Two events of note this week, one lunch and one funeral.
Lunch with 
yhlee on Thursday (Veterans' Day; I had
work to do, but the office was closed and the building's heat was
off, so I stayed home). She's comprehensively
logged lunch, so I'll just say that I ate a very good, very
filling grilled ham and brie sandwich, soaked with a thin raspberry
sauce, and had an excellent time.
A paralegal in my office died this week, and his memorial service was yesterday (obit). I didn't know him well at all—he'd been fighting cancer since I arrived, basically, and I worked with different paralegals. But I went, and was glad I did. The service was at a small Episcopal church about an hour's drive away down country highways; it was the first non-Catholic service I can remember being to, or possibly have ever been to, and it was actually fairly relaxed and non-gloomy. The officiant (priest?) asked people to share their memories, which I feared would lead to dreadful awkward silences as people shuffled up to the podium, but no, people just spoke up from their seats, building off each other's comments, remembering and even laughing a little. (I imagine the officiant let them know ahead of time that he would be asking.)
There was also a choir, which is always better than having just the congregation sing. Why are hymns so often bad music? Either they're dull, or they have seven-notes-swoops that the average congregation just can't do, or both. (Of course, I also don't sing along because I don't believe.) I got in my car, punched up "Down By the River To Pray" and "I'll Fly Away" on the iPod, sang along with gusto to work it out of my system, and then went back to my audiobook (coincidentally, The Curse of Chalion, both court funeral scenes of which I heard on the drive).
(Oh, and the Episcopalians do the Lord's Prayer properly, without stopping partway through, and with "For thine is." No, I'm not religious, but it's the only way that sounds right.)