Everything ends

Dan requested my help putting together some IKEA furniture on Sunday (meaning Sunday a week ago—I'm still behind here), which is something that I find sort of fun in an odd way—maybe it's the sense of accomplishment that comes so easily. Kristin and I picked up some stuff from Whole Foods to eat while we watched the finale of HBO's "Six Feet Under".

Win and Thomas got me started on Six Feet Under shortly before I left Waco, watching selections from the first season on DVD. I picked it back up a few months later, after I had settled here, and then downloaded the next two seasons and consumed them voraciously. The following summer, I had to mooch HBO, first from Lisa and later from Dan and Kristin, in order to catch season four. Season five has continued like that, with me invading Dan and Kristin's home on a semi-weekly basis and resorting to Bit Torrent to fill in the gaps.

Nothing ever quite lived up to the first season. The characters were more believable, and the show was funnier. As the tragedies and neuroses built while the later seasons proceeded, the characters were harder to believe and relate to, and the humor seemed to be lost from the situations. It wasn't exactly bad, but the moments of brilliance were fewer and farther between. They were still there, though, and I cared enough about the characters to see it through to the end.

So then, there we were for the last episode. Jessica and Dacia joined the three of us. Two episodes earlier, a major character died, and everybody's lives had fallen apart. In the last episode, we see them start to pick up the pieces, and then we get to flip to the back of the book to read their endings—pieces mostly picked up and glued back together, lives full, but, ultimately, over, and we bear witness to those endings. The last ten or so minutes were very touching (at least the first time through) and both that sequence and the entire episode were an apropriate—if not adventurous and surprising—way to end the episode.

We were all a bit choked up at the end (some more than others), though I'm sure that wine and beer exacerbated that a bit. I accompanied everybody while they took a smoke break, and then we all hung out for a while. We talked about family (particularly crazy family). I trotted out what black sheep (relatively speaking) I had to offer. "That guy was your cousin?" Jessica said referring to Cousin Jer. Yep. "Why did you even invite him?" Hindsight, baby. Hindsight.

Anyway, a nice evening of sharing a cultural event (relatively speaking) and good conversation with friends. I was thinking maybe I could get the Jessica thing taken care of, maybe when we both walked out, but I couldn't get her alone. Can't win them all...