Cute like the smart girl

One of the weird things about the blogosphere is the intersections of people. Many people who read this list are friends of mine from way back when I lived in Indiana. Some are friends from California. One or two are "professional friends" (hi Alfred!) Some are more friends-of-friends than people I'm close with. One is someone I knew from high school.

So a number of the people here already know about, well, what's going on. The short version, for those of you who don't know, is that a friend of ours died on Thursday. We'd known for a while (by which I mean since sometime in September) that he was sick, but last we'd heard he was on the mend. Then on Tuesday night we found out he was in the ICU. Wednesday morning we booked tickets to leave Thursday. During our layover we got news he'd died.

loosestrife is on her way here now; we'll pick her up at the airport in the morning. We spent the afternoon and night with various friends and will do the same tomorrow. The funeral is on Monday; I'm not sure if I will stay or not. On the one hand, staying would not be impossible and the statement it makes seems like the right one. On the other hand, one of my closest friends is getting married in one week, I am throwing her a wedding shower on Thursday night, and I'm more than a little concerned about the stress of trying to do it all.

I was not as close to him as many people here and do not have as many memories as they do. He was one of the worst bosses I've ever had, though in recent years he was also a good friend.

I have now said several times that if I'd had to predict last Thanksgiving - which on some level I did - I would never have guessed that my father would live and Chuck would die.