoying but understandable).

Example 2: Last night at about 10 p.m. I received a phone call from my cousin that flew in from California....I was already lying in bed as I had been up since 4 a.m.

Me: "hello?"
Cousin from California: "Hey little Patty, it's me."
Me: (sleep dazed) "How are you doing?"
Cousin from California: "Not so good, this sucks, it just sucks, I can't believe she is gone, it sucks, it sucks, it sucks."
Me: "Yes, I know. I'm sorry."
Cousin from California: "so, your mom is coming from Portugal for the funeral, Right?"
Me; "Yes, that's the word."
Cousin from California: "Will your sister be here?"
Me: "Yes"
Cousin from California: "Will your daughter be there?"
Me: "Yes, of course."
Cousin from California: "Do you want to pay for the flowers or the food?"
Me: silence...as I thought perhaps she was talking to one of her sisters who were all there.
Cousin from California: "LITTLE PATTY?"
Me: "Yes"
Cousin from California: "I asked you a question."
Me: "I'm sorry, I thought you were talking to your sisters."
Cousin from California: "No, I asked if you were going to pay for the flowers or the food."
Me: "Neither"
Cousin from California: "Well, I just went through mom and dad's stuff, they don't have much."
Me: "Neither do I. I'm really sorry, I just can't do it."
Cousin from California: "Oh, well, think about it and see what you can do."

We ended the call very shortly after that.

I am already not looking forward to all of this - but we will see how it goes, perhaps some super glue to my lips would do the trick from allowing my brain and mouth to work together and say something I shouldn't. :)