I am at a very cute little Internet Cafe here in Toulouse - the systems (and speeds) are surprisingly nice, but I’ve just found out the hard way that the default French keyboard is different from the default US layout, so I’ll be brief. 
Having a fantastic time, taking notes, and lots of pictures. Will post more when I’m back at my US home, and US keyboard.
My first post in a while… It’s hard to know where to start. I’m still not quite ready to write as much about my father as I’d like, or about the events surrounding his passing. I *will* take this moment to thank everyone for their support. Although it had obviously occurred to me that my dad might not make it, I wasn’t really prepared for what happened (and what’s still happening). A lot of it was painful, of course, but I was also caught off guard by just how many people come out of the woodwork (in a *good* way) when something like this happens. Arnon even stepped up (with just a few hours of notice) to be a pallbearer (!), and his blog entry about it made me weepy (I’d link to it, but Arnon keeps his blog and his public life separate - e-mail me if you want the link). And although I resisted the idea at first, Em sent out an e-mail that brought a lot of our friends to the shiva. It actually felt good to see our friends - even in that setting, and under those circumstances. Thanks to all of you.
Actually, there were quite a few positive moments in the whole trip. We spent a lot of time going through many, many photos and slides (almost all of them taken and arranged by my father), and listening to stories from family members and friends. We heard from many people we hadn’t spoken to in ages (like the estranged cousin none of us had spoken to in almost 20 years). We tried to push out the recent, vivid memories of my dad’s dying, and refresh and rediscover the memories of his life. We found out that my mom has a lot more and better friends in Toronto than any of us (Mom included!) would have thought, which is a great comfort. All of this has to be hardest on her, and it’s good to know that she has a network of supportive peers around her. Not to mention my brothers, and their families. Plus I’ve increased my “call Mom” frequency to “Daily”…
In happier news:
- The Liberals won the Canadian federal (general) election a few days ago, and have formed a minority government. It’s not ideal, but it could have been much, much worse. Early polls showing a Conservative lead had us very, very worried.
- It’s CANADA DAY!! Happy Canada Day!! (Oops - it WAS Canada Day, but it’s now 10 minutes past midnight here in San Francisco. Whatever.) Can anyone point me to a translation of the Inuktitut lyrics for “O Canada”? Em and I wore cheesy little magnet-backed Canadian flags on our shirts today (with red blinking LEDs, no less), and went to see Farenheit 9/11 after work. All I’ll say about that is that Kerry had better beat Bush in November, or we might be looking at Move-BACK-to-Canada Day.
- We’re going to see RUSH in concert on July 10th, and then the next day we’re off to France (Paris, Toulouse, and Lourdes - I think) for a little over a week. It’ll be hectic to travel again, and a little strange, but good overall. My dad loved Paris (who doesn’t?), and we saw some great pictures of him there… I think I’ll wear his black beret around Paris, and take some pictures of my own.
- It’s official: On July 29th, Cathy Oh is flying out (along with her friend Lori) to visit us, and then we’re all flying off together to see (however briefly) the Grand Canyon!
As usual, it’s late, and I’m late for bed - Em’s been asleep for hours, and I’m up typing when I should be in bed myself. I’ll try to post some more this coming (Fourth of July holiday, three-day) weekend. Goodnight, campers.
Twitter / Dan Rochman