Mortuary Maori Magnificence!

On Friday, Karissa's sister came and got Isabella for the night, so we decided to take advantage of the night off and do something a little different. We made a reservation at Sanders for some appetizers, then headed off to Whitey's for a dinner. We've always heard of people doing stuff like that, so we thought we'd try it.

It wasn't really too bad. Sanders can be alittle out of our element (a little high brow), but we haven't been in there for a long time, and there is a cool artistic thing about the place. At Whiteys, we lowered the brow and had some beer.

Saturday found us at Kevin & April's lake cabin. It was humid as hell, but an otherwise beautiful day. I got a wicked sunburn that would make beef jerky jealous, and I got to bring my ukulele along for a little musical entertainment. Kevin showed me some old National Geographic magazines they had come upon in the cabin, one of which from 1984 included an article about the Maoris of New Zealand, where I found a photo of a figure named Hukere, who was a guardian of the dead, and promptly sketched out as you see above. The figure, I think, is actually a trunk containing the dyed-red bones of a chief. Cool stuff, and a freaky looking figure.

My interview went okay. It was actually two interviews. The first was with the Human Resources person, which wasn't great. She didn't seem to warm up to me. The second was with the head pathologist, which went better. She explained a lot to me about the job that wasn't in the description, and actually put me at ease as far as the scheduling goes.

Before I say any more, I will finally describe what a diener is to those who haven't looked it up yet. A diener is an assistant to the pathologist, who prepares the morgue and body for autopsies. Job description includes removing and weighing organs, blood sampling, even eye removal for donors. Also, depending on who I'm working with, I may be doing the actual Y-cut itself. I never thought it would be this hands-on, and I'm excited now more than ever to do it.

I won't know until almost mid-July if I'm hired or not. If I am, I'll have to train and observe a few autopsies before getting into it.

Golden Brown note: This week will be the next page, but next week I'll be posting a one-page cartoon I did for Ernie, the Travelodge owner. He was very concise in what he wanted me to do, and seemed very impressed at the finished result. It's been exciting times around here, lately, so I'm glad I've been able to get a little ahead. But you people will still have to wait.