Monday, June 30, 2008

Monday

Why did I decide that blogging the grieving process would be a good idea?

Today, I'm tired, sad and lonely.

I think I'll just go back to bed. I've been up about 2 hours, and well, it is a day off. I don't need to be conscious today, so sleeping in to noon might be beneficial to my well being.

What I said about her smile still stands, but she'd sleep in until noon too.

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Friday, June 27, 2008

Because I know she'll find it...

If I link to your Livejournal, you will come.

Yo, Nicole. I haven't heard from you since before the wedding. (Yeah, it was that long ago.)

How's things?

(If you're reading this now, you basically know how they've been for me recently.)

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Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Today is Wednesday

The above photo of Mary was taken by James, and it was take a bit after her shoulder surgery.

This photo sums up what I admired most about her. She could be battered and bruised, with her hair all mussed up, but she'd always smile through it. Sure, sometimes it would take a bit of coaxing, but it would come out, and come out bright.

This smile is what motivates me today.

I know that I won't see it with my eyes, but I will see it with my heart. If I do right, and do her proud, I know it will be there for me.

We're coming close to closing the worst month of my life, and I do feel that there's light ahead. I still do miss her terribly, but I will cope. I must.

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Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Dear World,

Just because I have a phone, it doesn't mean I have to answer it.

Love,
Jason

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Media rundown

Despite what's been going on, I've been trying to keep my mind busy, and I have been trying to keep on keeping on. So, here's what I've been consuming...

Watching: Battlestar Galactica season 4, Beck: Mongolian Chop Squad vol. 1 & 2, The Invaders season 1, The Venture Bros. season3, Batman Begins, Justice League: the New Frontier, Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs, and the leaked premiere of Stargate: Atlantis season 5.

Listening (to): Coast to Coast AM, Open Mind with Bill Jenkins, Order 66 podcast, The Jam, Thievery Corporation, Led Zeppelin, AC/DC, The Specials and Madness.

Reading: Nothing concrete, and basically whatever I find laying around.

Playing: Far Cry, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Black, Suikoden III, Tales of the Abyss, Phantasy Star Universe, LEGO Indiana Jones and Puzzle Quest.

It's been tough finding enjoyment in things, but I know she'd be upset if I didn't.

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Sunday, June 22, 2008

It's Sunday now

As you can tell by the time stamp, it's around 3AM on Sunday, June 22nd.

The quiet times are the real killers.

I don't know what to call the feelings I have. It's less than outright depression, but more than just mere melancholy. I was she was here. Well, I wish that anyone was here. I think I just need to curl up with someone at the moment, and it hurts that there is no someone. I feel alone at these times, and I guess I am, to a certain extent.

I'd call up James, but I don't want to bring him down. He seems to be having a rougher time of it, as he really doesn't have much in the way of a support group. I'm lucky that I do, but I'm still stunned by it. People have come out of the woodwork to help me, and I just don't understand it. I guess that I, like Mary, underestimate myself.

I'd call up Amanda, but it's way too late. She says she doesn't mind, but I do. I appreciate that she's there. Hell, I'm absolutely ecstatic that she's there, but calling her at 3AM just to hear a warm voice isn't fair. I'll be okay when I wake up. I'll call her later.

I still can't quite understand all this. Well, that's not completely accurate, I do understand. I just can't believe. I know she's gone, I feel the loss, but part of me just can't accept it. I really don't know what this part of me is, and I don't know why it can't accept it. It's not like I don't comprehend things, because I do, but a part of me just seems to refuse to accept reality.

I long for the day when I can function normally. I thought I was there, but maybe I'm not. I'm doing better, but I know this is going to be a long, long haul. I need to get on with life, but I've forgotten how to.

Tonight's the first night I've cried in days.

I wish she was here.

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Saturday, June 21, 2008

A new Saturday

Well, here it is, three weeks later.

My head is definitely in a better place now. I still miss her terribly, but I'm really starting to let go now. I do have to move on. I'll never forget her. Never. I do have to leave grief in the past, though.

That's not to say that I won't still be grieving, as I will. Mary was everything to me, and the idea of going on with out her is a desperately difficult one. I have to though. I have to make myself the person that Mary wanted me to be. I'm going to need a lot of help with this, as I know I can't do it alone, but it's something I have to achieve.

If I don't, I'll be failing her.

I will not fail her.

Who's with me?

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Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Disbelief and the past-tense

At the risk of sounding flippant, grief sucks.

The most annoying aspect is that most others just don't understand it. They think that I should be okay, and that things should carry on as normal. I try not to be insulted by it, as they really don't know better, but it is insulting. I know that I'm a bit of a headcase, and I know that it's affecting how I go about my day. It's to be expected within a couple of weeks of such a major and sudden loss. If it had been a gradual experience, I would be more okay with myself, but it wasn't. It was an absolute shock, with no warning.

On a purely intellectual level, I get it. She's dead. She's not with us anymore, and I need to go on. On a spiritual level, I can't comprehend it. I'm not delusional. I'm not in denial. I just can't understand why it happened the way it happened.

In a period of probably thirty minutes, I went from relief to Battlestar Galactica's starting to she's gone. Everybody I know who has had a loss in recent years knew their loss was coming. For me, the person I loved most in life was just gone, with no warning, in what felt like the blink of an eye. This isn't something you can prepare for, and it's something that stays with you. You question the value of everything, and most things come up wanting.

That said, all things considered, I'm doing better than others have done in my situation. I'm not suicidal. I'm not catatonic. I haven't given into chemical abuse. I'm not wallowing in self-pity. I'm just in spiritual agony and have no choice but to brave it. I have to go on, which is ridiculously easier said than done.

