em-eye-ess-ess-eye-ess-ess-eye-pee-pee-eye part 3

today was the day we buried my grandmother. it was terribly cold and windy this morning. the internment service was short. we mostly huddled together to stay warm but also for support. it didn't really hit me until this morning that this was it. after the internment we went to the church for another service. i did a reading from revelation. i was super nervous because i hate public speaking. i told myself to get it together- this was for granna. i don't really remember the reading but i didn't stumble over any words or trip while walking to and from the podium. my uncle melvin gave a really nice speech about my grandmother. i think he gave us a new family phrase- i love you and there is nothing you can do about it.

after the church service we had a lite lunch in the parish hall. we were able to take a few family photos. the kids threw ice chunks at the building. maria was super chill and fun to be with. we went back to the hotel for about an hour. we changed clothes and gave maria a bottle. we looked at some old family photos. we said our good-byes and drove away from starkville around 3pm. we got to jackson a little after 5pm. the jackson airport is pretty small so it was super easy getting checked in and getting through security. we had an overpriced dinner at a cruddy airport restaurant. it wasn't totally bad- it just wasn't very good. the flight left jackson shortly after 7pm. i left mississippi with a heavy heart.

the kid cousins were pretty rowdy on the flight from jackson to houston. i'm sure many people were annoyed but oh well. since our flight was late leaving jackson we weren't sure if we would make the flight from houston to austin. i guess southwest held the plane for us because we made it. we were all split up. a really nice guy gave up his seat so chris and i could sit together with maria. i offered him my last drink coupon since i wasn't going to use it- he said no. i think he was relieved to not have to sit next to a baby! maria did great again- until the very end. she had a poop diaper that could have been classified as a low level biological attack. then edie threw up. fortunately both bodily functions were mostly well contained. the landing was pretty hard in austin. the southwest crew had a funny line- 'now that we've hit austin we'd like to thank you for flying southwest. . .' everyone on the plane laughed.

maria did a great job on this trip. she had a lot of tears on the ride home from the airport but i'd rather her have a meltdown in our car instead of a plane. i'm happy we all went to starkville for the funeral. i got to meet some relatives that i had never met before and some that i hadn't seen in many, many years. i'm sorry that it was my grandmother's funeral that brought us together but at least we were together. a big thanks goes out to my brother for arranging the flight and rental car and driving. in the end your family are really the ones that go above and beyond.

i love you and there is nothing you can do about it.