Chalk me up for one more entry in November

Well, it's not easy sending your baby brother off to South Africa, but I managed to do it last Tuesday. It's kind of weird having Dave gone. On Thanksgiving morning we were about to eat breakfast (waffles! Thanks, Dad) and I almost said to my sister, "Go get Dave," but I caught myself. Good thing too, because Mom probably would've started crying.

Aside from shipping Dave off, making Thanksgiving dinner Monday and not burning anything, NOT making Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday (I would like to thank Johnny R's, my Grandpa's favorite restaurant, for being open Thanksgiving day), and general family time, I think my favorite part was taking my nephew on walks. I basically kidnapped him from my sister three times to take him on little walks. I learned that he likes to watch cars whiz by. They don't get that very much in Woodland Hills. He also reacted to the dogs barking, which I attribute to his thinking it was his dog, Maggie. We also took a little walk to the library, and learned how to count. I'm pretty sure he's a genius by now.

Okay, so I saw the saddest thing yesterday. I was driving across an intersection and I saw a hearse driving towards me, but without any kind of a procession following it or anything. Now, keep in mind that I'm sure that this hearse was probably just going to fill up it's gas tank. Incidentally, this is really hard for me to imagine. I mean, have you ever seen a hearse filling up its gas tank? If you did see a hearse filling up it's gas tank, would you think twice about pulling into that station? I think it would just feel weird filling up your gas tank next to a hearse. Even if the hearse was empty. Babbling. The point is, there was no procession following the hearse, and I thought about how sad that would be, to be driven to your grave without anybody following your hearse to bid you farewell. So keep your friends and love your family, because if they outlive you they'll be the ones that will hop into their cars, turn their lights on, and follow that hearse to the very end of the road. And someday you'll see them again, and you'll say "Hey, thanks for following my hearse." Okay, maybe not those exact words. Maybe something more like "Thanks for being the most amazing friend ever, and for always being there for me."

I love you guys!