At this point, I need to explore the world, to find my place in it again. I need to take some serious time off, and I need to have it funded. I need, at a minimum, between $5000 to $10000 to achieve that and with no strings attached. I don't need a loan, I need a grant. I fully understand that nobody is about to help me with that, and I'm not delusional enough to think that I'm somehow entitled to it. It is, however, what I need to heal and get myself on my feet again.

As it stands, I'm barely holding onto my employment. I fully expect to have a 'talking to' about my current state, and I fully expect to be removed from my job. I fully expect to have it illustrated that we do not live in a compassionate society, but a society that pays a lot of lip service to compassion.

I know this sounds like "woe is me, for I am suffering", but it's the cold reality of the world. Of course, there are kind, compassionate souls out there, but they are in the singular, don't represent the whole, and alone, can do little in the long run. This isn't to diminish their ability to help, as it does help greatly, but at the same time, there is little they can do for the big picture.

Yes, I am upset.

And, it is (mostly) justified.

All I want is to not be upset anymore.

Can anyone help me with that?

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

New 'puter

So, my old 'puter e'sploded today, and with a little help from my friend Paul, I built a new one from it's ashes. So, I christen thee the Phoenix!Huzzah!

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Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Untitled

Part of me is feeling like I'm obsessed here, and that I should just move on.

Part of me is upset that the other part of me feels that way.

Part of me wants to write something to remember her by.

Part of me is sad that W.H. Auden beat me to it.
Funeral Blues
Stop all the clocks, cut off the telephone,
Prevent the dog from barking with a juicy bone,
Silence the pianos and with muffled drum
Bring out the coffin, let the mourners come.

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He Is Dead,
Put crepe bows round the white necks of the public doves,
Let the traffic policemen wear black cotton gloves.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last for ever: I was wrong.

The stars are not wanted now: put out every one;
Pack up the moon and dismantle the sun;
Pour away the ocean and sweep up the wood.
For nothing now can ever come to any good.
Part of me is glad that somebody else was able to find the words for me.

Part of me is gone, lost forever.

Part of me disagrees wholeheartedly.

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Saturday, June 07, 2008

Requiem

From today's Globe & Mail:
Mary Chung
March 8, 1977 - May 31, 2008
Mary was a bright beacon in the lives of all that knew her, and we all have stories of how she touched us in that unique Mary way. The extraordinary confidence and determination she brought to all the challenges she faced continues to inspire her family and friends.
She, who was fiercely loyal to all she loved, and to whom we were fiercely loyal in return is now one with the universe again.

Mary, you were loved and you mattered.

I miss you terribly.

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Friday, June 06, 2008

Oh, just shut the hell up

So, I've got the news on behind me, and it's the CAW rally.

It's amazing to see so many people blinded by their leadership. It's like watching a tobacco growers rally. They just don't get it.

Unfair trade? Whatever. If you can't produce a vehicle that competes, it's your problem. If you produce a vehicle that nobody wants, it's your problem. If all you produce gas guzzling shit-boxes, and the market doesn't want gas guzzling shit-boxes, yet you continue to produce gas guzzling shit-boxes, it's your problem. If the CAW workers are either that blind or that delusional to buy into the rhetoric, it's their problem.

The other arguments? Solid.

The collective agreement? GM signed a contract. They should uphold that contract. It's ethical. It's moral. It's the law. Closing the best plant the company has doesn't make any sense.

Shipping jobs off to Mexico? Okay, closing the best plant the company has just made sense. Nice obvious move GM.

The feds sabotaging industry? You bet. The various unions in Ontario should pursue a class action suit against Flaherty for the billions of dollars lost that his words have cost.

Otherwise... just shut the hell up.

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Thursday, June 05, 2008

Preview pain

I really need to get more e-mail to my main address, just to stop having the funeral announcement being the first thing I see when I open up Outlook.

It also bothers the hell out of me that the stupid cosplay post keeps getting the majority of the hits to the site, but the post about Mary only gets a handful.

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A Funeral for a Friend

Saturday June 7th, 2008 at the Highland Funeral Home - Markham Chapel.

10 Cachet Woods Court
Markham ON L6C 2G1
(Northeast corner of 16th ave and HWY 404)
www.highlandfuneralhome.ca

Visitation: 12 noon
Service: 1:15pm

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Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Yes, we shall - Cobra Commander in '08

Mary would've loved this:

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Sunday, June 01, 2008

Mary Pui-Yee Chung, 1977 to 2008


The world lost one of it's most precious treasures last night at the far too young age of 31.

Mary was my best friend. Actually, she was more than that, she was an extension of myself. She knew me better than I knew myself, and vice-versa. She was the love of my life, even if our lives were apart, and was someone whom I was planning on growing old beside. For a geek, pop culture reference, we were Davan and PeeJee from the webcomic Something*Positive, just without the level of abuse involved.

I loved Mary, and still do, with all my heart, and I knew that I was loved in return. As heart-breaking as it is to see her pass, I know within my heart that it's the way she wanted to go. She'd had a hard life due to illness and other hardships, but she deserved to leave it on her own terms without having to suffer from the gradual loss of functionality that she feared.

Now comes the arduous task of moving on, and rebuilding my own life. Mary's role in mine was substantial, and I'm now left with a hole in my heart and gaping void in my soul. I don't know what I'm going to do without her, especially since plans and dreams now have to be pushed to the wayside. I'll get by, as it would be what Mary would want, but it won't be easy. I keep wanting to call her up, and talk about the events of the weekend, but that's impossible now. I just want to hear her laugh or giggle or just say my name with the warmth that only she can bring to it that one last time. Yesterday, at the hospital, I kept expecting her to walk up behind me and hug me.

So, from this day forward, I dedicate my silly little blog to the memory of Mary Chung. I know she'd feel privileged for it, and where ever she is now, she's doing the little happy dance of joy.

Mary, I will always love you.

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