Friday Jayson and I had to leave work early to goto a wake. A friend of ours mom died. It was very sudden and very sad. It was scary how similar a situation it was with my Uncle Berny. We ran home to get our respective suits for the service. I was thankful that I had just bought a brand new suit and gotten it just a week ago.
After showering and shaving I put on the suit. I was kind of surprised at how it fit. When I tried it on in the store after the alterations it was tight but it fit. When I put this on the paints would barely stay on my waist. What the hell happened I thought for about a half a second. The dumb-ass’ at the store gave me my Dad’s suit. We went together, bought the same style suit and have the same last names. They gave me his. At that point I needed to wear something for this thing, so I put the paints on and cinched the paints as tight as I could with my belt. The paints were fine except they were a bit longer than they should have been. I spent most of the evening pulling them up when I walked so I wouldn’t mess up the bottoms. The jacket fit, but was a bit longer than it normally should have been. It was really funny.
I ended up calling my mom on the subway and asked her to have my dad try on the suit that he had. REALLY LONG conversation later it was confirmed that a switch had been made. Thankfully I was able to get throughout the night with the EXTRA large suit.
As my sister put it, the craziest thing about this situation wasn’t that I had the wrong suit, but that I could put my dad’s suit on and actually wear it at all. Now I love my dad, but he has gotten to have a huge belly. The last time I think he exercised without being forced to (he did have physical therapy a few years ago) was the 60’s.
The service was really sad. I hate those things. not because of reasons you would think. I didn’t go out of obligation like I do with tons of family functions. I went to let a friend know she wasn’t alone. And she wasn’t. A ton of us showed up. But what I can’t stand is not knowing what to say. There is nothing you can say that will make any difference. it is just awkward. You just have to sit there knowing there is nothing you can do to help.