A flood of memories

This has been a surreal week. It was pretty busy and low on sleep. Wednesday started with excitement at seeing a friend who just retired. But sadness hit me like a ton of bricks when I heard about a friend's tragic morning. Her husband died of a heart attack. He was only 46.

It hit especially close to home as my dad was 46 when he died. The 18th anniversary of his death is on the 31st. His birthday is tomorrow. It was terrible to lose my dad so young. I don't know how my mom held it together with all us kids. I can't imagine the pain of losing your husband.

I've never actually met this friend. Our paths crossed in the online forum of brides.com when we were planning our weddings. They got married just before Doug and I did. There were a lot of girls I got to know. We stuck around after our weddings. Some girls met in real life. I lost touch with that crowd in 2009 in the summer I was unemployed. I stayed friends with some of the girls on facebook. I've now been reunited with them all. It stinks that a tragedy had to happen for us to reconnect though.

Kelley's tragedy really affected me in spite of never actually meeting her or Don. It really is a small world when I can be so upset and heartbroken for someone I've never even met. I had a hard time working that day. All day long I felt like I was in a fog. On the way home I had this feeling like I had forgotten something or like something was wrong. Thursday was better but still funky.

I read an article online, also on Wednesday, about the faces of the longterm unemployed. Between my trips down memory lane after being reunited with all the brides girls and reading that article, I can't help remembering 2009... the bad memories but also the good.

Today I went to Roscoe for a reunion with old friends from my Culvers days. I worked there for five years in high school and then on breaks from college. It was awesome to see good friends I haven't seen in 8 years since my last time working there. I saw pictures of myself from 10 years ago during this reunion today. Yuck.

Its just so funny how one week can bring back so many memories from such distinct parts of my life. Its been interesting but also exhausting to relive some of these events. While its good to remember where I came from, why I am who I am today, I'd like it if I could put some of these relections aside for awhile and live in today.