6 posts tagged “friends”
It's an odd feeling to anxiously check one's e-mail, hoping that a message came through while hoping that the message never comes. Scott is not doing well. On Thursday night I received an e-mail from Sondra that indicated that Scott was expected to pass through that night or possibly the next day. Ever since then I have been checking my e-mail obsessively. My inbox barely has a chance to collect more than one e-mail before I have checked it, anticipating that I will get "the" news from Sondra. Sondra did send out an e-mail around noon today that stated that Scott is still holding on, but barely. His breathing has gotten even slower, his pulse is low, he is nearly unresponsive. I don't want his body to feel pain, but I don't want him to go. I don't want to hear the news that Scott has passed, but I don't want to not know when it happens. The only thing I can do is continue to pray for him and his family.
Who is the very first friend you ever had? Are you still in touch?
I consider my first friend (besides my lovely sister) to be Julie, with whom I am still in touch. We first met in daycare and have endured many things over the years, from her move to the Virgin Islands to differences in high school friends to college to the present. I love her dearly and I am so lucky to have had her as a friend back then and even more fortunate to have her as a friend now. I've posted this photo before, but I'll post a photo of us again...
I feel like such a tool. I really shouldn't, but I do. On MySpace, I found an ex-boyfriend from high school. By ex-boyfriend, I mean guy that I dated for a couple months, then drifted away from, then kept close enough to make him think that I was interested so I could get his attention when I wanted to. I tended to do that back then. I would see him every now and then when he used to work with my then-boyfriend Greg. Anyway, the last time I saw him was at the Monkey Barrel and he was totally sloppy drunk. We didn't have much conversation at all. I always thought that this guy was so nice and funny; he just wasn't the guy for me. So anyway, when I found him on MySpace, I checked out his page and found that he's married and has five children. He looked very happy and I genuinely thought that was great. I decided to send him a message to say hello. I didn't send him an add request, I didn't send my e-mail address or phone number... I simply said hello and glad to see he's doing well. Today I was checking my sent mail and I saw "read" next to the message; however, his profile photo had been replaced by a red x and the word "deleted." He read my message and then deleted his account! Now, granted, I don't know that it was him that actually deleted it. It very well could have been his wife, and she could have been unhappy that an ex contacted her man. I know that I'm not trying to get her man, but I guess since she doesn't know me, maybe that made her uncomfortable. Anyway, I feel like I made a mistake and shouldn't have contacted him.
So it's Thursday; I love Thursdays. I woke up easily, had a good morning at work, went to lunch with my coworkers, and left early because I had two doctor's appointments this afternoon (the second of which was pretty much my only source of stress today, believe it or not). I just got home a little while ago and I let the dogs outside, which is part of my after work routine. Usually I will go back in the house while they're outside, but I thought today was too beautiful for me to be sitting in my house. So I brought my laptop and my cell phone outside to entertain me as I enjoyed the weather; the dogs are alternating possession of their favorite toys and doing circles around the backyard for their own entertainment. I'm sitting on my pinic table and I truly feel everyday should look and feel like this one. I took a photo of my viewpoint right now. Don't worry, Grady hasn't grown incredibly overnight... he's just sitting on top of the picnic table, right next to my laptop.
Not to mention, today is also the day that Dale flies in for her birthday visit. She's probably just leaving BWI right now. I look forward to seeing her and I am very excited about seeing Snow Patrol tomorrow. Tara just sent me a text message and she contacted a couple people on craigslist about getting a last-minute ticket since it's a sold out show. I'm crossing my fingers that it will work out so the three of us get to go to the concert. This is my last "Friday" Thursday; I go back to a normal five-day work week next week.
For now, I'm just going to enjoy this beautiful weather and this moment; the future will be here soon enough.
Happy Cinco de Mayo!
I never do the stereotypical thing on May 5. I have never gone out for Cinco de Mayo. When I was in high school, I'd participate in the Spanish Club's activities (which basically means eating salsa and chips and doing The Macarena), but that's pretty much the extent of it. Molly and I are going shopping for Amy and Rick's baby shower presents and then meeting up with Sarah and the crew to go to dinner to celebrate Sarah's graduation. She's like one test from being a RN :) I'm so excited for my friends... they all have some really great things going on. And all of them are so deserving of these changes/additions/whatever.
So instead of raising a frosty Corona, I raise my plastic tumbler of cherry drink for you, my friend. You rule :)
I've always been scared that it would happen. Once before, I thought it had happened. My sister was driving home and she called me from her cell phone. We were talking about nothing important, per our usual, when all of a sudden she let out a scream. My heart and my thoughts started racing and I kept yelling my sister's name, hoping she'd get back on the phone and tell me she was okay. All of a sudden, the phone conversation cut off and I sat there looking at my phone, completely scared and confused. I kept trying to call my sister back and find out what had happened and if she was okay. Finally, many minutes later, I received a return phone call from Ellen explaining that she had set her hot coffee on her dashboard when she stopped at a red light. When she started to accelerate when the light turned back to green, she forgot about the coffee and it came flying back at her and burned her lap and got all over her car. The screams were a result of a coffee spill- not a car accident.
Well, today it happened. Tara calls me every morning between 8-8:15. It was around 8:15 this morning when she got ahold of me because I was in another worker's office eating breakfast (my coworker brought me a biscuit from Arby's... how nice is that?). She first left me a rendition of Baby Got Back on my voicemail, then called me back and got ahold of me. We were talking about little stuff, as we do every morning. All of a sudden I hear Tara scream. Same feelings as previously mentioned, but I knew exactly what I had heard: Tara was in an accident. It couldn't have been more than 60 seconds after I hear Tara scream that I hear sirens. The sirens were so loud through the phone, I couldn't really make out what was going on with Tara. I hear someone ask her if she is okay and I hear her reply that she's fine and she just wants to get out of the car. I stay on the phone as long as I can. Other than the scream and the sirens, the phone was eerily quiet. I freak out and go worse case scenario. I go over to my supervisor and I tell her that I think my friend just got in an accident while she was on the phone with me. My supervisor asks me if I know where the accident is and if I want to leave. I explain to her that Tara is in DC, somewhere. I go back to my phone and try to call Tara a few times. No answer. The only other thing I know to do is call her boyfriend. Since I was thinking worse case scenario, I didn't know if she would be in a condition to be able to contact him. So I left a message for him to call me back at work. It was such a helpless feeling - to know that a loved one is in a potentially terrible situation and I know about it and can do absolutely nothing to correct it or help out. Eventually, I do get ahold of Tara and she tells me she's been in an accident and she'll call me back later. She got checked out at the hospital, and fortunately, she was fine. Her car and the other guy's car might be a different story.
PS - For those who might blame this story on cell phone usage, Tara was using a bluetooth headset during this situation. Oh, and for those of you who might know her insurance company, she wasn't on the phone with me :)
