I love this picture, it is a good representation of how much nature respects our burial traditions. Which is not at all.

Here’s the thing. I think graves and our system of burying people is an INCREDIBLE waste. Basically, we take someone whose soul is gone, pump them full of toxic chemicals, dress them up, and then stare at them for a few hours. Then we put them in the ground atop a few feet of concrete in a box that will be there FOREVER, and then cover them with dirt. And in 50 years no one will even care who is in that box. There is just no need for it. Because in a hundred years your tombstone will be covered in dirt and no one is going to care what your casket looked like or what dress you were buried in or what you looked like at the funeral. When I die, take everything medicine can use, burn my body and scatter my ashes somewhere. I’ll be dead. I WON’T CARE.

Yes, yes I am full of sunshine today, sue me.

Century Old Grave in Westminster

Random stuff on Poe’s grave, because nothing says devoted fan like…uh….a bottle cap?

Poe's Grave - detail

It’s a headstone, an old headstone, with money on it. I imagine there is a good reason, maybe some old tradition I don’t know of. But all I can think of is some jackass going to his friend’s grave and being all “Here’s the sixteen cents I owe you.” And the dead guy looking down and thinking, “LOT OF GOOD IT DOES ME NOW!”

Money on the grave

I love this photo for so many reasons. Taken in downtown Baltimore, near Poe’s Grave.

Detail on a gate

Find your happiness:

Happiness is a sign

Edgar Allan Poe has a strong Baltimore connection. He had family here, lived here and died here (though he wasn’t living here at the time, he died while visiting relatives). He is buried in what is now smack in the middle of downtown Baltimore. If you don’t know, I LOVE graveyards. Give me a camera, a fall day, and an old cemetery and I won’t come out til dark. Sunday I visited Westminster Hall where Poe’s grave lies. Here is a picture of his second grave (his first was unmarked and his third and last is near the front with a monument), but I like this one the best.

Poe's grave - original

My time to enjoy Halloween with my children is rapidly coming to an end. Soon they will be too ‘cool’ for the dress-up. I take all the pictures I can.

A soldier and harajuku girl